What is PBHT?

Strategy & Mission

The inspiration for PBHT

PBHT definition of balance

Why get certified?

Continuing the legacy

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Goals of the PBHT professional

Recommended tools

Recommended teaching aids

Class structure & cost

Certification Requirements

 

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PBHT is, in reality, a culmination of many influences; however, there is one originating source.

The concept for PBHT was originally conceived in farrier school. Some very sound-working and forward-thinking farrier educators taught me and gave me the beginnings of the concept that would one day become PBHT. Hoof form and balance were key components and how to achieve hoof form and balance was strived with each and every horse we shod.

In 1994, I met a gentleman by the name of Tony Gonzales, who had been a farrier in Hawaii and who wrote a book called PBM – Proper Balance Movement, at one of our association’s yearly conferences. He had begun to figure out that body imbalances led, not only to hoof imbalances, but also to behavioral issues and movement issues. He began experimenting with artificial ways to quickly balance horse’s bodies through shoeing techniques, and he began noticing how foot form and function began to improve. He noticed how movement issues either disappeared or at least began getting better, and he also noticed how behavioral issues began going away.

Mr. Gonzales wrote his book, PBM – Proper Balance Movement, after having figured out the key to many of the lameness, balance and behavioral issues. His theory did not apply a cookie cutter approach, but rather a means by which each horse was evaluated, a bit of testing performed to figure out how to balance any spinal or skeletal imbalances and then shoeing the horse, all while re-evaluating his work and noting the changes taking place within the horse’s body. Alterations are made to his shoeing each time to further allow the horse to become more balanced on it’s own over time. The ultimate goal was to help the horse achieve total balance through shoeing and exercise in order for the body’s muscle memory to play a major part in balancing the horse.

Sadly, not many years later, Tony Gonzales died of cancer before completing his second book and before passing on his legacy to many more farriers, shoers and trimmers.

He was on to something, though. He was able to get a handful of farriers and shoers to realize the whole equine body was interconnected. Horses no longer represented four feet that farriers and shoers worked on in order to earn their pay--and oh yeah--they happened to be attached to an equine that seemed to complicate the job of applying a shoe.

While in horseshoeing school, I noticed how different horses reacted to different issues or the different components of shoeing. Since I have always thought of each horse as a product of his individual components--a puzzle if you will--I always felt it was our job as hoof care professionals to help each piece of the puzzle be harmoniously balanced with every other piece of the puzzle. This was the start of what I now call PBHT.