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Sorry to hear about your woes at Animal House. Regarding the Easyboot
caper, we have a rule that seems to work:
"TRAIN THE WAY YOU RACE -- RACE THE WAY YOU TRAIN"
Applied to easy boots, we always try to boot-up our new horses in
training before putting them in boots at rides. This does two things,
first it comfirms that the boots are properly fitted to the particular
horse. Also, it allows the horse to alter its way of going to
compenstate for the additional weight and size of the boots. The rear
end will work differently as will the front legs. It's basically an
issue of weight on the end of a lever. The horse needs time to adapt
and a race isn't the best place to do it.
An additional benefit to training in boots is it wears the new boot at
the toe to allow normal breakover. If you don't want to use used boots
at a race, then take a shoers rasp and square the boot toe as you would
a steel shoe. You can also customize the roll-over point and angle as
needed.
A last thought or two-- if the heel strap of the boot is properly
adjusted, the boot will not slide forward because of space at the toe.
What does happen sometimes is that the vet wrap or duck tape wears away
or shifts position. What was a tight boot now has room to roam. EZCare
markets a binary foam that will hold boots into place much better than
wrap ot tape.
Also, most folks cut the boots down at the heel and forget to look at
the front. There is nothing wrong with a nice trim *all the way around*
if your equine friend has short feet.
Call us at home if you want to vist some more. Good Luck!
Ramey and Cynthia Peticolas-Stroud
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