Knee boots - help please

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MizElz

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I want to get Ellie some knee boots - she's so spooky on the roads that I feel almost foolish for not having considered getting them before, and the post in PG has just made my mind up once and for all
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The only thing is, I am severely limited in terms of funds at the moment, and that isnt likely to change for a few months, so I'm thinking that if I can buy a cheap pair of boots for now, I may ask Mum to get me some smarter leather ones (Jeffries?
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) for Christmas.

Having never had knee boots before, though, I dont know what sort to look for. Could I have people's opinions on these, please:

Shires boots

Woof boots

Roma boots
 
I'd go for the brushingboot with a bit sticking up style, F has knobbly knees but I was still constantly strangling his knees and still the bu**ers kept falling down. We have Westrop ones and they are fab, no hassle and a bit of protection against brushing too.
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Be carefull of the woof ones for riding in as my friends horse put his hind foot though the bottom strap as it has to be loose enough to cope with them bending their knee. Think there maybe more for travelling. My friend did just cut the bottom strap off tho which made them ok for her
 
The Shires and Roma will only prevent damage to the soft tissue they would not prevent damage to the internal structure of the knee as they have no actual reinforced surface behind them.
The brushing boots with sticky up bits conviently fold down as your horse falls and generally offer as much protection as a chocolate fire guard (from experince!)
The best ones (IMO) are jeffries and you can sometime pick them up cheap second hand on ebay otherwise I would try the woof, I'm sure they are designed for road use and you need the bottom strap to keep them from flipping up should the horse fall, cutting it off can make them almost useless!
 
Will second the Jeffries knee boots - I found a pair in the second hand bit in our local tack shop - but ebay is a good option. Definitely need the strap on the bottom of the knee boots - a horse I used to look after was very lucky to still be able to walk after falling with knee boots without a bottom strap - he had horrific scarring.
 
Westropp combined knee and brushing boots for me every time. They wear well, you never have trouble with the slipping down if you go faster than walk, and you can also use them as travel boots on front and back legs if you reverse them.
 
Has your horse ever fallen on the road with these boots on? A horse at our yard did and the knee protection rolled back and he suffered tissue damage to the knee, it was lucky he never fell hard and no serious injury was caused. The vet told the owner not to waste time with those brushing boots and to use either reinforced protection boots (eg jeffries) or nothing at all! I think his analogy was 'It's like putting a wool hat on your head and hoping it will save your skull if you fall'
 
Those protesting against Westropp - could you explain a bit more about how they fold/collapse wrongly? I think there are different versions, I am searching ebay for a new pair because F's have cracked (£12 second hand has lasted 8 months so can't complain) but his current ones look stiffer than the new ones advertised on ebay - i.e. I don't think the knee bit flops anywhere, its rigid attached to the rest.

Am worried now, as I can't see the traditional style staying up at all. Does anyone know about any other manufacturer of that style of knee boot that might be better?
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Do you think these boots would stay up on your horse's knobbley knees?

http://www.clarendon-equestrian.com/knee.html

The vet thinks the boot rolled back on it's self due to the manner in which he fell, the boot probably caught on the road but the horse continued forward for about 3 foot and the boot got left behind. I don't know what style they were or how rigid they were so I can't really comment on that, sorry
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I think the Claredon are the best for staying up and they are padded at the top and closer fit than the jeffries leather one.
Hope that's some help!

ETS: They are cheaper than I thought, my friend uses them with her fancy Calredon brushing boots and I assumed they would cost about £60-£70 but alas
http://www.totally-tack.co.uk/acatalog/Clarendon_Boots.html
 
I used to use the WW ones for all roadwork. They were the only ones I tried which didnt slip or rub. Luckily neither of mine ever went down so I can tell you how much protection they offered but could'nt fault them otherwise
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If I was doing lots of roadwork again thats what I would use
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If they're your only choices, I'd have to say the Woof ones but I'd get saving fast, they don't look much good for road work to me. The others will be completely useless for riding in as they have no space to give for the bend of the knee.
The top strap needs to be as tight as necessary (preferably with an elastic insert) and the bottom strap needs to be as loose as possible to allow for the movement of the knee. If you were to pick foot up, the boots should still hang straight to the floor, they shouldn't pull at all, otherwise they will pull down and restrict movement of the knee which is when you get them falling down and being useless. (Sorry if that's teaching you to suck egg but I've actually seen people trying to ride with the bottom strap done up tight and then they get mad because the boot is always falling down!
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Thanks everyone
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I think I may well go for the Woof ones - as I explained, my finances are really tight at the moment, but the view I'm taking is that I've ridden her out on the roads for 8 years without a problem so far - so if I cant afford the best boots available now, surely a cheap version will be better than nothing for the nesxt three months!
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I don't know if the Woof ones have changed over the years, but I had a pair around 2002. They were hopeless, just kept falling down all the time, unless I did them so tight my horse could hardly flex his knee
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MizElz, why don't you try good old ebay, maybe there's a "used once, wrong size" pair around for less?

Silverspring - we tried the clarendon ones, they got ebayed after 2 uses and me jumping off after every trot/canter to put back up.
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The accident yours had sounds horrific, for the horse to continue forward for 3 foot on its knees must have been a helluva fall.
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Call me soft, but I can't get my head around the fact that every horse I have seen wearing knee boots has had the top strap done up so tightly that I can't possibly see how it isn't restricting blood flow or *something*, and they still somehow fall down!
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Think I'm going to continue with the Westrop, and hope that it stays in place in the event of a fall, and on the basis that some protection is better than none, with a lack of viable alternative. In all fairness he has fallen over (sideways on grass) in the Westrops and they didn't budge, but the plastic was grazed, so I'm glad it was them not his knees.
 
I thoroughly recommend and use (and have abused!) the Clarendon Knee boots. They have an elastic insert at the top and a detachable strap at the bottom. I use mine without the bottom strap as once you get used to how tight they have to be on each individual horse they don't shift.

I have had 2 accidents now where these boots have saved the knees, one particularly bad one where the horse slipped on a seam of new tarmac (they had used the wrong stuff and turned the road into an ice rink). The horse went right down onto his nose and skidded down the road with every joint on his legs hyper extended, the boots (without straps) did not shift, were a bit scuffed and saved his knees. Wish he had had over reach on too as he damaged his coronary band. have also had an incident with barbed wire out hacking where one of the horses got tangled in barbed wire in long grass, had knee boots on t, boots completely wrecked but again saved the legs.

I have a cob size pair of clarendons which i am about to put on ebay (b ought them thinking they were full size as didn't realise they came in 2 sizes!)- they are just oo small for my 16 handers! I found the jeffries ones a bit fiddly in cold weather with the buckle and difficult to clean (clarendons go in the washing machine) but would say they would be the only others i would use.
 
Naturally - I'm currently bidding on a pair on Ebay at the moment...I still couldnt afford 2nd hand Jeffries ones though - when I say my budget is limited, I mean to about a tenner!
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Maybe I can get some sheepskin lined ones for Christmas....do they exist?
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I have two older horses 23 and 27 and they both wear Jefferies Boots when being hacked out.

No problem at all with them. Just make sure top strap is always done up tight.

A tip is to put as much oil on them as they will absorb when new (about 10 coats) that way in the wet weather they are not effected by water and won't stiffen up.
 
If the ebay ones go for too much, pm me because I have a pair of cob size woof kneeboots lying about in my tackroom, still in packet, never used. Bought them for a friend's mare that I was sharing but then she moved yards. I had a clear out the other day and thought I should put them on ebay but am soo lazy...

Oops, does this mean I am advertising?!
 
My boys knee boots are cheap and cheerful, i cant remember the make but they do the job. We never hack out without them because he occasionally trips over his feet. He nearly fell onto his knees once and it frit me and him, hence the boots.
 
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