What is a Healthy Hoof Clinic?

Hot Topic: What trim style do we demonstrate at our Healthy Hoof Clinics?

James & Yvonne Welz decided to put together this practical, informational clinic to help educate the horse-owning public about healthy hooves. They noticed an overall lack of readily accessible information and photographic examples, as well as clear definitions of, healthy feet. A previous focus of barefoot has been pathological hooves, which leaves a big gap for the majority of ordinary horseowners. If you don't know what a healthy hoof truly is, how are you going to ever get there? Don't confuse "trim style" with hooves' state of health! A healthy hoof should also NOT be an unreachable, unattainable image of perfection. James & Yvonne present a generic, natural, physiologically-correct trim for ordinary hooves.

Variety: classroom, demonstrations and hands-on. Here is the outline of a Healthy Hoof Clinic. Parts 1 - 3 each day are Powerpoint presentations; afternoon sessions are on location with live horses. Customization of afternoon sessions is available.

We have a current maximum limit of 40 participants per clinic, in order to provide as much personal attention as we can.

2-day Healthy Hoof Clinic $300 per person (preregistered price until one month prior date).
(later registration $350.00)

These clinics help fund The Horse’s Hoof Magazine and Website, which are both completely ad-free!

Saturday and Sunday, 9 am to 6 pm each day (approx.). Sign-in & coffee at 8:30 am - please plan to arrive early so we can get started on time. Lunch at approx. 1 pm on-site each day. Mornings are classroom, afternoons are on location with live horses.

DAY ONE

9:00 am Saturday

Day 1 - Part 1
What is a healthy hoof?
- Healthy hooves are similar, different, unique & imperfect
- Our Healthy Hoof Definition
- 7 Similarities of Healthy Hooves
- Examples of healthy feet
- Wild Horse Hooves
- Self-Trimming Hooves
- Basic anatomy necessary to understand healthy hooves

Day 1 - Part 2
What is an unhealthy hoof?
- Unhealthy hoof examples
- Our Un-Healthy Hoof definition
- Common Hoof Deformities
- Minor Issues for Hooves
- Major Issues for Hooves
Causes of Unhealthy Hooves
- Neglect
- Environmental causes
- Poor trimming (in barefoot hooves)
- Horseshoe-related causes
- How to minimize horseshoe damage

Day 1 - Part 3
Create and Maintain a Healthy Hoof
What creates a healthy hoof?
- Evolution - where did the horse evolve?
- How do wild horses live?
- Living conditions necessary for healthy hooves
How do we maintain a healthy hoof in captivity?
- What we can do about captive horses' living conditions to improve their feet?
- Is soaking necessary?
- Different methods of moisture balancing
- Why do we have to trim
- How often do we have to trim
- Our trimming philosophy
- Healthy trimming basics
- Tools for trimming
- Basic techniques for trimming
- Basic trim step by step photos

1:00 pm - Lunch Break

Day 1 - Afternoon Practical Session (approx 2 pm - 6 pm):
Recognizing hoof health in live horses - on site evaluations
Step by Step Trimming Demonstration of first horse using hand tools
More trimming demonstrations using power tools
Horse hoof evaluations for participants, live and photographs
Q&A

DAY TWO

9:00 am Sunday

Day 2 - Part 1
Trimming for the Goal of a Healthy Hoof
- From Unhealthy to Healthy - the Basic Recipe
- “Healing” or “Less Pain” Can we heal without pain?
- Trimming an Unhealthy Hoof
- Booting and padding for comfort (recommendations)
Hoof Boot Review
Performance Hooves
- Soft Terrain/Hard Terrain
- Modifications for performance
- Hoof boots for performance
- Creating better traction
- Examples of barefoot performance horses
Trimming Foals
- When to start, how often
- Foal trim photo examples

Day 2 - Part 2
Advanced Trim Topics
- Evaluating Trim Results
- Find the Happy Medium
- Do measurements interfere?
- What about Hoof Mechanism?
- Trimming as Art
- Effective Trimming
- Owner-Trimming
- New research from Dr. Robert Bowker
- The Lessons we've learned
- Basic Power Tool instructions and photos

Day 2 - Part 3
Recognizing hoof health (in depth)
- Photos of anatomy, bones, front hooves, hind hooves and recent trim photo examples (as time allows)
- Review what we've learned
- Photo critiques from audience submissions

1:00 pm Sunday - Lunch Break

Day 2 - Afternoon Practical Session (approx 2 pm - 6 pm):
Trimming Demonstrations, including more advanced trimming problems
Power Tool Trimming Demonstrations
Horse hoof evaluations for participants, live and photographs
Hands-on trimming help: experienced participants (pros or owner-trimmers) trim their own horses
Q&A

For the details on hosting a Healthy Hoof Clinic, please contact editor@thehorseshoof.com or call our Toll-free Message Phone: 1-877-594-3365

Click on the links below for details:

Who are James & Yvonne Welz?

Where can I attend a Healthy Hoof Clinic?

How can I host a Healthy Hoof Clinic in my area?

Other Frequently Asked Questions...

Register for a Clinic!

The Horse's Hoof Clinics

Hot Topic: What trim style do we demonstrate at our Healthy Hoof Clinics?