I would like to tell you a little about a couple of friends of mine. Chris and Fiona Dunlop of High Country Horses in Merrijig Australia own and operate a trail riding business and have been operating approximately 50 horses over the past 25 years. They run rides between 2 hours and 5 days through some of the toughest and beautifully scenic mountain high country in Australia.
Chris, like most trail operators, shod all his horses until about 5 years ago when he made the decission in consultation with his “Barefoot Farrier” Andrew Bowe, to convert the entire herd to be barefoot. Naturally, with this amount of horses this was a major effort and needed a great deal of commitment from all Chris, Fiona and Andrew. Needless to say amongst the small community from where they operate, there has been a lot of scepticism and an endless chorous of “It will never work”.
Over this time gradually the herd has been converted and this has only been possible with the assistance of the Easyboot Epic. As the herd is based at the bottom of the mountains on beautiful grassy pasture but work in the rocky mountainous high country, they needed something to assist in traversing the very hilly, rocky country. Hence the decission to provide those that required extra help with Easyboot Epics.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Chris and Fiona’s horses have never looked back, the herd has never been healthier or happier, this includes the ones that had hoof confirmation problems and the feedback from clientele and sceptics just keeps rolling in.
Congratulations to both Chris and Fiona for being forerunners in this area amongst both trail ride operators and pleasure riders in Australia.
Name: Karen Beaumont
Town: Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Equine Discipline: Trail
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Epic
