Easycare Users in the UK- Old Macs for Harley!

Lucy Bruckner from our home county Devon wmailed Easycare to explain why she loves the Old Mac G2 hoof boots. The Old Mac G2 is such a versatile hoof boot, and one of the most popular in the UK as it fits a variety of hoof shapes from round to the very long narrow hoof (when used with Old Mac's inserts) often seen in navicuar or lamanitic horses and ponies.

I've owned my cob since he was 5 years old, and he's just turned 18 this summer. He was traditionally shod for many years, until my second knee operation in October 2008 caused me to have the shoes off, and I turned him out for a few months. I recovered much more quickly than expected, and started to ride Harley barefoot, on short hacks of up to 30 minutes on our tarmac roads and stoney tracks, and he coped, but was a bit stumbley, and I had his front shoes back on - but Harley had other ideas! Climbing the stock fencing to eat off the tops of the banks meant that his feet would inevitably slide through, and he would pull back, ripping the shoe off and a little more horn each time. I was so fed up, in the winter I was only managing to ride once a week due to the dark evenings and pressure of work, and the horse had always pulled a shoe off!
I'd considered hoof boots, but didn't know where to start. I own a feed merchants and small tack shop, and so took to asking customers of their experiences, some were good, some bad, but one offered me the loan of her Old Mac G2's size 9. I took these clumpy great big boots home, and tried to fit them, of course without reading the instructions first - my long suffering horse spent a lot of time on three legs whilst I fitted the gaiters first, then tried to push the boots over the top! Once I had the fitting sorted, we were away, they were fab! I was concerned that they would rub, but have never had a problem. Harley still had one shod foot at that time, so I rode a fair bit to trial the boots before telling my farrier that we were going barefoot - thereby saving myself about £40 every six weeks, the difference between shoeing and barefoot trimming.  Since having the boots, we haven't looked back. We love hacking, generally for just an hour or so at a time, but last summer I booted up at about 8am, trailered my horse to the centre of Dartmoor, and completed the Dartmoor Challenge, about a four hour ride over stoney and boggy tracks, the boots were fantastic, and raised a lot of interest - small children often point and comment on my horse wearing wellies or trainers. An extra bonus which I hadn't considered was how sure footed my horse is on slippery tarmac roads. Riding with a friend recently, she was having to dismount and lead her horse, his feet were slipping badly and he was in danger of going down on the road, but of course in boots my horse was absolutely fine.

My first pic shows Harleys broken knees, from slipping and falling down on the tarmac road about five years ago - luckily he made a complete recovery.

The second was taken on a hack after galloping through woodland, bare behind, one Old Mac G2 and one shod hoof, this was the transitional period when I decided to go to boots fulltime.

The final pic was taken on the Dartmoor challenge last summer, boots in front, bare behind.

Pasture Trim or Barefoot Trim?

This is an excellent post taken from Easycare's blog. A lot of people think that a hoof can only be trimmed in one way, if you have ever wondered about the differences in trimming here is some great info from Nature's Hoof- Barefoot and Balanced.

Bare Hoof Care
Once our equine friends biological need for movement 24/7 is restricted, the effects on the hoof quality and shape become apparent as they both deteriorate due to:
   • Lack of movement and exposure to appropriate terrain that would stimulate hoof growth and development, and natural wear .
   • Exposure to ammonia which forms with the decay of plant material and animal waste i.e. stable bedding, manure, excess muddy conditions, etc.
   • Incorrect trimming and shoeing.
   • Neglect - in most domestic situations, we MUST provide REGULARLY scheduled hoof care every 4-8 weeks

What is the difference between a farrier "pasture" trim and a "barefoot" trim?
Typically, a farrier/pasture trim is one that shortens the hoof as part of hoof maintenance when conditions did not provide for adequate wear of the horn (hoof wall). Hoof horn is growing continuously, just like our fingernails. If the hoof is healthy, the wall will grow at the rate of approximately 1/4" per month. If the horse lives in an environment where the hoof wall is not abraded/worn, the hooves will become pathologically deformed as they grow too long. Therefore - and in most domestic situations, we must provide the horse with regular hoof care to "mimic natural wear".

A healthy hoof in its natural environment does not just shorten itself. It sculpts itself to its physiologically correct and functional form. There is nothing flat in a healthy hoof. The physiologically correct form and the functions that go with it, have been studied by those who saw problems with conventional hoof care which comes from a mind set that originates from the desire to protect the hoof wall from wear, and suspend the sole and frog above the ground, by attaching a flat piece of metal to it; the horseshoe.
The preparation of a hoof for a shoe requires a certain trimming technique. This rasping technique will produce what is called "the solar plane". It will shorten the toe area with every swipe, reducing the concavity and thinning the sole beneath the tip of the coffin bone, while also flattening the heel and quarters onto a flat plane with the toe.
   • The heels are generally left long; encouraging contraction, toe-first landing, and "navicular" pain.
   • The toe callus is trimmed away; a thin sole doesn't protect the foot.
   •The bottom of the wall is left flat, as if preparing for a shoe. This encourages flaring in the bare hoof. Flares are painful, like pulling really hard on your fingernail.
   •Farriers often ignore flares, leaving a stretched white line and poor coffin bone suspension, thus the horse is "sore on gravel" and on rocky trails.

     
Natural Bare Hoof

A "physiologically correct" bare hoof trim is created almost like a "piece of art". It has "flow" and "balance" and most of all, function. Its model is a healthy self trimming hoof as we would find it in the wild. Even though the pasture trim may look similar at first, the trimming techniques are quite different - and will take the bare hoof trimmer longer than it would take a standard farrier trim. Every feature of the hoof has a purpose which requires the trimming techniques to be different. Bare hoof trimmers have been schooled to specifically recognize and enhance these structures so the hoof can function optimally.
A healthy hoof provides comfort for mobility - no lameness, appropriate traction, surefootedness, correct breakover and balance. It provides function - hoof mechanism for proper circulatory and metabolic function, protection of sensitive internal structures and shock absorption (60-80% of concussion is absorbed by the hoof suspension mechanism). If this function is impaired by a brace (shoe), concussion will have to be absorbed elsewhere in the equine body - joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments will be stressed, causing problems like calcifications, arthritis, avoidable "wear and tear". A near ground parallel coffin bone, properly suspended within the hoof capsule is required for balanced weight distribution for skeletal and soft tissue health. A healthy foal is born with the "blueprint" of hooves that will fulfill all of these qualities.

Once you get your barefoot trim, that is the time to incorporate the use of hoof boots to aid in the transition and help protect your equine partner while out on your rides. Right after the trim do your measurements, order your EasyCare hoof boots and then go out and enjoy your barefoot partner. You can be very proud that you are taking the natural approach to lifelong hoof health.

Jenny Edwards at www.all-natural-horse-care.com has some really great barefoot and natural hoof care information. There are pictures and diagrams to help you with knowing all the different parts of a hoof. Knowing about your horses hooves and how they should look (which is usually very different to the hooves we are used to seeing shod!) is very important for any horse owner, as the horses hooves are your responsibility. As with anything, just becasue you are paying someone for a professional service does not mean you should not question it if you are unsure or unhappy about their work. The more you know about your horses hooves, the better you will be able to help your horse and your farrier or trimmer by understanding what they tell you about maintainence or special treatments you need to do between professional trims. Once of the wonderful (and scary at first!) things about taking your horse barefoot is the sense of responsibility you feel for your horses hooves. In reality this shoudl be felt by every horse owner, but we tend to be brough up around horses accepting that a 'farrier looks after the hooves' yet how can someone who is only paid to visit once evrery 6 weeks really be held responsible if the hoof deteriorates (unless it is due to the shoeing method of course!)? Bare hooves allow you to see exactly what is happening to the hoof, no shoe to cover up white line disease or grit in the white line for example. Well kept bare hooves are not only a joy to look at, but very low mainainence, no worries about wet and dry hooves cracking around nail holes, lost shoes or lameness due to thrush or white line issues so a little knowledge is a valuable thing!


Barefoot HoofBelow are some barefoot hoof diagrams to give you an idea of what the shape of the "ideal" hoof should look like. The parts of the hoof are labeled for reference.
Note: Healthy hooves can vary depending on the environment the horse is living in and the terrain they regularly encounter.

Sole View of a Front Hoof

Note the following points

• Wide, fat frog.
• Tight white line.
• Strong, thick hoof walls - with the inner wall being thicker.
• Bars end approximately halfway down the frog.
• The heel buttresses are back towards the rear of the frog.
• The hoof ratio is 65:35 (from the rear of the hoof to the widest point; and from the widest point to the break over).

Sole View of Rear Hoof

The rear hoof is more oblong in shape and has a slightly pointed toe compared to the front hoof. This is because the rear hooves are used to propel the horse forward and so the point helps the hoof dig into the ground to provide more push.

Side View of the Hoof

Weightbearing - The True Role of the Wall And SoleContrary to popular belief, the hoof wall should not be the only structure to bear the weight of the horse. This is called peripheral loading and it puts way too much stress on the laminar connection and has a dramatic effect on the blood supply to the hoof. Dr Robert Bowker VMD, PhD recently did research on this and found that on a:

• Correctly trimmed Bare foot: blood flow continues between heartbeats
• Shod foot: blood stops between heartbeats and blood does not reach small blood vessels.
• Laminitic foot: blood stops and backs up between heartbeats

The diagrams below show how the hoof should be trimmed (images on right hand side of box) so that both the wall and the sole bear weight.



 
The use of EasyCare Comfort Pads in your EasyCare boots will ensure that the hooves are not being peripheral loaded. Easycare hoof pads come in three densities...soft (green), medium (black) and firm (red). The thicknesses are 12mm (1/2") or 6mm (1/4"). The Easyboot Glove boots will only accomodate the 6mm pads so the close fit is not compromised. Medium is the usual density recommended, soft are good for sore horses and hard for hooves that need lifting in the boots.

Boa Hoof Boot Tip #2

Have you ever come back from a ride to find you have lost a cap to your Boa Hoof Boot? Sometimes it's tough to determine if the Boa cap is tight enough. Of course if it's not tight enough, it can come off leaving the Boa Dial exposed. Here are some helpful tips to ensure successful installation of this protective cap.

Begin with the cap showing the "BOA" lettering vertical.  This is actually the only way the cap will go on correctly.

  
Next twist the cap clockwise.  Then you will hear a series of clicks. The cap will be in the tightest position when the "BOA" lettering is horizontal.

BOA
Follow these instructions to help prevent losing a cap to your protective horse boot. However, if you do happen to lose or or misplace this handy protective cap you can always contact Trelawne Equine for details of a local stockist who can supply you with a spare.

Karen and Looey Triumph in Gloves at Wirral

Karen Corr and Bond Hardman are Trelawne Equines sponsored riders for 2010, and have had a less than ideal start to their competitive year! With so much bad weather preventing fittening work, followed by both horse and rider injury things have been tough for the team. Looeys feet have been changing shape over the past few months, and Karen initially had problems with the gaiters on the gloves being too large and causing rubbing. With the better weather, gradually fittening horse and rider and the new glove gaiter Karen was pleased to report a fantastic ride at Wirral last weekend.

Karen writes "We used the smaller boots with power straps. I hardly ever looked down to check they were still there since I was confident we'd got the fit right. The new gaiters which were on his hind feet, worked well too. I rode with some one who used to ride barefoot but didn't succeed - this was pre-glove days. However she was really interested in how we were getting on and rode with me for a lot of the 2nd loop, think she'll try again after this season's over."

Karens experience shows how it is so important to achieve a correct fit, and that often going down 1/2 a size in a glove will give a really secure fit.

A Healthy Hoof

Here is a great post from Easycare's blog taken from an article found on hoofcare practitioner Maria Siebrand's website The Thoughtful Horseman. It gives a full understanding of the importance of conditioning our horses feet along with natural hoof care and why it is not always as straighforward as we would like it to be.
I am always searching for analogies to help owners understand the barefoot transition: why it sometimes takes months, why the horse that was “sound” in shoes is tender-footed without them, why shoeing is so entrenched in our equine management. I’ve often compared conditioning the newly bare hoof to strength training or endurance training: you don’t simply wake up one day, walk into a gym for the first time in your life, and bench press 300 lbs. You build your muscles, or your stamina, over time, asking a little more of your body gradually, until you are strong enough. Same with the horse’s hoof: conditioning the hoof to the type of terrain the horse will be working on, and the type of work the horse will be expected to do, is the only way to develop a healthy hoof capable of performing the job required of it.
Why, then, do horseshoes allow horses to perform the same work without conditioning the foot? And why is it a bad thing? Most of the time, the hoof simply is not given a chance to acclimate to the work before a shoe is nailed on. Two year olds about to go into training are routinely shod before they begin work. It’s just the way it has been done for hundreds of years. It stands to reason that, if the colt were left barefoot and then began training, his feet would have the opportunity to develop along with his muscles and endurance. This is, of course, an oversimplification, because the colt’s stabling environment and diet, and the quality of the barefoot trimming he receives, not only during his training, but up until that time, play a critical role. Just for the sake of argument, suppose that those things were as they should be. We could finally reverse the shoeing trend; we could raise horses with truly healthy, sound feet; and we could reduce the incidence of navicular problems, reported to occur in up to 86% of shod horses, dramatically.
Once the horse is shod, the hoof is quite literally prevented from developing at all. In fact, it immediately begins to become weaker. Vital structures are lifted out of an active role, and like an unused muscle, lose strength. It’s akin to wearing a brace or a splint (although the damaging effects of the nailed on shoe actually cause pathologies, as well); while a splint supports a weakness, the weakness will only become more pronounced if the splint is used continually. Physical therapy - using the limb without the splint - is the only way to strengthen the limb. Physical therapy can be uncomfortable - even painful - but it is the only way to regain use of a weakened or injured limb. The same is true for rehabilitating a hoof that has been shod for any period of time.
Would you take any other "shortcut" in preparing your horse physically for the demands of the job you have in mind for him, if you knew that the ultimate result of the shortcut would completely rob him of the very strength you wanted him to have? Isn't it worth the time it takes to build a really, truly healthy hoof, instead of a hoof that works for now?

Barefoot Success- You Hold the Keys!

This is a very though provoking passage from Linda Cowles, a very experienced practitioner in Santa Rosa, CA.
Take heart hoof care practitioners and listen closely horse owners. Your trimmer doesn't ultimately hold the keys to barefoot success, you do!

Who really heals these horse's feet? Their owners. Horses owners are horses' most powerful ally.
I started out trimming brood mares and peoples neglected backyard horses, and learned the hard way that I can only save these horses with their owner’s assistance. When struggling in muddy paddocks trying to trim feet that had last been trimmed 6 months ago, or trying to devise a bandage that would stay on an abscessed foot when the horse's pasterns were buried in mud, I realized that. I needed to focus on horses I could help.
I can help most of these horses, but I can't change the owners. I now let them know what they need to do to help their horse, and let them know that, if they work to heal their horse, I'll work hard next to them. If they can't do their part, I give them a few names of folks who may be willing to work with them. It’s a heart breaker.
Pete Ramey consoled me once that I'd made the right decision about not working with the owner of a horse that was fed to obesity, had laminitis and chronic thrush. "When the vet looks at that foot and asks who the hoof care provider is, do you want your name associated with it? Is there anything you can do to change the owner?"
Tough. I leave the door open, tell them that if they decide to try working with me, I would love to work with them, but ask them, please, not too wait too long because the effects of severe laminitis are NOT reversible.  This is their horse’s life, and no, they don't get a Do-Over if they realize they were wrong. Loving owners heal their horses using the care & management they provide, plus the assistance of people like me.
Linda Cowels

I think this highlights the true commitment that needs to go with taking your horse barefoot, and like everything with horses the buck stops with the owner of the horse. Hoof care professionals are an integral part of any hoof care regime, but that is only half the story and the owner needs to work closely with them to ensure the horses diet and lifestyle are correct too. Just like our own bodies, it is important to keep them fit and healthy and eat the right foods in order to stay fit and healthy- think how you nails become brittle or ridged when you have a bad diet, a horses hoof reacts the same to too much protein and sugar. A strong hoof capsule is paramount for the soundness of any horse shod or unshod, and the better the hoof quality the better job the hoof care professional can do! Hoof boots like the Easyboot RX are ideal to help a sore or transitioning horse through a rough period, and the Easyboot Glove will help to keep your horses hooves in top condition even on the toughest, flint ridden tracks. Bare is best, but in the UK with our wet soggy ground hoof boots are often needed to allow our horses to work freely across the potentially flinty and rocky terrain we encounter when out riding.