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> Just got a pair of Easy Boot Epics. I had trimmed my horses hooves and 
> measured them carefully before I ordered the epics, but with the plastic 
> guard over the teeth, I could not get the boots on. The guards stuck out 
> and made them too narrow. I took the guards off and hammered down the 
> teeth, now they go right on.

Hi Lynette:  I think you probably could get the boots on with the plastic 
guards on.  Take the wire cable that feeds thru where it attaches to the 
boot in the front and pull it out of the grooves, and then pull the boot 
sides apart.  That should give you the additional slack that you need to 
get the boot on over the foot.  I would probably just forget about the 
plastic covers and use duct tape over that area.  Moving the cable like I 
suggested will still make the boots easier to get on.

> First of all, since I have hammered down the teeth and they go right on, 
> should I leave the heel strap on and not cut it off  to help hold them in 
> place? Also there has been some talk about vet wrapping the pastern to 
> keep the gaiter from rubbing. Do you wrap the pastern and hoof or just the 
> hoof? How do you do it?

It's up to you -- you can remove the heelstraps with a screwdriver and then 
put them back on later.  I've been cutting mine, it's a lot easier but once 
the heelstrap has been cut you can't put it back on.  So if you aren't 
sure, removing it with the screwdriver is probably the way to go.  When you 
do that, put one screw on each side of the gaiter and that will make it 
easier to get the boot put back together.  If you put in two screws on one 
side first, you'll have a hard time getting the screw started on the other 
side.

I haven't had any problems with the boots not having a heelstrap 
on.  Admittedly, it's been mostly on just one horse.  One other horse did a 
50 with Epics on over shoes without a heelstrap and that worked for him 
too.  A third horse of mine did a 50 with the Epics over shoes, with the 
heelstrap still on but not pulled up.  I did not wrap pasterns with vetwrap 
for the other horses, and they had no rubbing.  I don't know that I would 
have any rubbing on Chief if we weren't doing 1) multidays and 2) lots of 
water/wet conditions.

I've just been wrapping the pastern with the vetwrap, two or three times 
around.  Just enough so that it sticks out up above and down below the 
gaiter.  I wrap before putting the boots on.  I have not yet tried wrapping 
the entire hoof and going up around the pastern, I'm not sure I could get 
the boot on if I did that since the boot is such a snug fit.

Good luck with your ride :)

Karen

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