Jaime Hickman

About

I first trimmed a horse’s feet over 35 years ago.. Like many trimmers of my generation when I had problems with my horses’ feet I found that answers were not readily available, so I started looking and learning for myself, gathering information from anywhere and everywhere I could. This started me on a life long journey and fascination with horses feet, that is still as strong today as it was then.

My previous career was in Architecture and I am still involved on the educational side of things there. I ran the two careers in parallel for a few years but having achieved my aspirations in the former, I soon found myself devoting more and more time to horses and trimming which gradually took over.

I am qualified with KC La Pierre’s IIEP but have studied the principles of most of the other schools (including traditional farriery) and do not necessarily subscribe to any one particular method but prefer to keep an open mind and take what I consider to be the best from everywhere and use that knowledge and understanding to treat each horse appropriately as an individual.

I am not a ‘barefoot evangelist’ and whilst I consider shoes to be detrimental to horses feet would not discount them out of hand as an option, for some horses, in some situations, for some of the time and indeed have worked in symbiosis with farriers when I felt it beneficial.

I am occasionally flattered to work on referral from vets, farriers and other trimmers and am happy to work with horses with behavioural issues, stallions or young stock, as I seem to be ‘lucky’ with them… ; ) . Youngest horse I’ve actually trimmed was a four month old unhandled orphan who needed attention and, bless him, he stood like a veteran.

I practice my own intuitive style of horsemanship and will always handle your horse with skill, dignity, respect, care and consideration. Some have described my style as ‘natural’ but I have studied classical and traditional methods as well and, as with trimming, believe that you can learn something from everyone. Whatever the ‘label’ good horsemanship is just that… good horsemanship.

The biggest compliment on my horsemanship I ever received was a good few years ago now when a particularly observant man named Mark Rashid stopped me and said “you know Jaime… not many people can do that…”

References available on request.