I’m trying to learn more about feet and I’m considering getting Pete Ramey’s book Care and Rehabilitation of the Equine Foot, and/or his DVD series Under the Horse. Any reviews from COTHers?
I went to his clinic recently. He certainly knows his stuff, is involved with university level researchers, and is curious, open, flexible, and willing to revise his ideas with new information.
I have an older book by him, and saw his current book at the clinic. It looked good but pricey :). I haven’t watched the DVDs.
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That is exactly what attracts me the most to him.
But yes, pricey. Maybe my horses will get the book/dvds for Christmas 
I think he’s got great ideas, and mostly good application. IME, he tends to subscribe to a one size fits all method of trimming. I’m inherently wary of anyone who thinks barefoot can fix all problems, so keep that in mind.
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From what I’ve read so far, he seems very much pro-footwear for a number of problems, just in the form of boots or glue-ons rather than traditional shoes.
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Pete trims my horses and I’ve learned a ton from him in the past year+, probably the most important information being the effect of nutrition on hooves.
He is NOT a “barefoot is the only way to go” guy, but he does advocate for boots vs nailed-on shoes.
While you’re saving up, you can find many of his articles for free reading on his website www.hoofrehab.com
And he has a FB page: Hoof Rehab Help, with input from professionals and those seeking help from around the globe.
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Thanks - I’ve been reading the articles available on his website and I’m a member of that FB group.
I got the opposite impression from his clinic. He was definitely adjusting his trim to the hoof in front of him (people brought problem horses for him to work on) and talked a lot about trying to figure out what was going on inside whether from rads or educated guesses. He was incorporating glueons and hoof boots into his work.
He really stressed making the horse comfortable now, to encourage correct movement, whether that meant a trim, boots, boots with pads, glueons, etc. He also had a nutrition protocol particularly for foundered horses.
I got the impression his practice and theory has evolved over time and continues to evolve, so he might change some of his advice as new information arrived.
It’s true he’s not using metal shoes and nails, but he’s using everything else. And I think his knowledge base about trim and balancing the foot would be valuable even to someone who intended to keep using metal shoes.
Owners of barefoot horses tend to get more involved in hoof care whether they start rasping between trims or just monitoring how the foot grows, wears, and changes. Owners of shod horses are more likely to pay less attention to the foot and trust the farrier to take care of things. So I find there is better educational information available in general from barefoot trimmers. There is also of course a number of trimmers spouting nonsense or half truths 
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Yes, I’m trying to sort that all out right now. There are an alarming number who seem to “do it this way” just because “that is how I do it” which just doesn’t cut it for me.
It’s good to hear he’s become/becoming less rigid in his approach.
I agree that owners of shod horses are more hands-off because, well, there’s not a lot you CAN do to the shod foot in between farrier visits, short of painting Tuff Stuff or whatever on. I think more owners of barefoot horses are more hands on simply because they can be - when they keep calling their trimmer/farrier to fix a chip, IME more of those guys are going to hand the owner a “dull” rasp and show them how to do it.
Trimming is still trimming, and neither farrier nor trimmer are immune from rigid thoughts, extreme methods, or an “my way is the only way” mentality. I"m not even sure as a % that farriers are worse than trimmers. There are just vastly more farriers than trimmers, so of course the absolute number of farriers we hear and see saying and producing garbage is just going to be a lot higher.
My horse’s feet are done by a well trained farrier (2 year college program plus apprenticeship) who went over to barefoot and gave up the heavy forge work as she got older. She is just scathing about the antics of the self taught trimmers running around who either don’t know the basics, or assume farriers would never be taught about hoof anatomy, etc.
Honestly around here in the penumbra of a good farrier school, the farriers I see are probably more competent at trimming than the trimmers who learned from a DVD or YouTube or a two day back yard workshop
Maybe the farrier school should start a parallel trimmer program that’s just as rigorous on the basics, on the apprenticeship, gives theoretical material on shoeing, but doesn’t require the mastering of hot shoeing and forge work. It could be a little shorter and cheaper, perhaps.
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