Reflections on a Clinic, a Successful Show, and the Barefoot Advantage

This excerpt from our August 2025 newsletter shares a note on our recent Dave Ellis clinic--where Mary rode several of her hunter-jumper trainees, a bit of team pride for our current Hoof Beats Competition team, and also Mary's thoughts on the advantage that barefoot horses have in the show ring. -ed.

...This has been such a full and wonderful summer and there’s so much more to look forward to. 

Hunter-Jumper trainee Marcus rates his cow.

Our clinic with Dave Ellis was the best yet. Like I said last letter, he is so good at finding the little pieces that make the big differences. We started with a general discussion about what we were doing with our horses and what we wanted to improve on. My desire was to improve my trainees’ flying lead changes, and Dave really delivered! His consistent focus on communication and lightness was perfect; both my young horses came away better prepared for their future in the show world. Enjoy the photo album!

We followed Dave’s clinic with the Evergreen Classic Horse Show in Cle Elum, where our Hoofbeats Competition Team dominated their divisions. Lily Robertson, Elly Dam, Hadley Wolslegel, Daniela Dam, and Bella Greimes rode like young professionals, winning champion, reserve champion, and top-ranking slots in nearly every class they entered. In timed events they placed consistently within fractions of a second of each other for those 1st, 2nd, and 3rd slots, and consistently several seconds ahead of other competitors.

Barefoot Success at Horse Shows, 2015

by Mary Gallagher

Back in July, I wrote about Freedom Farm’s barefoot, herd-dwelling horses. With the end of the year fast approaching, it occurs to me that we’ve had quite a year outside the Farm, at a number of horse shows with our young riders in the Hoof Beats competition team. Looking back on their consistent success, I just wanted to bring our readers up to speed on our experiences showing, as possibly the only barefoot, natural-lifestyle competition stable on the circuit.

By any measure, you could say our riders had a phenomenal year, bringing home multiple wins, championships, reserves, and high point awards at every outing. With the consistency of their success, something had to be working in their favor. A few things were, actually, though here I want to focus on the barefoot aspect.