Soft Bar Pads

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net


I have used these Soft Bar Pads on my horse and am convinced that they are a 
nice "happy medium" between the long wearingness of steel shoes and the shock 
absorption of synthetic shoes.

To answer your question about where to get these:  I will check with my shoer 
and ask her where she gets them.  However, there are a few differences of 
observations with regards to how these pads work.  And be warned, they are 
kinda pricey to purchase, and kinda pricey (because they are "a lot of work") 
to have put on the horse since it requires cutting the shoes and trimming the 
pads down (which are quite thick) to the size of the shoe/foot.

> Approximately 1" is cut from each side of the steel shoe. The pad,
> which covers the whole foot, THICKENS TO SHOE-WIDTH where the shortened
> shoe ends. In effect, the rear half or so of the pad substitutes for
> the missing inch of the shoe as well as the "bar." When the horse clips
> his own heel, the pad flips down until the rear toe clears it, then
> flips back into place instantly. Kinda like wearing a slipper... 

If your horse makes a habit of this, it will pull the shoes off much more 
easily than if they are wearing regular steel shoes (after you have just paid 
a fortune to have them put on).  So I wouldn't recommend them for horses that 
chronically "forge" and step on the back of their shoes.

> Although the pad is extremely tough (you cannot bend it away from the
> heel with your bare hands) it gives where steel or aluminum will not. 

Only a 98 pound weakling wouldn't be able to bend the pad away from the 
horse's heel with their bare hands.  It is actually not difficult at all to 
bend the pad away from the horse's heel (and if you make a habit of it, you 
can also "loosen" the shoe by doing so).  Don't get me wrong, I consider this 
one of the advantages of the pad.

> My little man has not pulled a shoe since he's worn these new pads. I
> can't believe how well they work! 

If the horse does any traveling in soft going (i.e. any kind of mud...but not 
sand), then it is very easy for the mud to get between the bar pad and the 
horse's heel, and they will come off easily.  I know this because my horse 
(out to pasture) had thrown 3 of 4 of them within 4 days of a rather heavy 
rain last year.  They are NOT the shoing option of choice if you are going to 
be riding in mud or if your horse is stabled in mud.

They are, as far as I am concerned, the shoing option of choice for hard 
desert rides (Silver State, Death Valley, 20 Mule Team come immediately to 
mind) and work very well on hard pan or gravel roads.  I would not recommend 
them for the grass as they are quite slippery in the grass (know this because 
I have a large lawn--adjunct to the golf course--that I can gallop across) and 
fairly insecure.

> They even have a hole around the frog
> so it gets air and can be cleaned regularly

This is one of my favorite features.  I absolutely HATE full pads because of 
the way they hold moisture in the foot.  These pads do not.

> Most amazing of all,
> despite extremely sharp lava rock *everywhere* except the arena and his
> stall, the darn plastic they're made from holds up for two shoeings."

This person must not ride his/her horse like an endurance horse.  They barely 
last through one shoing for me, but then my horse lives out to pasture 24/7 
(covering approx. 15-20 miles per day) and we did all three days (150 miles) 
of Mt. Carmel (mostly sand, so NOT like Death Valley or Silver State) on them.  
They pretty much fell off the day after we got home.  I do not believe that 
they would hold up to all four days at Death Valley...but they might.  I 
certainly would never DREAM of trying to reset them after my horse had worn 
them for 4-6 weeks even if I had only been to one endurance ride.  
And I see virtually no purpose in going to the expense 
and trouble of putting them on a horse that only works in easy going like an 
arena or something else that does not wear them down rather quickly.

Don't get me wrong.  I like them a lot.  But they DO have their limitations.

kat
Orange County, Calif.