As I peruse through our many back issues, literally peering back through time, I am amazed and delighted at the whole “body of work” that has been created. Often, I find old articles that seem like “new” ones to me, and I can spend hours re-reading them! I know that I was merely the orchestrator; the real credit goes to the authors, the friends, the contributors who gave their heartfelt words and inspiring photos to me, that I might assemble them into the 60 issues thus far of The Horse’s Hoof Magazine. What an amazing experience this has been.
Little did I know what I had in store for myself when I decided to create The Horse’s Hoof back in the summer of 2000. Jaime Jackson had just ended publication of his 6-issue newsletter “The Natural Horsecare Advisor,” and that left a big hole for us barefooters, desperate for information and connection! I have a background in Advertising Design, and had spent the previous 15 years designing and laying out (boring) publications professionally. Why not do it for something really important, like the barefoot movement?!
With my mind-set more like a volunteer than an entrepreneur (unfortunately), I set about creating an ad-free, subscription-based publication, more of a newsletter. The early issues were titled “The Horse’s Hoof, News for Natural Hoofcare,” and were 16 pages long. Subscriptions were available in printed or PDF format. I invited Jaime Jackson, Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, and Sabine Kells to be my Technical Editors – only Jaime Jackson declined, due to his schedule, unfortunately. Gretchen Fathauer was an Assistant Editor for a couple of years.
Right from the beginning, we covered a wide variety. My goal was never to be focused on one method or person, but instead to simply focus on barefoot horses, and their owners. My very first issue contained articles by Dr. Robert Bowker, Fran Jurga, Dr. Eleanor Kellon, Linsey McLean, Cindy “Hawk” Sullivan, and Dr. Strasser.
I think that first issue mailed out to about 50 subscribers in the Fall of 2000. Those early issues were printed up in full color in my house, on my trusty tabloid size HP Deskjet Printer! By Issue 3, subscriptions had grown enough that I was printing only some pages in color, and having a copy shop print the other pages in black and white. By Issue 25, we finally had the entire printing done at a real print shop, and the quality improved.
The early issues also contained horse care topics outside the subject of hooves, including homeopathy, nutrition, saddle fitting, bodywork; sometimes even bitless bridles, riding and horsemanship. There were always barefoot case studies, success stories, barefoot news, barefoot clinics reports, etc. There was a lot of information by and about Dr. Strasser in those early issues, because she was the major focal point for barefoot at the time. Strasser was simply the most active and vocal force in the entire barefoot movement in 2000 and 2001.
Issue 3 (Spring 2001) featured a submission from Jaime Jackson, “Timeline of the Natural Hoof Care Movement and its Development in America”. Believe it or not, at that time I was largely unaware of the falling out between Jaime Jackson and Dr. Strasser, and honestly thought that they were still working together!
A small submission about an unknown trimmer named Pete Ramey was in the back of Issue 4, “Barefoot Success at Smokey Mountain Stables.” From the article, “A few of their horses had contracted feet, navicular pain and recurring laminitis while wearing shoes. ALL of the horses are now sound, healthy and working barefoot every day. The Rameys have had such outstanding success with natural trimming, they are now receiving referrals from veterinarians.”
Our second year (5-8) featured articles by Lisa Simons (now Lisa Simons-Lancaster), Dr. Robert Cook, Darolyn Butler, Scott Kroeger, Jane Kempton, Judy Sinner, Mary Debono, Loryhl Gutman and more. While the majority of people attracted to barefoot at the time were trying to rehabilitate pathological hooves (usually founder or navicular), things were changing. Examples of sound, working barefoot performance horses slowly began to emerge, such as Darolyn Butler’s endurance herd.
Our third year (9-12) marked a big change! We expanded each issue to 24 pages. The printed edition was now changed to color covers only, while the insides were printed in black & white at the copy shop. The PDF edition remained in full color. We continued on with a wide variety of hoof and natural horse care articles.
By Issue 11 (Spring 2003), content was now reflecting a new direction – from barefoot just for pathological horses, to barefoot for healthy horses. This issue was dubbed, “Special Edition: Barefoot Performance!” and featured barefooters in eventing, dressage, endurance riding, barrel racing, trail riding, TREC, and driving.
Issue 21 (Fall 2005) marked our 5th Anniversary Issue. We made a small, but important change that only the most astute reader might notice; we changed our sub-title from “News for Natural Hoofcare” to “Barefoot Hoofcare Magazine.” This change was quite deliberate – I wanted a title which clearly reflected our main topic of Barefoot. “Natural” was quickly becoming an overused word at that time! I also wanted to expand beyond the concept of a newsletter, because we did not represent just one group. The word “journal” seemed too fancy (and too close to The Horse Journal), and “publication” seemed too generic, so I settled on “magazine.” (Then starting with Issue 59, I again quietly changed the subtitle to: “The Magazine for Better Horse Care.”)
Issue 21 also marked another important change: we decided to focus exclusively on hooves. At the time, I thought alternative health articles might turn off people attracted to the idea of barefoot, but uncomfortable with non-traditional health care. After all, people did not have to use alternative health (or bitless bridles, treeless saddles, natural horsemanship, etc.) in order to begin to improve their horse’s feet. Though I have always been a huge supporter of alternative health, for myself as well as my animals, my idea was to change one thing at a time. First came the hooves… And space was a concern, as we were limited to 24 printed pages at that time! We continued to accept any relevant topic, as long as hooves were the focus (so alternative health, as directly related to hooves, was still accepted). However, horse care is an intrinsic part of hoof care… so now we’ve come back, full circle. With plenty of “space” online, our focus includes all facets of horse care.
In that same 5 year Anniversary Issue 21, James Welz (my husband) took over the position of Technical Editor. We made it very clear in our editorial that we intended to make it our key focus to remove all politics from the magazine, and print everyone’s articles, whether contradictory or controversial (though politeness is required). This magazine was not for or about us personally, but rather for all barefoot owners and professionals. We are not here to determine what is right and what is wrong, but to present information.
Issue 38 (Spring 2010) marked our decision to begin accepting advertising. The economic downturn was starting to weigh on us, and we were determined to keep The Horse’s Hoof in print. This smart and successful move allowed us to then expand by Issue 43 to glossy full-color 32 page issues! Issues 43 through 51 were a beautiful thing to behold!
To make up for the ad space, I created a new section, beginning with Issue 38, called “Online Extras” – which was an extra dozen or more pages that were available in the PDF issue only. This gave me plenty of space for extra articles and other fun items.
Issue 40 (Fall 2010) was our 10 year Anniversary issue. We actually began celebrating in Issue 39, with a theme of “barefoot beginnings,” and featured articles by Strasser, Jackson and Kells, looking at the beginnings of the barefoot movement, and continued exploring this topic through Issue 40.
Issue 50 (Spring 2013) was our 50th Issue Celebration, and I set down a timeline of the modern barefoot movement. This detailed historical overview of events of the previous 15 years is available here: “A Timeline of the Barefoot Movement“. Also included there is the “50th Issue Retrospective” article with 15 famous barefoot advocates: Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, Dr. Robert Bowker, Dr. Robert Cook, Pete Ramey, Cindy Sullivan, Gretchen Fathauer, Cheryl Henderson, Sabine Kells, Claudia Garner, Greg Sokoloski, Darolyn Butler, Garrett Ford, Carole Herder, Joe Camp, and James Welz.
Unfortunately, by Issue 51 (Summer 2013), the economy had taken its toll on us, and it became very clear that we simply could not remain in print without going bankrupt. I came up with a plan to transition our subscribers over to Online subscriptions, and so we began. We had always offered an Online PDF subscription, and starting with Issue 38, it was a free bonus for all Print subscribers, too. Theoretically, everyone already received the PDF edition; however, in reality, many people were very resistant to “going green.” Even though we have been out of print for over 2 years now, I still receive emails from unhappy subscribers BEGGING me to start printing again!
The transition was tough, but we made it, and just in the nick of time. Issue 51 was the very last printed issue.
With the dawn of “Online only” starting with Issue 52, new opportunities awaited. There was no longer a limit to the number of pages. I began to accept a larger variety of topics related to horse care, because I always have space now! Also, in late 2013, I stumbled upon a revolutionary bitless tool (the bitless-bit design) and completely stopped using bits (quite the change for a confirmed “dressage” rider!). My newfound interest in bitless led to more articles on this topic. Eventually, it all came together, as I realized we were about more than just barefoot. We were about Better Horse Care.
Our issues began to grow. I revised the layout to make the font a bit larger, with a simple 2-column format, so that reading online would be easier. Our issues have averaged 40-50 pages, or more!! Our largest issue to date was Issue 57 (Winter 2015) with 94 pages. That issue featured The Functional Hoof Conference 2014 in Australia, along with the “Table with All The Trimmings.” This current Issue 60 runs a close 2nd, with a whopping 84 pages, and is actually more to read, because it is so content-heavy!
Looking back, perhaps one of our most exciting issues of all time was Issue 18 (Winter 2005). Featured on the cover was Police Officer Greg Sokoloski’s article, “City of Houston Police Horses Go Barefoot.” Their compelling story about working horses going barefoot successfully really gave strength and credence to the entire barefoot movement. We’ve enjoyed all their follow up articles over the years (Issues 20, 29, 36, 37, 45, 51, 53, 60), and have watched the herd of barefoot police horses (and mules) grow! This same Issue 18 also featured, “Saucy Night Makes UK Racing History by Winning Barefoot.” A barefoot racehorse was unheard of at that time, so this story also changed perceptions of so many. We’ve featured many other barefoot racehorses in Issues 19, 22, 27, 33, 41, 45, 56.
Over the years, we’ve printed articles by nearly every famous barefoot influence and expert. Jaime Jackson: Issues 3, 30, 33, 37, 38, 39, 49. Pete Ramey: Issues 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 35, 40, 50. KC La Pierre: Issues 24, 31, 32. Dr. Robert Bowker: Issues 1, 31, 33, 34, 35, 38, 40, 45, 48, 50, 55, 60. Dr. Tomas Teskey: Issues 16, 23, 25, 54, 59. Dr. Strasser and Sabine Kells were in simply too many issues to even count! Articles by these names, and others – famous or not so famous, but nonetheless valuable – have covered the gamut from science, to how-to-trim instructional articles, to philosophical treatises.
The sport of endurance riding has indeed forged a brave barefoot path over the years, perhaps due, in part, to Darolyn Butler setting such a great example early on (2000). Darolyn was featured in Issues 5, 6, 8, 19, 23, 31, 35, 50, 52. In 2003, Thorsten Kaiser competed on his barefoot horse in the New Zealand Endurance Nationals 100km (Issue 12). In 2004, Jen Clingly rode her barefoot horse in a 160km event, which became the first long distance barefoot completion in Australian history (Issue 16). In Issue 41, we featured Cecilia Stråhle Engquist’s story of running 100 miles bare at the 2009 Endurance World Championships – World Equestrian Games!
The improvements in hoof boots allowed for greater endurance success with barefooted horses. In Issue 24, Karen Chaton’s horse Granite Chief became the first horse to win the AERC Mileage Championship without using nailed-on shoes, with follow-up’s from Karen in Issues 27, 29, 34, 37, 40 (Chief reached 10,000 miles), 53 (Chief in 2012 AERC Hall of Fame), 59 (Chief going strong at 20 years old, with over 14,500 miles). This issue 60 features Karen on the cover with her 18 year old “young” horse, Pro Bono “Bo,” during this year’s Tevis ride.
Barefoot-booted horses continued to make headway in endurance. In Issue 36, we featured Linda Morelli riding her horse in Tevis 2009 using Renegade boots. In Issue 40, Garrett Ford’s barefoot horse, The Fury, won the 2010 Tevis Haggin Cup in Easyboot Glue-ons, which was a first for barefoot-booted horses. Tevis coverage was included in Issues 36, 40, 45, 48, 52.
If you think it can’t be done barefoot, just look harder, and you’ll see an article about it somewhere in The Horse’s Hoof archives… Barefoot liberty exhibition horses? Issue 31. Barefoot Arab show horses? Issue 6, 11, 37, 60. Barefoot Quarter Horse show horses? Issue 27, 34, 51. Barefoot barrel racers? Issues 11, 26, 28, 33, 38, 43, 51, 54, 58. Barefoot logging horses? Issue 18. Barefoot working farm horses? Issue 20. Barefoot Eventing horses? Issue 11, 12, 25, 26, 27, 28, 38, 42, 49. Barefoot show jumpers? Issue 18, 20, 22, 30, 33, 40, 41, 46, 52, 55. Barefoot dressage horses? Issue 11, 16, 24, 25, 27, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 41, 42, 50, 54, 59. Barefoot Grand Prix dressage horses? That would be Dr. Hilary Clayton’s Arabian gelding in Issue 32, and trimmers Sossity and Mario Gargiulo with their clients, world class dressage trainers Shannon and Steffen Peters, and Akiko Yamazaki with her Olympic champion Ravel in Issue 50!
Wild horse hooves have also been a special feature in many issues over the years, including: Issue 13- “Observing Wild Hooves: The Pryor Mountain Mustangs” by Catherine A. Jones; Issue 16 “Southern Utah Mustang” courtesy Joe Hancock; Issue 20 “Wild Horse Feet: American Mustang” courtesy Pete Ramey; Issue 20 “Observing the Hooves of New Forest Ponies” by Chris Thompson; Issue 30 “Mustang Hoof Photo Gallery”; Issue 34 “Nevada Mustang Hooves”… just to name a few!
Finally, we have to thank the countless horseowners over the years who have sent us their barefoot stories, photos, and experiences to publish on these pages. It is their thoughts and ideas that create this publication. Many started as “ordinary horseowners,” without a clue, but then went on to change the world as we know it. Perhaps best exemplified by our friend Joe Camp (Issue 28, 43, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 57), who has now become a leader in promoting barefoot.
by Yvonne Welz, published in The Horse’s Hoof Magazine, Issue 60, Fall 2015
For more historical barefoot info, please read: “A Timeline of the Barefoot Movement” and “50th Issue Retrospective”.
See the full content listing of all issues of The Horse’s Hoof Magazine! We also provide instructions on how to read the issues for free on Hoof Help Online.
For a detailed listing of all articles on The Horse’s Hoof website, please visit our Article Directory.
