Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

Are you thinking about trying barefoot for your horse?

I've been looking through a lot of my hoof photos.  It's really encouraging!  Along the way I've learned a lot about horses feet.  I'm glad that I have, it's been a good experience and while I don't consider myself an expert on the topic, I can at least tell what a healthy hoof should look like.  I am always open to learning more and actively seek out the opinions of others.  I am willing to try new things even when what I'm currently doing is working if I've been presented with enough evidence that it might work better.

The Horse's Hoof has a new issue out

To subscribe or learn more about The Horse's Hoof, click here.  This new issue contains an update on Granite Chief, and how he's been doing competing barefoot (and using Easyboots) in endurance for three full ride seasons now.

There is also an article on the Houston Mounted Police Department.  Here are a few more photos of them. 

Photo here is of one of Zeno's hooves.

Hoof trimming day & my fence needs work (ugggg!!)

We got a lot done today - the leaves are all cleaned up, lawns mowed, horses and dogs exercised, 12 hooves trimmed, all the horses wormed, the house is clean.  I also got my office straightened up and organized.  Lots to catch up on after being gone for almost two weeks!  I took a few photos today too.  Here are a couple of Chief, and one of his front hooves.  He has been barefoot most of his life, and is very active.  The neighbors have all said that my horses ran around a LOT while I was gone.  They were all (four of 'em) turned out together and I know that helps to keep them moving around.  Chief is the group leader and tends to herd the others.  They all get along really well together, tho I do have to admit it was a relief to come home and find all four horses in perfect shape.  We have never left them for that long before!  Rocky's and Tigger's feet both look really good right now too.  The only horse left to trim will be Zenos, and we should get to him tomorrow.  Tig still needs more work with his feet, he doesn't like having them picked up and wants it back on his terms.  He is getting better, but annoying when he wrenches your back out.  He's a brat compared to my other horses, who are all so easy about their feet.   

This photo shows Dave trotting Chief out after his trim.  The next photo shows why I hate vinyl fence.  If you ever put in a horse fence, don't do vinyl.  It may sound great, and looks great, but it just isn't very practical for containing large aninmals.  Especially if you are in a cold climate.  When my horses roll if one of their hooves comes in contact with a rail or a post and it's freezing out, it just splinters and shatters all over the place. Besides that, if they lean or push on it (trying to get to the hay, as shown in one of these photos) the stuff will snap and crack.  Next fencing is going to be metal pipe.  Last one before the vinyl was wood, and it was too high maintenance.  Zenos is the main culprit for all of the fence damage.  Even when we had the hotwire hot, he didn't respect it. 

Endurance News Recognition for Chief! - and my lifetime goals for all my horses and why I feel that way

This was in the July 07 Endurance News.  Chief actually reached the 5000 mile mark in February of 2006.  Now he is right around 6500 miles completed - which actually makes him my second highest mileage endurance horse behind Rocky who has 7640 miles, and Dream Weaver now in third with 6295 miles.  I am quite proud of Chief, and thrilled that he's the third horse I've had go over 6,000 miles.  Zenos is my fourth endurance horse and I've ridden him around 1200 miles so far. 

You can see by clicking on the links on each horses name that they have all done quite a lot of miles, and the first three for many years.  Weaver and Rocky are both Decade Team horses.  Over time I've gotten more conservative with how I ride (you'll note in Rocky's record that he has several wins and best conditions, and one year we top tenned 19 rides).  The reason for that is because over time I've come to rearrange my goals, and also have become a lot more aware about how each and every ride I do can affect the horse for the rest of their career.  My goal now for each ride is to try and complete with a horse that finishes happy, healthy and sound but I also want to feel that I have done everything I can to extend his longevity and reduce the amount of wear and tear.  Endurance riding is an extreme sport, and if you want to ride the same horse for a lot of miles, or a lot of years, trying to minimize wear and tear can do a lot to help them last. 

Besides riding conservatively, I think that the next thing I do that really helps the horses reduce the wear and tear and concussion they are receiving at each competition is that I use boots.  Even when I used shoes on Weaver and Rocky I used Easyboots over their shoes.  I really believe that went a long way to help extend their careers.  Now I know that we didn't even need the shoes - the boots work just fine by themselves!  The horses are better off living barefoot and have experienced many benefits due to this positive lifestyle change.

Now I love to use boots with comfort pads in them, or Easyfoam boots on as both methods provide a good deal of concussion reduction and protection for my horses hooves.  Are Chief's feet tough enough to do an endurance ride barefoot?  I'm sure they are, but I'm not going to find out because proving so (or not) does nothing in my mind to extend his longevity and is contradictory towards my personal goal of trying to minimize the wear and tear on him.

So now you know why I work for EasyCare! It's not because I work for EasyCare that I feel this way, but because I feel this way that I work for EasyCare.  Pretty simple, huh?  ;)

p.s.  in the photo next to me (above) is Dave Rabe who has over 39,000 AERC miles - he also uses boots as much as I do and has this to say:  If I were asked, what was the most significant product on the endurance market today that contributed to my successful AERC mileage, it would be Easyboots.

Removing Chief's Easyfoamed on Easyboot Bares after 155 miles and 9 days!

Below are videos showing me removing Chief's right and left hind boots.  9 days prior to this I Easyfoamed on two Easyboot Bares onto his hooves.  The Bares had the gaiters removed and had been adjusted to the tightest setting and had the lower profile comfort straps in them.  They stayed on 100% of the time through the entire three days and 155 miles of the endurance ride - they did not come off once!!!  -- Unlike other brands of boots that couldn't make it to the first vet check, dang!  As you can see, they are a good fit on him and came off quickly when I wanted them to.  I gave Chief a bath first to help soften everything up, that is why everything looks so wet in the video.  After I removed the boots I painted on some Hoof-Heal and after he moves around and everything dries out his hooves will be as good as new!  It took me just under 45 seconds to remove both of these boots.  I'll post later showing how good Chief's front hooves and pasterns look - I used regular Easyboot Epics on the fronts, and he had no rubbing. I will also work on some step by step instructions on removing the boots after they have been foamed on.   

Chief's Bares after Cuyama

I edited this photo to be black and white to show where the foam went.  On the boot on the left I put it on Chief's hind foot first, and then poured the foam in.  On the boot on the left, I put the foam in the boot first and then put the boot on his other hind foot.  Both of these boots stayed on the entire time which impressed me because we went through quite a variety of terrain - lots of hills (some pretty steep), some quicksand/mud type stuff and plenty of rocks.  The boots look to be in great shape and have very little wear on the bottoms.  See next photo. 

Karen's horses hooves

Here are some photos I took today.  The horses were due for their trims.  We try to check them over every four weeks or so, sometimes more frequently and sometimes less frequently.  I look at their feet every day so if something needs attention they'll get it as needed rather than on a set schedule. 

I'm really pleased with Rocky's feet.  He took the longest to transition. The other horses didn't really have a transitional period - probably because they were barefoot most of their lives, and when shod were mainly using plastic shoes.  Zenos only had shoes on for a very brief time too.

The first hoof photo shows the bottom of one of Rocky's hooves.  He's no longer flaring, and his hoof wall has become thicker, stronger, and he's growing heel and Dave even made positive comments about his feet today! 

Here is a photo of one of Zenos' hooves.  He has good strong feet, nice thick wall and no problems or issues.  Dave thinks he has the best hooves of all of my horses.

While Dave worked on Chief, I headed out for a nice long ride on Rocky.  You can tell in the top photo of Rocky that he is dirty with sweat from playing in the hills today.  I'll post a couple of photos below that I took while longing Rocky after I got back.  Dave met us out on the trail and watched Rocky and said he looked great and said he was indeed landing slightly heel first on all four feet.  I cropped a couple of these photos from the longing session so you can see how he is landing with the boots on.  I used Epics on all four feet today - two had regular buckles and two have the new EasyUp buckle (I just love those!).   I also shot some video, which is neat but it's rough and easier to see how he is landing in the still photos.
   

The very last photo is of one of Chief's hooves - I took this after riding him 50 miles on one of the days at the Grand Canyon XP in October.

Chief gets a trim, sort of

We trimmed hooves over the weekend on all of the horses.  While Dave was doing that, I burned some yard waste.  Luckily Chief didn't mind too much, though I'm sure he was wondering if I was trying to set his tail on fire!  I didn't get any closeup photos of Chief's feet because Dave says, (as I approached with the camera) "why do you always have to take pictures?"  He then commented that Chief's feet look great and probably didn't need to have anything done.  Then of course he rolls his eyes in the back of his head when I say something like, "Rocky's feet look pretty good."   They are growing well without flares or cracks, though he has almost no concavity and actually gets some of his sole rasped off near the toe area.  Zenos tends to grow heel so he got a little of that rasped off.  None of the horses needed more than that though.  Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how their feet have held up being barefoot.  It's been two years of competing barefoot for Chief, and a year for Zenos and Rocky.  This year I completed 1960 miles on the three of them, plus my friend Jackie rode Zenos in a 50, so that brings their total to 2010 miles for the year.  Once this page on the 2006 Hoof Boot Contest is updated it'll show the year end results for all of us who are competing with barefoot horses and using boots. 

Day 2 on Chief

Check out this photo.  I rode Chief 50 miles today thru all sorts of mud and puddles and then when I took his boots off after finishing this is what the foot and boot looked like -- this photo was taken right as the boot was removed.  All four boots were this clean inside and his feet and ankles and pasterns are in great shape.  I used plumbers putting to seal the edges and it worked great!   The smaller photo shows that Chief had no rubbing anywhere, and I didn't use vetwrap since he is only going to do a couple of days here.  We sure had a great ride today!

Chief's bare feet

In the October EasyCare newsletter there is an article reprinted from The Horse's Hoof about my horse Chief.  The Horse's Hoof is a great newsletter all about barefoot hoof care. 

I received an email (copied below) from Keith this morning and answered his questions and observations.  Indeed, Chief has definitely benefited from being kept barefoot.  At the time I was nervous about some of the changes, and now that I am through the process (with three horses now) it is a relief to know what to expect.  I also told Keith that Chief does not have a lot concavity which is likely due to the sole callousing up.  It's nice to know that our experiences are similar to others.  Thanks for the e-mail, Keith!

Hello Karen, and congratulations on all of your accomplishments with Chief, you are doing great things for many horses by example. 

The recent posting of the bottom of Chiefs feet really impressed me, but also left me with a couple questions. 

Most importantly are these changes which I noted in the photo.  All good changes by the way. 

• He has a MUCH shorter distance from the apex of the frog to the tip of the toe now that he is barefoot.
• His frog is MUCH wider now
• Comparing the left photo to the right, in the left photo he seemed to have very little development in his heel bulb, but the right photo clearly shows a very developed bulb that is right down at the sole level.  Do you think that was camera angle that doesn’t show his heel bulb in the older photo?
• My area of greatest interest, which is really hard to tell from a photo.  Does he have much cupping, or concavity in his front feet? 

A lot of the barefoot trimming GURUs make a big deal out of this and I only find a few horses that get the concaveness (like the wild horse models) in front, even if they are barefoot for quite a while.   I’m finding my barefoot customers are getting along really well with fairly flat footed horses if they develop a good sole callous. 

Sincerely

Keith Jacobson
Natural Hoofcare of Colorado
Berthoud,  CO

Is the effort to go barefoot worth it?

I remember when I first made the decision to pull Chief's shoes off and how I thought, well at the first sign of something going awry, I'll simply put shoes right back on.  My husband is a certified farrier, so it would be no big deal.  I was pretty skeptical that somebody that competes in endurance as much as I do would be able to keep a horse barefoot, and yet at the same time I had been reading on the internet about how others were keeping their horses barefoot and how well it was working for them.  I always want to try, at least, to do what is best for my horses in the long run. 

In the process, I admit that I have developed quite a 'hoof fetish'.  At first, it was really bad.  I think I checked the horses feet more times a day than I did anything else!  I was terribly anal about any chips or cracks or flaw, however minor.  It took several months for me to finally relax and learn that most of what occurred was perfectly normal and to not worry so much.  Because I used boots to compete in, I had no transition period. 

I never imagined that this transition over to keeping my horses barefoot would work out so well.  It has really been a rewarding experience overall.  It hasn't been easy.  It's been probably more work than it would have been to keep them shod.  I do check the horses feet every couple of weeks -- measuring hoof length, angles and taking a rasp to clean up any rough edges or chips.  Still, I figure that the amount of time I spend overall with my horses especially in regards to training and conditioning them to compete in endurance rides is a small price to pay and the rewards have been the kind that $$ just can't buy.  Worth it....absolutely!  Plus, check out the beautiful scenery I get to experience from the back of a happy horse!  This photo (above) is from Bryce Canyon.  Chief completed all 5 days/250 miles of Bryce the last two years in a row.  He definitely had a better year the year he was barefoot, which is more than enough to convince me that keeping him barefoot is the best thing for him.  Because afterall, he had had a pretty good year the year before while wearing plastic shoes......I just can't imagine ever having to shoe a horse again.  I am really grateful for the advances in hoof boots that made this possible.  Isn't it great?   

Hoof angles & toe length

Click to enlarge.  Here we are measuring Chief's toe length after trimming him today.  His toe length is usually right around 3 1/4", if his hooves get long they get up to about 3 3/8".

I try to check his angles and toe length before every endurance ride we do.  Normally all he needs is a little rasping.  He's done endurance rides three weekends in a row which probably accounts for the amount of growth he had (see bottom photo)

Now we are measuring his angles.  His fronts are usually around 57 or 58 degrees, give or take one degree and his hinds are around 60.

This is a closeup of the hoof angle gauge showing where he's at.  He usually only changes about 1 degree between trims, if that.  The next photo is really cool.

This photo shows the trimming from one of Chief's front hooves being held up to the bottom of one of his bares.  I probably had it a little high in the toe, but you can see here why the boots work so well for him, his feet fill them up so well they fit like a glove.  He's done about 400 miles in this particular Easyboot Bare boot, and the other horses have also used it so this boot has probably got about 550 miles on it. 

You can see in these photos that his front feet are really round!

More than a year after going barefoot....

Click on photos to enlarge.  This is the bottom of one of Chief's front hooves.  He's been competing barefoot for over a year now and probably about 2500 miles of AERC rides -- his feet really have not changed at all, they were nice before and still nice.  He's been a really awesome low maintenance easy to manage horse all around.  It has sure been a pleasure to have a horse with good feet!  Dave (husband and farrier/trimmer) said he doesn't trim to make the feet look pretty, but rather for function so what you see is what you get - all I know is that it works, so I'm happy, and so is Chief! 

This photo was taken not too long after we pulled Chief's shoes last year.  He actually spent the first six years of his life barefoot, then when he was shod we used plastic shoes on him.  I did try metal shoes for a shoeing or two on him but never liked them.  Keeping him barefoot has worked the best.  It's been great to be able to try different things and then find what works the best and have it keep working!  <knocking on wood!>