Illustrated hoof health

I've had a few people recently asking me to post about the "pyramid" for hoof health. When "Feet First" was published we used a pyramid to show what a healthy hoof needed but for many years now I've thought that hoof health is more like an iceberg. 

Why? Because you can't see 90% of it, you can only see the most insignificant part.  

In this case, that's how the hoof is trimmed. You can trim all you like but if the critical foundations of correct nutrition and plenty of exercise aren't in place, you are wasting your time and unlikely to improve the health of the hoof.

Equally, if you are able to provide your horse with a great diet (more info here and here) and plenty of (biomechanically correct) exercise then you are highly likely to have a horse with strong, healthy feet, regardless of whether he is trimmed.  Simple, really...