Wet Feet

[mannie@ozemail.com.au (Mannie Van Rijswijk)]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help with some advice.

I live and ride in the northern, tropical part of Queensland,  we are now a
long way into one of the wettest of our wetseasons in history.  My horse
BILLY does not have the best of feet at any time, but this time I can't keep
a set shoes on him, due to wet and soggy feet and muddy conditions.  Our
ride season starts in about six weeks and the couple of times that I have
tried to shoe him have only resulted in him losing a shoe or two and
destroying what little good hoof tissue he had.

Now I've heard from someone who heard from someone ect... ect... that
someone has used EASYBOOTS on a permanent basis.  According to this tale....
the procedure is:

Trim the horses feet as normal.  Get a clean EASYBOOT (the right size) and
cover the bottom with a good layer of silicone sealant.  Also pack the
hollow parts around the frog with Silicone sealant.
Fit the EASYBOOTS, the get the horse to stand in that boot on the ground
putting normal pressure on and in the boot.  Then trim the sides of the boot
to about from 2cm at the back to 5 or six cm at the toe. The clips and wire
fitings are cut away.
The screw the boot into place with 3 stainless steel scews (10x4mm)just up
from the base of the horses hoof, one in the front and one each side just
forwards of the quarters

They then should stay in place for the normal shoeing period (4 to 6 weeks)
after which the boot is carefully removed by unscrewing or removing the
screws, and cutting the silicone sealant.  The hoof is then trimmed the
EASYBOOTS cleaned  and the procedure is repeated.

Does anyone know if this actually works.  I mean if this realy does work, it
would the answer to mine and a lot of other riders here in the north.

Thanks in advance
Mannie


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Mannie Van Rijswijk                  _--_|\     phone/fax:+61 7 4789 1695
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