Transition Tuesday Week 8

Play Around:

Feel Free to Tinker With Your Boots!

I spent five glorious days up at my home away from home over the Fourth of July weekend. I am addicted to the trails and to the summer weather at 5,500 feet at the Groom Creek Horse Camp. Knowing the reserved spots were all booked for the weekend, I took three horses and hauled the 2.5 hours up to Prescott on Wednesday afternoon. It seemed to be the most likely way to get one of the ‘first-come, first served’ spots. I pulled into the camp at 4:00 PM and got the last spot. Phew.

The three horses racked up a total of 61 miles and more than 15,000 feet of climbing between them in Easyboot Gloves over the five days – and not one boot went amiss. We rode up sharp climbs and rocky mountain trails; we rode through hail and pouring rain; we rode along single track trails that became small rushing rivers. And the boots stayed on.

Rocky is ready for the trail: the Gloves are naked on the fronts; power straps and athletic tape on the hinds for added security.

One of the greatest barriers for me to go from steel shoes to barefoot was the perception that I did not have the time, inclination or ability to manage a barefoot horse. A steel-shod horse seemed so much easier to manage: the farrier comes to the barn, and presto: your horse is set for the next five or six weeks of riding. Low maintenance is good, right?  Eight weeks into my experiment, I’m not so sure. The horses’ feet now look rounder, more balanced and generally in much healthier condition than they were in steel shoes. The small increase in time and effort has been hugely beneficial to the horses. I also feel like I am in touch with all the various parts of my horse – I can see what is going on with the feet and make changes as I need to. They feel like they are moving more freely and with greater confidence over rocky terrain.

I can remember the not-so-distant days of feeling hesitant about how far I should really cut down the heel strap on the original style Easyboot. And then there was the ongoing quandary about whether or not I should flatten the metal teeth on the inside of the boot. I only used Easyboots in moments of desperation and so never really spent much time or effort on making sure the boots were properly set up for my horse. Ironically, when I rode Tevis in 2007, the only reason we finished is because I slapped a pair of Easyboots over the front shoes at 30 miles. A footsore horse turned instantly into a sound horse, and he took me right to the finish line at the Auburn Fairgrounds.

The new technology of the Glove is impressive: I really like the ease with which I can put the boots on and pull them off without using any tools, or wondering if the boot will help or hinder my horse’s needs. That being said, every horse is built very differently and I am finding a small investment in time and testing can be very beneficial to helping me get closer to achieving my competition goals.

In the case of Redford, now into week three of his transition, the hind boots seemed to be wearing prematurely at the toe area. It looked like perhaps he was forging – albeit quietly – and that the interference might prematurely wear the toe section of the rear boot away. The length of toe on his fronts is still longer than I would like it to be. When his toe comes back under him, his front foot breakover will occur sooner and I think the forging issue will go away.

In the meantime, I decided to play around with the boots this weekend. I confess I’m enjoying the chance to modify things a little to accommodate the subtle differences between each horse. In order to speed the breakover of Redford’s front feet, I rasped some of the tread down on the front of the front boots. I checked a worn boot first to make sure I was not going to compromise the integrity of the boot. I used a farrier’s rasp and spent about 45 seconds on each of the two front boots.

Rasping the front of the front boots at the toe to speed up the breakover.

The result: no more interference! The hind boots showed no sign of undue wear in the toe – we even went on the steepest and rockiest trail we could find to test them. Every horse moves slightly differently, and making a small change to Redford’s boots will improve the way he moves – and prolong the life of the boots.

I also tinkered with a couple of Glue-On shells and turned them into Gloves. In my haste to leave for Prescott on Wednesday I omitted to bring the box of new boots that I planned to use for the weekend. To my horror, all I had when I arrived at camp was some well used (read expired) Gloves and a miscellaneous selection of unused Glue-Ons.

Armed with handy hole punch and Phillips screwdriver, I set about making new Gloves. I unscrewed the three screws on each of the used Gloves so as to remove the gaiter from the boot.

The used gaiter is removed from the used Glove.

I used the hole punch on its thickest setting to punch three holes in the boot. It is easy to tell where to punch the hole because the exact position has a molded indent on the interior of the boot and a little star on the outside of the boot. I then screwed the used gaiter onto the new boot, starting with the screw at the back of the gaiter first. Voila! New boots ready for some tough miles. Total elapsed time: less than 10 minutes per boot.

Punching a hole in the new boot.

Almost finished attaching the old gaiter to the new boot.

The gaiter is now attached.

The converted Glue-On is now a Glove.

I took it one step further by removing the Power Straps from the used boots and re-fitting them to the new boots. I’ve stopped using Power Straps on the front because they don’t seem to need them. I still like the added security of Power Straps on the hind boots, but I have not really experimented without them. I’ll save that for another report.

Removing the Power Strap from the expired Glove.

The modified boots passed their test with flying colors. I enjoyed many miles of tough mountainous terrain, trotting through rocky outcroppings and across tree roots and sections of sharp shale. The hailstorms were exciting the first day, but getting caught in a storm on the second day seemed less novel. The boots did not even budge

Redford out on the trail in the converted Gloves. Not even hail and rain would pull those boots off.

I even had chance to enjoy the parade through downtown Prescott. What a hoot! It was fun to see so many horses in the parade wearing Easyboots. I’m off to Fort Stanton at the end of the week – hoping to ride three days in Glue-Ons.

Happy Fourth of July.

Keep up the boot legging!

Kevin