Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

If you guys that are having trouble using boots want to see a preview of
what is coming, go to

this link.  Click on the photo of Rocky's four white legs and
you can have it enlarge and see the new buckles.  These are really
going to be awesome.  They fold up, rather than down.  They
have been tested on quite a few rides now for about 8 months, mostly
multidays.  Dave Rabe used them at Death Valley.  I used Bares
the whole time, and did 100 miles on each of my two horses -- did not
vetwrap and both horses did two 50's each without any rubbing from the
gaiters.  If you guys need help with your boots email me and
ask.  If you've got a problem it's probably one that I've
experienced and worked through.  I've got a
blog that has a lot
of useful tips on there, along with a lot of horse health care
information, articles, quotes, videos and other horse related
stuff.  

This is my third ride season competing on horses that have no shoes
nailed on their hooves.  I've been using boots successfully now on
three different horses.  The first year I tried this Chief won the
mileage championship, so yes you could say that using boots and keeping
your horse barefoot can work.  The second year he did 900 miles the
same way.  This year so far he has 100.  The other horses are
also doing well (and the 3 of them did complete about 2000 miles last
season this way), though it did take Rocky a lot longer but his feet
aren't the greatest (but much better, and still improving).  It's
more work and effort, but I feel it's been worth it for my horses and
that's why I'm continuing to do it.  My husband is a certified
farrier (just for my horses tho), so I knew going into it that if at any
time something wasn't working out I could simply have shoes put back
on.  I wouldn't keep doing something with one of my horses if it
wasn't working.  You can look through some of the past posts in my
blog and see photos of my horses hooves as they have changed during this
process.  Karen