So what are EasyCare's Comfort Pads good for, anyway?

Here is a comment from an endurance rider who just recently attended a Pete Ramey clinic.  I learned with my own horses, especially Rocky -- that using comfort pads in his boots (I like the Dome shaped pads the best)  did more for improving his hoof quality and speeding his transition to barefoot than riding him barefoot or having him turned out on hard rocky ground for well over a year.  I wish I had figured it out sooner.   Posting this because I think it could potentially help some horses out there.

An important point I got from the clinic is to use my boots more. I have really only been using the boots for competitions and going barefoot the rest of the time at home and on training rides. I did notice that sometimes my horse seemed to be a little foot sore and a little short strided but I just kind of put it aside thinking it was better to "toughen" up her feet and I would never get her hoofs hard and develop thicker soles by using boots.

I found out I was wrong. What would happen is that my horse would start to walk toe first. Not super obvious but I could tell. Pete implies that as soon as your horse starts walking toe first you start going backward in hoof development. He said I would actually develop a stronger, tougher, better developed hoof using boots and having a properly loaded hoof with a properly working hoof mechanism then gimping along barefoot..

So, that's the main thing I am going to do...to use boots more around home. Also you have to use the foam pads. That I did already and I think they are great.

Lauren

 

Comments

[Jeff]

How do you fit these dome hoof pads. They don't have the nice cut here lines of other pads, but somehow they have to be cut to fit the boot. Is there a template or do you just guess?

[Karen]

Hi Jeff: I just added a few photos showing how to trim the pads to fit. Hope that helps! Karen

http://easycareinc.typepad.com/karen/2007/12/ten-tips-on-how.html