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Some of the other things I do to my boots: I cut the back of them down to
where they are flush with the back of the heel strap. Then, I clinch down
the metal gripper teeth. I use an electric grinder to grind and round out
the fronts and front bottom parts of the boots. That helps to speed up the
breakover point and eliminates any interference especially when you are
using boots on all four feet.** If you don't have a grinder, then a
regular metal rasp works. Just be real careful to watch your knuckles!!
<g>. When I'm done I'll take the heel strap off of the back of the boot,
and cut down the top wrung of the plastic. That just makes it a little
less thick, and works really well on horses that have low heels (or hind
feet). Then I'll wrap some vetwrap once or twice around the heel strap.
When you have the vetwrap on the heel strap and on the horses foot, it
really holds things snug. You'll want to practice putting the boots on and
off like that, it can be a little tricky until you get the hang of it.
When you wrap the horses foot (it's so much easier to show someone than to
explain it), leave a good inch or two overlap around the bottom of the
foot. That overlap will help keep the vetwrap in place when you pull the
boot on, plus when you remove the boot and foam it's all in one neat little
package. Make sure you don't pull the vetwrap tight when you wrap, make
sure you can get a couple of fingers in there. I use typically one roll of
vetwrap (or co-flex) to do two feet. After the foam sets up, you can take
scissors and trim off the vetwrap that is sticking up around the top of the
boot.
Use considerably less foam mixture to put on a size 0 or 1 than you do a
size 2. It might be a good idea to practice ahead of time to get an idea
of how much foam you should or should not use. The amount of foam will
also vary depending upon your horses hoof shape and whether or not they
have shoes on.
If you have trouble getting an easy boot to fit...say your horse is
inbetween sizes....there are a few things you can do. First of all, start
by reading the instructions that come with each easy boot (they really do
come with instructions!!). I know that most of you no longer have your
instructions <g>, so here are some hints: you can wrap the cable on the
front clip part of the boot in a different pattern to take up more slack.
The tighter you can get that the better. Unscrew the heel strap, trim down
the end to the next set of holes and re-set it in the new position. You
may want to do one side or both to get a good fit. If your horse is
interfering (stepping on the boot from behind), then go ahead and cut down
the back of the boot all the way down to the bottom.
And most importantly...make sure you pull that heel strap up when you put
the boot on!!!! 1" wide webbing works great...so does bailing twine,
shoelaces, string, etc.
If you have any more questions, let me know.
**I rasp the toes of the boots to about the same amount of wear they would
get in about 50-100 miles. (they are just getting broken in by then
anyhow) ;-)
Happy Trails,
Karen
in Gardnerville
& Weaver
& Rocky
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