Dr. Tomas Teskey’s Natural Hoof Care Clinic – Part 1

This past Saturday, I attended the natural hoof care and hoof dissection clinic held in Hereford, Arizona with two of my fellow EasyCare team members, Dee Hoime and Shari Murray. It was held at the beautiful High Desert Stables in Hereford owned by Cindy Normandeau. Barefoot horses inhabit this stable and they have the best of the natural horse care world: barefoot with lots of property to move around on.  

There was a great showing of attendees and amongst the group were several natural hoofcare trimmers and farriers from southern Arizona and the Tucson area. There were even other vets there to prove a growing interest in knowledge of barefoot and natural horse care. Several of the trimmers there are EasyCare Hoof Care Practitioners. Even our newest dealer addition, Steve Boice and Theresa Worrell of Horse ‘n Around Ranch were there and provided an awesome lunch. They have a rescue ranch that we could see off in the distance where they rehab and place many rescued horses. The proceeds for the raffle held at this clinic were given to the rescue to help further the care and needs of the horses they care for.

 

As usual, Dr. Teskey presents knowledge about hoof care, feeding and so many important parts to the barefoot process that capture your attention and make you turn into the preverbial sponge. It  all makes so much sense. He starts the morning with a great slide show that shows you actual hoof cases and he explains the whys and hows of the barefoot process and the mechanics of this most incredible natural wonder. One of the first pictures that he has in his presentation was a picture of one of my horses’ hooves that Dr. Teskey had diagnosed and x-rayed for me a few years back, so that made this even more special for me. 

 

The afternoon was spent watching several hoofcare practitioners and farriers join forces and present several dissections going on at the same time. Dr. Teskey gave five of the hoofcare persons present the opportunity to perform a dissection so we could see several different hoofs with issues, watch the trims done and then watch the different dissections performed. Several of these folks had never achieved this before, so this was a real experience for them. What a great job done by all of them.
                                          

   

   

He also discussed the need for hoof boots when you are transitioning to barefoot. There are so many great boots styles out there and he believes that the need is there because of the many different shaped hooves and hoof issues. He is a big believer in the fact that every horse needs lots of movement every day of their life and owners should use hoof boots when needed to make sure that the horse is getting good, comfortable movement which allows the hoof to function so much better and do the things that nature has intended. Hooves need that movement every day.

I believe that every horse owner should make one of these clinics part of their responsibility to their horse. Knowledge and education can only improve your horsekeeping abilities. It is amazing to see what mother nature has given the horse in these hooves to make them a miracle of nature. Every single part has it’s job and how well it functions when we as the caretakers do our best to keep it natural. With every Teskey clinic I attend, I always come away with more and marvel at what nature has given us in our equine companions.