Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

Back from Mt. Carmel & Easyboot Contest Update

We had a great time this year at Mt. Carmel.  The weather was fantastic and the trails in great shape.  I love this ride because it is so colorful with lots of singletrack sections and some technical stuff as well.  A great variety of terrain - we ride in sugar sand, dirt, rock, coarse sandy washes, over slickrock, boulders, shale, through pine trees and pink and orange colored cliffs.  Turnout was good with 78 riders the first day. 

We had several riders in the EasyCare hoof boot contest racking up more miles.  Once all the results forms are turned in check for updates here at this link.  Terri and Oliver are still in the lead.  Have I mentioned before that Ollie is a gaited horse?  He is doing great in the boots, and is sure racking up a lot of miles! :)   

I rode Chief on days 1 and 3.  He had a really great ride both days.  He wore me out on the last day but then finally settled in a bit after lunch.  We went a little faster and that just made him want to go even more.  I used two Bares and two glue on boots on him.  They stayed on both days and really worked great.  He moves very nice in them.  Check out this photo and see if you can tell which hoof or hooves have the glued on boots on?  He had just been bathed and then had sand stick to him.  From a distance you can't even tell if the horse is barefoot or not.  Natalie and Cheyenne completed all three days together with the glued on boots on their hinds and EasyUp Easyboots foamed on the fronts.

Adjusting new 2008 Easyboot Gaiters

The new improved gaiters on Epics and Bares are the same size and shape as before.  The only difference is that some of the materials have been improved.  This does make them less stretchy when they are brand new.  This will take a couple of minutes to get the adjustments just right when the boots are used the first time.  Once that takes place, they'll fit and work the same as previous versions of the gaiters.  Click on photos to enlarge. 

1)  This shows a brand new size 1 Easyboot Epic with an EasyUp buckle and the newest 2008 model gaiter.  This is on Chief's front foot.  You can see the gap I get when I put the boots on for the first time.

2)  I walk Chief down my driveway and back.  It's not a very long driveway so only took less than a minute.

3)  I tightened up the gaiter as it had already stretched a bit.

4)  I walk Chief back down the driveway and back again.

5)  I now retighten the gaiter and it is a perfect fit.  It'd be easier to do two or four boots at once. 

I did this at the Cuyama ride last weekend.  I walked Chief around the trailer, or to the water trough in camp to drink and back.  That is all it took on the first day, then the gaiters fit perfectly and some of them went on to do 100 miles on Chief.  Tigger used different boots (he's a 2 on front) for his 55 mile day. 

Easyboot Epics versus Easyboot Bares

One question I get pretty frequently is whether or not somebody should use Epics, or Bares on their horse.

Here are the reasons why I like using Easyboot Bares:

1)  They are low profile on the front so work great on a horses hind feet.  There is no buckle sticking out so a horse that travels close behind won't be hitting the buckle on the back of the front boot.

2)  Once the boots have been broken in and adjusted to the tightest setting for my horses feet, they are really the easiest and quickest boots to put on.  I like adding duct tape to the sides (see example in this photo of an Easyboot); it helps the boot to slide on over the sides of the hoof easier.

3)  I love how long the tread lasts - I can easly get a dozen or more 50 mile endurance rides out of a set of boots, plus training rides.  The tread is extremely long lasting.   

4)  The boots work great with dome comfort pads.  I really like using these pads in my horses boots now for all of their endurance rides; everything I can do to minimize their wear and tear will help with their longevity. 

Tips:  Be sure to allow your horse time to get used to the Bare tread.  This applies even if they are already used to going in regular Easyboot tread.  Chief took a few rides to get used to it, and once he did I have found that he can negotiate through almost any type of terrain and remain sure-footed.  He's done mud, wet grass, snow, and all kinds of rock, sand and pavement with the Bares.  Be extra careful when going through anything slippery!   

As you can see in the above photo from the AERC convention last week, Chief has Bares on his front feet, and Epics on his hinds.  It ended up that way because the demonstration we just finished had me showing how to put Bares on and we put them on the fronts, even though for riding I prefer it the other way around - Bares on the hind feet and Epics on the fronts.  Because the concrete was so smooth, even with the tarp over it I kept boots on Chief's non-demo-hooves so that he wouldn't slip.  It was extremely slippery for him bare hooved.   

I'll post soon on the reasons why I like using Easyboot Epics and what situations they are best suited for.

Tips on winter horse care for a barefoot horse

It's not easy keeping a horse barefoot in the winter. Here are some photos I took this morning.  As you can see, the ground is frozen solid.  This can make it very difficult for a barefoot horse! 

Grand Canyon w/ Easyfoam and Easyboots

The 5 day, 250 mile Grand Canyon XP ride starts on Wednesday.  I decided to go ahead and Easyfoam Chief's hoofboots on today.  I don't know yet how many days I'll ride him but hope to ride him at least three days.  I foamed Easyboots on his fronts, and Bares without gaiters on his hinds.  I followed the newly updated instructions and everything seemed to make sense.  It is sure nice being able to glue Chief's boots on for the entire week and not have to worry about them.  I'll probalby use Epics or Bares on Tigger, as he'll likely only do one or two days here.  You can see in the photo with the horses that there is still a lot of color here.  It's going to be a really gorgeous ride this year especially on the Rainbow Rim trail -- we are on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona.  I have internet access here, but no phone or cell service.  I use spinvox (it's great!) to have my voice messages converted to text and then it is emailed to me so I can still get all of my voice messages while I am here.  Nifty!

Successful use of Easyfoam and Easyboot Bares

Here are some comments sent with the photos by Carol Layton:  Hello from Australia.  I had a great ride on the weekend on Omani Mr Sqiggle trialling the Easyfoam with four Bares at a endurance ride held at Windeyer, near Mudgee in NSW.  I needed to trial the foam for the Shahzada marathon in the last week of August and now I know this is the answer for us.  I am totally delighted with the result, no need to be concerned about the possibility of rubbing from the gaiters.  I mean I have been able to do 160km rides and 400km marathons with boots and not had any rubbing from gaiters but this foam means it doesn't need to be on my mind. I don't have to fiddle with Sportstape or vetwrap.   It was easy to mix the glue together and put the boots on, we just removed the gaiters.   Ride photo by Peter Jackson.

Cool graphic of rider in the hoof boot contest

This is Kylie and her horse Jack who is wearing his Bares.  This is the second year they are participating on the EasyCare Hoof Boot Contest.  The photo is by Karen White Ellenbank Photography and the graphic is by Elizabeth Oates.  Kylie is riding in a Freeform saddle.

Five Tips For Easy Easyboot Bare Adjustments

You really don't need the strength of King Kong to adjust your Easyboot Bares to a tighter setting.  Here are some tips that will make it a lot easier, in fact it'll be so easy you'll wonder why you were trying to do it the hard way! (if in fact, you were) ;)  Below the tips is a short video that may also help you to visualize it. 

1. Loosen the screw (the farthest forward one), without pulling it out of the gaiter
2. Keep the end of the  screwdriver in the head of the screw
3. Move the end of the screw at an angle into the tighter hole on the bungee
4. Use the screw as a lever to pull everything together
5. Line everything up and tighten

Easyboot Bares on the Rocks - Video Contest Submission

This is a great video submitted for the EasyCare Video Contest!  If you'd like to see what the contest is all about, check out the EasyCare Video Blog.  You've still got plenty of time to enter, so get out there and have some fun being creative with your horse!  Hope everybody is enjoying their 4th of July holiday in the USA! 

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.   

Horses win 100 mile endurance ride using Easyboot Epics and Bares!!!

Congratulations to Rachel and Duncan! 

Duncan McLaughin riding Ginge and Rachel Reid riding Franshar Park K Shar finished in a tie for first place on The Rock 160 km (100 miler) on May 12, 2007.  Their winning time was 10 hours and 33 minutes.  Duncan's horse Ginge also received the Fittest Horse Award!  Shar used two Easyboot Epics and two Easyboot Bares for the entire distance.  Ginge used four boots for 125 of the 160 km and then two boots (fronts) for the remainder of the ride.

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. 

Custom Easyboots Available

Click here to read more about the new Custom Easyboots.  It's pretty cool that you can order your horses hoof boots any way you want them!

Foaming Bares on like Easyboots

I decided to try something different on this ride.  I took a pair of Bares minus the gaiter and with tapers (no heelstrap) and used EasyFoam to glue them on Chief's hind feet.  I adjusted the boots to the tightest setting ahead of time and put them on to make sure I could get them on.  I put one boot on and then poured the foam in.  I wasn't sure I got enough foam to keep it on, so for the next boot I put the foam in first and then put the boot on.  Both boots stayed on for 105 miles!  They are still stuck on pretty good too, and show very little wear.  I really like using Bares on his hind feet because they work so well with how he travels.  Plus there are no buckles or cables and nothing goes above the hairline.  I used regular Epics on his fronts with the new EasyUp buckle.  They worked great.  I'm still amazed that both hind boots stayed on.  We went through a variety of terrain including lots of hills, some pretty steep.  This is one experiment that really worked! 

Do I need a heelstrap in my Epics?

I've been getting asked that a lot.  The answer depends on how the boot fits your horses hoof.  This applies to any of the Easy
Care boots that have a gaiter - Epic, Bare or Grip. My horses have hooves that fill up the boots very well so they are all fine to go 'strapless'.  You need to either use tapers, or leave in the metal gripper teeth or side plate in on each side of the boot to keep it stabilized. 

This is what the tapers look like. 

Starting in 2007 all Epics and Bares will come with the new lower profile comfort strap.  This should work for more horses.

If you do cut the heelstrap out or replace with tapers, it's still useful to apply duct tape to each side of the remaining taper part.  This helps the boots to slide on and off easier and also eliminates the chance of rubs.  This is probably not going to be a concern for a casual trail rider but if your horses spend a lot of hours and miles in the boots like mine do it never hurts to be extra careful!

If you do need to keep the heelstrap in to keep the boot fitting well on your horse and are concerned about the strap causing rubbing that is an easy fix - simply apply three layers of duct tape over the strap to smooth things out. 

Updated EasyUp Buckle Instructions

We just recently updated the EasyUp Buckle installation instructions.  You can find them on the EasyCare website under Education-->Downloads-->Instructions, or by clicking here. 

COMPETITIVE HOOF BOOT UPGRADE PROGRAM

During the month of March EasyCare is going to be expanding the Hoof Boot Upgrade program to include riding boots made by EasyCare.  More information on this will be available in the March newsletter.  You can subscribe by going to this link. 

How NOT to customize your Easyboot Bares, Part 1

We received this recently and I thought it was hilarious.  I won't post the author's name in case she would like to remain anonymous. 

If you are having difficulty with your Bare boots, please click on Easyboot Bares in the category listing on the left hand side.  You can also click on various photo albums on the left hand side of my blog to see photos showing additional tips.  Another place to find help is the easycareinc.com website.  Be sure to check out the educational video section.

EasyCare Boot Fitting Clinic

Today we did the EasyCare hoofboot fitting part of the 5 day Ramey/Bowker clinic in Tucson, Az.  The clinic has been going really well and everybody is learning a lot - it's been great!  I had a really rough job today (lol) - I got to show pretty pictures of endurance rides and talk about that and my horses.  Yeah, it was pretty rough :).   I also showed all of the participants how to put Epics and Bares on and shared a few tips.  Most of the tips are here in my blog.  You can find them by clicking on the categories in the left hand column by each subject as well as looking through some of the photo albums that are mostly in the left hand column.  A lot more information can also be found on the easycareinc.com website.

The next two days will have Dr. Bowker speaking.  I can't wait.  Everybody said that the information he presents is excellent. 

 

Easyboot Brochure

Here is the new 2007 Easyboot brochure.  This brochure is going to be included with the entire Easyboot line of boots including Easyboots, Epics, Grips and Bares.  Click on the graphic to download the pdf. 

I'll send a free pair of Custom Easyboots to the first two people that email me and tell me who is on the cover of the new Easyboot brochure.  We're still testing the boot builder module and hope to be able to take orders in another week or two.  Being able to order custom hoofboots is going to be way cool!  Each boot will be made for each customer and then Federal Expressed directly to them. 

If you don't know who that is, and would still like a chance at winning a free pair of custom boots, be sure to watch the other EasyCare blogs over the next few days for your opportunity!

Riders using our boots -Easyboot Bares

This is a photo of Lauren Horn and her horse Rosie at the Santa's Ho Ho Whoa Ride in the PS Region in December, 2006.    Rosie is using Easyboot Bares.

Colored Easyboots?

So far 306 people have voted in the Easyboot Colors Poll.  Below is a list by % of what the colors are that people are voting for.  I like red, but would also like to have blue boots, or maybe purple or yellow.  It would be a fun way to keep track of my boots, different horses or sizes could be a certain color. 

Red:  29.7%
Blue 27.8%
Purple 17.6%
Orange 16.7%
Yellow 14.1%
Green 8.5%
Maroon 3.5%

Bares in the Desolation Wilderness

Here are some photos of Tracy Browne (see hoofhelp.com) and her mustang Jake, riding with four Easyboot Bares on in the Desolation Wilderness in California.  Thanks for the photos, Tracy! (click to enlarge)

Top Ten List of Rules for Removing your Easyboot Epic or Bare Heelstrap

Before you remove the heelstrap from your boot, you need to make sure that it is not needed in your boot.  Your horses hoof needs to fit the boot fully enough so that if the heelstrap is not there, the boot will still be snug enough to stay in place.  It's best to try the boots with the heelstraps in the boot, and if they fit that way and there are no problems as a result -- leave them in.  I remove them for my horses since their boots are such a tight fit.  I like to get them into the smallest size boot possible and this works really well for them. 

Tightening Adjustments on an Easyboot Bare

Just back from Equine Affaire in Massachusetts's.  We talked to a lot of people during the four days.  Lots of questions had to do with how to use the boots and of course which boots are best for different uses.  Many of the boots are good for multiple uses, so it really boils down to user preference.  Some people love their Old Mac's, and others love their Easyboots, or Boa's.  I know I have had really good luck using Easyboots -- the regular version, the Epics, and the Bares.  I find those boots the easiest to use for me, and the best boots for long distance (endurance) riding.  I've also tinkered around with Boas and Old Mac's.  They are easier to use for new boot users but for more serious trail or distance riders I think that the boots in the Easyboot line are probably a better choice.  It is of course, very encouraging to see in person how many boot users are out there, and how many are serious about keeping their horses barefoot and are as enthusiastic about the advances in hoof boots as we are at EasyCare!   

EasyCare Educational Videos - Easyboot Epic

I just recently added a few dozen new videos to youtube.com on various topics, all dealing with how to repair or update various EasyCare hoof boots.  Here is a link to all of the videos having to do with an Easyboot Epic boot.   I also have separate playlists for the other boots - Easyboots, Bare, Boa, Old Mac's, EasySoaker.