The Natural Trim: Advanced Guidelines: Healing Pathology in the 4th Dimension

By Jaime Jackson

The natural trim is a humane trim method for horses that mimics the natural wear patterns of America’s wild, free-roaming horses of the Western States Great Basin. These wild horses are also the model for natural horse care (NHC). The Advanced Guidelines of the natural trim replace the Basic Guidelines when hooves suffer from extreme defor

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Jackson Publishing
• Release date: Feb 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780999730546

Jaime Jackson

For 38 years, author Jaime Jackson has been an outspoken advocate for natural horse care based on his studies of America's wild, free-roaming horse living in the Great Basin. Jackson has been a professional "hoof man" (farrier turned natural hoof care practitioner) since the 1970s.

Book preview

ALSO BY THE AUTHOR

The Natural Horse: Lessons from the Wild (1992)

Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof Care (1999)

Founder — Prevention and Cure the Natural Way (2001)

Guide To Booting Horses for Hoof Care Professionals (2002)

Paddock Paradise: A Guide to Natural Horse Boarding (2005)

The Natural Trim: Principles and Practice (2012)

The Healing Angle: Nature's Gateway to the Healing Field (2014)

Laminitis: An Equine Plague of Unconscionable Proportions (2016)

Training Manual: ISNHCP Natural Trim Training Program (2017)

The Natural Trim: Basic Guidelines (2019)

©2019 Jaime Jackson

For further information:

Natural World Publications

P.O. Box 1765

Harrison, AR 72602

Natural World Publications is an imprint of J. Jackson Publishing.

The author may be reached at [e-mail]

ISBN-13: 978-0-9997305-1-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-9997305-4-6 (e-book)

These Advanced Natural Trim Guidelines represent a highly technical method of trimming the horse’ s hooves based on the wild horse model and the author’s Theory of H°. They are taught as advanced course work in the ISNHCP natural trim training program (www.ISNHCP.net). Due to the complexity of the method, which requires great skill and training, neither the author nor Natural World Publications can accept responsibility for the applications or misapplications of the method.

Contents

At first, I saw that these hooves were untamed, and wild, and unknown to me.

As I began to understand why this was so, I came to realize that I was misled, and they were not really hooves at all.

But then after many more years of contemplation, I was comforted in coming to see once again, that they were simply hooves after all.

— Jaime Jackson

The U.S. Great Basin, home to America’s wild, free-roaming horses.

FOREWORD

Theory of H°

There are two parts to these Advanced Natural Trim Guidelines (Advanced Guidelines). First, the Introduction and subsequent chapters that detail the actual method; in other words, how one conducts the trimming steps to facilitate the healing of a hoof suffering from extreme capsule deformity. And second, the Epilogue, which answers the question why this healing occurs? The latter goes to the subtitle of this book: Healing Pathology in the 4th-Dimension . By definition, the 4th-Dimension is an abstract concept, because there is an integration of 3 dimensional space as we might think of such a hoof’s size, shape, and how it occupies space in life, and then what happens to the 3D hoof in the additional dimension of time. Most practitioners dealing with hoof care do so within the limits of a single 3D space time event, when we can perceive and affect the hoof care intervention right then and there with our own eyes, tools and equipment. Our relationship to the 3D event then terminates, and is not revived until the next trim session over some duration of time later. Logically, no thought is given to what is going on in that 4D spacetime interval, other than to acknowledge that the hoof is continuing to grow and will need to be trimmed again. The Advanced Guidelines are applied in 3D spacetime, but very specific measurement data is gathered in order to evaluate what is happening specifically in 4D spacetime. Which brings us to the Theory of H°.

The Healing Angle of Growth, H°, is a very specific and measurable hoof growth pattern that is unique to domesticated horses. It is related to N°, the Natural Angle of Growth that only occurs in the wild state of the horse. H° is important because it tells us about the stability or instability of the hoof relative to its natural state (N°). For example, the hooves of horses that are living healthy lifestyles in Paddock Paradise, a natural boarding concept modeled after the wild horse’s adaptive environment, will measure within the natural ranges of N°. Such horses are trimmed using the Basic Natural Trim Guidelines (Basic Guidelines). In contrast, hooves suffering from unnatural care practices will reveal shifts in H° — called migrations — away from the natural ranges for N°. When these migrations leave these ranges altogether, the Advanced Guidelines are deployed.

Technically, H° is also paradoxical. It is something we cannot actually see, touch or otherwise know through our common senses. This is because it is biodynamic and exists only in 4D spacetime in the living flesh of the hoof. Thus, we can only embrace and understand it indirectly as a theory with measurement data gathered in 3D spacetime, but that is evaluated in terms of its behavior in the 4th dimension. What we measure as H°, in other words, is actually an illusion. Being biodynamic, it is subject to constant change based on the horse’s unique life experiences. So the data provides us only with a measurement history, snapshots in time of what once was. But if we diligently arrange these data histories in a 4D timeline, nature will provide us with a clear pattern of a very distinct past and a vision of a probable future. The Advanced Guidelines are indispensable in this endeavor because they not only facilitate the migration of H° towards the natural data ranges of N°, they also yield vital data that tells us at what rate this is happening.

Naturally shaped hooves. The power of H° at work in Paddock Paradise (AANHCP Field Headquarters, Lompoc, CA, USA).

The Theory of H° also suggests a remote Healing Field operative in 4D space-time that mediates these migrations of H°. Here, mass, energy, and the adaptive forces of Natural Selection conspire for or against H°. At the conclusion of this book, we’ll embark on a strange journey to this mysterious Healing Field to understand why, in theory, H° exists and, thus, does what it does.

But first, we need to understand the power of H° and how the Advanced Guidelines facilitate this power as they take us through the challenges of extreme capsule deformity.

Wild, free-roaming horse family band, U.S. Great Basin.

Introduction

Healing In the 4th Dimension

The Advanced Guidelines play a unique and indispensable role in navigating us through Deep Pathology to facilitate a healing of the hoof. More specifically, they are used in conjunction with the Basic Guidelines for trimming hooves suffering from extreme capsule deformity due to Deep Pathology. In relation to the hoof, Deep Pathology includes any disease or trauma to the horse or the hooves, that causes a serious pathological deformity of the capsule, including its growth patterns, size, and proportions. Extreme capsule deformity means that measurements for H° fall outside the natural toe angle ranges on the Hoof Meter Reader (HMR). In other words, toe angles for such hooves cannot be measured with the HMR, and, therefore, cannot be read. One may rightfully protest, then what good is H° if it cannot be read? I was confronted by this conundrum myself many years ago as the theory of H° began to reveal itself to me.

When H° cannot be read on the HMR, certain complications arise that cannot be solved using the Basic Guidelines. For one, the Healing Toe Length (H°TL) cannot be determined (bad enough that H° can’t either!), since it is a measurement of toe length based on H°. If one cannot measure H°TL with reasonable accuracy, over-trimming of the sole leading to hypersensitivity with the possibility of piercing the sole dermis causing infection, or leaving too much sole, are both likely consequences. Not good at all from a humanitarian perspective! But there is yet another problem. If H°TL is indeterminant, then there is also no reliable way to shorten the toe to its natural length. One is left to guess, and if one is wrong, the toe is either over-shortened or left too long, both sources of hypersensitivity and gait obstruction, in other words, harm. Enough for the NHC practitioner to throw in the towel and go do something else! But the theory of H° holds that H° still exists, even if one’s limited understanding prevents one from finding it, or at least finding a way to measure it. But how can one measure something if they can’t find it? The Advanced Guidelines evolved from this dilemma, first as a thought problem, then from experimentation, and finally as a definitive and reliable method. When understood, nothing is left to chance, and the NHC practitioner can complete the trim with the same efficiency and certainty as with the most naturally shaped hoof.

The problem with H° (and H°TL) was solved as follows:

1.H°TL is measured arbitrarily at H° = 54 degrees (front hooves) and H°= 58° (hind hooves). These angles correspond to the median values for N° for wild horses as calibrated on the HMR. Thus, measurements for H°TL gathered at these angles virtually assure the trimmer of neither over or under-trimming the sole. All that is necessary, is to stay within