2010 February | Marchanet Motorcycles

Rubber Rider Foot

February 28th, 2010 admin No comments

Rubber Rider Foot

Help With Horse Shoeing?

I Have A Loan Horse And He Has One Badly Cracked Foot That He Had When He Was Little (We Are Thinking About Stapling This). But It Has Started To Get Worse And Also 2 Of His Other Feet Are Starting To Chip At The Bottom And Crack A Bit.
He Was On Field Rest Before I Got Him But Now He Has Started Doing Dressage And Hacking And Some Fun Gymkanas Ect. Not Jumping.
But He Has Had To Do Road Work Ect And Me And His Other Rider Have Noticed Him Treading More Carfuly Than Normal. He Is Quite Flat Footed.
Now He Is Bare Foot Atm But Obviously We Have To Do Something. I Feed Him Biotin And Put On Dry And Brittle Hoof Oil And Sometimes Keratex.

Could Anyone Tell Me A Bit About Equiboots. The Rubber Boots That Go Over The Hoof.
Prices, How To Fit, Any Good? Worth The Money? Have You Had Them? Ect

Also Any Other Tips You Have?

Would Really Appricate Any Help Thanks xx

Before you put metal shoes on him, I would suggest have a barefoot farrier in and have your horse trimmed barefoot, with the mustang roll. I suspect your flat footed horse has flare to his hoof walls. The flare causes problems because too much pressure gets put on it, and then more cracks keep coming. A barefoot trimmer would roll the edge of the hoof and that would keep pressure off the edge, and hopefully the cracks would quit spreading.
Obviously this is no guarantee, I haven't even seen the horse! but it would be worth a try. Barefoot trimmers do things quite different than a normal farrier, you might watch some of Pete Ramey's DVDs called "Under the Horse" and you'll get the concept.
I have managed to keep my horses barefoot all this year. I use Easyboots when I ride down the road or anyplace really rocky, otherwise they manage okay. The first boots I tried were Cavallo, I didn't like the way they fit, they rode up onto the horse's fetlock. Then I bought a pair of Easyboots, because my mare has small hooves I had problems getting the right size. Later I went onto eBay and bought a pair of Easyboot Epics, which is the improved version of Easyboots, they come with gaters, which basically is a band that helps keep the boot in place.
I have had really good luck with my Easyboots. The Easyboot Epics never come off accidently, even when I ride on soft, damp ground. The basic Easyboots can be sucked off if the ground is too soft, but part of the problem is that they are one size too big. They stay on well on hard ground. Go onto Easyboot and read their instruction on how to fit boots. All companies have good fitting instructions, basically you measure the widest and longest part of their hooves and then purchase a boot in that size. You can either look on their websites, phone their 1-800 numbers, or trace around your horse's hoof and look at the boot boxes at the tack stores. The cost was $60 per boot for the basic Easyboot, and $70 for the Easyboot Epic, so they didn't cost me anymore than it would to have had her shod all year. And the boots are still in good condition, and should last all next year, too. They claim they will outlast metal 3 to 1, I guess time will tell.
Hope that helps. I sure had lots of questions when I was hoof boot shopping, too!