Kestrels Story from Ireland

Kestrel is a 9 year old pure bred Connemara bought as a 4 year old having only ever competed in dressage competitions. He didn't know how to gallop, was extremely spooky (still is!), had never hacked on the roads, hunted, been to the beach - boy was he going to be challenge!


I didn't know then just how much of a challenge he would be when he went lame after completing a second 40 mile ride (to attain Silver Shamrock with the Irish Long Distance Riding Associtation at the age of 7). He was laid off work for 6 months (without shoes), had two sets of x-rays taken which showed up absolutely nothing and generally improved once the shoes were off.

This led me to barefoot websites and some research and my first boots were secondhand Old Macs Originals from ebay. When his feet grew and changed shape I bought a new pair of Old Macs G2s from a supplier in England (we're a bit backward here in Ireland and I have only today for the first time seen an advert for hoof boot fitting - in the south of Ireland - about 150 miles from where I live). These worked well and I now have a barefoot trimmer who comes on a regular basis to trim Kes's feet.

We've progressed to Easyboot Epics which I put onto Kes for a ride on Sunday past which gave them a really good try out as we took part in a pleasure ride around Clandeboye Estate in Bangor, County Down where we were knee deep in sticky mud. I was amazed my boots stayed on despite having looked up the Easyboot site on numerous occasions and read everyone else's reports. Our other horses are also barefoot including a 14 year old TB mare who hacks regularly and we use the Old Macs on her (the boots fit both horses which is very handy) and will never have shoes on them. Their feet are all amazing -despite the fact that as we live in Ireland and the ground is frequently very wet.

It's not called the Emerald Isle for nothing you know! I would recommend barefoot and Easyboots to anyone - just send them my email address and I'll convince them!

Name: Valerie McKie
City: Belfast
Country: Northern Ireland
Favorite Boot: Easyboot Epic

Easyboots to the Rescue!

My 5 year old Arab/QH had to have a section of his P3 removed this summer becasue of an infection. The vet mentioned putting on a hospital plate but the foot looked so sore I couldn't bear the thought and he had never worn a shoe.


The hole in his hoof that several different EasyCare boots have been protecting. This was 3 weeks & 5 days postop.
I put an Easy Care Epic over the bandage every day after I changed it which kept the foot clean and dry and allowed him to walk around in the indoor and soon after out in a paddock. After about 10 days we changed to the orginal Old Mac and the heal started to look better. I wanted to start riding him walk trot and the Old Mac was a little lose so I switched to an Old Mac G2 which was a great fit over the bandage.

The other day his bandage was due for a change and had started to unrvavel so I took it off and used just an Easyboot Glove. Was he ever happy: felt like freedom to him. He will have follow up x-rays soon but the pictures I emailed the vet looked good to him. All the different boots have allowed me to protect his hoof and give him the freedom to move. The next boot to try will be the Rx when it comes this week.

Thanks EasyCare: I don't know how I would have dealt with this hoof and a young horse without all your different kinds of boots.

Name: Mary Palumbo
City: Killingworth, CT
Equine Discipline: Endurance
Favorite Boot: Old Mac's

Sally and Buffy's adventure in Epics!

Hello!

I'm back from my mini expedition so here's my hoofboot story...  This year myself and my friend Jean had decided to ride from her house in Keswick to stay with another friend in Buttermere and then ride back.  2 days riding in the English Lakes.
My horse Buffy is barefoot and for this ride I had chosen to put on her hoof boots as the going was on roads and stony tracks.  She wears Easyboot Epics as you can see in the picture.

We set off from Keswick on Saturday morning and after negotiating some tricky busy roads we were soon on the bridleway, heading along between Catbells and Derwent Water.  The going was gritty but not too stony and Buffy went really well.  After Grange we went on another bridleway towards Honister which was much more rocky (think of an uphill climb on a riverbed with no water and you've pretty much got it!) but Buffy was fine in her boots.  In fact she had much more traction than the other, shod horse who even though he had road nails in his hind shoes found it pretty hard going.

We negotiated wooden bridges and a very narrow gate at which I had to remove Buffy's panniers so she could fit through!  Perhaps I need to pack a little lighter next time?

We paused for lunch on a grassy bit and admired the view whilst eating lunch.  Then we continued on towards Honister Pass and the slate mine.  The climb up to the pass was on a road and was very steep (all the overtaking cars smelt of burning clutch) but the horses kept on plodding.  Then we got to the top and looked down and down, and down...  The roadsign said the decline was 25%!  Buffy never slipped once in her boots and we were soon at the bottom and heading along the shores of Buttermere.

After passing several groups of tourists (many commenting on Buffy's "walking boots") we reached the farm we were staying at for the night. The next day we set off at 9 am sharp for the climb up to the top of the next hill.  We returned to Keswick via Newlands Valley (this road has a climb of only 20% compared to yesterday it seemed easy!) and Jean and I swapped horses.  Buffy did the accent and decent without slipping again despite the shoddy tarmac.

We rode over wooded bridges and through farmyards as well as along tracks and more roads.  The Epics were great on the cobbles in the old mine yard too.

We got back to Keswick just in time for lunch which pleased Buffy no end.

We had a super time and the hoof boots performed brilliantly.  I'd really recommend them for this type of terrain.  They really can't be beaten on rocky or gritty tracks. In my opinion they out perform metal shoes when faced with this sort of going.  I'm definitely going to use them again when I do another expedition in the Lake District.

Sally

Result!

Here is a report from Karens weekend, Karen was using Easyboot glue ons and Easyboot gloves on Looey, and had a great time by the sound of it!
"We had a fab weekend up in North Yorkshire…here's the story…
We travelled up to North Yorkshire after work on Friday evening. On route we stopped in Thirsk for a chippy supper. It's amazing how you end up meeting people. I was stood waiting for Bond to come back to the Land Rover and this couple and their daughter, who were from Norway on holiday came over for a chat. They were laughing because they have horses themselves and said that while travelling through Yorkshire they hadn't seen 1 horse, only sheep and cows!! When they saw our trailer they came over to have a chat to some fellow horsey people - obviously getting withdrawal symptoms ;-). They then spotted Bond's sign writing on his Landover - Pennine Barefoot - and asked what we were doing with the horse. I told them we were on our way to an Endurance Event. It turns out that they use Easy Boots on their horse too!! They had tried Boa's but thought the EasyBoots were way better - what a small world. We gave them directions to the event and they said they might try and pop over to have a look at hat was going on at some point over the weekend.
By the time we got to the venue it was going dark and had started raining. We quickly set up a corral for Loo and had a bit of a blether to a guy from Ambleside who was crewing for his wife the following day in our class. The rain didn't stop all night - I woke at about 5.30am since we were sleeping in the trailer and the rain was pelting it big time. I lay there for the next 2 hours praying for it to stop - it didn't. Our vetting was carried out in a torrential down pour - the forecast said it would be sunny with a few scattered showers! However, by the time we'd tacked up and I'd got on board, the sun came out and it stayed like that for the rest of the day. The farrier who checks all the horses shoes/hooves/boots before starting was convinced the glue-ons would get "sucked off" in all the Yorkshire clay - so off we went to prove him wrong.

Looey was in top form - I'd been warned about a potential "Nike Effect" with the glue-ons from some fellow Endurance Riders who have just started to try them on their horse. Yep, Loo was pinging along with a spring in his step. The endurance rides in North Yorkshire are never a doddle - plenty of hills and varied going of bridleways, farm tracks, field edges, forestry, moorland and a wee bit of roadwork. The views are stunning - I managed to appreciate them on the 2nd 42km loop when Looey had chilled out a bit! The class we had entered was the Drover's Dash 85km ride. It wasn't a endurance race but the class was going to be judged based on the "performance formula" where points are awarded using a calculation based on final resting HR and average speed. This makes it a bit more interesting - being  a wee bit competitive, it means that I was trying to keep our speed up but not take too many risks incase he tweaked himself. The going on the first 42km loop was very slippy - this part of Yorkshire hadn't seen as much rain as we had in Lancashire - the ground was still quite hard, but with all the overnight rain, it had made the surface very slick. It did make riding a more difficult. The worst bit was the last section which had a lot of red clay - it was like a skating rink - I had to ride very tactically and choose the bits with the best traction - Looey nearly lost all 4 feet on a couple of occasions and I nearly went out the side door! We rode the first 42km all on our on - we caught sight of a couple of riders just in front but never caught up with them.

After the first 42km loop we had to go through a vetgate - I wanted to get Looey's HR under 64 ASAP since this is a good way of making up time - the clock keeps ticking until you vet. We untacked him, threw a load of water on him to cool him down and I took his HR which was 60. So we presented to the vet in 4 minutes. We had a break of 30 minutes in which Loo munched on his oats and sugar beet and then we were back out on the same 42km loop. We had caught up to riders who'd been just within view in front of me since Looey had vetted so quickly. We ended up riding along together for the rest of the ride, taking it in turns to lead when the horse in front had switched off. The ground had dried out a lot since the morning which made life a bit easier. When we got back to the venue, we had a 30 minute wait until we had to go to the vetting. . Looey looked fine, so we let him drink and eat and kept walking him round periodically to prevent any stiffness setting in. I also massaged his hamstrings since there were plenty of hills, so he had worked hard. The vetting was a nerve-wrecking experience. The 2 riders I'd ridden with vetted first. 3 vets were watching the horses trot up and they each wrote on a piece of paper whether the horse was lame or not, this was then handed to the Technical Steward who told the rider whether the majority thought their horse was sound - a 3 card trick!! The 2 horses were considered to be lame! It was Loo's turn - his heart rate was under 64, so that's a pass - next was the trot up and then the stomach churning wait for the verdict - it was a unanimous decision - he'd PASSED!! Phew….!!!

So, then we had to await the results of the Performance Formula at the prize-giving. We'd come 3rd out of 7 starters - icing on the cake…the class was sponsored by Bailey's, so we received a feed voucher as well as our rosettes. I was really impressed with Looey on this ride. He answered all the questions I asked of him and completed at a speed of 13.8kph which is pretty good for a challenging ride like this. He's still a young endurance horse and has lots of developing to do yet but he improves on each ride. The glue-ons stayed on and got lots of attention from fellow competitors - including those who shoe their horses. Interestingly, the farrier was seen out on course on a number of occasions, nailing shoes on horses who'd lost them in the sticky, slippy going.
The ride itself was extremely well organised. Heidi Lewis had lots of volunteers opening gates and manning check points. The landowners had gone out of their way to move stock for the weekend, so that gates could be left open and there were lots of them!
And finally, a big "Thank-you" to Trelawne Equine - your advice and sponsorship are really helping to make it happen for us this year!"

Thank you from Trelawne Equine for being such a great ambassador for Barefoot horses and hoof boots