hoof boots..any advice

[haycroft]

my friend has a native pony on loan which has always been bare footed, but now that she has increased his work including abit more road work shes worried about his feet getting sore..the owner wants him to stay bare foooted..the loaner is thinking of trying hoof boots for riding him in
can any of who have any pic of their horses using them or any advice cons and pro of using boots
i got a pair of Boa ones for my sons little pony as he was prone to lami and was sore at times but they were never used for long..they did rub a little until we sorted this out

 

[cptrayes]

Is he sore? If not, she is worrying for nothing and does not need boots. Tell her to increase his workload steadily, not all at once, and he should be fine.

Plenty of us do miles and miles of road work. Seriously, it's not an issue

 

[Moggy in Manolos]

Hiya

I used hoof boots with wraps very successfully with my late girl. She had rotation in one of her fronts and really felt uneven ground.
I used cavallo simple hoof boots with boa wraps and she went beautifully in them, she could cope with any type of surface underneath and went very well in them. I bought the wraps as I was worried about rubbing, with the wraps she has no rubbing

 

[haycroft]

Is he sore? If not, she is worrying for nothing and does not need boots. Tell her to increase his workload steadily, not all at once, and he should be fine.

Plenty of us do miles and miles of road work. Seriously, it's not an issue

thanks for the reply
obviously the pony prefers the soft and the hoof has worn down abit more than usual..gotta use the roads to get to off road riding,shes just worrid that shel be wearing down his feet with more work load..hes sound and seems to cope with roads

 

[coss]

i ride a friend's horse and like you, horse was (and still is) barefoot (my choice - i didn't want to cause extra expense with shoeing when not sure how often i can ride etc). Gradually roadwork increased and she was doing really well. You can tell when they will need shoes/boots though. check the wear of the hooves. Usually your hinds will stay fairly solid and its just the fronts you've got to worry about.

I eventually wore her feet back a fair bit, breakover point was basically on the white line and they were rather flat on the bottom (groove of white line flush with sole) - so I bought some cavallo boots for her - just the fronts. We don't do enough road work to warrant shoes (or so i though ) and with winter approaching she'll have less work and shoes hold ice worse than barefoot - i've just about worn her hinds to flat now so waiting for growth before i hack far again. however, the weather and road conditions dictate she can't be ridden anyway and i can ride in the fields when it improves.

I have another pony, who has better feet, they are harder in general and hinds show next to know where after 7miles of roadwork. He doesn't feel the stones on the road (above mare wass feeling them hence buying boots) Once i see my pony's feet starting to wear the toe i put mac boots on fronts for roadwork.
I prefer the fit of the mac boots with the front of the boot- the cavallo boots do up at the front so if your horse drags the toe it wears the leather quickly, the macs do up at the back so if you have a horse that forges they are likely to catch the boot!
Macs are now much more expensive than when i first bought them. I bought them about um.... 6 years ago maybe? and they were a little over £100. So cavallo are far cheaper than macs now. It depends on the horse as to which boots suit. I always use pastern wraps (the old mac ones with the bit under the sole/frog as opposed to the cavallo pastern wraps that ride up) and they prevent rubbing - 2 hours of hacking and no rubbing at all in walk and trot with hill work.
This was my old girl with hoof boots on:

Here - i'd hacked to the stubble field, did walk/trot/canter/gallop in the field, and hacked home

ETA: i bought hoof boots because the wear was exceeding growth and causing discomfort to the horses on the road. There is marginal wear on my mac boots - you can see its like the toes been rolled a bit

 

[haycroft]

i ride a friend's horse and like you, horse was (and still is) barefoot (my choice - i didn't want to cause extra expense with shoeing when not sure how often i can ride etc). Gradually roadwork increased and she was doing really well. You can tell when they will need shoes/boots though. check the wear of the hooves. Usually your hinds will stay fairly solid and its just the fronts you've got to worry about.

I eventually wore her feet back a fair bit, breakover point was basically on the white line and they were rather flat on the bottom (groove of white line flush with sole) - so I bought some cavallo boots for her - just the fronts. We don't do enough road work to warrant shoes (or so i though ) and with winter approaching she'll have less work and shoes hold ice worse than barefoot - i've just about worn her hinds to flat now so waiting for growth before i hack far again. however, the weather and road conditions dictate she can't be ridden anyway and i can ride in the fields when it improves.

I have another pony, who has better feet, they are harder in general and hinds show next to know where after 7miles of roadwork. He doesn't feel the stones on the road (above mare wass feeling them hence buying boots) Once i see my pony's feet starting to wear the toe i put mac boots on fronts for roadwork.
I prefer the fit of the mac boots with the front of the boot- the cavallo boots do up at the front so if your horse drags the toe it wears the leather quickly, the macs do up at the back so if you have a horse that forges they are likely to catch the boot!
Macs are now much more expensive than when i first bought them. I bought them about um.... 6 years ago maybe? and they were a little over £100. So cavallo are far cheaper than macs now. It depends on the horse as to which boots suit. I always use pastern wraps (the old mac ones with the bit under the sole/frog as opposed to the cavallo pastern wraps that ride up) and they prevent rubbing - 2 hours of hacking and no rubbing at all in walk and trot with hill work.
This was my old girl with hoof boots on:

Here - i'd hacked to the stubble field, did walk/trot/canter/gallop in the field, and hacked home

ETA: i bought hoof boots because the wear was exceeding growth and causing discomfort to the horses on the road. There is marginal wear on my mac boots - you can see its like the toes been rolled a bit

thanks for your reply..what a lovely chestnut

 

[coss]

thanks she's missed a lot - those were taken when she was about 30 lol

 

[Ali2]

If she needs to wear boots I'd go Old Macs. Best stay putters I've used. Not as sexy as Gloves but far more forgiving on the fit!

 

[Andalucian]

If she needs to wear boots I'd go Old Macs. Best stay putters I've used. Not as sexy as Gloves but far more forgiving on the fit!

Took the words right out of my mouth! Old Mac G2s get my vote.