Looking for input from any one who has tried the ground control horse shoes.
We are thinking about trying them on our mare with tender feet.
There is no way to shape them.
If you happen to have a horse with that exact hoof shape then they may work. Odds are your horses hoof will be mangled to fit or the nails will be in the incorrect place causing pain or an abscess.
I wear out metal shoes between shoeing. Any of the polymers would not last a week for us. If you are just plodding along on an occasional walk they would be ok but hoof boots would be a safer and better idea.
Have you used them yourself?
We spoke with a lady who rides 100 and she loves them.
She said they lasted as long as steel shoes and that nippers and a rasp would shape the shoe to fit the hoof.
We have tried boots and they would not stay on her.
Any time she would start cantering off they would go.
My friends and I used them this summer on our Pasos.
We liked them–great traction on varied terrain. And we were able to get at least one reset out of them.
There’s a bit of a learning curve to putting them on. Because they’re flexible, you can place your last nail further back. My friend’s farrier didn’t put the nails back far enough and they wound up with a bit of a “flip flop” action when going through mud. (They never came off though.)
They also take a while to remove because you have to pull each nail individually with a nail puller. (The flexibility doesn’t allow you to use shoe pullers to get leverage.)
But the nice thing about them is that you don’t need any special equipment to apply them, unlike a lot of other synthetic shoes.
The one drawback is if your horse is between sizes like my mare. We wound up hacking a ton off of the larger of the two sizes, which resulted in the nail channel getting warped.
Ditto about the endurance folks liking them–they often apply them with drywall screws rather than nails. This also works well for nail-shy horses.
Well, I tried them on my endurance horse for two shoeing cycles. The shoes held up, traction was fine, but my horse developed cracks up the the center of both front feet. I asked other riders about th
Since they are flexible the shoes allow the horses hooves to flex more than a steel shoe does. That should be a good thing. But a horse will move bigger and hit the ground harder when they have shoes to protect their feet, than when they travel barefoot. So the flexibility of the Ground Control shoes can have a drawback. At least that’s my observation. My guy has always hit the ground pretty hard with his front feet when shod, he’s a bit butt high and heavy in front. He’s improved his balance a lot with time but when I tried these shoes on him he was greener. Anyway, he quickly developed the toe cracks. After he went back to steel shoes the cracks went away. You may want to consider this possibility.
Bonnie S.
I haven’t used them on my own horses but I’ve had two clients with 4 horses between them who used them and were pretty happy with them. I think there are a couple of drawbacks, though. For one thing, while you do shape them with the nippers and rasp so that they don’t hang over the edge of the hoof, nail placement is hard unless they fit the horse absolutely perfectly and that can cause some issues. One of their horses also developed toe cracks like Bonnie mentioned, although I think that it depends a lot on the individual as horses in the same or harder work did not have the same problem. They also weren’t that serious–enough to change what we were doing with him in case they got worse, but not enough to cause any problems as they were.
They did seem to wear pretty well. I kind of thought they would be pretty much disintegrated between cycles as some of the horses were ridden pretty hard on rough ground, but they held up very well. The horses in lighter work hardly had any wear after 6 weeks. My clients also liked the way the horses were moving and said traction was much better.
Personally, I prefer the Eponas for someone looking for a non-steel shoe. I think they’re easier to apply and just generally better quality. The Ground Control shoes aren’t too bad, though. I think if your farrier is up for it there’s nothing wrong with giving them a try and seeing how you like them.
I’ve been using the Easywalkers and LOVE them on my horse who has had chronically crappy feet. I’m on the 3rd reset of this pair, his heels have opened way up and there are no longer any signs of bruising.
I used the ground control on 3 different horses. They are lovely for my senior gelding, and worked well for a mare I had. Super traction, and we had no more slippage on the roads. The other gelding just could not keep them on. Same farrier, but they just did not work out. He was gaited, I don’t know if that made a difference or not.
Great
I used them on my club footed 18H horse who needed to be reshod every 4 weeks on that foot, and the regular 8 weeks on the good foot.
Shoer had a hard time coming out every 4 weeks then eventually not at all… So I did it myself. Worked great. I learned how to shoe a club foot, though I ran quite a few crummy nails at first. The good foot was a breeze to learn.
Shoes worked well and easily went 2 shoeings.
ground control shoes
I have used ground control shoes on several horses with dramic results. Foundered horses have sole support plus flex, we didn’t find them that hard to shape hoof nipper and rasp was all it took. My daughter uses them on her barrel horse they have good traction and they are light weight. I also have used them on a horse with navicular with excellent results. They last a long time. The horses seem to like them too.
