10/12/2025
Trimming methodology matters.
Heel-First vs Toe-First Landing: How Trimming Can Manipulate the Way a Horse Moves
There’s a lot of discussion online about whether a horse should land heel-first or toe-first. But the conversation often misses some fundamental information that would perhaps change the way we view the entire subject and how horses “should” move. If you want to enrich your perspective, read on, because we are about to drop some information bombs.
Some of our readers are seasoned NHC veterans and can relate to a lot of this content.
And some of you have stumbled upon our page while questioning viewpoints and looking for truth because of the conflicting information and inconsistencies surrounding hoof care methods.
Before we dive into this subject, I’d encourage you in every way possible to explore natural hoof care through Jaime Jackson’s books. Unlike many modern books on horses, the knowledge in these books comes directly from the source, delivering evidence found in nature. As Jaime himself put it, his written works are “insights garnered from nature.”
Now, let’s dive right into the heart of our issue.
Jaime Jackson’s observations of wild horses revealed something fundamental. Hoof mass concentrates in the areas that bear the highest descending weight. There are always three active load-bearing points on the hoof wall, known as the “support triad.” One at the medial toe and two at the heels.
This growth pattern tells us the truth about hoof balance, breakover, and more so about hoof anatomy. In the areas of active weight bearing we will always observe more hoof mass being produced. This phenomenon is observable in both domestic and wild horses alike. Understanding this unlocks many other aspects of hoof function and explains why the hoof behaves the way it does.
When a naturally shaped hoof is placed against any flat surface, areas of active and passive wear along the hoof wall perimeter become obvious. What also stands out is that the sole is always passive in relation to the hoof wall. The growth pattern of hoof wall and solar plates is also different. We must also mention that the hoof wall thickness, when viewed from the bottom, is uniform across the perimeter of the hoof. If we accept all the above as true, we must acknowledge that horses have been equipped by nature with their own horseshoes. Nature designed the hoof to load peripherally. And the sole is not meant to bear any part in active wear.
Now that we have the very basics covered, let’s look at trimming and what shortening the toe actually does to the hoof and how it manipulates movement.
In genuine natural hoof care, one that actually purports and honours the four Guiding Principles of the Natural Trim, it is generally accepted that the hoof lands and takes off in any direction. This is what actually defines breakover (please check our previous post on breakover). Why is this idea accepted? If we look at the rugged landscape of wild horse country, besides flat terrain, there is a lot of gradient and variation in the horse’s natural habitat.
When ascending, horses will first hit the ground with their toes. When descending, the heels will be engaged more. Then we can add the element of playing, fighting, mating, and prey behaviours with all their range of motion. The natural gait complex is unique to each horse. We come from the understanding that the hoof is an output of the horse’s habitat and lifestyle, and the formation of the mustang roll along with active and passive wear is evidence of the hoof’s landing pattern.
The above statements might be a bit loaded and heavy to digest, but they are necessary for sorting through a lot of the noise created by social media experts.
If you are still reading, I want to inform you of the unreported consequences of trimming practices that aim at heel-first landing. Whether some practices are fully informed or not is not up to us to judge. In our opinion, shortening and “backing” the toe requires removal of the live sole plates. These are solar plates that are not ready to shed and sometimes exist to protect an already compromised or sick hoof. Natural sole thickness is approximately one centimetre, and more at the lamellar attachment junction. The sole is thicker there for a reason.
Carving into the sole with a hoof knife disregards natural sole thickness. A single millimetre is roughly ten percent of the sole thickness. Thinning the sole that is clearly still very much intact creates a serious risk of toe soreness. Imagine cutting back too much of your own nail plaque. You will avoid using the sore fingertip to avoid discomfort and develop avoidant movements to offset the pain. Just like we avoid putting pressure on a sore nail, a horse avoids putting pressure on a sore toe. This isn’t biomechanics. It’s pain avoidance.
To top it all off, we can approximate that when the toe is removed we lose about one centimetre of mass (or more) that should be there, and from a pure geometric perspective, the hoof’s landing pattern will change as a result.
People often use heel-first landing as proof that the trim is correct or that the horse is on the right path. But without assessing toe sensitivity or sole thickness, this conclusion can be misleading. We don’t have x-ray vision, nor should we be routinely taking x-rays. Common sense suffices. A simple principle: leave that which should be there naturally. This compels us to refrain from knifing the sole. Instead, we are invited to exfoliate it.
Heel-first landing isn’t a sign of correctness. It is a sign of compensation.
Hoof care proponents advocating heel-first landing may not be aware that the horse is likely compensating. This means the entire gait complex is compromised. Unnatural movement will likely lead to bodily tension, unnatural collection, and a spiral into every other aspect of their life.
A final note to the critics
For research on horse’s gait complex to be credible, it must be free from conflicts of interest. It would require recording wild horses in their adaptive environment. In their home ranges with high frame rate equipment, organising their movement into behavioural categories, and documenting how often each behaviour occurs on different types of footing. It would also be necessary to record whether the horse was on flat ground, uphill, or downhill. Data would need to be collected continuously over a longer time period, full twenty four hours a day window to reflect natural habits. Finally, the hooves of the study subjects would need to be examined for health before and after the observation period. Only under such parameters could gait complex research offer a truly accurate picture. Until then, most online debates about landing patterns remain speculative and disconnected from the reality of the wild horse model and what constitutes a natural gait complex.
