Jaime Jackson - Natural Hoofcare

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Willza

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Does anyone have any views (good or bad) on the methods promoted by Jaime Jackson and the "AANHCP" (Association for the Advancement of Natural Horse Care Practices)?

I was just interested to see if his methods have much of a following among H&H owners and whether they differed from that of say KC LaPierre?

Any info on this would be good thanks!
 
ive got books by Jaime Jackson and my horses are trimmed to his methods by a barefoot trimmer.
his book makes an interesting read.
PM me if you want more info.
 
barefoot trimmer
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From what I understand it is quite different to K C La Pierre as Jaime Jackson uses the Wild Hoof as a model, rather than functional anatomy as a model which is more like what K C La Pierre does. I think in a nutshell that KC is more science based, broken down into what each structure in the hoof does, and most importantly how it actually does it and Jaime Jackson, Pete Ramey, etc base their ideals on the wild horse (although they do take into account domestication with regards to environment, nutrition etc I believe).

The wild horse stuff is much easier to understand as it is not so scientific, but if you can get your head around the science, I find that KC's theories are sound (excuse the pun) - I have a scientific brain and I have to understand 'why' and 'how' things work - and the hoof is an amazing bit of kit! I also think that because K C looks at the functional anatomy first and foremost, it seems to be aimed more at educating people about how the hoof works to enable them to make informed decisions about how best to look after their horse's feet (e.g. to shoe or not to shoe), rather than being 'natural' - after all, if you want your horse to be natural then the only thing you need is a pair of binoculars!

Although I think that KC really seems to have it all sussed IMO, I do think that people should look in to as much as they can (as with all things) so that they can make informed decisions - not always easy, but it is worth trying! So, Jaime's book is well worth a read for sure.
 
I bought a book of his out of interest, no use to me,willing to sell it if you want it.
I'm sticking to a farrier.
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I've read Jamies books and Pete Rameys....... I found them very interesting and deffinatly worth reading. They're quite inspirational and very 'American', which I found a bit off putting! But, the content is good and I'm sure you'd get something from reading them
 
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Jaime Jackson uses the Wild Hoof as a model

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This always concerns me about a trimming technique, I am not riding a wild horse I am riding a horse that has been bred by man for man's purposes. She does not walk miles and miles each day to find food and water, she toddles round a lush pasture munching when she likes and wandering to the water bucket when the fancy takes her. She then comes in at night and stand on inch thick rubber matting plus straw...no strain on the feet there!

The mustang foot is how it is because of what mustangs have to do, my horses hoot is how it is because she doesn't need to do most of those things. Mustangs don't need farriers, horses do. If your horses foot was supposed to look like that of a 'wild' horse then it would naturally end up that way...that is your farrier/'trimmer' wouldn't need to do anything it would just wear away.
 
I believe they do take that in to account PrincessSpark1e, but I do agree with you to a certain extent - to my mind I don't believe anyone can say that the Mustangs have 'the perfect hoof' on which to base a model. For example, the scooping of the quarters they have is, as I believe, due to flaring, which nature at some point breaks off - that doesn't mean it is good and every horse should have scooped quarters. That's only an example, as I am not sure that these types of trimmers still scoop the quarters or not, so they may have moved away from that now.

I believe that you need to understand exactly how a hoof works in order to know how to trim it properly - and it is a very complex bit of kit without a doubt. It is not enough IMO just to know the structural anatomy, but the true functional anatomy. This has been so well researched in recent years (and continues to be) that this is where I believe (please don't shoot me down - just an observation ;-)!) that a good number of farriers are lacking in their knowledge. Certainly not all, but I can honestly say that in my part of the country I don't have a farrier who I can recommend to my clients unfortunately (although there may well be one that I haven't come across yet of course!). There are a couple of very good KC La Pierre Trimmers around here and if I think an owner needs sound advice about hooves then I point them in their direction - not to necessarily go 'barefoot', but just so that they can have a really good, and I must say unbiased, opinion.

Sorry - digressed a bit there from the original post!!
 
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