People. I don't give you detailed explanations of your horse's pathologies and in-depth suggestions for correcting them by improving nutrition, hygiene and lifestyle just to hear myself talk (or type). If I tell you your horse suffers from laminitis and diet changes are imperative, but you just can't believe that maybe I know what I'm talking about, for God's sake, at least read the research I send you on the subject. If I tell you, REPEATEDLY, that thrush is literally rotting your horse's feet and the issue MUST be addressed to achieve a healthy hoof, get off your ass and soak the damn horse's feet. If you refuse to listen to my advice, and frankly, my expertise, and continue to expect me to work miracles via trimming alone, if you just cannot understand why your horse has failed to miraculously develop rock crunching bare hooves by standing in urine and manure and eating the equine equivalent of fast food while moving maybe a total of 20 feet through the course of the day, well then, don't you DARE come to me and act as if it's all my fault.
I go above and beyond to provide detailed information to owners. I avail you of the same resources I am privy to. There is nothing stopping any of you from educating yourselves on the topic, if you are at all skeptical of my recommendations. If you take the time, you'll begin to realize that you can, indeed, trust my judgment. If you're too busy or too lazy or too whatever to do the work, then just give me 6 months of doing exactly what I prescribe. Not 6 months of thinking about soaking hooves, or pondering a diet change, or booting your horse once a week when you feel especially motivated, or working yourself up to actually exercising your horse daily.
There is nothing more heartbreaking for me than to watch a horse suffer when I know exactly what would make him healthy again. I'm not a terribly assertive individual, so while I will do everything in my power to politely instruct you, I will not take you by the shoulders and shake you until you see the light. Maybe I should. Because coming back every four weeks to see no improvement, to see the bottom of a rotted hoof, to see a hoof with distal descent and an inch of lamellar wedge and all the harbingers of unmitigated metabolic issues and a sweet soul (I'm sorry, Billy!) who can't decide whether his heels or his toes hurt worse breaks my heart.
I have historically frequently made the mistake of continuing to trim horses whose owners blythely ignore my advice. Going forward, I can assure you, that will no longer be the case.
