23/10/2025
This debate and hate toward ground-breakers like Hoofing Marvellous and Gawsworth Track Livery will never end until the world starts to be more diligent at taking hoof records.
Otherwise Laminitis Inc. we continue taking horses and rinsing your pockets forever. Be wise. Take photos.
Join their free rehab group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health and learn to be a more diligent owner.
The BHM Team ❤️
Laminitis: The Evidence No One Ever Took
Let’s get straight to the point:
No vet, no farrier, and no trimmer from any other school that we know of takes correct, sequential photographs and measurements of the feet.
Some might take the occasional lateral shot, scribble a few lines across it, and call it analysis. But unless that photo is correctly superimposed on a matching x-ray - and unless it forms part of a consistent, chronological record - it’s nothing more than assumption.
And that, right there, is the heart of the problem we are all facing trying to understand the epidemic of 'laminitis'.
___________________________________
A Profession Built on Assumptions
Vets, farriers, trimmers, bodyworkers, even researchers - none are taught to systematically photograph, measure, and track every foot through time.
Why? Because it’s boringly tedious. It takes time. And in a busy schedule, diligence is the first thing to go.
But this collective laziness is exactly why the equine world is stuck in chaos and contradiction.
We have decades of professionals confidently repeating that laminitis is caused by diet - and yet not one of them has produced the most basic form of proof:
👉 sequential photographic and radiographic evidence of a perfectly balanced hoof developing laminitis purely from diet.
Even research studies failed to do it. Full on, well respected, peer reviewed 'top' cited studies written by the laminitis gods of science, also failed to do it.
The so-called “scientific record” of laminitis is built on incomplete data: horses fed sugars, inflammation observed, end of story.
No baseline hoof histories.
No tracking of balance.
No documentation of compaction or distortion.
No sequential x-rays without interference.
That is not science. That’s storytelling dressed as research.
___________________________________
The Real Cause: Imbalance, Not Grass
In our work, we’ve measured, photographed, and x-rayed thousands of feet - correctly, repeatedly, and critically.
What the evidence shows is undeniable:
👉 laminitis begins long before the “trigger” event.
Small imbalances, incorrect planes, rising heels, altered weight distribution - these distortions accumulate quietly over time.
The horse compensates until one day, a seemingly unrelated event pushes it over the edge: a rich patch of grass, an infection, foaling, a stone bruise, a few days on hard ground. Suddenly the horse is sore, and everyone points to diet - or the 101 other reasons causing "laminae inflammation".
But the truth is, the foot was already compromised. It was a ticking time bomb.
___________________________________
The Dangerous Comfort of Old Beliefs
We understand why people cling to the diet theory. It’s familiar. It feels manageable. You can “control” the feed. And you can certainly market it!
But what you can’t control is the truth:
👉 horses with perfect balance and alignment do not develop laminitis. And if anyone thinks otherwise, then we're sorry, but you really do have to prove it.
Show us the photos.
Show us the x-rays.
Show us the evidence of a perfectly balanced foot - no distortion, no compaction - developing laminitis from diet alone.
No one ever does. Because no one has it.
And seriously, laminitis is everywhere, so we should be drowning in photographic evidence of beautiful feet just 'going under' and having laminitis - and no-one so far in all of these years has ever shown that. Not even the peer reviewed papers.
If we were you, equine world, we would be very worried about that.
___________________________________
The Epidemic of Poor Evidence
The irony is that those shouting loudest - calling us “lunatics,” “dangerous,” or “a cult” - or much, much worse - are the same people who never took a proper photograph of their horse’s feet.
Or they took one, badly angled, months apart, and with no understanding of what balance actually looks like.
When we train owners and students, we start by teaching them how to take proper photos, how to read x-rays, and how to identify constants. Because the world has been lazy. It has not done its due diligence.
And we have taught 1000s of owners and professionals - and not one knew how to take correct sequential photos, or knew what a correctly balanced foot looked like.
And everyone blaming us, look at yourselves first.
Because now, faced with evidence, you are attacking us the messenger, instead of admitting your own blindness.
___________________________________
The Truth We’ve Proven
We see horses on rich grass, horribly overweight, with balanced, strong feet - sound and thriving.
We see horses on strict “laminitis-safe” diets, living on tracks, with distorted feet that continue to separate and fail.
You cannot starve a horse out of imbalance.
You cannot medicate away distortion.
Until you measure, you are guessing.
Until you photograph sequentially, you are blind.
Until you learn to read an x-ray properly, you are repeating the same old myths.
___________________________________
So Here's The Challenge To Those Calling Us Lunatics
Here is what we want you to do:
Stop blaming diet.
Stop hiding behind assumptions.
If you believe laminitis is caused by grass or feed or weather, PROVE it.
Bring your hard evidence to the table and let's discuss - but you will need correctly taken, sequential photographs and x-rays of balanced feet showing laminitic pathology. If you can’t, your argument is totally void. It is just words.
--------
So call us what you like - heretics, radicals, a cult.
History always ridicules those who challenge the lie first.
But one day, when the dust settles and the data speaks for itself, you’ll realise:
👉 it wasn’t the grass that failed the horse - it was your blindness to balance
--------
We don’t want to win an argument. Or court clicks for social media fame.
We want to end the suffering.
Every photo, every x-ray, every measurement brings us closer to the truth -
and that truth will set the horses free from decades of misunderstanding.
Balance first. Evidence always. That’s how the revolution begins.
HM.
If you are not sure, you are confused now, then join our free group The Phoenix Way: Path 2 Hoof Health - and we will guide you how to read your horse's feet.
