Sally Bell

… DARE TO GO BARE …
I first became interested in hooves from a performance perspective, and how a horse’s hooves can influence this, through a long and frustrating experience with my own horse, who is bred ‘in the pink’ but was just not going like he should!  After a thorough process of elimination, I decided in desperation to try taking his shoes off.  Although I was initially sceptical, the effect of this undoubtedly made a massive positive difference to his feet and his performance – from day one, it was literally like riding a different horse. This is what first inspired me to learn more about hooves, and ultimately to become an EP – and now I understand what was going on with my own horse too.  You can read the whole story on my website. 

My background up until then horse-wise had been fairly traditional – I’m also a BHSAI, have had my own yard, and always competed a variety of (shod) horses, mostly in Dressage and Eventing.   I have had to turn a lot of my thinking upside-down, so to speak!  This also helps me to understand and bridge the gap between conventional hoof care and equine podiatry thinking.

Although I only qualified in October ’10, I’m already finding this a hugely rewarding career, getting great results, and believe that the training we have had puts us amongst the best to help any horse develop the best hooves it can, whether they have ‘hoof problems’ or not.  To this end, I also welcome discussion on the barefoot approach with the vet involved, if appropriate.