Trimmer’s Biographies

Rebecca Jacaranda Scott

I’m the principal of GoBarefoot PL. I’ve ridden horses since I was a child. I seem to be afflicted by an addiction to horses including pony club, trail riding and endurance, along with a bit of adult riding club dressage, jumping and cross country. Most of all though, I like getting out in the bush on my horse with my friends and family.

A journalist in a previous life, I came to barefoot trimming almost by accident after deciding that the concussive effects of shoes were not good for my endurance horse. So I asked a passing barefoot trimmer to come and pull the shoes. He did the set- up trim and then drove off into the sunset.  And since he lived about nine hours away, he wasn’t likely to return. So I had to learn to trim my own horse’s hooves…in a hurry.  So I did a course, then another, and another. Tagged along with other trimmers. Ran courses myself so I could learn more… and by then had become passionate about the benefits of barefooting. At some stage my neighbours asked me to trim their horses’ feet. And then my neighbour’s neighbour wanted theirs trimmed. And soon I was trimming all up and down my little valley in the Victorian High country. Then I expanded into the next two valleys and whammo…I had a new career. A fledgling barefoot trim practice!

When I moved to Melbourne in 2007 for my daughter’s secondary education,  I handed over my clients in the High Country to a friend and I started again, establishing a new client list around the fringes of the city.

I currently service clientele stretching from Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula, to Clonbinane to the North, down to Lara in the South West, my home patch of the Macedon Ranges and Bendigo and across to Whittlesea in the North East. And all points inbetween.

Sandi Chiswell

Sandi is a graduate of the Certificate 3  Equine Hoofcare  course at the Tasmanian Polytechnic.

She has been trimming her own horses since she was 14 years old, having been initially taught  to trim by her own farrier. Over the years she has gradually changed her trim techniqueŠ first by studying on the internet and  more recently since hiring  the founder of GoBarefoot – The Hoof Trim Network, Rebecca Scott, who has advised and mentored her. Read more»

Minna Sarkkinen

Minna moved to Australia from her native Finland in 2000 and her career since then has involved training detection jobs for the Australian Quarantine Service and various roles with Telstra. She can  also be found sometimes driving carriage horses in the city.

She came to barefooting after finding that her horse performed way better in a treeless saddle. That revelation led her to review her whole approach to her horsemanship, including looking into pulling the shoes and taking her horses barefoot. She began to question traditional ways of doing things and decided to investigate whether some of the alternative methods were more effective.

Minna enjoys teaching horses to become safe, quiet and educated mounts. She lives in Kinglake with her four horses, six dogs and
two cats.

Stephanie Wilson

Originally from England, Stephanie moved to Australia as a teenager. She has hung around horses pretty much as long as she can remember. She has worked on Thoroughbred Studs and eventing stables. Currently completing her Certi III in Equine Hoof Care through TAFE in Tasmania, Steph is also part way through a degree in equine science at Queensland University. Her Qld studies were interrupted when the Army posted her partner to Victoria. However, as of the start of 2012 she is now back in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast and trimming for GoBarefoot around Burpengary and surrounds.

Sarah Andrews

Sarah, a pharmacist by profession, came to barefooting when she found it helped her horses Bear and Karma. Like many of us, Sarah became fascinated with the functional anatomy of the horse’s hoof and after trimming her own horses to better health she wanted to learn more and started studying with Dr Melanie Quick. She is currently enrolled in the Diploma of Equine Podio-Therapy and is trimming in and around Bendigo, Echuca, Rochester and Elmore. She lives north of Bendigo with her partner, two daughters and their horses where they are currently building themselves a strawbale house.