In response to an earlier post addressing various hoof boot modifications, Kerstin Schmahl from Germany wrote in to tell us about her own “coloring outside the lines” experience. She has given new life to a pair of well worn Gloves for her extreme riding conditions.
Kerstin writes,
“Living in the northern part of the Black Forrest, southwestern Germany, in winter we may suffer from snow and then unfortunately ice and icy hard packed snow on our gravel paths. So my Haflinger gelding needs “winter boots”. I used his worn gloves from last summer for the hind hooves. My shoemaker ground the original soles so that they become even with a thickness of about 7 mm. As new soles I took plastic horses shoes (in my case “trotters”) with 4 embedded ice studs each. After drilling the holes for the screw threads I milled out a space for the upper parts for the drive-in nuts, so they became even with the surface of the horseshoes, put in the nuts and screwed the studs in. One may need a hammer for adjusting the nuts correctly. Then I fixed the plastic horseshoes to the hoof boots with small universal screws, sinking the screw heads a bit. By doing this the barefoot hoof has no contact to the studs or the screws and full shock absorbency is given.”
For the front hooves I use the Old Mac G2 from last winter because I don’t have any worn out correctly sized Easyboot Gloves yet. But next winter I shall have some, too”.
Pictured are Kerstin’s “winter boots” and her Horse “Amour” after a ride through fresh fallen snow.
Thank you Kerstin for your feedback, happy trails!