Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

> If I can do it, so
> can you: it is a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Well, I can do it too and have had really good success on rides this year
gluing boots on - but I think it's a royal pain in the butt, and not at
all healthy for my horses hooves.  I would definitely not call it
easy and I don't think that everybody can do it.  

I'd much rather put a strap on boot on, ride, then take the boot
off.  Gluing boots IMO is just too invasive to do to my horses
hooves very often.  It is great for special events like a specific
special ride or something but it's too much work and with frequent use
will degrade the overall health of a horses hoof.  To me, it's not
natural and I keep my horses barefoot for a reason.  I don't like
gluing boots on my horses.  Though I still do it, because I think
for occasional use like a multiday it's less invasive than nailing a shoe
on.  I won't ever leave a glued on boot on a horse again for as long
as a full week, and I am definitely going to be more careful about the
frequency I do it.  Things are great during the ride but I think
that too many riders out there are too new to barefoot and don't have a
long term history of knowing their horses hooves to know when there are
changes or problems developing, or even that there are issues cropping
up. 

A rider/farrier pointed out to me at the last ride the horrible hoof
shapes that many of the horses had that were using glue-on boots.  I
think that there needs to be a lot more education on what a natural bare
hoof should look like.  If I had to glue boots on for every
endurance ride I would go back to shoeing.  I think that gluing
boots on for extended periods or very often is even more unhealthy for a
hoof than leaving shoes on with pads.     

This is just my opinion based on my experience - Chief now has well over
6k of his almost 9k lifetime mileage using boots over bare hooves and
I've got a few thousand additional miles on other horses doing the
same.  I'm not trying to sell any boots.  

Karen
http://www.enduranceridestuff.com