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Karen,
	Do you think the shape of the horse's foot makes much difference in how 
well any of the EZboot variations fit?  I'm wondering about hooves that 
are more oblong instead of nice and round.
Laney

DreamWeaver wrote:
> Hi Lauretta -- you can try some of the things on these pages and see if 
> that helps:
>
> http://www.redwrench.com/ezboot/default.htm
> http://www.redwrench.com/ezboot/easyboot101part2.html
>
> It sounds like the heelstrap may have been the problem because your 
> horses heelbulbs are soft.  If that is the case, then there are several 
> things you can do to alleviate that.  Cut the back of the easyboot down 
> as far as you can, and also reduce the width of the heelstrap (as is 
> shown in the above links).  You may also try wrapping your horses foot 
> in vetwrap (also shown in the above links).
>
> I'll try in the next week or so to get some photos up of the Epics.  
> They are really working out extremely well for me this year.  I also 
> like the new 2005 model easyboot.  The Epic is the same boot but with a 
> gaiter attached.  I think I have figured out how to use the Epics on my 
> horse for multidays in any kind of conditions after just doing three 
> days of Mt. Carmel in them (he also did 3 days of Cuyama, 2 days at 
> Color Country and 1 day at Rides of March in them).  This year at Mt. 
> Carmel we had a lot of rain, right up until the morning of the first day 
> of the ride. This resulted in a lot of wet sand, water crossings (creeks 
> became rivers), bogs, you name it -- not to mention that the horses were 
> standing in wet footing all night long.  The Epics worked because:  1)  
> I cut the heel strap off of the boots completely.  I had talked about 
> trying this, and I had tried it on a training ride, and figured that it 
> worked well enough to just jump in and try it on a ride -- well, I did 
> -- on a fairly difficult 155 mile 3 day ride on the same (barefoot) 
> horse and it worked GREAT.  2)  I wrapped his ankle/pastern with vetwrap 
> before tightening the gaiter.  This kept anything from rubbing.  3)  I 
> have the boots fit snugly so they won't rotate or move at all.   Even 
> tho his bulbs were soft from all of the rain and wet ground he stood in 
> for days before the ride, he wasn't sored by the boots at all.
>
> The new boots also have a thicker sole.  I think that allowed Chief to 
> go from the ankle deep sand (and some hock deep) to the rocky roads that 
> dried out as hard as concrete by the third day (mixed in with bogs, of 
> course, just for good measure) ;), without any problems.   The 4 boots 
> we used on the ride all came thru in great shape too.  I'm really 
> impressed with them and definitely recommend them to anybody who wants 
> to use an Epic as a spare, or for a barefoot horse, or even a shod one.
>
> Karen
> in NV
>
>
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