My Story

My name is Rebecca Scott and I am the principal of GoBarefoot PL. I’ve been a low level endurance rider since the early 1990′s. Eight years ago I became worried about the concussion on my horse’s legs. He was doing a lot of miles and I could ‘read’ the hard 80km rides from the tell tale rings growing out in his hooves. He would pull up the day after an endurance ride with puffiness and filling in his legs. Never lame. Just that you could see the concussion in his legs. So I started to explore alternatives to traditional shoes. I went through Natural Balance & plastic shoes (Equithotics) and finally I came to the conclusion that it would be best to run him without shoes altogether. People like Darolyn Butler Dial were doing it successfully in the US—and winning, barefoot—so I knew it was possible.

But in 2003 it took me months to find someone to come and trim (as opposed to shoe) my horses. When I found a trimmer and we pulled the shoes from my endurance horse, Zapateado, he could barely walk across the gravel driveway. The trimmer lived 6 hours away though, so it wasn’t as if I could expect him to come back and trim regularly! I felt like I was bobbing around in the ocean without a liferaft. And it was frighteningly apparent that if I was going to have barefoot horses,  then I’d have to learn to trim them myself. I was really stuck! It would have been MUCH easier to go back to shoes. But by then the scales had fallen from my eyes. I could SEE how shoes actually disadvantaged horses. There was no going back. I had to condition my horse to run barefoot, and I had to learn to look after his hooves myself.

So I became hooked, doing barefoot hoof trimming courses all over the place…with Equethy, Pete Ramey, Martha Olivo etc.

Next thing my neighbours in the high country wanted their horses trimmed so I jumped the fence and worked on their hooves. Soon word spread, and I was trimming up and down my little valley in North East Victoria.

Since then I’ve competed successfully in 80km endurance rides barefoot. And I’ve also continued learning about functional anatomy of the hoof and the whole horse. Barefooting has become my business. I now regularly trim and rehab horses with laminitis or navicular on vet referral. I work with OTTBs, pony clubbers, eventers, standardbreds, draft horses, paddock ornaments and donkeys.

If anybody had told me ten years ago that I’d become a horse toe cutter, I’d have laughed out loud. It is such a funny thing to be fascinated about. But I’ve become passionate about it because I can see how horses with proper hoof care have a much better level of wellbeing. It is wonderful to be able to make such a difference to many horses, taking them—in extreme cases—from virtual cripples to happy, healthy and sound riding mounts, based on regaining healthy hooves.