Here I am with the love of my life, my husband Mario.
We've been married since 1997 and lead a charmed life in the company of
four cats - Angel, Logan and Luna and Chloe
(And our kitty friends who are waiting at the rainbow bridge... Vanna, Fluhr, Brulee and Annie)
three dogs - Dylan, Bailey and Bogey
(Griffin, always with us in spirit!)
three horses - Hope, Faith and Jordan
Please check back for updated pictures.
WHAT WAS MY TRAINING?
I got into natural hoof care thanks to Faith, my Arab/Trakehner mare. When she went lame as a 4 year old and I started to question everything, natural hoofcare came to the forefront of my attention. How had I gone YEARS of horse ownership without really knowing anything about their feet?? In the beginning, the more I asked questions the more confused I became. How could the vets and shoers say one thing, but the barefoot "crowd" say the total opposite?! How confusing is it when the lunatic fringe makes more sense than the infamous "they"!
A friend of mine recommended Pete Ramey's book, and things happened really quickly after that. I could not put that book down, it was like one of those page turner novels that I read into the night! I became obsessed. I joined every Yahoo group out there on barefoot horses, and I ordered more books and DVDs from people like Gene Ovnicek, KC La Pierre, and Jaime Jackson. I drove in a blinding rainstorm to Arizona to hear Pete Ramey speak, and Mario and I drove all the way home like houses on fire, talking excitedly about everything we had learned. The implications of this new found interest in horse feet was not even clear to me at the time. The fact that I would never again be able to look at a horse without my eyes immediately going to their hooves, for one. Even more so, that I would eventually decide that this was something I wanted to pursue as a career! Somehow, I graduated from hiding out in the barn at night when I was certain no one was looking, tentatively rasping a few strokes on my own horses hooves, to enrolling in a training program that took me to several states, many mentorships and clinics, and ultimately to being involved in the creation of a new program (the PHCP) and trimming professionally full time. As I say below, I strive to continue to learn every day from the horses, other trimmers, vets, clinicians, etc.
Just for the fun of it, I put together quick photo pages for some of the different steps in my training/certification/ongoing journey*:
Outreach Clinic with Pete Ramey - Arizona
Cadaver Trim Clinic with Jaime Jackson - California
Anatomy clinic with Fred Striebeck - Washington
Booting Clinic with Richard Drewry - Missouri
Trimming Live Horses, Area Group Support Mtg and Safe Horse Handling Clinic - California
Assistance during Jaime Jackson clinic - California
Outreach Clinic with Pete Ramey - California
Outreach clinic with Pete Ramey - Colorado
SaferGrass.org Clinic with Katie Watts - Colorado
Outreach clinic with Pete Ramey - Valley Center, California
Dr. Robert Bowker Clinic - Valley Center, California
Mentorships:
Step 6
Step 8
Other/Continuing Education:
Katy Watts DVD "Feeding the Carbohydrate Intolerant Horse"
Katy Watts DVD "Soil Minerals: The Basis of Nutrition"
Pete Ramey's 16 hour 10 disc DVD "Under the Horse"
Pete Ramey's 2nd appearance DVD on Clinton Anderson's tv show
NRC Plus Nutrition Course by Dr. Eleanor Kellon, DVM (10 week course, started Dec '07)
BALANCE International clinics (2) on equine and rider biomechanics, saddle fit and their effects on hoof form
I am currently applying to the American Hoof Association www.americanhoofassociation.org
*I was previously a student in the AANHCP (formerly American Association of Natural Hoofcare Practitioners). During that time I studied with and/or mentored with Richard Robbins (CA), John Thomas (AZ), Cindy Meyer (CO), Pat Wagner (WA), Fred Striebeck (WA), Jaime Jackson (CA), Richard Drewry (MO), Bruce Nock (MO), Pete Ramey (clinics), and Katy Watts (clinic). After the AANHCP, I became involved in developing Pacific Hoof Care Professionals, am applying to the AHA, and strive to continue to learn from trimmers, clinicians, vets, and horses every single day!
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All photographs copyrighted. No image reproduction without authorization.