Hoof Care

After being introduced to barefoot trimming he has hung up his hammer and stored the anvil to promote healthy, sound, metal-free horses.

Jeremy has been involved with horses all his life in all disciplines including hunting, endurance and stock-work.  His encounters with wild Australian Brumbies in the outback were the major inspiration for the switch to barefoot.  These horses have hooves, hard and strong, and able to cope with the hardest terrain.  This natural world led him to study with the AANHCP (American Association of Natural Hoof Care Practitioners).

Jeremy's life revolves around horses' hooves.  He runs educational workshops on hoof care Australia wide and is principle lecturer in the trade certificate Equine Hoof Care course run by the government education institute, TAFE.  Wild About Hooves runs annual tours to the outback to observe brumbies in their natural desert environment.  Coupled with this, they have produced educational documentaries and hoof trimming tools.

The aim of Wild About Hooves is to highlight the bare facts of keeping horses without shoes, about changing horse keeping practices to complement evolutionary needs and ways to adapt our domestic home environments and to keep some of the "wild" elements for the health and happiness of our horses.

www.wildabouthooves.com.au

He was one in seven apprentices who were the first group to complete a formal apprenticeship.  Jonathan's passion for horses has continued throughout his 25 years as a farrier.

He has competed in farriery competitions throughout Australia and has represented Australia at the World Blacksmiths/Farrier Championships in Calgary, Canada. Jonathan was recently invited to Malaysia to judge the Asian Pacific Farrier Championship, and also lectured there.

Jonathan's passion is strong as ever and he enjoys lecturing and giving the horse owner an understanding of what to look for in their horse's feet.  "Every horse is someones Phar Lap".

Laurie shoes a range of horses, including racehorses, eventers, show horses, pony club horses and ponies.  'Kibbutz' (who came 9th in the Melbourne Cup) 'Hissing Sid' (Warnambool Cup) and Arch Symbol (Wangoom HDCP) are among some of the racehorses whom Laurie shoes.

Along side that, he does remedial work at Warrnambool Veterinary Clinic.  The Veterinary Clinic gets a lot of horses with feet and leg problems coming to Warrnambool to get trained on the beach.  This has allowed Laurie to see a wide range of hoof problems, which in turn has been a great learning experience in rectifying their problems.

Laurie is a great believer in furthering education and tries to attend as many Farrier clinics as possible.  He aslo has his Certificate in Horse Management MOFMC and Certificate in Small Business (TAFE).