Submitted by Leah Cain, Team Easyboot 2015 Member
Having a gelding that is hard on his boots makes me do some crazy and sometimes stupid things to keep the boots on. As we planned on riding at least two days at Strawberry Fields Endurance ride, I started to think of options and ideas to keep the boots on my horse Monte. I did not want to glue on because I plan on riding Tevis in Glue-Ons and want a perfect hoof environment for that. Strawberry Fields has lots of water crossings and climbing, the perfect environment for him to spin or push out of his Easyboot Gloves. I have tried Power Straps, Mueller Athletic Tape and 3M Elasticon tape with some success but still having some boot loss in this type of trail.
I read somewhere that someone had glued on Gloves with Sikaflex. I had to try it for myself. No, I am not smart enough to try it at home first! I proceeded to glue on the Gloves with Sikaflex the night before the ride in camp. It was much easier than Adhere because of it’s slow set up time. I glued two different horses this way. One was my stallion, TAR Pistol Pete, who is pretty mellow and will stand quietly. The other is my eight year old gelding OT Dyamonte Santo who is a busybody. Both horses spun out of the boot before they firmed up. Pete on one front and Monte on three.
Lesson number one learned: the horse must stand still for hours if this application is to work. I was thinking that gluing on before the trailer ride over to the event could work. The morning of the first day, I felt good about Pete’s boots but wasn’t so sure about Monte’s. Pete did not have any boot loss all day. Monte, had more challenges. At lunch, I was able to use Mueller tape on the hooves that I lost boots and did not lose another for the rest of the day. Many things came into play this day. Pete is a perfect candidate for boots: he travels straight, has nice hoof conformation and does not fool around. He also stood very still most of the night. Monte, on the other hand, did not stand still and is still a wild one at rides. He paddles a little in his movement and has a high heel.
All in all, this method of gluing is something I would do again. I would ensure that the horse stood still for many hours by having him in the trailer or something more confining.
