I discovered horses in my late twenties when my partner Clare encouraged me to join her for riding lessons (she had ridden as a child). I was instantly hooked and we bought our first two horses as soon as we could afford a property with a little land.
Owning horses has been a massive but extremely rewarding learning curve for me, not least when Clare’s horse Esmé developed hoof problems soon after we bought her. After a year of remedial farriery, we reached the point where our vet hinted that there was no point carrying on, her feet were so poor. Neither of us were prepared to give up on such a beautiful young horse, so as a last resort we decided to explore going barefoot. I learnt to trim and we began a long and hard fight to bring Esmé back into work. Along the way, I gained a qualification in Equine Podiatry and the rest is history.
I originally studied physics and then electronics at Manchester University. I worked as an electronic engineer for 14 years but finally realised that I was more interested in horses’ feet! I’ve been trimming hooves since 2002 and am currently one of the most experienced equine podiatrists working in the UK.
I have retained a thirst for knowledge from my academic past and am now actively involved in research to try to understand more about how equine feet work and why they sometimes go wrong. I have a particular interest in laminitis and low grade laminitis. I am also one of the main tutors on the UK Diploma in Equine Podiatry run by Equine Podiatry Training Ltd. If you’re interested in training to be an EP, details of the course can be found here.
My practice includes a mixture of remedial cases recovering from major hoof problems and horses whose owners just prefer to work them without shoes.