My pals Welsh D mare has gone barefoot for years, she now has a loaner rider which is great for the excersise she needs however her feet are not up to the extra work. She is a lovely pony but a nightmare to shoe without sedation so we are thinking boots for the fronts. Your learned advice / recommendations would be such a help.
I use easy boot gloves, used them for years, however, I am getting some renegades as my friend has some the they have more grip! depending on what size you need in the gloves, dew to one mare being retired and the other pts in Feb I may have some for sale as my new horse has much bigger feet.
Size of feet will play a part in dictating which hoof boot. Two of ours only fit into renegades and they have worked very well for us over a number of years. Good longevity and good grip. Newest addition has never been shod and has a foot that has a wider width and short length. For him we got Spanish Floating hoof boots which could be heat fitted to accommodate his feet. Have worked fine on front but no idea about longevity as not used much as his feet are conditioning up to longer distances fairly well. See lots of easy boot gloves out doing endurance including higher distances so they are good to but quite a specific fit.
Definitely recommend a fitting kit as feet are not easy to measure. Masses of information on boots on phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org/
Even with boots remember not to use them all the time as hooves will steadily respond to increasing work with better hoof which grows faster. Over the years and with steady build up of barefoot work they need less and less time booted. Flat foot Salad (about 6 years barefoot) whose feet were so damaged by shoeing that they have never developed more than a hint of concavity did 30km this weekend barefoot over a variety of surfaces and only had to walk on the gravelly track - fine on hard core, road and of course grass.
just seen this, may be too late... i used the equine fusion boots on my pure bred... but she has large very round feet and they twizzle round on heer feet .. they were prof fitted. So now they are useless. I'm going to try these when they are available in the uk https://horserunners.com/
Best hoof boots
Posted - 03 Apr 2017 : 8:09:01 PM
