This summer marks exactly 20 years since we came up with the idea for The Horse’s Hoof publication and website. Our domain name was something that my husband, James, created: thehorseshoof.com. I liked it, and that became The Horse’s Hoof Newsletter. And so it began…
While you can trace my barefoot story woven in pieces and parts throughout our 20 years of issues, I have never before sat down to write it all in one place. This will be very personal. This is my barefoot story, but it finishes, appropriately, with a bitless twist!
I grew up as a horseless horse lover, collecting model horses and riding, whenever opportunity arose, on friends’ and relatives’ horses, and the occasional vacation trail ride. Frustrated by no clear path to equines in my life, I put them on the backburner in my teens. During my last year of college, I enrolled in an English horseback riding class. With a gigantic explosion within my heart, my passion was reignited, and horses became my life’s obsession from then on.
Here I am jumping my half-Arabian Palomino mare Shayla, perhaps the greatest horse who ever lived. Circa late 80’s.
My new husband, James, soon bought me a horse, and our life revolved around that half-Arabian Palomino mare named Shayla. We were horse poor but happy. When we moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1990, the first thing we did was look for the perfect stables for Shayla. She came first! We found an apartment near that stables, and drove to the other side of town to get to work. In order to ride together, we soon added a second horse: a Lipizzan x Arabian cross mare named Interlude, or “Inty” as we called her.
Surrounded by competition horseowners from the start, I quickly decided that one had to “compete” in order to be a serious and respected rider. I started out in hunter-jumper shows, branched out to competitive horse trials, and then became enamored with dressage – the “art” of horsemanship. I also devoured all the equestrian books written by the great classical masters, which I found in the public library. My goal was to become an accomplished trainer… one day.
I absorbed all the horse education available to me, and it included the standard, traditional horse care mindset of stalling, shoeing, body clipping and blanketing, etc. I purchased Inty as an unbroke 7 year old with severely overgrown hooves. I trained her from scratch and she turned into a fabulous and talented dressage horse. However, she always had persistent hoof problems, kept at bay by frequent shoeing using the best farriers I could find. I never thought to question any of it.
My beloved Inty, a talented Lipizzan x Arab mare, had hoof problems from the start. Circa late 90’s.
Before 1999, I was simply an amateur competitive dressage rider with a serious passion for classical dressage. James & I were quite successful at our interesting jobs in the pre-press publishing industry. In addition to my packed schedule of shows, clinics, lessons and horse events, we enjoyed trail riding weekends with our horses in places like Sedona, Arizona. James even competed Shayla in jumper events. In a nutshell, we were very happy.
All of that changed overnight when our “perfect” life came to a screeching halt. My heart horse Inty came up severely lame the day after she won a big championship class in May of 1999. Soon it spun out of control; she was foundering. Our local vet referred us to a specialist vet, who came out with a couple farriers. X-rays showed rotation beginning. Inty was put into heart bar shoes.
In May 1999, Inty foundered.
I watched her decline in front of my eyes that summer. Soon she was spending more time laying down. The specialist vet pulled out another tool to try; she would do a coronary grooving to the worst foot, the left front. This was the beginning of the end for my dear Inty. She began laying down all day long, and the vet was offering no answers and no hope.
It’s hard to know in retrospect if things could have gone differently, maybe if we had taken another route? The grooving itself seemed to make everything far worse, as she suffered a severe prolapse of her coronary corium, so painful she was in agony. Later on, the grooving was a continual source of an infection tract that could never be healed. The damage around the area led to irreparable coffin bone destruction. I would never advise a coronary grooving on any horse. From my perspective now, less invasive is always the path I will choose.
But in the midst of all this, with the horse of my dreams suffering at death’s door, I discovered online that there was a German veterinarian, Dr. Hiltrud Strasser, saving foundered horses. I ordered her new book A Lifetime of Soundness, and received it in mid-August of 1999. I read that book in one day, and it changed my entire life.
I had James read it too, and we thought it over, and discussed a plan of action. We asked our farrier if he would remove Inty’s shoes for us, and he declined with some excuse. We then found Frank and Mary Orza, who were barefooters living in Tucson, and they drove up and helped us remove Inty’s shoes. We really were not sure what to do next, as trimming info online was still sparse, and Inty’s feet were excessively overgrown due to inflammation and the vet’s poor decision to leave the shoes on – with no trimming or reset – for months! James tried to rasp her hooves a little bit. We also moved Inty out of her stall and into a large paddock area, along with our other horse, Shayla – who was also deshod at that time.
Frank Orza removing Inty’s shoes; note the horrific coronary prolapse caused by the “grooving.”
Inty’s left front after James had begun trimming, and the prolapse was healing a bit. It was still awful.
I located contact info for the editor and translator of A Lifetime of Soundness. Sabine Kells, who lived in British Columbia, Canada, was the only person in North America trained by Dr. Strasser. Back then, she was doing photo consults by snail mail. I took photos of Inty’s feet with a camera, had them developed, and mailed the package to Sabine, which took a few weeks to get there. When she received the photos, she called immediately. Inty’s hooves were in shockingly poor condition. She advised that this was not something that could be done long distance; if we really wanted to learn how to trim her feet, one of us needed to visit Sabine in Canada for hands-on training just to get the bare basics. It really was the only way.
Between the two of us, James has mad technical skills, and I am sort of a tech-moron. So James was on a plane to Canada that very weekend, in the effort to save my mare.
He spent 3 days working with Sabine in October of 1999, and learned so much. When he arrived back home, he said, “I had no clue what I was doing before!!”
James went right to work on Inty, and we were sending frequent photo packages to Sabine for photo consultations, which were invaluable. We actually began to make progress, as the coronary grooving area looked like it was healing, and the hoof was growing out. At that point, we naively believed growing in one new hoof capsule would result in healing of the founder; in severe cases, that does not happen, but rather a cycle of painful inflammation starts up, depending on the degree of coffin bone damage.
While all this was going on, in January of 2000, our now 23 year old horse Shayla suddenly and unexpectedly died of a brain aneurism. This was probably the most crushing event of our lives thus far. Within 6 months, I had truly lost both of my horses – although Inty was still alive, and I was determined that she would recover.
It was at that point that I stopped riding for 3 years. Me, non-stop rider, who rode like I breathed, no longer riding. It was a time of tremendous grief. Sometime in March 2000, I saw an ad for a yearling Palomino breeding stock Paint mare, and showed it to James. We were both heartsick, so probably not making the best decisions. James said, “she looks just like Shayla!” (she didn’t, except for being a pale Palomino…) and we were off to Cornville, AZ, to pick her up. Our beloved Kendra entered our lives. Right away, we noticed that her hooves were way too small for her big stocky body, but we thought we could “fix” that (you can’t…).
Yearling Kendra, with her stocky body and small hooves.
Only a couple months later, in May 2000, Dr. Strasser visited the USA for the first time. Sabine encouraged James to attend Strasser’s Texas seminar, in order to get more detailed instructions to help Inty. James was truly inspired by the information that was presented, and when he arrived back home, he said again, “I had no clue what I was doing before!!” He began to finally have the courage to trim Inty in way that was far more therapeutic, and sadly, had this been done sooner, we might have saved her. Meanwhile, she kept making significant progress, so at the time, we thought we were truly on a path to healing…
I’m going to gloss over most of the barefoot business parts of my story, to keep this shorter. If you’re interested in more details about the timeline of the barefoot industry, or the development of The Horse’s Hoof, those topics have been covered in many of our previous anniversary issues such as THH #40 (10th Anniversary), THH #50 (50th Issue Celebration), and THH #60 (15th Anniversary). James & I were blessed to be able to travel the world over the years and meet so many barefoot horse enthusiasts around the globe, due to our position in the barefoot movement. During our hoofcare travels, we attended clinics, practicums & hoof events, and also presented our own clinics, in places like Hawaii, California, Nevada, Oregon, North Carolina, New York, Florida, British Columbia & Manitoba Canada, Germany, and Australia!
Looking back, I realize that it was only because I had quit riding (and showing) that I had the time to start up our new barefoot business. To sum it up, we started thehorseshoof.com in summer of 2000 to sell Dr. Strasser’s books. Then I created The Horse’s Hoof Newsletter (later Magazine), with the first issue released in September 2000. James & I were both working at our regular jobs in downtown Phoenix, and had no plans to change that. But fate would intervene…
Sabine encouraged James to consider enrolling in Dr. Strasser’s new Hoofcare Specialist Certification Course. It would be the first time she had ever offered this course to a class of North American students, and would involve trips to Canada and Germany to train with Dr. Hiltrud Strasser herself! The course was expensive, but we broke it down: if James trimmed a few horses on weekends, he could actually pay for it, since there was already a strong and growing demand for barefoot trimming. James felt he needed more knowledge to help Inty, so he began Strasser’s year-long course in Sept. 2000, and graduated in Germany in May 2001. When he arrived back home, he said once again, “I had no clue what I was doing before!!” His “weekend trims” had turned into a long waiting list of people. In June 2001, James quit his job and became a full time barefoot hoofcare professional – which he still is doing, nearly 20 years later! I hung on to my job for a while longer, but after 9-11 happened, I realized life is short, and I turned The Horse’s Hoof into a full time occupation, complete with a webstore full of barefoot products to sell.
Barefoot is not just about removing shoes; it was always about changing the entire lifestyle of the horse, identifying their physiological needs and providing the horse with the most natural path to healing. I found that the philosophy of barefoot hoofcare changed my entire life. What started out as research to heal a horse opened up a brand new world of information for me. I applied everything that I learned to all my animals and to our human lives, as well. I researched diet and nutrition, vaccinations, toxins, alternative care methods, vitamins and minerals, supplements, and everything related to health and healing. My research into all these areas continues to this very day, and what I have learned is invaluable! I especially learned to think outside the box, and ask questions. Lots of questions.
While James continued to work on Inty, I began to train young Kendra. She later turned into a delightful riding horse, but initially she would “charge” at me when I attempted to lunge her, and even run me over while leading. I began to seek out what turned into my initial education in “natural horsemanship” (which was still relatively “new” at that time!) and round pen training. I got a taste for something a bit different than dressage, and yet it really inspired me.
Meanwhile, Inty was not progressing well long-term. After “early success” when I was actually able to ride her a little bit at the one year mark post-founder (in summer 2000), we began a cycle that seemed to never end. Her primary problem was the grooved hoof; the left front. That left front developed a continual cycle of up and down, with chronic abscessing in that one foot. Every time we made significant progress, it would disappear with a new abscessing episode. The other 3 hooves had recovered fairly well. I tried several nutritional programs in hopes that they might give her the extra boost to recover. She received nearly every therapy and treatment available to me at the time. Old Mac’s Hoof Boots had just come out, which offered some relief (how fortunate we are these days, with so many boots to choose from!), but the left front damage was simply too severe. Finally, with disappointing x-rays, we made the difficult decision to end her pain, and put her down in summer 2004. We had fought the good fight.
After incorporating natural horsemanship into my basic training, I had begun competing young Kendra in dressage shows. She was doing well in the fall of her four-year-old year (even getting a 75% on an intro test!), but the next year (2004), she began to develop strange symptoms of hind end stiffness. By the summer of 2004, this turned into full blown tying up episodes including shivers and muscle trembling, and the vet diagnosed her with EPSM (Equine Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy). We began a treatment diet which included 2 cups of vegetable oil per day (which I believe caused problems down the road, more on that later). This dietary treatment was effective; her tying up symptoms were relieved. However, she still suffered from a general mild stiffness of gaits after that. I continued with her dressage training and showing, but the dressage rules were changed at that exact time such that “ordinary movers” were handicapped by the new scoring system. Kendra did not have “dressage gaits” and thus she scored low 60’s, at best, because of that.
It didn’t really matter to me, but I truly felt like I was on a “barefoot mission,” so the thought of higher scores and winning seemed important, just to get attention for the barefoot movement. I decided to purchase a young warmblood for barefoot dressage competition. In December 2004, we brought home yearling German warmblood mare, Belle (Gezebella).
Yearling Belle in December 2004.
At this point, we entered into some really good years. We were still at the exact same boarding stables we had found when we first moved to Phoenix with Shayla! We had purchased a house 3 miles from this lovely 50 acre stables. The horses were turned out into a herd 16 hours overnight, and kept in shady “mare motel” covered pens during the day. After training Belle, I began riding both Kendra and Belle in dressage shows. James also began riding Kendra and later on Belle, teaching them both to jump. I even rode Kendra in a few jumping classes! The barefoot world was in its golden era, in the mid-2000’s. Interest was strong, and people would even stop us at shows and ask questions.
One big happy family.
After trimming her initially overgrown yearling feet, Belle had near perfect hooves. We knew we could raise her correctly and prepare her for a lifetime of soundness. Kendra had been a bit disappointing because of developing her metabolic problem. Over time, it was obvious that this also affected her hooves, which remained too small in proportion to her size and gave her a distinct area of weakness. The quality of her hoof horn was never quite right. Nonetheless, I continued to train and show her, alongside Belle. Eventually, Belle became my primary focus.
Belle was such a superstar, she was getting scores in the 70’s and won a USDF All-Breed Award in her first year of showing! However, as training pressures increased, everything went south. I was working with competitive method dressage trainers at the time, and they increased their expectations. Belle began to resist, and then she began to explode. In April 2007, the 4 year old Belle-child bucked me off, and I was knocked unconscious with a helmet on. That was the beginning of the change in Belle. She was trying to tell me something, and I needed to listen, but it took time for me to process. Later that year, after watching one of the trainers get very harsh with her, I finally had the guts to walk away. I realize now that what they were doing wasn’t “dressage” at all – it was abuse. Accepted, normal, tolerated abuse that is systemic in the horse world.
That began a more independent period for me. Through videos, books, clinics and courses, I explored all forms of alternative training, including natural horsemanship and Equitation Science methods. I participated in Parelli Natural Horsemanship and various methods of liberty training. I later continued to work with several dressage trainers who utilized kinder, gentler methods. Belle developed a complicated personality as she matured, and any kind of aggression towards her (such as forceful riding) was simply not tolerated by her. She taught me to be a far more tactful and polite rider than any human could have ever taught me. She did buck me off a few more times, mostly at shows when she would get overly excited, but over the years, we finally worked through this and found a place of agreement. Belle was now my heart horse.
Regarding showing, I felt like we were always handicapped by the box stall that she was required to stay in during the event. For all the other horses, that was their “normal life.” For Belle, she was separated from her herd, and living in a box; very abnormal. She displayed severe stress, and that bothered me a lot. And I began to realize how poor the care was for all the show horses. Owners and trainers did not seem to notice their horse’s stress. I had always tried to ignore their hooves, but they were REALLY bad. Meanwhile, Belle had beautiful, perfect bare hooves that could walk over any terrain. Every now and then, someone would notice, and that would make my day!
Belle winning 2nd & 3rd Level classes in November 2011.
Belle and I showed through Third Level, but in competition, we were mediocre. I began training avidly with a French classical dressage trainer who had an excellent and logical system. While I was training with him in clinics for nearly 2 years, I temporarily stopped showing. At the end, I returned back to the show ring in November 2013. I was overjoyed with Belle; she did wonderfully for me, trying her heart out! However, our scores were mediocre, and I had completely lost my desire for showing. It felt hollow, empty and meaningless. Was horse showing really the pinnacle of equestrian experience? I finally realized – the answer is NO.
So that brings me to the bitless part. A month after that last show, I put the first “bitless bit” mild mechanical hackamore bridle on Belle in December 2013. The only reason I tried on that bridle was for a photo shoot. I had been 100% happy with all my bits, including the double bridle which I sometimes used on Belle. We had no mouth issues that I knew of. I had ridden her in every type of bitless before that, just to try them out, and nothing felt right to a “dressage rider” like me. This one was totally different. I could access her poll! The ring style “bitless bits” were the cat’s meow! Without metal in her mouth, Belle was happier than she had ever been, and she made that crystal clear to me.
Belle in a “bitless bit.”
I never put another bit on any of my horses ever again. I have used “bitless bit” style bridles on many different types of horses, and trained several (including an OTTB) to go round and “on the bit” in this type of bitless bridle. In classical riding, you only need the reins to control the horse’s poll (which “bitless bits” do beautifully), while you ride from your leg and seat. Of course, I gave up all showing and competition (bits are required for dressage in the USA), but as you can see from my story, I was so ready for that.
In 2014, our life changed when we moved to a leased horse property on the opposite side of town (Queen Creek, which is a suburb on the southeast of Phoenix). Our horses moved into their new natural lifestyle, with freedom of movement 24/7 (instead of daytime confinement in covered pens). It was because of everything that I learned in the barefoot horse care movement that I was able to set up a horse environment that’s easy for me to take care of, inexpensive, and healthy for the horses. We acquired a few more horses, so that we always keep a herd of 3-4. I love watching them all day long. Now that I’ve kept my horses right outside my door, I could never do it any other way!
At that time, I can’t say that I had a really clear plan of where we were headed. By that point, I had trained Belle to do Spanish walk, piaffe, passage, and flying changes, all bitless. On December 31, 2015, the unthinkable happened. Twelve year old Belle had a catastrophic shoulder injury, damaging her bicipital bursa; she was so lame she could not bear weight on her right front leg for six weeks. We honestly thought we were going to lose her. I was devastated. Somehow, she pulled through. It was a tough battle, but she began to slowly use her right front leg again. Healing took years, and a lot of damage happened to her hooves, due to that severe injury. She no longer has “perfect feet,” but rather problem feet, and some stiffness in her right shoulder.
Only a few months after Belle’s severe injury, we decided to put Kendra down, as she had developed severe arthritis in her hind end, and was having trouble getting up (I now believe the arthritis came from years of vegetable oil feeding). Losing both my beloved horses at the same time YET AGAIN was too much. I entered the darkest time of my life. I became very ill for three years with an autoimmune condition. We found ourselves in a financial black hole. My life had been turned upside down.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In my case, it led to the creation of a new occupation for me. In the back of my mind, I had always planned to be a riding instructor/trainer someday. I had been a perpetual student for 30 years! Over the years, I had given lessons to a few people here and there, but very limited. Now I was in need of income. I realized my unique position: I had acquired knowledge and experience that few other professionals had. So in 2017, I decided to start up a bitless & barefoot classical riding school: Heart to Hoof Horsemanship. I give private lessons on my well-trained schoolhorses, introducing a whole new group of young and old riders to correct natural horse care, the concept of bitless riding, what healthy hooves look like, and riding/training with empathy and compassion.
Belle recovered!
My happy ending is that I soon discovered the delight of giving lessons to tiny little children, and helping adults become confident and accomplished in their riding skills. This is perhaps the most fulfilling thing I have ever done. My horses are now my business partners. I had retrained Timely the former racehorse to be a riding horse, and she is now a PRICELESS school horse, trustworthy with the tiniest child. Belle gradually recovered and was able to give lessons to beginners; eventually she was sound enough to give lessons to more advanced students, including canter and advanced lateral work. Her recovery now seems like a miracle. In the summer of 2019, I added a 3rd school horse: an Arabian x Welsh Pony cross mare named Liberty, and she is a delight! I am developing her to be a dressage pony, and several of my experienced students also ride her.
Timely smiling.
In 2019, I became an Associate Trainer with the World Bitless Association and help promote LIMA (Least Invasive Minimally Aversive) principles and positive reinforcement methods. I now incorporate clicker training and positive reinforcement into our daily work.
Our new pony, Liberty.
I decided long ago that The Horse’s Hoof Magazine would end on its 20th year anniversary, with issue #80 (next issue). You now know what I’ll be doing with my “free” time: training the next generation of young riders in the fine arts of natural horse care and compassionate training. I look forward to the future; who knows what else might develop! And that, my dear friends, is my barefoot story!
by Yvonne Welz, published in The Horse’s Hoof Magazine, Issue 79, Summer 2020
Epilogue: After THH Magazine ended in late 2020, Carole Herder of Cavallo Hoof Boots offered me a position on their team, and it was the perfect fit! I’ve been assisting with Cavallo’s Customer Service since then, and continuing to study equine hooves all day long – so not much changed there! All of my unique hoof knowledge and horse experience is being utilized, which is extremely fulfilling. I do create time to give lessons on my “girls”: the same herd of 4 bay mares (Belle, Timely, Liberty, and Jazz), and continue with the horses’ schooling.
However, by late 2022, I realized I could not simply let The Horse’s Hoof fade away into the sunset, though it would be easy to just walk away from it all. In 2023, I started up The Horse’s Hoof Barefoot News, a free monthly e-newsletter, and rebuilt Hoof Help Online onto a new modern platform (Mighty Networks). In 2025, I knew the time had come to FINALLY rebuild The Horse’s Hoof website – only 10 years behind schedule! My dream is to establish this as a long-lasting digital resource and archived library of barefoot history and techniques for future barefoot horse enthusiasts. The construction begins, one brick at a time! Happy Hooves! – Yvonne Welz
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