easyboots

[Glenn Foster <gfoste19@idt.net>]

Some years ago my first horse was a mare who turned out to have
a violent aversion to being shoed.  Since the only available
place to ride was the local dirt/gravel roads, I started using
easyboots on all four.  We rode at pretty much a steady trot 
about 6 mph.  

All went well for about a year, then one day I found a crack
in the quarter of one of her hind feet.  It was not too terribly
deep, and did not result in any lameness, but did go up to the 
coronary band and turned out to be permanent.  

When I thought it all over, I decided maybe the one weakness with
easyboots is that they cannot distribute a local stress to a larger
part of the hoof.  For example, the hoof comes down on a small stone.
A steel shoe should distribute the stress over a larger part of
the hoof rim, but an easyboot  is too flexible to do this.  
Considering that and the thought that the hoof was already 
weakened, we just started tranquilizing and shoeing with steel.

This is not intended to be a criticism of easyboots.  I still use
them a lot on my current horses under various conditions when
steel shoes are not practical.  Just seems worth noting a 
possible inhereint limitation to be aware of.  I've wondered 
sometimes if anyone (including the manufacturer) has tried to 
"improve" the easyboot from the standpoint of distributing local
stresses around the hoof.

Glenn Foster
SE Michigan