Our first clinic in Port Hardy BC
Barefoot & Beaches! ❣️ Horses playing on the beach in Port Hardy, BC
Our long (but beautiful!) drive up to Port Hardy on the Northern tip of Vancouver Island was not without its rewards. When we arrived Tracy Jensen-Clare, our hostess, welcomed us to her absolutely stunning barn! It was one that you would see on a hallmark card! Beautiful beyond words. Nothing is too good for her horses!
When Christine was up in Port Hardy last year tending to some of their horses, she met with the small group of horsewomen from the community. They were on an 8-week hoof maintenance schedule, and the feet showed signs of distress and needed more frequent trimming.
Our group in Port Hardy was tiny. But sometimes, when we see a small community come together, which gets ALL the horse owners in that community on board to learn more and learn together and are reaching out for help, we will go the extra distance.
What a pleasure it was indeed. Every owner over the past year was grooming their hooves twice a month, and I have to say they were doing a fantastic job! One key factor is that they are fortunate to have a seasoned trimmer Liz Gachter who was there to assist and help them learn techniques and help navigate around using their hoof trimming tools. So that part of the course came easy to them. Liz has been trimming horses for many years and came to our clinic for a refresher and to see what we are all about. It was so lovely to be in the company of such open-minded students!
Liz hard at work on her cadaver hoof.
One of the most challenging parts of growing and developing a strong, sound hoof is nutrition. There is so much we need to understand about equine nutrition and how it affects their bodies and, in the end, their feet. It is frustrating when a horse owner does everything right and still has hoof health challenges. But this then leads us to the next question... Where to look now? And we do not always come up with easy answers, but together as a community, we can search for them and undoubtedly learn unexpected things along the way. The first and most important aspect of finding answers is knowing there's a problem in the first place. That's the inherent gift of challenges!
We left the Port Hardy Hoof Geek Community with a lot of homework and a list of tweaks needed in their trimming skills to create a more connected hoof capsule to develop a healthy digital cushion — both of which were lacking in most of their horses' hooves.
You don't know what you don't know. But when you see what you don't know, life gets a bit confusing, scary and exciting all at the same time.
We look forward to reconnecting with our little HG North Island Group when we return to the island next year. We are excited to hear their transformational changes and learn from our students' successes. With EVERY clinic we teach, we learn something new from students. That is where the Hoof Geeks get our curiosity about what we don't know, and the search for knowledge continues! (AKA never-ending learning...).
Christine's Dad always used to ask her at the end of the day, “what did you learn today?” and she would tell him, and his answer would be, “then it was a day not wasted!”
Never feel bad for what you do not know or have not done, but once knowledge enters your circle, be awesome and apply your knowledge!
Know Hoof Know Horse! ❤️
Need to find a trimmer in your area? Check out this page?
Can’t find one? Contact us and we’ll see if we know of someone close to your area.
Did you know you can attend any Hoof Geeks clinic for FREE after your initial clinic? Yup! You just pay for any cadavers you need for the clinic. More info HERE.
