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T O P I C R E V I E W
TAE
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 11:16:16 AM Hi all
I'm hoping to take advantage of your collective brains and experience. Sorry it's a long one.
Now my boy is 5 and has filled out nicely I want to start doing some proper work rather than the play and odd pootle about we've been doing. To start getting him fit I've found some nice people localy I can box to and ride out with. Being big fit eventers they usually go out for about an hour on the roads at a time. I have joined them for one ride each of the last 3 weeks. Each time Li has been very excited to start and then settled quickly but still forward going.
At the very end of the last ride he became less forward going, at first I thought he was getting tired but when home realised his back hooves were getting quite worn down and now think he may have started to get a little footsore.
Normally you hear about horses needing front shoes or boots at first. How unusuall is it for horses to wear down their backs more than the fronts? He still has a reasonable amount of growth on the fronts.
Li has lovely hooves even if he does wear his front toes with excessive pawing when playing or impatient. could this also be why his fronts are coping better, or could it be his extremely wiggly energetic back end that is the cause of the extra wear.
Am I right that as he gets fitter and more used to the increased work load all his feet should get stronger.
I'm thinking of getting him eastboot trails, to put on just his backs to start with, and riding without occasionally as he gets a bit of growth on his hooves again.
What do you guys think of this Idea? Do you think the trails on just the backs, will cope on the road with an extravagant bouncy action.
Many thanks for all ideas and advice.
6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
debs
Posted - 11 Oct 2012 : 07:04:38 AM We use Cavello.... now I have mastered how to put the wraps on they are great. Our hacking is at the most about an hour, mostly at walk with a little trotting, made a big difference.
Kharidian
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 3:24:09 PM Tae, I have no experience as I have always had by horses shod (as I cant give them regular enough work) however my understanding is that horses need regular work in order to consistently grow more horn - so if you're only doing a longer ride once a week then the hooves don't know what they're doing! I'm sure someone will put me right if I've misunderstood.
Caryn
Etoile
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 3:14:32 PM As with all things I think it depends on the individual horse and even then their needs can change over time.
It may well be that he is wearing the backs more or just feeling them more.
I have one - Senj - who we regularly ride in only rear hoof boots at least half the time at home as he wears very irregularly on the backs and would literally have only half a hoof left if he went without rear boots but his fronts are much better and at home we rarely ride him with front boots (though he is booted all round at all his endurance rides).
The other - Salad - usually does most work at home without hoof boots but has to boot up for longer rides as he is flat footed and really feels stones. Also, has to boot up in spring when grass richer as starts pulling his stride on the road. He has had to boot up recently at the back (not really sure why, but will use them until he's comfortable bare again)
Sounds perfectly good idea to boot up at back at least part of the time, maybe when he goes out with his more energetic eventer friends. You may find that using them part of the time will allow him to adjust to an increased workload, and you may be able to gradually wean him off them, or you may have to use them more permanently, I'm afraid it's generally a case of trial and error!
Can't comment on the easyboot trails as we have mainly used renegades which we don't normally have problems with, but they do pull off in deep clay/boggy mud. However, boots of any sort will give you much better grip on the roads than shoes do. It can take trying a couple of different types of boots to find a make/type that fit the horse and that the horse moves well in, there are often lightly used second hand ones that haven't suited other peoples horse on the well known auction site, or the phoenix barefoot forum also has second hand listings. If you consider easyboot gloves do get a fit kit as the sizing chart is pretty rubbish, and they do need to be a very precise fit. Easyboot trails are very similar to cavallos, but cavallos are cheaper so might be worth a look, but neither are really performance boots. For more intensive work renegades/gloves have the best track record (both used a lot in endurance in America).
sasha
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 3:08:05 PM
Make sure you measure the hooves correctly, just after a trim to get the correct size of boot, also take into account that different makes of boots suit different shaped hooves.Do your research as it is a costly mistake if you get it wrong.
Judith S
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 2:40:55 PM Horses take 60% of their weight on their fronts so I suppose that is why shoeing fronts only was the preferred option, but if they wear the horn quicker than it is growing then they need some sort of protection.
glo
Posted - 10 Oct 2012 : 1:36:17 PM I must admitt that I too have had this question, I had my mares shoes off about 8 weeks ago, I was told that if I used hoof boots that I would probley only need the fronts, but I know that if your horse is working correctley they work from behind.
Do what works for you.
I have now got some Marquis boots for the front, (from a auction web site) and have just got some easy boot gloves for the backs, and I will take advantage of the boot exchange to get 50% off some easy boots for the fronts as well in time.
I was looking on YouTube at hoof boots and trimming and a lady on there said "if your horses can't cope on the road and tracks, put hoof boots on when needed"
