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>  but he gets sore feet
> every ride.

All the way around or do you think you can pinpoint where he's getting 
sore?  Is he sore from the footing, or from the boots?

  He  got
> sore last weekend at the Klickitat Trek ride in WA, while wearing the boots
> and actually seemed to do better after I took them off.  He had fallen down
> going around a slick corner and pulled a shoe loose, which we did fix in the
> middle of the ride, but he was already sore.  I don't put on regular 
> pads  under
> his shoes, as he's living in an irrigated pasture.

Is he wearing shoes under the Bosana boots?

> 1. He gets dry heel bulbs (maybe due to moisture in pasture) that crack and
> if he hits rocks they get real sore.

Try getting regular Corona ointment and rubbing that into the heelbulbs 
every few days when things are really dry.  That works really well for my 
horses, and I'm in high desert where it's pretty dry sometimes. (not so far 
this year....yet)   I can put them on the back lawn while it is flooded in 
water every day or two and soak their feet while they graze, but that 
doesn't do nearly as much towards helping the heel cracks as the corona 
ointment does.

> 2. He gets sore on rocky areas in the sole and frog
> 3. He may have an overreaching problem.
>
> Does anyone have ideas as to what may be good to try for him?  Is  there a
> shoe or pad that would give lots of protection of sole/frog area as 
> well  as the
> heels, that wouldn't get pulled off if he has too close contact and
> overreaches at times, that would hold up to endurance training and rides?

If he is overreaching then regular shoes may add too much weight.  You may 
need to work him awhile longer to make him stronger so he can carry himself 
better.  Have you tried spraying iodine on his soles?  Give that a try a 
couple of times a week.

I've been finding that the Easyboot Epics are working extremely well for my 
guys.  I just used them at the Lost Padres ride -- Chief now has done 10 
rides since going 'barefoot' in them and has absolutely no rubbing or 
soreness anywhere.  He hasn't pulled a boot off, or damaged a gaiter or had 
any clumsy issues, or interfering with them at all. :)   I think that the 
fact that he no longer has a shoe nailed on his foot is what is making this 
work, his breakover is able to go more naturally and he's doing great in 
them.  I also used them on the day I rode Rocky, and he does have metal 
shoes on.  I used the same boots that Chief has been using for several 
rides, and those boots have the heelstrap cut off of the back.  I thought 
I'd give it a try and see if they would stay on and how they would work on 
a shod horse -- well, they worked just as well, and having the heelstrap 
off on the back really made it easy to put the boots on and off.  Rocky has 
slightly longer pasterns so I didn't bother vetwrapping the ankle/pastern 
area and he did the 50 that day without any rubbing.  I thought that was 
great and will from now on most likely use an Epic for my spare over a 
regular easyboot, simply because once I get it on I don't have to worry 
about it coming off.  One of the problems I've encountered with the hind 
feet on a shod horse is the heelstrap trying to slip between the hoof and 
the shoe and with the Epics that doesn't happen.  Yippee!  I was about as 
happy about how well these boots worked on Rocky as he was to get to go and 
not get left at the trailer, or at home.

I'm not sure what else would work for you. Chief is short backed, so I've 
had to be careful bringing him along, especially for his first year or two 
in this sport.  I did a lot of slow miles to build him up so that he 
learned to move and get over the forging thing, even tho he didn't pull 
shoes off it was annoying hearing the click click sound going down the 
trail.  I used ground control shoes on him almost all of last year and some 
of the year before and they worked really well because they are lighter, 
and probably helped a lot towards adapting him to being barefoot.  I think 
that I have finally found the answer for him in the Epics though, they 
provide even better/more protection than the ground controls do, and I love 
not having to worry about rocks getting wedged under the shoes like the 
GC's would have happen (esp. on a multiday).  Chief has absolutely not been 
footsore since going barefoot, he's doing awesome <knocking on wood>.

Karen
in NV



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