They still think its about trimming(!)...

I had an interesting day today - on the one hand I went to trim dear Dexter, the TB who is the name and the horse behind Project Dexter, and on the other hand I had a conversation about potential future research proposals.

Although I got out the nippers and rasp to deal with Dexter, of course his success is only a tiny part about how he is trimmed, and it is much more about how he is ridden, managed and fed by his owner. He is off jumping BSJA at the weekend (as he has most weekends over the winter) and will be eventing next month. He has previously been competing on a ticket because it was too expensive to affiliate but he is winning in British Novice and British Discovery so he will have to affiliate from now on!

Conversations about future research are even more interesting, because instinctively the tendency from exeternal observers is, as always, to focus on the trim(?!). We were talking about framing future research proposals and yet again the assumption was that it was the trim that would need to be the focus of the research. Once again, the trap that people fall into is to look at that tip of the iceberg - the 10% - and overlook that the massive, 90% of environmental and holistic aspects of hoofcare which are so much more influential.