I do barrel racing/gymkhana with my 11 year old quarter horse, I am currently training him with it and he is doing very well with it. I was wondering what type of sports medicine boots/bell boots you’d recommend to use with him? I am looking at Professional’s Choice and Dynamic Edge ones by Fallon Taylor. I’ve heard great things about both brands. What is your favorite brand? Whichever brand (whether its one of those two or a different one) I end up using for the sports medicine boots, I will buy matching bell boots. Thanks!
The Professinal’s Choice Ventech Elite SMBs are the only ones that fit my pony’s short-but-thick legs.
Be aware that if your horse has shorter pasterns that the SMB/matching no-turn bell boot combo can potentially pinch/rub. A friend’s OTTB can’t wear them together, he HAS the wear a bell boot with a flare to the neck so that the top of the bell is over the bottom of the SMB, or he gets horrible sores on his heels. He can wear the no-turn bells alone or with different boots, just not the SMBs.
Awesome, thank you so much!! I’ll definitely look at his pasterns, as I’ve never really paid attention as to whether or not they’re shorter.
I’m kinda picky when it comes to sport boots. Everyone will have their personal preference on what they like best and what works for their horse.
I like the Professionals Choice SMB 3 design. (they are getting harder and harder to find) I put those on all 4 legs.
For bell boots, I like the Classic Equine Dyno Turn.
I’ve tried Classic Equine legacy boots. I could never get the darn things to fit right (darts would never line up). And they are bulkier than I like.
I’ve tried the Professionals Choice VenTech Elite and I felt they were too flimsy, and they were also too long for Shotgun’s short front canon bones.
I personally don’t like Iconoclast because I feel the double sling is too bulky. (But I know plenty of people who love Iconoclast)
I’m very interested to try the Relentless boots because their design looks very similar to the PC SMB 3, but I have not tried them yet.
Posted by Ceylon Star:
Be aware that if your horse has shorter pasterns that the SMB/matching no-turn bell boot combo can potentially pinch/rub.
Interesting. I have never had that happen, and I have never heard of anyone having that happen.
Iconoclasts are pricey, but they offer the most support. Their website has a lot of useful information about how the tendons and ligaments work and why their boots offer the most support.
Posted by TaylorM:
Iconoclasts are pricey, but they offer the most support. Their website has a lot of useful information about how the tendons and ligaments work and why their boots offer the most support.
Please cite your research that proves Iconocast offers the most support.
Fun fact … no such research exists. 
By and large, sport boots or polo wraps provide very little in terms of actual “support” to the tendons and ligaments as far as the research that has been done.
Personally, I do not use sport boots for the purpose of support, but the “support” is in single digit percentages and small in the grand scheme of things. It is there, but it is minimal. Rather, I use sport boots for the physical protection. It’s much easier and cheaper to replace a boot, than it is to replace (heal) a chunk of flesh.
Anyway … carry on.
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[QUOTE=beau159;9004385]
Please cite your research that proves Iconocast offers the most support.
Fun fact … no such research exists.
By and large, sport boots or polo wraps provide very little in terms of actual “support” to the tendons and ligaments as far as the research that has been done.
Personally, I do not use sport boots for the purpose of support, but the “support” is in single digit percentages and small in the grand scheme of things. It is there, but it is minimal. Rather, I use sport boots for the physical protection. It’s much easier and cheaper to replace a boot, than it is to replace (heal) a chunk of flesh.
Anyway … carry on.[/QUOTE]
I learned of them from several of the most reputable vets in Texas who handle the futurity cutters, A circuit hunters and dressage names. If you have ever used an iconoclast boot, you will see that it clearly offers twice the support of sports boots such as Classic and Professional’s Choice.
One of our mares had a deep flexor tendon injury a few years ago and for a while she would only ride sound with one of the Iconoclast rehabilitation boots on. Another mare of ours had a tear in the branch of her ligament and the vet has required that she ride with the boots as well.
To the OP- based off of veterinary professional’s advice… the sports boots DO offer support. If you’re ever in a tack store that carries Iconoclast, take a look at them and compare them to the Classic Equine boots (or any of the other brands, I think Relentless may now offer a similar type of boot) … you will see a significant difference. You will notice that it is nearly impossible to buy Iconoclasts used because once someone buys them, they have no intention to sell them. The only Iconoclasts I’ve ever found posted for sale were cases where the seller stole them from someone else and posted them online (happened twice.)
Good luck! 
We use them on all of our PRCA/USTRC world series heel horses and AQHA reiners, they should work well for your barrel horses!
I have gone through many boots and wraps because I run gymkhana as well. I am always in search of the next great boot for my horse’s legs.
I like the Professional’s Choice Elite boots for practice/exercise/warm-up on all four legs. I don’t like the VenTechs only because my horse struck the back of his front leg with a back leg once and broke open that kind of boot multiple times.
For competing, I have Dynamic Edge sport boots, for the fronts, and polo wraps for the hinds. If you don’t know how to wrap them/don’t want to deal with them, I would get DE in hind boots as well. If you do get the Dynamic Edge boots, which I highly recommend, my horse that wears a size medium in Pros Choice, wears a large in Dynamic Edge. The DE boots are a bit smaller.
As for bell boots, I like the ballistic type Classic Equine, Weaver, and Professional’s Choice. I have a bunch in all the brands and they all are pretty much the same. I did find that the CE bells aren’t as high and don’t rub against the sport boot as much as the others.
I can tell you that I had tried Iconoclast for three years. My boots always wore out very fast. The velcros lost their stick and the boot kept sliding down. Over the course of the three years, I bought four pairs of boots. That’s not so good when they cost as much as they do. The dynamic edge offers very similar support, but they last longer, are much lighter and are cheaper too.
Also, stay away from Pegasus sport boots, those are terrible. Remember, too, that any boot that is not snug on the leg isn’t providing support. Some of the cheaper options might be tempting, but they just aren’t going to do their job well. However, some brands like Weaver offer some decent sport boots for general riding at a cheaper price.
Forgot to mention, don’t buy the Dynamic Edge bell boots. They are shaped to be minimal in materials. I would assume that you saw how they were shaped. Mine have turned while running, and my horse stepped on the back of his foot because of the cut out design.
Posted by TaylorM:
If you have ever used an iconoclast boot, you will see that it clearly offers twice the support of sports boots such as Classic and Professional’s Choice.
Just because something has two straps instead of one, does not mean it scientifically and functionally provides twice the “support”.
Iconoclast has not done any research on their boot, to my knowledge. (If you believe I am wrong, I would gladly read it if you want to provide a link.)
Posted by TaylorM:
To the OP- based off of veterinary professional’s advice… the sports boots DO offer support.
Again, the literature does show that sport boots offer some support, but it is quite small in the grand scheme of things.
I don’t prefer Iconoclast myself but I know many people that love them. Not trying to downplay them (or other boots) in any way, but it’s important to look at the literature and research in terms of the “support” that they provide.
If you like Iconoclast and it’s worked well for you; by all means, use them! I would never run barrels without my horses booted up. But just don’t fool yourself on how much support they truly provide.
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As beau159 points out, no boot or wrap can provide any significant support to an equine digit. The laws of physics prevent that.
Personally, I prefer polo wraps. I have never touched any type of sports medicine boot (and I’ve been around nearly all of them) that fits any horse well enough for me to be comfortable leaving it on for any type of exercise more intensive than a walk/trot lesson. Additionally, I’m not comfortable with the amount of heat that accumulate under the types of materials these boots are made of.
[Caveat: I don’t recommend wraps to anyone who doesn’t have access to good instruction in how to apply them.]
I know this is an old thread, but if you’re still around, would you be able to direct me to the literature you’re relying on? My vet says the same thing – that the amount of actual support from a boot is minimal and that the main advantage of the boot is to protect against the horse injuring itself by kicking it’s own leg. But I would be interested to read the results of actual scientific literature that may be available.
Email the companies directly. Most of the time, they will tell you that actual research does not exist. Iconoclast I believe was one of these that told me they did NOT actually have any research as I actually contacted them after this thread to find out if they had research to back up their claims.
As another example, Professionals Choice has a very old, old study that they market numbers with. Thinking from memory (as I don’t have the study anymore), I want to say it was on 6 cadaver legs? And the results were WILDLY variable, but they chose the one highest outlier rating of 26% to use on their marketing claims of support. If I am remembering correctly, the other low outlier was about 7% support, so there you go.
So that’s what I mean about read the research and ask for proof. Email or contact the company in question that you want to know. That will answer your question. That’s how I found it out these things.
With that said, I still use sports boots on my horses for the physical protection. If they make a misstep, I’d rather they take a chunk out of the boot rather than a chunk out of their flesh. But I am not using them for the purpose of support.
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Thank you.
