I have yet to get photos of Journey's little hooves. She has always had hoof care, and has been bare, but has not had the regular daily movement to build hoof concavity and sole callous. This has left her front hooves very sensitive and I mean VERY sensitive to gravel. She is fine on earthen trails, moderate on blacktop, and will almost fall on her noodle she stumbles so bad over gravel. LSEGH has given her a preliminary trim, and established a roll on her hooves for better breakover. Before serious mileage ensues, this mare needs boots! There in lies the caveat, her hoof shape is very round and does not fit the guidelines of Easyboots (or competing brands) at this time. Easyboot is set to release their new boots W's (wide gloves) soon. It can't happen soon enough for me. Her round dimensions should perfectly fit a size 0.5 or an 0 in the W and we need 'em bad!
She has an interesting color to her hooves. All four are white, and have a stripe or two of black. Genetically barely.......catching the Appaloosa coloration. Yet black socks like a bay horse.
Come on Easycare....give this cute little hoof an Easyboot W!
I am very interested in how you condition her feet. I am trying to learn more about this and I feel like there is so much to learn and a lot of conflicting information. My horse is bare and it is fine for the minimal riding that we do but I am the only one at our barn that is bare so there is not much support. I would apprecite more pictures of before and after if you can. I am not sure I understand what flat looks like vs concavity and sole callous. I would like to learn more about the booting process but when you were going through it before it sounded very complicated and I would hate to cause a problem with boots where none really existed before. The pictures so far are great! Joann
ReplyDeleteJoann,
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a learning curve involved, but it is worth it to me. It isn't really that booting is so difficult, rather that getting the proper fit can be. Especially with a rounder hoof which is typical for long-term bare hooves and atypical for hoof boots! The W's sound like they will fix my current need for boots if they would just get them out there to purchase. I'll try to get photos next hoof trim cycle.
I never could get any Easycare products to stay on my mare's feet (even with help from Garrett Ford himself), and went to Renegade Boots last winter. Those worked much better. Review/photos/video here:
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/dKDolR
However, with the combination of swampy environment (I live north of Seattle) and a tender-footed mare, I use steel shoes+pads during the competition season, and only use boots on bare feet in the dead of winter when I'm not riding much.
Here's hoping the W's come out ASAP :)
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