Easyboot Bare

Submitted by Tami Rougeau, Team Easyboot 2011 Member

At the end of every season I try to clean out the trailers and the tack room. This is usually a good way to keep the clutter down and the various items mended or cleaned. It is also a good time to remember all the fun of the previous year.

This year I took down the boot box to see what it contained. In years past I would put boots in this box that looked like they had some life or usuable parts left. This box also holds special memories. As I took note of the boot variety it became clear that the contents were more than a few years old. So what has changed?


But the real treasure in the pile are the old red boots. We all loved the red. It was easy to see when they came off and easy to see on the foot when they stayed on. In the early days of booting we did a lot of "after market" work to make the boots work better for us. We trimmed down the heel straps to keep them from rubbing the heel bulbs; trimmed down the back of the boot to prevent sand and debris from being trapped in the boot; pounded down the grips and covered them with duct tape to keep them from damaging the hoof wall; even removed all hardware, foamed them on and reinforced with duck tape - all in our own attempts to make a better boot (looks familiar somehow).

Just when we thought we had a good solution Easycare really started to make some big changes. They came out with the gaiter. This was the answer to the lost boot dilema for sure. The first gaiters were stiff and tended to cause rubbing so we came up with new ways to deal with that. But we were loosing a lot less boots. They also did not hold up to what we tended to put them through. The velcro would most often tear but sometimes they came completly separated at the seams. The new gaiters are soft and pliable. They do not seem to cause the rubbing that the old ones did. Interesting how the new gaiter design with its soft layering is so similar to how many of us dealt with rubbing by putting layers under the gaiter.

The harware was also changing. While I did try pretty much every variety not all are represented here. The up clip was great since usually if the clamp came open it was because you caught it on a rock. The problem with the up clip is that it was not so sturdy and would break when smashed against a rock. We also added cotter pins to the clamp to hold them closed and this worked great. But we still had those darn cables that cut your fingers and broke when you least expected. The boots themselves though were practically indestructable. Wearing out a shell took a lot of miles.

The newer soles are even better. They grip like a bare foot and provide a great deal of cushion as well. They are pretty indestructable. I can remember wearing through the toe of the old boots but not these. Some of my Easyboot Gloves have close to a thousand miles on them and they are still viable training boots.

So in answer to the question "what has changed?" Everything. The new Gloves and Glue-Ons are amazingly similar to many of the after market versions we all experimented with but they are so much better. That said the tried and true red boots are still out on trail. My trail riding friends are always seeking out these good old friends, they love them. When I try to get them to change to the way easier Glove they just wont budge. That is until they come out with them in red!

As for me, I love the new boots and look forward every year to see what Easycare will come up with next. How will they make it better, easier to use, more durable etc?  Only time will tell.

If you've ever met Natalie Herman, you will know her to be dependably positive and honest. Since she started her business in 2005, she believes there has been an explosion of booting options, both in the growth of new boot brands and within EasyCare itself.

Natalie attributes her success to her burning desire to learn. She finds she can learn something from everyone. Even if she does not agree, there is always something that might cause her to approach a problem from a different angle. She credits her reputuation to the power of word of mouth and her conscientious approach to customer service. "I do some marketing, but it is a fairly tight community around here. If you want to be successful, you need to have people talking about you in a good way."

Natalie says Easycare makes working with their dealer networks and boot users a pleasurable process. "They have a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable staff; they have favorable return policies, and when a product is shown to need improvement, they modify the product instead of sticking with the same old thing."

She uses the same philosophy in her own business: "I am very helpful and giving with my knowledge. If a client has a question, they never hesitate to call or email me with it, and I try and help them. A good trim is just the tip of a large iceberg." She studied horseshoeing first, and credits that time with learning the principles of anatomy and a balanced trim. She feels strongly that evolution is just as important in hoofcare as it is in the boots that protect those hooves.

Natalie is quick to compliment EasyCare: "I love how inovative Easycare is, always trying to come up with new solutions to existing boots, or totally new boots when the need arises. Instead of insisting that the user is at fault, or the trims are incorrect, EasyCare tries to find a solution to boot failures by either modifying the boot design, or coming up with a design that fits the activity of that user. She says she's still waiting to see a sliding plate boot, though. "It just amazes me how fast things are changing in the industry," says Natalie, "and I am loving it."
 
Natalie currently owns three horses: a 13 year-old Morgan/Quarter Horse mare that was her first horse and, she says, her best horse. "I tried about everything with her, and she is currently being leased to a friend's daughter. Together they won the state championship for CSHA Trail Trials in their division this year, bare and sometimes booted with Gloves. She was also her experimental horse for getting into barefooting. She always needed shoes with pads in the front, having long toe/low heel issues, and wore the outside branches of her hind shoes to nothing in six weeks. Natalie was skeptical of taking her barefoot. "Her feet became so much better that I decided to completely convert my farrier business to natural hoofcare." She has never looked back.

She bred the mare to the top AERC mileage and Hall of Fame stallion, DR Thunder Bask, and this year her six year-old daughter completed her first endurance season. She has been bare her entire life, and performed wonderfully in Gloves, Epics, and Glue-ons at rides throughout 2011. "She is also my 'thinking outside the box' booting horse. I have had to modify boots and how to apply them to the hoof with her, as she tends to have a lot of torque on the hind end." Having a challenging horse in booting has helped her help others.

Natalie also has a 13 year-old Kentucky Mountain stallion. "He is my 'soul horse' and I love everything about him."

As a small business owner, Natalie keeps a minimum stock for clients, and appreciates the fact that Easycare does not have a minimum order policy amount. Her best-seller is still the Easyboot Glove and Glove Wides. "Most of my cients love them as they are so simple to use. The next best-selling models are the Epic and Easyboot Trail, as both allow a greater range of fitting for clients unable or unwilling to keep the hooves trimmed as frequently as the Gloves require.

Her most rewarding experience as a trimmer was treating her first founder case. "I knew the theory, and had trimmed a few mildly laminitic horses, but not a really bad case. When I called the vet for a consult and to go in and see the radiographs, the vet had basically written the horse off and told me to expect to see the coffin bone coming through the sole." She never did get sole penetration on that horse, but there were months of abscessing. Today the horse has textbook hooves. "This case got me started on the path to working on laminitic horses and it boosted my confidence in the barefoot method."

Natalie's most memorable hoof boot success story is the 2011 XP 2,000 mile ride. "There were a good number of barefoot and booted riders already, but there were also many shod horses competing." The barefoot horses proved to be most of the highest mileage horses on this ride, with over 1,000 miles each during the two-month span. Riders with shod horses discovered the benefits of barefoot/booted protocols, and many of them solved lameness issues during the race by pulling shoes and applying boots. "So much for an extended transition from shoes," said Natalie ironically.

Natalie's prediction for the future? That a barefoot and booted lifestyle will become the norm instead of a fad. "More and more vets and long-time farriers are becoming interested in it. As boots become easy to use and effective as hoof protection, more people see barefoot and booting as a viable option for their horse's hoofcare.

For more information on Epona's Natural Hoofcare Services, visit Natalie's new Facebook page. For more information on becoming a dealer, visit the Dealer's Corner on the EasyCare website.

Carolyn Dison sent in pictures of her TWH Shane in his adventures sporting Easyboot Bares on the rocky, muddy terrain they are so used to. Shane has been barefoot for a little over a year now and does great with just the fronts booted.

Carolyn and Shane pictured in Bares at the trail head in Bankhead National Forest, Northern Alabama. 

Shane's friend, Pachoota the Peruvian Paso in the rear sports the Easyboot Glove and has convinced Shane to give them a try which he, like a kind gentleman, has agreed to do in the near future.

What type of booting experiences do you have to share with us?

Thank you to my friend Cathy for sharing her story with us all.

There were a few firsts at Arizona's latest competition, Lead, Follow or Get Out of My Way Endurance Ride in McDowell Mountain Park this past November 19th. Mules are notoriously difficult to correctly fit boots.  Their feet are narrower than a horse and trying to find a boot that is long enough, yet not too wide is difficult. 


My Mule, Soldier, uses Easyboot Epics and Easyboot Bares size 00 successfully with gaiters, however he needed something a bit different for his first 75 mile endurance ride. This ride had great footing with decomposed granite and some sand washes. The Original Easyboots work great on the trails when traveling at speed, but when you get in the sand washes, you get sand in the boots. Under normal conditions this is not a big deal, but when you are trying to make time in an endurance ride you don't want to fool around with taking the boots on and off to empty out the sand. I decided he needed to be fitted to a pair of Easyboot Glue-Ons.

The EasyBoot care team, consisting of Kevin Myers, Rusty Toth and Kevin Waters, came over to Soldier's trailer the Friday before the ride and fitted and glued boots. Kevin prepared the hooves and Rusty glued the boots. Soldier is the first mule this team has glued before and it was the owners first use of glue on boots.  Soldier was a good customer and the boots went on without a hitch.



Throughout the ride Soldier moved along flawlessly and actually seemed to enjoy the added protection.  For me, it was a joy to not even have to think about the boots or worry about the footing of the ride. 

The Easyboot Glue-Ons performed flawlessly.

Dresden, a pearl a the river Elbe in Germany, was the first stop of a 4 week Hoof Care Tour last month conducted by me, The Bootmeister from Global Endurance Training Center.

I have been going to Europe now for the last two years, sharing some gained hoof care and hoof protection Knowledge with riders, horse owners and farriers. The demand for more knowledge is high, people are eager to learn about Natural Hoof Care and the newest  Hoof Protection products on the market. EasyCare is the undisputed leader in the world with research and development of hoof boots of all kinds. R&D is of utmost importance to the EasyCare staff. Horse owners worldwide know that. Hence, it is only logical, that EasyCare boots stood in the lime light of my presentations.


After an indoor anatomy session and PowerPoint presentation, the 20 participants had ample opportunity to train their eyes during conformation analysis sessions and study first hand how conformation affects hoof growth. Afterward, the riders who brought their own horses, in total over 10, could practice mapping out the sole and rasping the hooves of their horses. I placed a lot of emphasis on developing the skill of reading the sole. Aspiring hoof trimmers generally fare well when following the principle of trimming a hoof no further than to the live sole. It is a safe approach and everybody can learn it quickly.

The second day was devoted to Hoof boot selection and application. I explained and demonstrated the usage of Easyboot Edge, Trail, Glove and Glue-On and afterwards everybody could practice. It is important to actually do things. We humans all learn most by doing, we easily forget when just watching and listening.





These coaches in downtown Dresden provide visitors a feeling of stepping back in time. After looking at the hoof protection of these carriage horses, we all agreed that they would travel  much more comfortably with Easyboots.

Next stop was Hannover. Well known for the Hanoverian breed, this city has a long horse tradition.

The on-site organizing committee had invited over 45 Hoof Trimmers, farriers and veterinarians. After my initial presentation about the different Natural Hoof Care schools and philosophies in the USA and Europe, we discussed NHC and trimming techniques as well as hoof pathologies and remedies. I presented the thesis and studies of Dr. Brian Hampson of Australia, who did the most thorough studies on the hooves of wild horses so far.

If someone were to conduct a study, for example, on the hooves of one herd of wild horses  in Nevada or Utah, the two driest states within the USA, where horses have to travel many miles over rocks and sand to find water and food and then propose to use that feral hoof as a benchmark model for healthy hooves for all domestic horses in the world, would that be a realistic and fair conclusion?

Hampson studied and examined hooves from various areas in Australia,  wild horses living in arid areas and others in wet areas with lush vegetation. The hooves of the wild horses living in the wetter areas looked a lot like the average domestic hooves. Does that mean the hooves adapt to the environment or are the hooves shaped by the substrate the horse travels over?

An answer to this question might be obtained by looking at the following photos, provided by Brian Hampson.

The left hoof has the appearance of a typical domestic hoof. Recessed frog, under-run heels, flares. Yet, it is a wild horse hoof. After moving several horses with these hooves to a different (drier) area, the hooves were remodeled by the ground the horses traveled over. The hoof on the left is void of any mustang roll. Does it not need it? Within 16 weeks the rocks and dry ground reshaped that very same hoof. The mustang roll is clearly visible now. The question might be asked, how important is the mustang roll then, when we as natural hoof care trimmers applying it to all horses, yet only a small segment of wild horses worldwide even display one in the wild?

The study also showed that only three hooves out of 100 assessed were free of abnormalities. In fact, he found a 67% incidence of chronic laminitis within the horses living in the dry climate and the hard substrate. When the majority of the wild horses display this pathology, is it still a pathology or is it physiologically normal now? Who makes these decisions?

Not everything wild is necessarily good solely because it is wild and natural. The wild horse paradigm model of desert horses' hooves may not be applicable across the board to all horses worldwide.

The discussions were very interesting and we were only scratching the surface of all the ramifications of the Hampson study.


On I went to Kassel, stop for the next seminar. 

Similar to the USA, Germany experiences also a shortage of farriers who are willing to offer services beyond the traditional iron shoes. Many do not know about bare hoof trimming and alternate hoof protection like plastic shoes and hoof boots. Therefore, more and more riders and horse owners want to learn to trim their horses' hooves themselves.

I set up several stations, where people could work on their horses hooves simultaneously. That way, everybody had ample time to practice and learn.

Onwards to Belgium. near Brussels, I conducted the last clinic. My French is very rusty, to say the least, so everything was translated by Leonard Liesens, a famous and successful Belgian endurance rider.
I learned to speak slowly and to include only essential information in my sentences. And I got my message across as well, without lengthy and repetitive wording. An exercise in disciplining speech.


At all the seminars, I also showed slides of the Tevis ride. With all the Europeans now coming to the Tevis next year, we better all put our entries in early to avoid being placed on the waiting list.

The Europeans were all very eager to learn and try new trimming techniques. They are pragmatic and want to use the trimming and hoof protection that works best for their horses. They do not believe that Natural Hoof Care and Bare Hoof Trimming is an ideology or a mantra. For them, it is not an absolute, rather a better and healthier way to take care of their horses' hooves. They do not want to listen to self righteous statements of cult-like organizations. The welfare of their horses is important. That is a reason why Pete Ramey stands in such high esteem in Europe, his open mindedness, his tolerance, his knowledge and non judgmental approach to hoof care puts him in a class of his own and a big step above everybody else.

I did stress the importance of looking at each horse as an individual. The trimming procedure that works for one horse, might not be the best approach for the horse right next to it.

Europe has many more horses than the USA. Per capita, Germany has 70% more horses than the USA. Horse owners and riders want to learn and improve and use modern and better hoof protection methods.
Already now, I have booked several more clinics for next spring, this time in addition to Germany also in France and Switzerland. Natural Hoof Care, Barefoot Trimming and Easyboots are on a roll and gaining ground and popularity throughout the whole equestrian world.

A special Thank You goes out to my liasons and support persons who organized the events on site. Without them, it would have been very difficult to impossible to conduct the seminars:

Dresden:     Veit Koppe

Hannover:   Patricia Nastoll and Kathrin Ewen

Kassel:        Martin Boesel

Brussel:       Leonard Liesens


The Bootmeister, reporting from Europe

This is my Shetland pony four in hand, competing for the very first time, as a team at The Australian Masters games, Combined Driving Event, Monarto, South Australia.

All the hard work that was put into them paid off - they came home with a gold medal. But the stars of the performance were their Easyboots, a combination of Epics and Bares, in sizes 000 and Pony. The boots performed beautifully, four of the boots have clocked over 1,000 kms and still going strong. I also have recently changed over to the EasyUp Buckles and boy, do they do what they promise. Makes putting 10 boots on every run a snap.


I would like to thank Easycare Downunder for their exceptional service.

Name: Jill B.
City: Woodside, South Australia
Equine Discipline: Other
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Epic

For several weeks, Lisa talked about the horse with the "worst feet in the barn". I couldn't work on him right away because the track farriers had just put shoes on his feet.  And so I waited patiently to see the worst feet in the barn.

Finally the day came when we could pull his shoes, and I could get started on my new project. Banfish, who is two now and is only doing light work at the track, had been sick when he was a foal. The sickness affected his entire body, including his feet. After months of love and attention, Banfish fully recovered from his illness. Except his feet were still a mess.


The track farriers put shoes on him as they always do, but in time he developed a quarter crack that spread all the way to the hairline. To correct the crack, glue was applied to the crack and the metal shoe was cut so that it stopped just in front of the crack. Yes, that's right. The shoe itself went from one heel, around the toe, and stopped just in front of the quarter on the other side of that foot. No shoe under the quarter or heel on that side of the foot.


When I removed Banny's shoes, I quickly agreed that he had the worst feet in the barn. Unsurprisingly, his heels had been lopped off to accommodate the shoe. To my horror, however, I also found that his soles were in fact the very opposite of concave; the bottom of the foot was thin and bulging at the toe. Yikes!


I always air on the cautious side when I am presented with a long toe or long heels. In this case, Banfish had long toes with no real attachment of the hoof wall.


He still has quite a lamellar wedge when my first trim is complete, but I know that I'll be coming back soon for another go-round.


Amazingly, Banfish showed little discomfort as he walked on dirt or sand with bare feet. Nonetheless, he got his own pair of size 2 Epics to protect those unique feet.

Several days later, I met the vets at the track for x-rays of Banny's feet. Although I don't always get the luxury of seeing x-rays, boy do they help when I can get my hands on them. And so I removed another inch off of his toes and swapped out the size 2 boots for some 1's!

Banfish has been barefoot and using his Easyboot Epics for the past two months and has shown some good improvement during that time. Although he began by wearing his hoof boots on the track and on the walker, he was able to begin some barefoot work within just a few weeks of beginning his new "program". To keep the quarter crack from spreading, I gave him exaggerated pressure relief at the site of the crack.



His lamellar wedge has been greatly reduced, and his foot is looking much less like a pancake. Although the bottoms of his feet are much flatter than I would like, he is totally sound barefoot on the barn's dirt floor and in the track sand. He is still too sore to walk at all on any hard surfaces such as concrete.


As you may know, I tell clients that I will only trim their horses if those horses are being fed a dry pelleted food. I cannot make such demands at the track, because (unfortunately) it has been shown that racing horses need the extra energy (sugar) in the sweet feed to perform at their best. And so it is particularly interesting to note that Banfish has made such improvements despite being kept on a sweet feed diet. Keep in mind that the sweet feed fed to racehorses is very different from the typical $5 sweet feed found at a backyard barn. Although racehorse feed is covered in molasses (the real problem), it is also composed predominantly of vegetable oil, beet pulp, and other ingredients found in a dry pellet.

Banfish has been feeling great. So great that he tried to run away with the rider! With this new attitude change, he's been sent back to kindergarten to learn his manners and his steering.


Can we grow a truly healthy foot while still feeding the racehorse sweet feed? The verdict is still out, but with the improvements I've seen so far, I'm willing to keep up this experiment in hoof health and nutrition. We'll look at his feet again in a few months to see if the Easyboot Epics have won out over the molasses.

Ok well it's not exactly Tuesday but it was written on Tuesday so technically I'm not too far off. Kevin Myers began the series, Transition Tuesday, some time ago. Kevin chronicled not only the transition from shoes to barefoot with their horses, but also the transition for himself and Rusty. It was informative and sometimes hilarious. Unfortunately, you won't be reading about the greased pig effect of silicone and Gloves during MY transition, but I hope there will be something of use for someone! 

While I know most people who read the Easycare blogs are already barefoot and well on their way to success, there are others who have yet to or have just made the decision to yank the shoes off their horses. It's a scary decision if you're new to barefoot/booted riding, but once made, rarely will you go back. The decision is much less scary when you've done it before, but there is still a little anxiety as to how this particular horse at this particular time will handle the transition. 

Nero is a 9 year-old CMK gelding. He has 1,820 endurance miles. All shod. He is in his prime and absolutely *loves* his job. I'll be taking Nero on for the next year, and hope to add many successful endurance miles to his record. Of course, these miles will done booted. I can only hope to do this fine horse justice. 

Nero came to me in shoes, set about six weeks prior. He was off, right front, with no discernible reason. Upon close inspection, I came to the realization that I couldn't really fault his shoe job. While I obviously don't shoe my horses, if I did, I would want their feet to look like Nero's. His heels were nice and open, the shoes were set wide, and his break-over was very nice considering he was six or more weeks into the set. Setting the foot down, I noticed that there were no flares and his coronary bands were very straight and not pushed up like I see a lot of shod and even barefoot horses. This says a lot for the trim he was given prior to shoeing. 


That all said, I could see exactly what we'll be working toward! Given that he was so many weeks into the shoes, he had a lot of foot growth. It is amazing to look at a hoof that hasn't been trimmed in that long and see how much growth there is! I can totally see why people new to barefoot worry about the "look" of a barefoot hoof. It is so much shorter, overall! I will be sorry to tell his mom, but our boy will be a bit shorter when this is all said and done! That's ok, he's a little tall for me anyway :) 


Unfortunately, none of this gave much reason for his lameness. I could only hope pulling his shoes helped, but at least I knew pulling them wouldn't make him more lame, or I hoped anyway! Luckily, I married the right guy for this job! My husband, who is an equine veterinarian, came out to take a look at Nero and help (help meaning do) pull his shoes. He noticed right off the bat that there had been a nail set on the outside of the right front, much higher than the rest. Nero was obviously uncomfortable when pulling that side of the shoe off, and settled when the nail came out. He also had some slight separation of the white line at the quarters, and had a funny looking crack along the toe that may have had too much pressure from shoe and dirt, and could have been causing some soreness. At this point, it's all speculation. Time will tell. 



After pulling Nero's shoes, I very lightly rasped the walls to round them, and headed back to the round pen. While I know he needs a trim, I like to give them a bit of time to settle without changing everything all at once. As for that day, wouldn't you know Nero was SOUND! Sound and sassy - a great combination! He was turned out on the hills with the other two boys the next day, and I will be doing a real trim on him in a few days.

While this isn't the best time of the year to transition due to the fact it's about the freeze and get REALLY hard, we'll do our best! Throughout the winter, I'll be writing once a month about our experiences getting Nero going from shoes to boots and hopefully completely barefoot as he lets us know he's ready. This is the fourth horse I'll have transitioned from shoes to bare, hopefully the fourth SUCCESSFUL horse! This horse has incredible feet and incredible abilities as an athlete. I cannot wait to see what Nero can teach me through the process. 



Next time: why you should buy Easyboots instead of crack. Oh yes. There are many reasons. 

Happy Riding! 

~ Amanda Washington
SW Idaho 

I recently attended the Moab Canyons Endurance Ride in Moab, Utah. The landscapes were picturesque to say the least.


There were many riders, as one would expect at a fabulous ride, but it wasn't the footing that had my full attention it was the plethora of boots.

I saw many of the favorite Glove on numerous horses, even my own. I saw one horse wearing the Original Easyboots on all fours and I saw another 50-miler with the Easyboot Bares on all fours. There were boots everywhere. Our very own Bootmeister, Christoph Schork, was there offering to help with Glue-Ons to anyone who needed it. In my mind, there were more booted horses than not. Then again, my attention is drawn to the Easyboots, so I am a little biased. The one place I did not see boots: alone, left along the trail. I think this was a great boot ride and very sucessful.

I rode day 1, a 55 miler, in Gloves on the fronts. I did not use tape or glue and I did not have one boot mishap. Going that far with reliable boots is exhilarating.


I also rode day 3, a 25 miler, on my big TWH. She wore her Gloves on the fronts only as well. Again, I never had a boot emergency, twist or malfunction. You get the point.

Here is a "back cam" of my Gloves about a mile from the finish line.


In closing, I would like to say again, that doing a distance ride, or any type of ride for that matter, with a reliable boot is beyond words. Thank you EasyCare!

Submitted by Tami Rougeau, Team Easyboot 2011 Member

Raising Amatzing Grace (aka May) has been a trial in patience, but it has all paid off. She recently finished her second 100 mile ride at the Virginia City 100 and at the same time completed the NASTR Triple Crown in sixth place. This series of rides is endurance at it finest and May really rose to the occasion.


I came upon May when I was searching for siblings to my other mare. May was a gangly, thin, 18-month old and certainly not what I was looking for. But the owner needed to move some horses and her doe-like eyes just grabbed at my heart. Oh well, what are you going to do but walk her the several blocks home? My neighbor took one look at her and very nicely said congratulations (her face said "what on earth are you going to do with that?").  Recently she actually admitted that her first thought was just that and that I had lost my mind. 


Not only was she underweight but she had photo sensitivity burns on every white mark, face and legs. It took nearly six months to get her legs completely healed. Her legs were left with scars and sensitivity that have been an ongoing challenge for us. She is prone to scratches and will break out with the least rub. For early Easyboot users this posed a huge problem.

Another issue for May is that her (otherwise awesome) feet are not the "perfect" Easyboot size and shape. The wideness of her feet means that she ends up in a bigger boot to accommodate the width making it too big for the length. This results in a loose heel and boots that do not stay on. 

As sweet and loving as this little bay mare is, she can be nervous and flighty. When she is nervous she wants to move her feet. It probably bears mentioning that when she was young she was not very coordinated (hence the pun of her name, she was anything but graceful and it truly was amazing). Doing her feet was interesting at first. She would not stand on three legs. Lift a foot to work on it and down she went. We had never seen anything like it. We had to train her to stand on three legs by putting her against the fence. After about three weeks of this she got it, out of the blue she just started standing up. She was so proud of herself, you could see it in her face. In fact she was so proud of her new trick that she would continuously stand on just three legs. She still does it, especially if she is looking for attention or particularly happy about something. It is this sweetness that made the persistence worth every bit of the frustration.

So back to the challenge of the boots. We started off in Original Easyboots. After several episodes of boot loss, it became evident that we needed something else. About this time, Easycare put out the Epic and the Bare, both with gaiters. Brilliant idea, unless you have a horse who is prone to Scratches and can't tolerate any rubbing. On top of that, we also still had the fit problem. Being a minimalist I really liked the concept of the Bare so that is what we started with. It was a nightmare and resulted in our pulling at the lunch stop at Wild West in 2007. The frustrating thing was that we would adapt our booting, carefully trim and things would work well for a ride or two then it would stop working and we would have to go back to the drawing board. Thankfully there were a lot of choices back then.

In an effort to deal with the rubs, we used many of the various methods including vet wrap, tube socks and nylons. The vet wrap and the tube socks helped somewhat with the fit as well as the rubs but then we would have issues when conditions were wet. Nylons worked well but did nothing to keep sand out and during warm weather they created more heat. We did finally get a solution in the form of neoprene cuffs that we made from a sweat belt and Velcro tabs. This has worked for us for the last couple of years.

Between the fit and the rubbing I was pretty much done with the whole barefoot thing so I took a break and shod her for a few months so that her Scratches could heal and we could do more training to try to get her to move more efficiently. I love having barefoot horses for many reasons, so this was a hard decision, but it was the right one for the time. Thankfully it only lasted a few months and I had a plan.

Our next try was in Epics and this worked much better as we could adjust them pretty tight after they were on. I still used the vet wrap and sometimes the tube socks. The Scratches were still a big issue and our ride schedule was definitely impacted but this also gave us time to work out our boot fitting issues as well as her emotional issues.  In 2009, May tore her check ligament and underwent stem cell therapy. It worked great, we also took our time doing rehab and brought her back pretty slow. She ended up with that entire season off from competition.

When she finally came back in 2010 Easycare had come out with the Glove and glue ons.  That year we worked with Dave Rabe and were able to get a fairly decent fit with the Gloves.  That same year, my friends Lucy Trumbull and Leslie Spitzer introduced me to the neoprene cuffs which have been part of the final answer to our rubs. The solution for our Scratches came in the form of white vinegar. We wash her legs after ever ride and then spray her legs with the vinegar. I still have to check her legs daily for any nicks or abrasions as these will also lead to scratches. Between these two things we have been free of scratches for over a year.

So we started off the 2010 season with a new plan to use Gloves, along with the recommended athletic tape and the neoprene gloves. It worked like a charm and we had our best year yet. It may have only been 300 miles and five rides, but one of them was the Sunriver 100. We did all of these miles in Gloves and had no issues at all.

This year I had included the NASTR Triple Crown on my list of goals for May. Knowing that the 75 and the 100 are really rocky I wanted to increase the amount of protection. For the 75 I just put a bit of Goober Glue in the bottom of the Gloves to add a bit of cushion and to help keep the boot on correctly through the treacherous rocks. It worked fantastically and we had no issues at all (unless you count the torrential down pour we rode in). 

May's feet still don't measure up correctly for the boots but this summer Easycare came out with the Glove and Glue-On Wide sizes. Finally a sizing chart that was written for May's feet, or so I thought. In preparation for the Virginia City 100 I got her all trimmed nicely, waited a week and put on the boots. They fit like a dream and I thought that I finally had the text book fit that I had been looking for all these years. Upon arrival at ridecamp I set to putting on the Glue-Ons. What was a great fit three days earlier was not so good today on the front. The backs worked great. Thankfully, Dave Rabe was there and we went through our bags of tricks and finally got a size larger regular boot to fit OK on the front. It was no worse than I had been using successfully for the previous year but now she is in a full size bigger boot.

So maybe our problems are not solved perfectly, but we do have a system that is working really well for us. I do not believe that one should trim the foot to fit the boot but I do strongly believe that you have to have a correct trim. We use the Gloves most of the time and glue ons only for rocky 100s. Part of the secret to the Glue-Ons is having a good gluing protocol that works for you. The Adhere product is great as it sets up quickly. I don't use much, mostly just around the top of the boots. The Goober glue is nice and soft and provides a good cushion but it takes 24 hours to set up. I use liberal amounts of goober glue on the sole and bottom edge of the boot. We no longer have issues with scratches and our boots fit just fine. We might never get that textbook fit, but persevering and working through all of the issues was well worth it all. 

So if you are having issues, talk to others and take all suggestions. Be patient and persevere. You never know what will work for you.

Tami Rougeau

What's life without a little variety? I'm talking big movin', big footed, big boned, big headed kinda variety. I recently agreed to take on a project for a good friend. The "project" is actually not much of a project, but seems to be more of reward at this time. 


Meet Breve, also lovingly known as Moose Jaw, a 7-year old Shagya gelding. He's tall, dark and handsome in a rough kinda way, but there is something else there. He seems to be a special guy, and I am excited to get to know him. While we're getting to know him and re-working his feet a bit, we'll call it Project Moose. 


Of course the first thing I look at any more is feet. While in the past I have always been drawn to a pretty face, lots of chrome and the "wow" factor, I have lately begun to realize there is more to it than all that! Through the experiences of several horses with difficult feet, one starts to feel like things could sometimes be easier. This is where a good overall shape to the feet can become an obsession when considering a new prospect. Luckily, this gelding has nice feet that will transform into beautiful, albeit LARGE beautiful feet in no time.


What I see right now are feet that are in need of a little makeover. He appears to be naturally high on the insides of both fronts, and has the typical need of a toe-ectomy that most "pasture trimmed" horses have. These bad boys will be easy to fix.


Because the wind was blowing at approximately 265MPH this afternoon, I very barely skimmed the surface. Took down a little medial wall, dipped the quarters a tad and backed up the toes slightly. Did I mention it was windy? I quickly ditched my trimming efforts to watch the frisky fall ponies romp in the cool afternoon instead. 


This weekend, after buying a new rasp (holy crap I didn't realize how BAD mine is until using someone's new one last week!), I plan to fully trim those big old feet. He measures into a size three - yes, I said that right - THREE (!) Easyboot Glove, which are on the way. However, part of Project Moose is to ride him barefoot as much as possible to develop rock-crunching bare hooves this winter. 

What are your winter projects? 

'Till next time, 
~ Amanda Washington
SW Idaho

Submitted by Crysta Turnage

Wow. Where to even begin? A huge thank you to EasyCare and Ride Management for the Cooley Ranch Rides for the opportunity to win a ride entry. I'm so glad I got the chance to attend this ride! It was a wonderfully run and beautiful event and if it wasn't such a long drive from Reno I would for sure be back every year.

My horse Dream Makker, or Diego as he's more fondly known, is a 6 year old Arabian gelding.  He is currently barefoot and Easyboot Gloves are our boot of choice.  For this ride, I wanted to add some additional cushioning to the Gloves, after a lameness pull at NASTR from sore feet - most likely a combination of trimming too much too soon before the ride, and the hard packed rocky footing. So to help increase our chances of success for two days at Cooley, I opted to add Goober Glue padding to the Easyboot Gloves. Friday before we left for our six hour drive to camp, I carefully cleaned hooves, applied my standard three wraps of athletic tape, and then installed Dig's Gloves. I had predrilled a hole in the bottom of each boot and then just pumped the Goober Glue into the boot from the bottom once it was on my horse. While this was a fairly clean and easy way to add the glue, it was also not the recommended method. It did work okay, but the downfalls were that 1) I couldn't see how much glue was actually going into each boot, but rather was having to judge by pumps of the gun and 2) it was very difficult to actually pump the gun, since I was creating pressure with the glue and then having to hold the foot and wait for it to spread before I could manage to squeeze the next 1/4" on the trigger. Next time, I'll add the Goober Glue directly to the Gloves before putting the boots on the horse.

The drive over to the coast from Reno went smoothly but took longer than expected due to hitting some traffic in Napa. My son decided to come with me on this trip, as my dad and step mom decided that it sounded like a fun time camping and hanging out and decided to drive over from Auburn and meet me as well. For someone who attends most my rides solo, this was a welcome change. Got to camp and quickly checked in and vetting through, installed Diego with his food, water, and a mash, just in time to hurry over for the ride meeting and to get my map for the next day. I've never done a Bay Area ride before, so while there were a few faces I recognized, I did feel a bit out of my element. However, my social butterfly tendencies, and the wonder family atmosphere created by Ride Management, Cynthia Ariosta and Forrest Tancer, who had laid out a huge long row of picnic tables and hosted a Friday evening potluck dinner and wine tasting, soon had me chatting with others and asking for tips on what to expect over the weekend.

Day 1
Saturday morning I woke up and got saddled. Having sold my saddle and shipped it off three days before the ride, I rode in a friend's borrowed Freeform Classic with a borrowed (from someone else) smaller seat. Thankfully I had been demoing the saddle from her for a few weeks, so knew it would work for us. Dig was UP in the morning. He dumped the saddle off once before I could get it girthed on and was in general being a pain. Thankfully he already had his Easyboot Gloves on, all I had to do was tighten up the gaiters and we were good to go. I hand walked him around in camp for about 10 minutes before the actual start, and at about 5 minutes after, started off on foot in that direction. Cynthia (RM) had warned that "this is the most difficult start of any ride I've ever done", so I wasn't exactly thrilled to be hiking up the hill with a pony flotation device in tow. At least he has enough manners to not pull me, although he does push with his shoulder. I stepped off the trail in a couple of spots to run him around at the end of my reins, and then continued walking up on foot.

Somehow, magically, he has this little good behavior reminder that seems to click in right at about 1 mile. So after hiking to the TOP of the first hill, we hit that mark, he sighed, shook his full body, put his head down, and I knew I would be okay to get on. I pulled off the trail and had just gotten mounted and on my way when a group of three ladies came by. I tucked in behind them and followed them down the top of the hill, across the paved road from camp, and up into the next set of hills. They were setting a nice pace, trotting some but walking anything overly steep (which was quite a bit at this point). We started chatting a bit, I asked if it was okay if I stayed with them for a while, explained I was from Reno, didn't really know anyone, hadn't done the ride before, Diego likes buddies, yadda yadda and they were totally fine with me riding with them as the little caboose for the group. The first 3-4 miles are a blur of steep climbs followed by short rolling descents. Eventually, we came to a long down hill where everyone got off and we continued down on foot. Very steep, loose scree footing found us all, human and equine alike, slip sliding our way down into the river valley at the bottom. There we remounted and followed a winding trail through the lower portions, crossing the rivers and adjoining creeks off and on, with smaller more rolling terrain (this ride has very little actual FLAT). We came to a large crossing where the photographer, one of my favorites Rene Baylor, was shooting and I got some lovely shots. A couple of miles later, and we arrived at the first vet check which was at around 9 miles.


Still in his first season, and only his second 50, it seems to generally take Diego about 5 minutes to reach criteria (60 bpm) after arrival and we headed over to the crew spot my family had secured for me. We had a 30 minute hold at this point. Diego ate his mash and nibbled some alfalfa, but didn't truly hoover the food down. He ate pretty well for about 5, maybe 10 minutes, then noticed some sheep in the adjoining pasture and became very focused on them. I took him over to be vetted, where we cleared with all A's from Dr. Jamie Kerr. The group of 3 had pulsed down a couple of minutes faster than I had, so left the vet check just as I was getting ready to walk over to the out timers. So when it was my time, I left and trotted down the road solo. Dig knew there were horses ahead and had his little after burners going, power trotting along the road parallel to the river from the vet check. Crossed the river again and powered up the opposite bank and along the rolling road for what seemed like a very, very brief amount of time, until catching the group of three at the next water stop. We rode that bit of trail from the river to the house where the water stop was again the next day, and I was AMAZED at how far it actually was. It was probably at least 3+ miles, and at the time I would have sworn it was hardly anything - I was so blissed out on my horse powering along the trail all by himself so strong and focused.

Alas we were reunited with our buddies. As I came trotting up, they exclaimed "There's Reno!" and thus I was dubbed for the entire weekend. We hadn't bothered to exchange names until this point, so I guess as they were leaving the check, one had asked "Where's Reno?" and it stuck. All had ridden the ride before and were planning on going again the next day, and Dig seemed very happy and comfortable with the steady pace they were setting. Plus they didn't mind me tagging along at all, which was appreciated. The second loop (as was true both days) was the most difficult loop. We had several long climbs that resulted with us riding along the ridge tops. You could see for miles, even see the steam plumes for the geysers in surrounding towns (guessing Geyserville). The weather could not have been better. It was definitely humid for us desert rats (Dig & I) but at low 80's and often a breeze, I'll certainly take it. I guess it was around 100 degrees for the ride last year in June. Everyone was gushing about how lucky we were with the weather.


This next loop was about 18 miles and I'll just say it was steep and hard. Diego's and my opinion of what was considered a trottable hill was certainly altered. We got in off the 18 mile loop and Diego was HOT. He again took his 5 minutes to pulse down to 60 and we got our in time. Once again the other 3 were a couple of minutes ahead of me, but I was so pleased with how well Diego was doing. RM provided sandwiches, chips, cookies and fruit both days at the away check. I grabbed another handful of carrots from the volunteers, and went back over to Dig. We went over and vetted around 40 minutes into the 60 minute hold, and he received a mixture of A's and B's. Gut sounds were a B as I recall. I saddled back up, Diego with an expression of SHOCK that I had the NERVE to put the saddle back on him (!!!  It was only his second 50) and kept an eye on when the others were getting ready to leave.


We had a 20 mile loop back to camp at this point. It worked out that the other 3 vetted a bit late, so we were all able to leave together from the check. This last loop went south and did a big sweeping loop through the hills, climbing to the top of the ridge line and back down several times, before taking us along the edge of a newly planted vineyard and then dumping us on a fairly exposed and somewhat flat dirt road. You could look down onto a lake (Lake Sonoma?) and it looked so cool and inviting. We eventually came into some of the ranch houses where there was a trough with a hose and all the horses got sprayed and cooled off before leaving. After leaving the houses we continued along the road for a bit until there was a cattle guard, where we crossed a field and then came out onto the paved road that lead toward ride camp (it's on a private ranch so traffic is very very light). OMG what a climb this road is!!!! Just up and up and up and up. A real strong grade that goes on for what's probably about 2 miles or so. Thankfully there's a trough about 1/2 way up, where all the horses drank heartily. When we neared the end of the paved bit, the group trotted off and Diego just kept walking. He neighed once or twice, but that was it, still on a loose rein just going along. We turned off from the road and climbed the last of the hill on the dirt trail. The other 3 had gone on ahead at this point, so Dig and I trotted that last mile down off the hill and into camp and the finish all by ourselves (beaming) and crossed the finish line at 3:17 pm for a ride time of 7:47. We ended up finishing 28 out of 50 finishers, with 52 starters. That was the lowest pull rate in the history of the ride, I'm sure the mild weather was a huge factor.

Took Diego back to the trailer, pulled tack and checked the boots, the first time I had touched them all day. With all the water crossings and the dirt, I was scared to mess with the velcro overmuch and have it quit sticking. He had one teeny rub on the lateral heel bulb of his left rear, and that was it. I put a bit of Desitin on it and the backs of his pasterns for good measure and left the gaiters fastened loosely. I checked again the next morning, and could hardly tell anything was ever there. I cleaned up a bit and visited before having an extraordinarily excellent catered paella dinner, got a super cute completion T-shirt (Cooley Ranch - Got Hills?  Which, BTW, the answer to this is YES!), and packed to go for Day 2 (riding the 30-mile LD).
 
Day 2
Before I had even left to go to the ride, I was waffling on the idea of riding two 50's back-to-back. Considering Diego had only done ONE 50 to date, at Rides of March, in 11-something hours, and knowing that Cooley Ranch was considered to be one of the harder rides in the region, I was somewhat doubtful as to our ability to actually complete 100 miles that weekend. At the end of the day Saturday, Diego was obviously tired so I elected to just ride the 30 on Sunday. I had been toying with the idea off and on Saturday, that I would maybe try to ride the LD alone. While Diego was happy to keep up with the group, I wanted to see how he would pace on a ride entirely on his own. Having started Dig under saddle, I can state he has truly only ridden out on the trail by himself a handful of times, ever. Most of our conditioning rides are done with company of some sort or another. And while Diego is happy to lead, be in the middle, or follow behind, I wanted to see how and what he would do without having a buddy along to help encourage and/or tow him with any sort of pacing. Plus I figured I'd be pretty safe to try my experiment on a Day 2, when he was a little less enthusiastic all around.

Sunday morning saw a much calmer Diego. Getting tacked up was no issue, his slight rub from our Easyboot Gloves the day before was barely noticeable and not tender to the touch at all. I only had to walk him around a bit to just get him moving and ensure that he looked good and wasn't any worse for the wear and was indeed ready to go again. Diego was relaxed but forward, I was able to mount up and ride out of camp a couple of minutes after the actual start. The start was the same as yesterday for the first 3 miles, up the hill, down the hill, steep up hill, gradual small down, another big up, etc. The cloud cover was pretty thick and it as actually misting on us. I had a moment of hoping I wasn't going to need a rain jacket, but continued on undaunted. Initially, I was riding off and on with a couple other horses, passing and/or being passed, but I kept Diego to a walk on the up hills while they were trotting some of them so we started to spread out. At the top of the hill, we went right instead of straight/left to get to the vet check in a shorter course than the day before. As I crested the hill, I got off to continue down on foot until things started to level out. After remounting, it was just a short bit until we went past a volunteer who was manning the gate into the sheep pasture. After having seen Dig's reaction to the sheep at the vet check yesterday, I was keeping my eyes peeled for the little buggers. We were happily trotting along when we crested a hill and the sheep were laid out like a fuzzy gauntlet on either side of the trail in a flat open grassy area. Dig stopped and took stock of the situation. I hopped off and started to lead him through. Once he realized that the sheep were scared of the big bad horse, and were in fact moving AWAY from HIM, he didn't care anymore and I remounted and rode the rest of the way through the flock. In just a few hundred yards, we arrived at the gate out of the pasture and at the vet check for a quick trot by (no check at this point ~ 5 or 6 miles).

We got the okay clear to go from the vet's and headed over to the water troughs. Dig didn't want to leave just yet, thinking it unfair that we were AT the vet check and no goodies had yet been dispensed. I managed to convince him that, indeed, he needed to carry on down the trail, and rode him across the wooden bridge and out the trail we had come in on yesterday. Rene Baylor shot a new favorite photo of mine here. Speaking of trotting along, Dig was doing awesome!!! He had been on task and just motoring down the trail all morning. Happily walking along when asked and trotting where ever the trail allowed. We had some common out-and-back on this section, so it was a bit harder to encourage him along UP the hill while being passed by all the 50's coming DOWN and back to the check, including his 3 new BFF's from yesterday.

This next loop was very enjoyable, up a big climb out of the vet check and then through some rolling hills and past a small pond on the property. The pond setting was so beautiful, cattails all along the bank, still as glass, with a large grassy area, all dotted with large oak trees. There was an aluminum row boat overturned near the bank, and all I could think was that if I had a book and some hobbles how enjoyable it would be to just spend the rest of the day floating in that setting, listening to Dig crop the grass. Sheer bliss. There was one sketchy creek crossing that I had to dismount for, since Diego decided to show off his jumping prowess and I could tell it was going to happen, and a couple of others that were nice and deep where I let the pone splash to his heart's content and thoroughly soak both himself and most of my legs. It's nice to have a "self-sponging" horse on occasion. ;) We hit the downhill off this loop, taking us lollipop like back along the same trail to the vetcheck, and the grin splitting my face as that boy tucked his butt and jogged down the hill should have won me some bugs in my teeth! He is a downhoill horse! It was just like Donna Snyder-Smith talks about, jogging on a trampoline, legs pumping up and down, collapsing into the hip, while my rear stayed nestled in the saddle and we just cruised down these hills with seemingly no effort - I couldn't see Dig but I think he was smiling as much as I was.

When we reached the top of the steeper longer hill into the vetcheck, he stopped and turned to look at me, "Um remember Mom, you got off here yesterday, twice." So I obliged him and dismounted and we continued on in. It was warmer and a bit more humid today. I scooped water on him at the troughs and then continued over to the P&R area. He was close but still a bit high, hanging around 64 when criteria was 60. I told the lady it seems to take him about 5 minutes, and sure enough, at exactly 5 minutes from our in time he pulsed down to 60. Vetted through with all A's on the card too! Everyone in ear-shot had to listen to me gush on about how fabulous he was doing and how proud of him I was and yadda yadda. I did manage to shut up long enough to eat most of a sandwich. At this point, we were around 12 miles or so into the 30 and my out-time after the hour long hold was 10:30-ish something as I recall (7 am start).

We left out and followed the same trail as loop 2 from yesterday, down the road, across the river, and then parallel to the river on a fairly flat road up to a house with a trough and hose, another mile or so past the house, and yesterday's trail turned left while we continued on straight. I think this was new/different trail from past years as management has been working hard to make Day 2 a bit easier, or at least not harder than Day 1, as in the past. The loop 2 that the 50's were doing today (not the LD) was still challenging, but was all new trail and quite beautiful from what I heard. While this portion seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye the day before, I realized how far it actually was today. Riding by ourselves was a bit of a challenge as it gives you so much more time to be exactly in the moment and focused on every small thing. I think I multi-task pretty well and enjoy watching the scenery, monitoring the footing, while also chatting with my fellow riders - which helps the time pass more quickly. Instead I had to just chatter on at Diego or in my head to myself - totally doable but it did make things seem to take longer. Eventually, we reached the lollipop portion of this loop and turned left into the creek bed, following the river, crossing multiple times, going along through the deep sandy/gravely footing for about a mile or so before starting up the one (and only) big climb on this portion of the loop. Dig just put his head down and started marching. At a walk but up and up and up we went, until finally reaching a glorious old weathered and half falling down barn at the summit of the hill. This ranch must have been beautiful and very interesting back when it was in full-scale running herds of livestock.

At the top, we had another of those hills that you look at and wonder exactly how you are going to get down. So I slithered down. I honestly considered just squatting and trying to slide down half on my butt. It was steep. Like a dysfunctional slinky Dig and I managed our downward descent. I would slither ahead and then stop to catch my footing, he would just keep trodding along behind me, his Gloves performing flawlessly. Eventually it wasn't as steep and I was able to walk more normally. Down, down, down we went until we reached a creek crossing at the bottom. Since I was already off, I grabbed my scoop and poured the water on while Dig drank deeply. We hit the road and Dig just happily settling into his brisk trot again - and away we went. I was starting to get a bit concerned about time. It was noon and we had to finish the ride, and be pulsed down by 2:15. I knew we were going to have to hustle it in and keep going in order to make it on time.

Finally reached the large river crossing. At this point, it was 1 pm and I had an hour and fifteen minutes to go the last 4 miles, but these miles included the huge 2+ mile climb along the paved road to the vet check. We set off, trotting where we could, following the paved road away from the vet check and toward camp right after crossing the river. Dig objected a bit to the left hand turn, knowing food and goodies were at the check to the right, but continued on when told to do so. We walked off and on, and I was so grateful to have on boots so I could just trot down the asphalt road when needed/wanted rather than having to deal with the narrow shoulder in some spots. We went through a small grouping of houses and then started the climb. And so we walked, and walked, and walked, and climbed that monster hill. Dig was hungry and would head toward the side of the trail for grass - I would steer him to the larger clumps of long grass, where he could grab a big mouthful and then eat it like a child slurping spaghetti, chewing the stalks down as we went. Shortly before reaching the halfway mark, we were passed by the first place 50 mile horse, just trot, trot, trotting up the hill. I was impressed. Wow! The next 2 horses in the 50 knew they couldn't catch the guy in front of them and were more concerned with the lady coming behind, who had a strong downhill horse and they thought might push that final mile down hill to try to over take them. So they also were trot, trot, trotting up the hill. Dig and I were suitably impressed, but neither of us felt much compulsion to join them in that endeavor.

I'm watching the time this whole climb wishing I had paid attention yesterday to how long it took us. I know I have a mile of down hill into camp from the very top. I'm wanting to reach the finish line no later than 2 pm, to give me a full 15 minutes to pulse down if needed. So in the sun we continue our march up, and up, and up the hill. Finally, there's the dirt turn off from the road! It's 1:35, maybe another 5 minutes of climbing maybe to reach the actual summit. Up, up, up - you can do it Dig! I'm so proud of you! We finally crest the top and I ask, "Can you trot?" and he says, "Sure! It's downhill!" and off we go, down off the mountain. I got a little teary-eyed - so overwhelmed by what we had accomplished this weekend. We trotted down the hill and walked into camp around 1:45 or so. I took him over to the water trough and scooped him, and sure enough, in just about 5 minutes he was pulsed down and we had our official finish time, and after vetting, completion.  He did it! 80 miles in two days on a tough, tough course. So impressed with my horse! I honestly cannot say if I am more proud of our mid-pack finish in the 50 on Day 1, or the fact that he went out there and conquered the Day 2 30 totally solo and a bit tired, riding our own ride, in such a relaxed and impressive manner.

I'm still blissed out and in awe of what we did.

Mark your calendars: Cooley Ranch Rides in 2012 are June 9 & 10. 

The 2011 edition of Tevis was more successful than 2010 for Easyboot Glue-Ons. Of the 152 horse hooves that started the ride in Easyboot Glue-Ons, there was only one boot loss. That's a 0.7% failure rate for Glue-Ons.


With the cool, damp temperatures during the week leading up to the event, we took extra precautions during our gluing sessions.

Here's what we asked of each rider in preparation for their individual gluing appointments:

1. Bring a well-trimmed horse.
2. No oils or hoof conditioner on the feet or hooves.
3. Refrain from washing the horse before with shampoo. The oils from the shampoo run down the legs and coat the feet.
4. No fly spray on the feet and hoof walls.
5. If it’s raining, keep your horse in the trailer or stall with shavings. We may glue inside your trailer or stall. Don’t unload in the rain or wet. Find us first and we'll agree on a plan together.
6. Keep your boot shells dry and clean. Do not to handle them with bare hands, be especially careful not to touch the inside of the boot shell: oils from your hands stick to the boot.
7. Don't glue the day before the ride: the glues will not set up quickly enough in the cooler conditions and the risk of boot loss will increase significantly.

So if you're gluing in cool, damp conditions, you should follow the above protocol. The one boot loss that did take place was on a horse that we did not glue ourselves.

1. In last week's blog, '5 Facts About Easyboots at Tevis 2011', I listed the finishing riders who used Easyboot Glue-Ons, but missed the 84th place finisher, Frances Cole. Congratulations to Frances, and to Leslie Carrig of High Desert Hoof Care, who applied the boots for her.
2. Statistics and placing data include only those riders who have identified themselves to us as riding in Easyboot products. If you or someone you know is not included on this list, please send me a note. Tevis completion statistics taken from the Tevis Cup website at http://www.teviscup.org/webcast/finishline.php.

Next week: Step-By-Step: The Gluing Process for Tevis 2011.

Anne and her daughter, Bunn, recently did the Fun Ride at Sangre Scenic Fall Pioneer Ride "to get some sort of idea of just what an endurance ride would be like as well as what kind of people do this endurance riding thing."

Anne says:

"Luckily the weather was pretty decent and Bunn and I were able to sleep in since we didn't have to show until sometime between 8am and 9am since we were the only two "Fun" riders.

Once I led Cadence (Tenessee Walker Stallion) away from the other horses at base camp (evidently there was a mare calling his name because he was a little insistent about staying around that area), we had a good time. Bluebirds accompanied us for about a quarter of a mile and later, we had a coyote warily watching and circling us. He was pretty close, too! We poked along about half of the fourteen mile loop and then the bug kinda bit us when we watched a group of six riders lope past us.


Gypsy a Tenesee Walker mare, who would try to look like an Arab every time she saw one, did not like the other horses leaving her behind and she decided the poking around stuff was over. So, Bunn and I picked up the pace, Cadence doing a nice running walk and canter while Gypsy let Bunn experience her speed rack. We jumped over a few small ditches. Bunn jumped Gypsy over a combination log to ditch, which turned out to be a jump over the log, jump down into the ditch and then jump out, much to Bunn's surprise. We both had a good laugh over that.


Cadence was wearing his new Easyboot Gloves and Gyps had her Easyboot Bares on. Neither one had any problems and were sure footed and happy the entire time with protective horse boots. When we got back for our final vet check, the ride manager told us it looked like we hadn't even ridden the 14 miles since neither horse was sweaty or dirty. Guess the summer trail rides into the mountains paid off.

Anyway, we both had a total blast and I'm looking forward to trying a 25 mile ride in the Spring with Gyps.


Thank you again for fitting both Gyps and Cadence with their sneakers!"

I had the shoes taken off of my Fox trotter a year ago to go bare. He gaits very well without shoes but I want to be able to ride him in the Missouri Ozarks and the trails are rocky so I got him some boots. I tried a few different styles. I had a pair of Original Old Mac's and Old Mac's G2 and they worked fine except in soft creek gravel some of the small gravel would get inside and press in on his hoof. So I changed to the Easyboot Bares for his front hooves and Easyboot Edges for his hind feet.


They are great, he can gait, and do all of the things a trail horse needs to do. I am 69 years old and I am able to put the boots on without help. I might say that the Edge is easier to apply than the Bare. I am so happy that he can do his job in boots.

Name: Liz R.
City: Bloomsdale, Missouri
Equine Discipline: Trail
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Edge

The 2011 Tevis Cup 100 Mile Horse Race is days away.  The EasyCare staff will be helping many of the horses competing in the event with Easyboot Glue-On boot installation during the week of October 3rd.  This is the third consecutive year that Easyboots have been the leading alternative choice of hoof protection choices for Tevis Cup riders. The lightweight race boots are perfect for the rocky, technical conditions. 


The weather forecast for California and the Sierra Mountains calls for rain, snow and wind for Tuesday October 3rd, Wednesday October 4th and Thursday October 5th.  The weather looks like it will clear for the event but will present difficult conditions for our gluing teams.  Wet and cold conditions present challenges but should not influence glue-on success. 

Here is my shortlist of tips and tricks that make hoof boot gluing more successful in wet or cold weather conditions. 

1. Start with a well trimmed horse before the event.  The last thing needed to complicate wet and cold conditions is a poorly trimmed hoof. 
   
2. Glues don't do well with oil, moisture and cold.  Make sure no oils or hoof conditioners get onto the hoof.  Refrain from washing the horse before the event with shampoo: the oils run down the legs and coat the feet.  No fly spray on the feet and hoof walls before the event.
3. If it’s raining, keep your horse in a trailer or stall with shavings.  Although it may be cramped in there, it's a perfect place to glue because it's warm and dry. 
   
4. Keep your boot shells dry and clean in the plastic bags they ship in. Do not to handle them with bare hands, be especially careful not to touch the inside of the boot shell.  Oils from your hands stick to the boot and compromise the bond with the glue.
   
5. Warm the boots, warm the glue and warm the hoof.  Try to get them all to the same temperature level.  Heat guns are very useful to warm and dry the hoof.  They can also be used to heat the glue-on shells in cold conditions.  Try placing the glue packages on the floorboards of a vehicle with the heater on. 
   
6. If the horse's feet are wet or muddy, use denatured alcohol on the hoof after they have been cleaned.  The alcohol helps pull moisture out of the hoof. 
   
7. Use a heat gun.  The heat gun dries and warms the hoof.  Do not skip this step. 
   
   

Success in Easyboots at Tevis.

Wet and cold conditions make hoof boot gluing a bit more challenging, but with the tricks above you will be successful.  Wishing all the 2011 Tevis riders the best of luck!

Horse Rescue Moppett here. I'm the cute one with my friend the beautiful grey Horse Rescue Yasmin and the black Horse Rescue Carly. Our names will give you the clue that we have history but we are a happy place now.


One legacy of my past is founder, later diagnosed as IR, at the drop of a hat. The vet wanted to call it quits but my mum said no there must be another way to locking me up and having me on stravation diets or alternatively; well, you know what.

Lots of research led her learn about barefoot trimming and boots. Enter Andrew Bowe, The Barefoot Blacksmith, Duncan McLaughlin, trimmer extraordinaire, Carol Layton, nutrition guru and Mike Ware, boot supplier. These people considered a little companion pony was just as important as my ridden mates.

For the past three years, I have been happily accomanying HR Yasmin and HR Carly on trail rides, sometimes as club mascot for official rides or being out in front on single lane bush tracks. I even have my own set of metal yards for big away trips. I have Easyboot Epics, Yasmin and Carly have Easyboot Bares. Sometimes we don't need them, but they are always in the saddle bags just in case. I have to wear a grazing muzzle during the day to limit my grass intake and nights are spent in a cosy stable and yard with special hay and dinner, but life is wonderful. Boots helped me get back in the game. Cheers HR Moppett.

Name: Johanna Yule
City: Windsor, New South Wales, Australia
Equine Discipline: Trail
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Bare

I met Phoenix exactly 4 years ago when he was a newly gelded 3-year-old and I was nearly 50.  He was looking for a home at a bargain price.  You see he was a Thoroughbred, bred to race, who as fortune would have it "didn't like to run fast."  I fell in love with him at first sight even though he was underweight and a lot of horse to handle.  I told myself his problems could be solved with some good groceries and kindness and wrote the check with enthusiasm.  So that I wouldn't have to worry about his feet while we were adjusting to each other, I had metal shoes put on immediately.  That was the first and only time.  I began to notice that his natural gait was very low to the ground and that he dragged his back toes with almost every stride leaving him with an unnaturally square toe.  I investigated possible nutritional, behavioral, structural and developmental causes for his gait.  I concluded to the best of my ability that was his way of going and so long as he remained sound I'd do my best to work with it and continue his training.  We immediately began a diet to support good hoof growth and when the shoes came off I didn't replace them.  I wanted to have complete control over his feet so I could keep them balanced and short and started trimming them myself every couple of weeks. 


I realized I would need the help of protective gear for his feet since I planned an athletic future for Phoenix.  I had seen EasyBoots on the market for many years and realized it was time to give them a try.  I loved having various designs to choose from.  We started out with Epics all around.  His front feet were easy to fit snuggly, but not so much in the rear.  He'd wear the buckles off of the epics by dragging his feet, still his precious toes were nicely protected.  Eventually we settled on Bares.  They go on nice and tight and have a 'toe shield' on the front as if they were designed specially for my horse.  Because Phoenix was so tough on his boots I had to learn to make repairs.  Since my local dealer was less than supportive, I went directly to customer service at EasyCare, Inc. with wonderful results.  I learned it wasn't too hard to work on the boots and rather than tossing old boots I cultivated an extensive bone yard for scavanging parts. 


Phoenix continued to get plenty of exercise and good nutrition and the quality of his hooves was better than I expected.  Imagine that, a Thoroughbred with good feet?!  Two years ago we started experimenting with limited distance endurance racing.  He finished the races sound.  I was thrilled.  During one race we rode through a severe thunder and lightening storm with multiple stream crossings and flooded trails.  I lost a boot.  At the vet check the farrier was about to put on a metal shoe so we could finish the race.  He commented that it was a shame to nail a shoe onto such a healthy hoof.  At that moment, as if by magic, the missing boot was found and returned to me by one of the riders.  We were able to reboot and continue the race.
 
Brenda and Phoenix

Do you have an ex-race horse that you are rehabilitating? Are you going barefoot?

Many articles have been written about club 'footed' horses. Actually, horse do not have 'feet', dogs and humans do, but horses have hooves. Therefore the term 'barefoot', as much as it is in common use now, really is a misnomer. When we ride without hoof protection, we ride 'bare hoof'. Ah well, a pet peeve of mine!

Today, I want to give an overview for the reasons club hooves occur and how we can manage and improve on the situation.

Dr. Redden's classification of club hooves:


While Grade 3 and 4 are extreme and the horses are most likely very lame, Grade 2 and 3 are not that uncommon. I will mostly focus on these two grades.

How do these club hooves happen or develop?

First we do have the genetic club hoof, the foal is born with it, where P3 is out of alignment with P2 and P1 and displays a steeper angle. This can only be observed on a radiograph.


Clearly visible on the first image: the dished dorsal hoof wall and  P3 is rotated downward and has a steeper angle compared to P1 and P2. These genetic downward rotation is very hard to overcome and correct.

Other causes for club hooves:

- Excessive pawing and consequently deep flexor tendon shortening

Already in the 1,800s, German farriers observed foals developing "Stelzhuf" during dry years or when kept in stalls and pawing for hours. The unpressured heels grew excessively and the toes developed dishes dorsally. Allowing plenty of pasture and space to roam, will help fixing this unhealthy habit in foals, that sometimes is also observable in adult horses.

-Epiphysitis

Occurring in young foals, when the long bones grow faster than the tendons. The tendons cannot keep up with that growth, thus getting very tight and not allowing to flex when the foal tries to step forward. Less weight over the heels will make the heel grow excessively and the deep digital flexor tendon is pulling the wings of P3 upward, thus rotating the tip of P3 downward. Often caused by too much protein intake. This is a case where your veterinarian can advise you best.

-Suprascapular nerve damage

The muscles that hold the scapula close to the body have a suprascapular nerve. Sometimes, when the horses leg gives out when bearing weight, this nerve can get damaged, thus impeding proper muscle movements. The stride is shortened, thus again, placing more weight over the toe and less pressure over the heel area on the affected side. Club hoof in the development. Veterinarians call this situation often 'Sweeney'.

-Muscle injuries and adhesions

The two muscles holding the scapula in place can get injured through jumping, riding fast or in a trot through dips in the trail, rough play in the pasture or by pinching and poorly fitted saddles. When these muscles are injured, often the horse is unwilling to extend the affected shoulder and leg, again resulting in shortened strides and toe landings with decreased heel pressure, resulting in the excessive heel growth.

-High/Low syndrome

Grazing horses, especially long legged horses with short necks can develop an habitual club hoof. The same hoof will always be forward and the other back. The back hoof will get pressure on the toe, developing a dorsal dish, the heels are mostly unpressured, growing faster than the toe.


This horse is habitually placing the right front back when eating/grazing close to the ground, thus developing a grade one (by Dr. Redden classification) club hoof.

Correctional measurements: feed higher above the ground.

All these conditions can get improved through careful stretching forward of the affected limb and massaging the groove between the body and the scapula. Below some images of massaging this area.


Here I start to gently massage and opening up the muscles around the scapula. Everything is still tight.


Slowly getting deeper into the fissure.


I switch using the side of my hand to open the space.


Further opening the space by applying more pressure with my sliding hand.


By now, more than half my hand disappears beneath the scapula. I keep opening the gap more and more, till the adhesions are loosened and the muscles supple (3 to 5 minutes will often be sufficient).

Be gentle, watch the body language of the horse: if she leans into you, licks the lips, moves the head towards you, it will feel good and you are getting results. Massage oil will help opening the scapula and relax your horse.

Training considerations:

When training a horse with a club hoof, make sure the saddle fits properly without pinching the shoulders. Focus on balanced riding. When posting in a trot, post on the clubbed side most of the time. When cantering, lead with the clubbed side. Work cantering circles with the club hoof on the inside, walk and trot circles with the clubbed hoof on the outside.

Trimming considerations:

Guard against the temptation to just cut the heels down to match the 'normal' side. When over trimming into live sole in the heel area, the hoof will respond quickly by growing even more sole thickness back, and that rather quickly. Furthermore, by thinning the sole, the lateral cartilages sink downward, thus raising the heels from within. By lowering the heels too much, the deep flexor tendon can get stretched and stressed too much, causing injury.

Mapping the sole will tell you how much to trim. Exfoliate the dead sole just to the live sole, but no further. No matter how high the heel is and how clubby the hoof looks. Leave the hoof wall and bars about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch longer than the heel. Keep the sole callous area on the toe, bevel the hoof wall and allow the flare to grow out. Trim a little often,  in a one or two week interval. Just remove the chalky dead sole and shorten the heels to the above mentioned length. With proper management, care, massage, training and feeding regimen and riding bare, the club hoof might just normalize surprisingly fast.

Below an example of a clubby hoof and the change that occurred within 5 months:


Notice the big dish on this habitual club hoof.


5 months later, the dish is greatly diminished, (notice that I did not rasp the dorsal hoof wall at all for this picture),  the hoof expanded and is now almost the same size as the 'normal' left hoof.


These are visible results, that proper trimming and management can succeed.

Protective Horse Boot considerations:

Barefoot Trimming, Natural Hoof Care, Bare hoof riding will all contribute to success. When selecting Easyboot Gloves, it is advisable to use powerstraps, especially if you have any dorsal hoof wall flares present.


This Easyboot Glove with Powerstrap was adjusted to the first image of the flared hoof photographed above. We do see a good and close fit on the hoof wall.

A few layers of athletic tape worked in this case as well.


When trotting horses with one club hoof, inevitably the sound of the hooves hitting the ground will differ from left to right. The clubbed hoofed leg will also not extend as far forward as the normal leg. This causes the trot to be somewhat uneven. Endurance riders know the importance of a sound horse that  leaves no question mark. Even more an incentive to manage and improve the club hooves.

Your Bootmeister

From the Global Endurance Training Center in Moab