Barefoot Success- You Hold the Keys!

This is a very though provoking passage from Linda Cowles, a very experienced practitioner in Santa Rosa, CA.
Take heart hoof care practitioners and listen closely horse owners. Your trimmer doesn't ultimately hold the keys to barefoot success, you do!

Who really heals these horse's feet? Their owners. Horses owners are horses' most powerful ally.
I started out trimming brood mares and peoples neglected backyard horses, and learned the hard way that I can only save these horses with their owner’s assistance. When struggling in muddy paddocks trying to trim feet that had last been trimmed 6 months ago, or trying to devise a bandage that would stay on an abscessed foot when the horse's pasterns were buried in mud, I realized that. I needed to focus on horses I could help.
I can help most of these horses, but I can't change the owners. I now let them know what they need to do to help their horse, and let them know that, if they work to heal their horse, I'll work hard next to them. If they can't do their part, I give them a few names of folks who may be willing to work with them. It’s a heart breaker.
Pete Ramey consoled me once that I'd made the right decision about not working with the owner of a horse that was fed to obesity, had laminitis and chronic thrush. "When the vet looks at that foot and asks who the hoof care provider is, do you want your name associated with it? Is there anything you can do to change the owner?"
Tough. I leave the door open, tell them that if they decide to try working with me, I would love to work with them, but ask them, please, not too wait too long because the effects of severe laminitis are NOT reversible.  This is their horse’s life, and no, they don't get a Do-Over if they realize they were wrong. Loving owners heal their horses using the care & management they provide, plus the assistance of people like me.
Linda Cowels

I think this highlights the true commitment that needs to go with taking your horse barefoot, and like everything with horses the buck stops with the owner of the horse. Hoof care professionals are an integral part of any hoof care regime, but that is only half the story and the owner needs to work closely with them to ensure the horses diet and lifestyle are correct too. Just like our own bodies, it is important to keep them fit and healthy and eat the right foods in order to stay fit and healthy- think how you nails become brittle or ridged when you have a bad diet, a horses hoof reacts the same to too much protein and sugar. A strong hoof capsule is paramount for the soundness of any horse shod or unshod, and the better the hoof quality the better job the hoof care professional can do! Hoof boots like the Easyboot RX are ideal to help a sore or transitioning horse through a rough period, and the Easyboot Glove will help to keep your horses hooves in top condition even on the toughest, flint ridden tracks. Bare is best, but in the UK with our wet soggy ground hoof boots are often needed to allow our horses to work freely across the potentially flinty and rocky terrain we encounter when out riding.