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[RC] Experiences with Plastic Shoes - KarenI haven't had quite the bad luck that others have had with plastic shoes. I guess you could say that my horses have done all of the miles in plastic shoes, if easyboots over metal shoes count. The youngest horse has done most of his miles in ground control shoes, and they seem to be working very well for him. In talking to other farriers and assessing why they are working so well for him and not for other horses we think that it is that he has a very good quality hoof capsule and biomechanically he moves in such a way that he puts little impact on his feet/hooves/body. The older two horses had the shoes on for 6 months and I really didn't think they would work for them because I always felt that their feet...well...sucked. As it turns out, their feet are obviously not as bad as I thought. :^) They had the shoes on thru winter, and spent many weeks in super soggy wet mud and never had a problem. I have never had a horse lose one of the GC shoes (but then, they never lost metal shoes either), I've never even had to reclench the nails. The most the youngest horse has done on one set of GC shoes is 6 50's, 310 miles at two three day pioneer rides this year. The longest one time ride was a 5 day and at the end of it there was still plenty of shoe left all the way around. The two older horses are back in metal shoes now, I think that they just did too many miles and years in metal shoes and easyboots to change, and I think that I'll probably keep them that way because it works so well for them. The reason I tried the GC shoes on the young one in the first place is because he was 'easyboot challenged' at the time, and now I don't know, he might not be. But, now that these shoes are working so well for him I don't want to change anything in the middle of his season. I think he's done over 1100 miles this season in the shoes, and 150 miles last season in the shoes, and he's never been lame (this is his third ride season). We'll see what happens next year. Judging by how good his feet look now though, I can't imagine that he'll have a problem and hopefully when the time comes if he ever needs an easyboot he will handle it without being a clod, he's come a long way in the last couple of years. I have got a one day 50 coming up for him, and 2 weeks after that a 5 day ride. So he may get to do 6 days of 50's in the same set of shoes one more time. I know Don Funk got 600 miles out of a set of GC shoes. I think the same thing in his horses case, the horse moves in such a way that it doesn't beat itself up or put a lot of wear and tear on itself, and that is probably why he has 10,000 miles. :-)) (and going slower also helps) Even tho my two older horses have done high mileage seasons, I don't think either of them have the hoof quality or biomechanics to do it in the GC shoes.Karen in NV =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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