Maybe some non-convention attendees can help me with this.
I too am having easyboot epics issues and would like some advice. I’d
really like to put my gelding in them, as he’s never had shoes and has
beautiful, large, hard feet. I got him the size 2 epics (which he was on
the lower end of the size range, but definitely a size 2), and put them on with
no modifications. I may not have pulled the heelstrap up enough, because
after about 3 miles he really started moving like he was tiptoeing, and I took
them off and he had pretty bad rubs on his heel bulbs. I rode him
barefoot the rest of the ride, and he seemed so happy to not be hurting anymore
– I felt horrible. So I cut the back of the boot down, and removed
the heelstrap. I put them back on this morning, and just lunged him out
for a couple of minutes. I noticed that there seems to be a bit of space
around the side and back of the boot, even on the tightest setting (but the gaitor
keeps them on just fine). Also, I hear some kind of clicking/popping when
he walks – he’s not overreaching, and I’m wondering if the
boots are too big and each time he sets his foot down, the boots have to reseat
themselves. I also noticed that after he trotted a bit in them, the
gaiters were loose and I had to retighten them around his ankles. At that
point, I just got nervous about hurting him again and took them off before
getting on him. The good thing is that he didn’t have any rubbing
on his heel bulbs this time, but then again, I just lunged him a little. Any
advice from the epic masters? I’ve gone over Karen’s webpages
about putting the boots on, and modifying them, but I’ve never used the regular
easyboots before either, so maybe I’m just missing something.
