Old Mac boots

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Willow1

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Hi

My Arab mare has always hated having shoes put on behind since she had a back injury which obviously caused her pain when the nails were hammered in, (I didn't realise at the time that she had a problem, the injury only became evident as it progressed). The sacroilliac problem has been resolved for sometime now, but my mare has never forgotten (typical Arab) the pain shoeing caused and is still very tense and upset about the whole procedure although she is fine with the fronts. Although my farrier is patient and we can manage to shoe her, I'm reluctant to keep putting her and me through this stress every 7 weeks. I have decided to try her without shoes behind this time and was wondering if I could use Old Mac boots or something similar to use behind whilst she adjusts to being barefoot. Does anyone know if it is ok to use metal shoes in front and boots behind - can you mix and match? I don't really want to go completely barefoot all round until I'm a little more sure that the barefoot/boots option will work. I'd be really grateful for any advice.
 
I don't see why you can't just use them behind, have you read all the info on the old mac site? Ther's lots on there.
You do seem to need to set aside some time to alcimatise your horse to them to prevent them from chaffing etc though.

Sites HEre -> http://www.oldmacs.com/
 
I have used old macs on my highland x clydesdale with no problems, although after a while she was fine just shod on the front and barefoot on the back, which suited me as I hated fiddling with the boots!
 
My mare is barefoot all round, but wears her near hind hoof down occassionally on the road due to a charming 'spinning' habit. My EP recommended hoof boots for her hinds to prevent this wear, and so she goes barefoot front but with boots on hinds (Old Mac G2s).
I swear she thinks she looks trendy in them
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, and we have had no chafing or other problems with them at all. A big recommend for them from my ginger mare and I
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Oh - there's a certain on-line saddlery shop that will also give excellent hoof boot advise - PM me if you want to know who - I would hate to be in trouble for advertising
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Sorry to post JAck but i'm looking at these for my boys front feet.

Are they really hard to measure correctly for? I've printed off all the size charts and masuring guides and reckon I'm up to the job but so many people have told me it's hard to get right?

Also has no-one had any chaffing problems with them? I'd heard otherwise and mentions of it on the site and pro-mo literture were putting me off.

Really just need them for hacking twice a week but don't want to wast £100.

Where's best on-line to order from to?

Thanks
 
Id say you should try it. I have 2 ponies who went "barefoot" about 4 months ago. One was very footy for a while, limped over any little stones etc. so I bought him a pair of Boa's (similar to Old Macs, same make I think) - brilliant things! I put them on whichever hooves were sore so one day he had 1 on a front and 1 on a back. He suddenly seemed to improve within a week and went sound so they definately helped. He's been sound since amazingly (without them). I do (and will always) use them for the gentle occasional hacking he does - either on the fronts or the hinds. I rode the other day with them on the fronts with no problem at all, he was perfectly happy trotting along.
 
Try drawing round your horses' bare foot to make a template, cut it out and try slipping the card/paper inside a boot in the shop before you buy if you can. When I first got a pair for Will size chart said 5 but in practice needed a size 4
 
I drew around my mares feet too, she was barefoot for almost a year on the backs and around 6 months on the front. When we hacked out she either had boot on all 4 feet or when she was shod on the front, boots on the back only. They are really good and really helped us. Well recommended, I used the Old Mac G2's
 
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