Re: RC: Soft Bar Pads

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

> 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.

Hi all,

I am using these on my pony. He is known for pulling his front shoes, so we tried the "Flip Flops"or "PP Plast" pads.
About the wearing: We can use them up to three or four times, only have to change the steel shoe. And the pony is ridden
at the same terrain where Ninja, my "real" endurance horse kills every kind of plastic-shoe after ~50 miles.

> 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.

Maybe Maggie can step in here???

> 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.

They are not more expensive than steel shoes here in Germany. OK, the shoer needs a bit more time, but because you can
re-use the pad, it's not that much money.

> 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.

I can't second that. As I wrote above, I am using them for my pony, Teddy. He had pulled front shoes since he is shoed.
After we switched to the FlipFlops, he had only pulled one of them - which was my fault. You have to re-nail them after
~4 weeks, because of the thick plastic. The head of the nails is wearing down quicker than without those thick pads.
When Teddy now kicks into that pad, he couldn't pull the shoe - the pad makes a "Floppp" and that's all. But the horse
has to get used to this, of course. At the beginning he is kind of stumbling.

> Only a 98 pound weakling wouldn't be able to bend the pad away from the
> horse's heel with their bare hands.

Hey hey, easy! If we are speaking about the same pads, even I have difficulties to bend them and have a look under the
pad.

> 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.

Teddy is outside 24/7 and especially in the winter there is only mud, no grass. No pull!!!


> 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.

Agreed! It's sometimes unbelieveable how dry the sole is under those FlipFlops.


> 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.

As I wrote above, Teddy is running on them at the same ground as Ninja is, ok, not that much miles. But he need a reset
(iron or FlipFlops) every 8 weeks, so he is working. Ninja also needs resets at least every 8 weeks, but he is wearing
all kinds of shoes quickly - he is twisting the toes of his hinds!

> 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.

Several other endurance riders here in Germany use them with good success. My farrier puts them on some endurance horses
and he resets them at least 2 times.

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

Yes, I like them also, but not for Ninja. Ninja's footing with the front hoof is strange, he uses the heel a lot and in
this case the FlipFlops are stopping on asphalt (of which we have toooooo much!).

>
> kat
> Orange County, Calif.
>

Wolfgang
Germany