I use easyboots on my horse, metal shoes on my daughter’s. I wish I had the time to use boots on both of them, just because I like the idea of the horse only having their hooves confined while I’m riding them, rather than 24/7. With that in mind, using boots is not easy. It’s my responsibility to maintain my horse’s hooves between professional trimmings, maybe a light rasping every two weeks, usually only the fronts need this.
There is a learnig curve to putting the boots on and getting them to stay on. My experience has been that the gaiters on the Epics caused sufficient rubbing problems on all 3 of my horses if I rode more than 10 miles. I tried wrapping with vetrap and using the epics for a 50 mile ride, but both horses were sore by the 30 mile check. So we went back to shoes on my daughter’s and I experimented with easyfoam (and no gaiters) on my horse. This works well for us, but again, there was a learning curve, had to do it a few times to get the amount and consistency correct. AND, it is very difficult to clean up the boots afterwards. For my horse, there is not an option of shoeing, and like I said, my preference would be that I had the time to boot both of them.
If you’d like to hear more, email me at sherman at usamedia dot tv.
Also, join the yahoo group, barefootendurancehorses . Although the goal for many is riding barefoot, for many the reality of long hard rides is wearing hoof protection.
Kathy
I would like to get opinions on the use of easy boots for endurance, vs
traditional shoes. Any experiences to share out there? I would like to
save money on farrier expenses. I have heard there are some potential
issues with rubbing while using boots. Any advice/help is greatly
