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[RC] Ground Controls - DreamWeaverhttp://community.webshots.com/user/groundcontrolshoesThere are 6 albums there of photos showing the shoes. If anybody else would like to contribute, send me an email. There are albums showing successes and failures. They work best on horses with good solid and durable feet. I've been using the shoes since last November on Granite Chief. He's doing really well in them. I am glad that I found these shoes for him. I got more interested in them after I saw that Lynne Low rode the XP rides last year on her mare in them. I figured that was enough proof that they could work and would be worth giving a try. Chief is short backed and while he doesn't interfere, he had a few 'moments' while trying out Easyboots. I think now that he is older and stronger and more developed in how he carries himself that he might be okay in them now. He certainly does well trotting in the Boa Boots. He has good strong hoofwall and excellent feet overall. My other two horses---I can't really say that they are working or aren't working for them. They have each only done one 50 in the shoes, and have had them on since December. While their feet seem to be holding up in the GC's (at least compared to some of my friends horses feet), I am not confident that they would hold up if these horses were being campaigned heavily. They were in their 2nd shoeing in the shoes before they did the 50. Their feet quite honestly aren't nearly as good of qualify as Chief's. But must not be too bad, since they haven't crumbled or come apart in all these months. Still, they could be better and so I am not expecting a whole lot. Some good things that have happened that I wasn't expecting -- all three horses wore these shoes thru a lot of the winter, and we had one MUDDY winter. Weeks and weeks of mud they wore these shoes in, slosh, slosh, slosh. No sign of any kind of thrush or rot or even a stinking foot. I was surprised, because their feet didn't seem to hold up as well with metal shoes in these conditions (and barefoot was always a disaster). Rocky has some heel growing on his front foot that has always required a wedgepad. Not sure if it'll stay that way once he goes back into metal shoes. I don't think I'll keep him in these shoes because I'm not sure I like how he moves in them. I think he's just a tried and true metal shoe and easyboot horse (after almost 7000 miles), and I think that even tho I haven't experienced any real problems with the older horses in these shoes, that they are probably going to go back into metal shoes next shoeing. We may go back and forth, for now I'm just going to take it one shoeing at a time. You can see how Weaver and Rocky's feet look after a few shoeings in the pictures posted above though. Some of the benefits I have found from riding Chief in the GC shoes. He hasn't slipped on anything except that one slick rock at Mt. Carmel. He's been thru mud, mud on hillsides, mud and ice, mud and ice on hillsides, and he hasn't slipped, grass, wet grass, wet grass on hillsides, pavement, wet pavement, ice on pavement (you get the idea). I've had him go up and down some stuff that made him look like a cartoon horse, and those shoes gripped like velcro. But then, my other horses didn't usually slip in Easyboots on a lot of types of terrain that other peoples horses did, so part of it is due to the horses getting accustomed to going thru that type of terrain carefully enough so they don't slip and aren't total clods about it. As far as wear goes, the most I've gotten out of a set of GC shoes is 310 competition miles -- two 155 mile Pioneer Rides. I have only not been able to get more than that, because of how the shoeing cycles have worked out. I think I could have though. They seem to wear about the same as steel, so some horses will wear thru them quicker than others. I definitely recommend waiting till the 2nd shoeing before doing an actual endurance ride in the shoes. That way, if a problem develops (or attempts to) you can head it off before it becomes serious. I think my younger horse (Chief) adapted easier and quicker than the older horses. That may or may not hold true for every horse, but keep it in mind. I consider this to be a pretty big change for a horse, especially one that has done a lot of miles. So far Chief has done 765 miles this season with the GC shoes, and he did 150 miles last season with them. We have never lost a shoe, never had one come loose, never even needed to have the nails clinched or retightened <knocking on wood>. The other 2 have also not lost any shoes, or had any come loose. At Mt. Carmel we seemed to pick up rocks. I think because of the deep sand, the shoes were acting like flip flops and sifting thru and getting the rocks wedged in there. That doesn't seem to be a consistent problem. I may try shooting in some plain old silicone for the next multiday and see how that works. The shortest ride (least miles) Chief has done this year in the shoes has been the one day 100. I think I still want more time in them before concluding that they are going to work for him long term. Karen in NV ============================================================ If people would just think of the hoof as the foundation for the horse like a house foundation. when your horse plants his foot down in the ground and pushes forward if the foot isn't 100% balanced your chances of injury go up. ~ Paula Blair ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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