Another hoof boot question

[Roofio]

Hello again,

Well JR is now sound thanks to having his feet trimmed right back and his shoes set back to support his heels, but when he catches a stone hes lame for a few strides. All our hacking is either stony tracks or accessed by stony tracks so we're stuck in the school for now. I was thinking either equiboots or easyboots to protect his soles, but im worried he wont have enough heel to keep them on. I know the warranty is void when worn over steel shoes, but im not brave enough for barefoot at this stage (hence me posting in here and not in the NH bit). Does anyone have any experience of booting a horse with low heels? Im thinking i'll probably go for the easyboot then i can get the gaiters if they dont stay on...

Heres a few pics to give you an idea, i know his feet are awful, and beleive it or not they are a million times better than before the new farrier came along!

grr i have tried to make the piccies smaller sorry if they are massive!

 

[Bebe]

I think you'd be very hard pressed to get any hoof boots over shod feet to be honest, unless you bought them over-sized, in which case they probably wouldn't stay on. You'd probably end up injuring yourself rather than the horse, by necessity most boots take a bit of effort to put on (some are harder than others) and have to be wiggled off. The only boots that you might manage it with are Old Mac G2s as the whole boot opens up and the back portion has elastic inserts so you can pull them open as well, but again I don't know how well they'd stay on as you'd have to measure to the back of the shoes, not his foot which would alter how the hoof sits in the boot.

To be honest, if you want him to stay shod then you'd probably be better off looking at using pads with the shoes, possibly with impression material under the pads to prevent stone bruising or lameness after standing on a stone. This is by no means a solution to the problem though and you do run the risk of softening and thinning the soles further using this method, as well as increasing the possibility of bacterial and fungal infections under the pads.

If you did decide to take his shoes off, you do at least stand half a chance of recovering the structure that he's lacking which is the underlying problem in a horse that takes lame strides after landing on stones. It may not be an easy, or quick, process though.

 

[jenren!!]

Boots are made for barefoot horses, they arent necessary for shod horses and they will be a pain to get on and off. Can you not ask your farrier to put some kind of pad or support on the back of the shoe? Otherwise you could look into getting some large hoof boots.

 

[vjwuk]

See this months Your HOrse they have a tried and tested for poultice boots and others and some can be worn with shod horses, it may even be their online mag just register

 

[Roofio]

Easyboots and equiboots both say they can be worn over shoes, but i think youre right in them being unlikely to stay on (he needs the biggest size anyway, he's 18.1 with 17.5cm wide feet) . But at the same time im very wary of pads for the reasons already mentioned, plus the farriers £50 fee to replace them should they come out. I am considering going barefoot, but i have a long list of concerns, added to the fact that hes not actually mine and i'd need his owner to be on board too. His soles (according to the vet) are actually quite good and thick, just totally flat/dropped so it might be that its his underrun heels or frog that hurt when he hits a stone... is there anything different to protect these instead?? I'm beggining to wish i'd never got involved with him in the first place, but its too late now, i'm head over heels!

Edited to say im also beginning to wish i could spell begining!