hoof boots

Before and After

/ Ashley Wingert / 6 Comments

It was Pony Bath Day today.

The Before:

I just noticed the tongue sticking out!

I took the worst pictures today.  Seriously, my adorable pony looks like a hippo.  But I wasn’t thinking when I took this first picture…should have stepped further back.

Funny thing, you can’t tell how dirty she actually is.  She is practically day-glow white in pictures even when she’s dirty, so no one actually believes me unless they see her in person and see how much dirt she packs into that coat.  Especially after I curry her.
She got a really thorough bath…fingernail scrubbing down to the roots of her mane and tail, rubber bath mitt all over her whole body, especially getting the scurfy stuff off her legs.  Sprayed her mane and tail with this avocado moisturizer spray stuff I really like (EQyss Avocado Mist) and left her in the washrack to finishing drying while I sized and fit Renegades on one of the barn owner’s horses.  
I really enjoy the whole process of boot fitting and sizing…it always interesting to see static fit versus dynamic fit — just because it looks like it fits at a standstill doesn’t always mean it’s the right fit once they start moving.  But that’s worth a whole other blog post.
Back to the pony, who was cooling her heels and getting cooed over by the two young daughters of a friend of the barn owner.  As a final touch, she got Show-Sheened on her mane and tail, fly sprayed, and this was the end result:
Again, my apologies for the hippo-head quality of this shot.  She kept making a bid for the grass the second I would try to step away far enough to get a decent pic.  So it’s her own fault.  And she really needed to be out in the sunshine for the full day-glow effect.
And I did this to my helmet:
Racing stripes!!!
They’re reflective, too.  I haven’t been using the velcro-on Salamander Beak visor of late, because I’m finding that sunglasses + tiny visor on helmet is really enough coverage, and it doesn’t block my upward vision quite as much.  If Mimi was a head-tosser, I’d be more concerned about not having a stiff visor to block potential upward head movement, but she tried that trick once, years ago, when I wore a Troxel helmet with a longer, stiffer visor.  She smacked her poll into the visor edge, and she hasn’t tossed her head upwards since.
Tomorrow’s supposed to be another triple digit day…I think I might hibernate next to the a/c vent.  Next weekend is supposed to be a reprieve down to the 80s (How you know you live in AZ: When the words “down into the 80s” is considered a reprieve) so the barn owner made some noises about hauling out to ride for one last chance at nice weather.
The one perk of hotter weather: Lees people out on the trail.

Double Standard

/ Ashley Wingert / 3 Comments

A Cautionary Warning: There is much generalization and use of the term “people” in the following post.  I’m not trying to say “everyone” does this, but rather, a broad spectrum of generalized behavior that I have noticed over the past several years.  This is not intended to be critical of anybody, but rather, my personal view and opinion on behaviors and attitudes.  Consider it, or take it worth a grain of salt.

Recently, there’s been a flurry of discussion activity on Ridecamp about hoof boots.  Every winter, it seems, the topic of “shoes versus boots” gets dragged out.  Thus far this winter, people are confining themselves to boot…comparisons.

While I could probably write a dissertation based on my opinions of the topic, that wasn’t really what stuck my fancy today.  What I wanted to touch on is the seeming “double standard” that exists for hoof boots.

Everyone seems to be concerned with finding the “perfect boot.”  Their standards for that boot seem to be: easy to fit, doesn’t rub, easy to put on, and never comes off.

All I have to say on that is, “When was the last time a horseshoe never came off?”  Please, someone, share with me that they’ve never, in their entire career of horse ownership, had a horse that has lost a shoe.  Pretty much impossible, right?  So why are people so critical of a hoof boot coming off? 

It seems to be an unfair expectation…as soon as people hear a story of a boot coming off, they write it off as being “no good.”  And yet, shod horses that pull shoes get pass after pass, get the shoe nailed back on, and nothing more is said.

As a hoof boot user, I’ve had my fair share of them come off, some of them in places never to be seen again.  I’ve calculated that I’ve got probably about $200 worth of hoof boots and hoof boot parts scattered across Arizona and southern California.  But did that mean boots were worthless?

No, it just meant that something wasn’t working.  It took some experimentation, time, and willingness to think outside the box and my comfort zone, but I eventually found what works for Mimi.  One of the nice things about the popularity of the barefoot/hoofbooted movement taking off is the availability of different hoof boots on the market.  There’s virtually something for almost anyone and any horse. 

(Note the virtually and almost: I do believe that it’s entirely possible that boots might not work for every single horse out there.  Dad’s first horse, a Foxtrotter mare, had an extremely exaggerated sliding action in her hind feet.  Boots gave her too much grip, and made her movement too abrupt and jarring on her joints and muscles.  It’s possible, given time, and knowing what I know now about hoof trimming, that we could have worked more with and gradually adapted her to using boots.)

And incidently?  Mimi has lost at least one of every footwear I put on her.  Regular shoes, padded shoes, aluminum shoes, regular Easyboots, glued-on Easyboots, Epics, Bares, and Renegades.  No one thing out there is perfect.

I’m sure this is a topic that will never go away as long as there are metal shoes to be nailed on, and hoof boots to be fitted, and horse hooves that need protection.  And that means the double standard will likely live on, too.