06/09/2026
🐴 WHEN YOGI SHARP SAYS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS – GOOD HOOF CARE IS ABOUT EVIDENCE AND THE INDIVIDUAL 🔬
It is genuinely exciting when an internationally recognised farrier and researcher like Yogi Sharp puts into words something we at Guldhov have been communicating for a long time. 💡
👉 There is no universal hoofCare method that is right for every horse.
Yogi highlights an important problem within hoof care: population blindness, taking what works within the population of horses we personally work with and turning it into a general biological rule.
But horses live under very different conditions. 🌍🐎
🧬 Breed and genetics
🌱 Environment and surfaces
🥕 Diet and nutritional status
⚖️ Body conformation and hoof morphology
🏃 Movement and workload
🩺 Medical history and pathology
🏡 Management and husbandry
And most importantly: all of these factors interact.
So the question is not:
❌ “Which method is right?”
But rather:
✅ “What are the conditions of this particular horse and which intervention is most likely to provide the function, balance and health we are aiming for?”
That is a huge difference. 🔍
Yogi also describes the difference between teaching a method and teaching a framework.
📌 A method says:
“Do this.”
🔬 A scientific framework asks:
“What variables are present here, how are they affecting the system, and therefore what intervention makes sense?”
This is exactly where I believe the future of hoof care needs to be. 🚀
For us, good hoof care is not about being pro barefoot, pro shoes, pro steel or pro composites.
It is about understanding the horse, the hoof, biomechanics, material properties and the horse’s environment and then adapting the intervention to the individual. 🐴❤️
🔬 EVIDENCE-BASED FOUNDATION
⚖️ BIOMECHANICAL UNDERSTANDING
🐎 INDIVIDUALISED TRIMMING
🎯 FUNCTION BEFORE METHOD
To me, this is the foundation of good hoof care.
And perhaps most importantly:
💭 Our experience is valuable but it must never become greater than biological reality.
That is also why our focus must be on function before material.
First, we need to achieve the biomechanical function we are aiming for. 🔬⚙️
Then we can discuss which material or method can best help us achieve it.
This is not a new idea.
But it is encouraging to see more and more people within the academic and scientific side of hoof care expressing the same principle. 🙌
Stop searching for the one “right” method.
🔎 Start understanding the system.
⸻
📚 References:
Yogi Sharp, Evidence-based Farriery is Revolutionizing Hoof Care, American Farriers Journal.
Sharp, Y. & Tabor, G. (2022), An Investigation into the Effects of Changing Dorso-Plantar Hoof Balance on Equine Hind Limb Posture, Animals, 12(23), 3275.
🐴🔬⚖️
