““I have travelled far and wide - worked with literally thousands of hoof professionals all over the world - and have never met a group that exceeded the knowledge and skill of the ACEHP.
They have put together a training and certification program that is producing world class hoof experts with few peers. My hat’s off to them.”
”

“The course for me was great fun and a wonderful learning opportunity. I have met some inspiring and interesting people (and horses!) along the way.

From the TAFE course I learnt not just how to trim hooves but a whole new paradigm on how to look after a horse, not just for my own enjoyment, but to really understand what it takes to meet the horses needs so that they may have a healthy happy life. From all of the horse owners I have met, one thing is clear, they love their horses but .... the knowledge is just not there on what is best for the horse. This course is a giant step in promoting the needs of the horse. So you are all making a huge difference in the lives of many horses.

My favourite parts of the course were, assessing conformation and soundness at an endurance ride, seeing the transformation of a chronic foundered horse, creating an imaginary paddock paradise, hoof dissections, being “on the road with Jen and Jeremy”, and the information packed 2 weeks study as a group at the start of the course. I loved the hands on trimming and the presentation of information.

For me now I will continue to trim a few horses and rave on to as many horse people that are willing to listen on Natural Hoof Care! I will recommend the TAFE course to competitive riders, pleasure horse owners, people looking to become trimming professionals and anyone interested in providing the very best care for their horses.

Well done guys and thanks for being out there making a difference!
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“Obtaining this Certificate has greatly assisted my credibility as a Professional Trimmer. I love what I do and my client list grows each week. Each assignment required research and reading and because of this, I now have a more solid understanding of so many facets of horse care, hoof care, feed.......the list goes on.

Again, thank you so much for your time and energy in initially putting this course together and I am very proud to be part of the first intake of students, and now even prouder to have completed the course successfully”

“In 2004 I enrolled at the National Collage of Traditional Medicine here in Melbourne to do the Equine Myofunctional Therapy course. I thoroughly enjoyed the course as it went into depth in anatomy and physiology of the horse which is something I have a keen interest in. I am also a qualified Animal Technician with an Associate Diploma in Applied Science which is a qualification that enables you to work with any species of animal in confinement such as zoo’s, wildlife sanctuaries or medical research.

It was during the EMT course I was introduced to barefoot trimming and in theory this made complete sense to me so my own horses Doulton and Kate both had their shoes removed in 2004.

Once I started practicing EMT I soon realised that if the upper body problems were related to poor hoof form and hoof pain I was never going to fix the problem without addressing the cause, I was merely providing a temporary fix and temporary relief for the horse. I saw this in my own horse Doulton who has zero pain tolerance so if something wasn’t right I’d know about it. Transition wasn’t smooth for him but boy has that horse taught me a lot, four years later he is sound and happy.

I did a couple of weekend barefoot trim clinics and started to maintenance trim my own horses, then progressed to trimming friends horses, I then found myself totally obsessed with hooves and the first thing I did and still do is look at the hooves before looking at the horse and I don’t pat them I feel their muscles. I decided that I need to follow this hoof trimming path to learn more about how the hoof works and how it effects the upper body. I enrolled in the Cert III Hoof care course at TAFE Tasmania in Oct 2007.

This course offered everything I needed to become a professional hoof care provider. I have the confidence in assessing conformation and movement, I am able to identify hoof pathologies and provide a trimming treatment plan, provide advice and support to owners considering the barefoot lifestyle for horses that have been shod long or short term and I can give advice on feeding and housing regimes for maximum hoof health. All of this is backed up by a fantastic support team from my extremely knowledgeable lecturers Cynthia Cooper, Jeremy Ford, Jen Clingly and Marg Richardson.

This course has also opened doors for me such as being invited back to Tassie to lecture to the June intake of Cert III hoof care students on how hoof pathologies effect the musculoskeletal system and I lecture at Box Hill TAFE in Melbourne on the benefits of natural hoof care to the Cert II Horse Care course.

All this satisfies my interest in anatomy and physiology and it enables me to provide a whole therapeutic package to these wonderful creatures that generously give so much to us...our beloved horses.”

“I wanted to attend the course through a vague desire to work with horses and hopefully supplement my income.
I was unprepared for the inspiration of some amazing teachers, mentors and other students and their continued awesome support, inspiring a passion for the fantastic intricacy of the equine foot, and that qualifying from this course has opened up, for me, a more than complete replacement of full time work.
For me, the course was utterly life-changing.”