RE: [RC] A Little Experimentation Pays Off - Angie Mikkelson
I was convinced by all the stories about how great the new easyboots were and after doing many miles on my mare in steel shoes decided to try the Gloves. My experience was not as great as most the emails, blogs etc that I've seen posted recently on various forums and websites. I trained only a few rides with the Gloves and things seemed good, my mares hooves are shaped well for the boots and the stay on very nicely, which is usually the #1 concern with boots (will they stay on?). Other than the stress of just not fully trusting the boots I had problems with rubs from the gaitors. Also, although my horse finished the 2 day 100 in them, her attitude sucked and her quality of movement was much different than usual. She is very sensitive, I don't know if it was just having them on her feet that bugged her or she was having a crabby weekend or what. The final straw for me was on the last 10 mile loop of the 2nd day it poured rain for about an hour, the trail turned muddy and slick, my other horse that had steel shoes on (my husband was riding him with me), was not sliping and sliding nearly as much as I was, my mare was sliding so much that she was actually difficult to get to move forward as she knew she was going to slide. After one really bad uphill that we slipped all the way up, I decided there was no way I was going down it with the boots on. I got off at the top and pulled all four boots, they were caked with mud about 1-2" thick on the bottom and had to weigh a pound each. I finished the rest of the loop barefoot. I am just really skeptical at this point about moving forward with using the boots...I think for ME, they will be nice to use for training rides in the spring and for in between shoeings if the horse has a lay off after a 100 or something. I don't condemn the boots or think that no one can use them, just thought I'd share my one small experience.
Angie Mikkelson
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From: "Kevin Myers" <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] A Little Experimentation Pays Off
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The three horses racked up a total of 61 miles and more than 15,000 feet of climbing between them in Easyboot Gloves over the five days - and not one boot went amiss. We rode up sharp climbs and rocky mountain trails; we rode through hail and pouring rain; we rode along single track trails that became small rushing rivers. And the boots stayed on.
One of the greatest barriers for me to go from steel shoes to barefoot was the perception that I did not have the time, inclination or ability to manage a barefoot horse. A steel-shod horse seemed so much easier to manage: the farrier comes to the barn, and presto: your horse is set for the next five or six weeks of riding. Low maintenance is good, right? Eight weeks into my experiment, I'm not so sure.
