Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Hi Dave - there are a lot of variables.  The best people to ask would 
be mutliday endurance riders, who often use the boots on 5 day 
rides.  At any given ride you'll see dozens of riders using the boots 
on their horses, usually over shoes but more recently a larger number 
of riders are using boots in place of shoes and finding that it can 
work well that way also.  Usually as the week progresses during a 
multiday you are likely to see more and more horses wearing boots as 
riders learn about how they work to reduce concussion and sore-footedness.

I've done a lot of miles in boots, both over shod and unshod 
horses.  The boots have always lasted longer for me than shoes.  For 
example, when I rode with boots on the front over shoes on multidays 
I would always wear the hind shoes to nothing, sometimes they'd have 
to be replaced before the week was over in certain terrains but the 
boots never did.  I think that the Bare tread may last longer than 
the standard Easyboot tread.  I've got a few Bares that have done 
650+ miles of competition and are still good to go.  I've had reports 
of them going 1,000 miles, but then I've also heard from multiple 
people about Easyboots lasting longer than that.

I remember in 2001 I was using four boots over shoes on two horses 
for the entire season.  Both horses did well over 1,000 miles each 
and we kept resetting the same set of shoes on them - they never wore 
out because they had Easyboots on over them for all of their 
competition miles.  At the end of all of that mileage the shoes still 
looked new.

The variables can depend on so many things - such as how each horse 
moves, the type of terrain, and the speed they are going.  I just 
talked to an endurance rider friend of mine last night and he has an 
old horse with an abscess who has been turned out with an Epic on 
that foot for an entire month and the boot has not only stayed on, 
but hasn't caused any rubbing anywhere, has little wear and has 
enabled the horse to be able to move around, and kept the hoof 
clean.  I wouldn't recommend doing that without checking at least 
initially every day or two to make sure everything is okay.

Some horses can be harder on their shoes and boots than others, while 
others are easy on them.  My horses that are easiest on their 
hoofware (of any type) have also shown to be easier on themselves as 
far as how well they hold up and perform long term.  The only way to 
know how long something will last for a certain horse is to try it 
and see - that's why there are so many different types of hoof 
protection available.

Karen


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=