Transition For Dummies: 14 Steps Or Less To Booted Success

We’re now seven weeks into the transition and it seems like a good time to pause and review the high points of moving from steel shoes to Easyboots. In this short amount of time, our four horses are all barefoot, our boarder’s horse is now barefoot and many of our friends and neighbors are barefoot or are just about to make the move. My horses’ feet look healthier for it – I like the way the hoof is growing, the way angles are changing and the way they move.

I have been watching barefoot riders for several years; always thinking I would never be one of them; always thinking the transition would require more of me than I was willing to offer. The points listed below are based on my limited experience and may help make the prospect your transition more palatable.

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The Instant Transition: Redford Successfully Transitions Overnight From Shod To Barefoot Tough Training

The last six weeks without steel shoes have been such a success that I decided to transition the last remaining horse in the herd into Easyboot Gloves and to experiment by instantly working him on some tough mountainous training miles.

The barefoot trimmer came on Friday to remove Redford’s shoes. I knew there was something going on with his feet from the way they were changing shape over the last couple of months. Removal of the shoes and pads revealed a mild case of white line disease, which was causing hoof wall separation within the hoof’s non-pigmented layer. It should clear up fairly quickly now that the hoof is open to the air.

The trimmer left most of the false sole untouched so as to offer the horse short-term protection and assured us that the sole would wear down quickly in our paddock.

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Catch The Wave! Riding the Descanso 50 in San Diego County

I finally got to take Far to his first 50 in the Easyboot Glue-Ons on Saturday. This was to be the biggest experiment so far in the five-week transition. It was a resounding success: my ride this weekend confirmed this set-up as one that works well - even for a layman like me.

We had some challenges during the glue-on process on Thursday night because we ran out of tips to apply the Equi Pak glue around the top of the boot. It was a simple case of thinking there was another bag of tips in the box, when there were actually none left. The result was having to use our fingers to apply the bead of glue around the top of three boots. It worked just fine, but it did not look as professional.

Descanso is a six hour drive from home and is located in the mountains 45 miles east of San Diego at an elevation of 3,400 feet. We arrived at base camp early Friday afternoon; let the horses eat and drink for a few hours before vetting in, then prepared the two out check bags for ride day. The Glue-Ons were staying on nicely, but I was apprehensive about being caught out on the trail with a lost boot. The race was one long loop out of camp with three out vet checks, two of which were in the same location. Since Far wears a different sized boot on the front versus the hind, I packed two spare Easyboot Gloves in my saddle pack and two additional spares in each of the two out check crew bags. I would not need them, as it turned out.

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A Month of Contrasts

It has been four weeks since we started the transition to barefoot for two of our four horses. This seems like a good moment to compare notes between three of them.

I hesitated for years before trying barefoot because I thought the transition period would be too long and I thought booting the horses for training and competition would be more complicated than my patience would allow. I was wrong on both counts. If either of these reasons are factors for holding you back from making the transition, you should take comfort in knowing that the Easycare products really take the stress out of the transition management, and the transition can be managed in a much shorter span than you would anticipate. In fact, the transition can evidently be managed over night.

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Lessons To Learn

There are some lessons in life that need to be learned more than once. I was reminded of a valuable one this weekend. I’ve summarized it in this post and added two new lessons from my third week of training with Easyboot products. I’m planning not to need to learn any of them again.

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