I am looking for advice on hoof boots for my Shire mare. We drive on the roads. Her feet are good, but won’t be without some protection. Our farrier is fine with us getting boots instead of shoeing. I know there are a lot of boot choices, but most are for trails. Any advice??
Thanks,
twoponymom
While roads and trails may not appear to be the same, a trail in one place is like a road in another. Not all trails are soft footing and narrow widths. A great many riders have to travel roads, hard surfaces, to reach their trail areas, so have mixed footing. They do travel at some speed, to get horses conditioned for long rides. All their information is gladly shared.
So with that in mind, the Endurance Forum on here can probably give you MUCH advice about brand name boots and how successful they were for them in their “trail” experiences.
With a Shire, you may do less speedy travel than what other breeds will with their carriages. Shires and other drafts are bred to be big walkers for farmwork, but less trot work. Depending on your Trail Riding terrain, covering the ground can be very similar to driving with alternating walk and trot work for distance travel.
Husband does some draft crosses for the fox hunters, and traction with the big hooves is different than with smaller equines because of the impact weight. Studs that work for smaller animals, will shear off as shoe size reaches upper size 5 and larger because of the weight/force at speed, of animal coming down in it.
These are things to consider in your search for boots. Other folks will have to add their information, since I am a barefoot or shod horse user. Never did the boots. I am sure you will get lots of information for chosing your boots. Welcome to COTH.
I havent used them, but Hoof Wings are custom made and supposedly wear long term really well. Several drivers recommended them to me when i was looking for road boots. I then moved and drove on sand trails, so i didnt order them.
Some brands are darn hard to get on and off. You might find more info on which ones on the endurance forum.
I 've logged some road miles on my riding mule. His EasyBoot Epics have suffered a lot of sole wear but the traction is AWESOME, so I’d buy them again. The stability on pavement, ice, snow, etcetera is quite good. I’ve heard that Renegades hold up better but I’ve never tried them.
It seems as though your biggest problem might be finding boots in her size (pun intended)!
I use Renegade boots for the limerock roads around here.
I drive my Arab in easyboot gloves and love them. We are on all kinds of terrain–shell roads, limerocks roads, sandy trails, two track grassy trails, etc.
I ride my TWH in renegades and like them as well. We took him to the mountains in them and had no problems.
I really don’t believe you’re going to be finding any boots for your Shire. I never had any luck finding them for mine.
Fit is key
I drove an 11.2h pony on the roads and gravelly trails in Easy Boot Epics. They fit her pretty well. I found them difficult to put on, but there are not a lot of choices in her size 000. Her fronts fit reasonably well, but if she cantered in loose gravel - wore them while in Acadia and a couple of trail drives, the hinds slipped off. I finally found that by wrapping her hinds in duct tape before putting the boots on I wouldn’t lose the hind boots.
I now have a 14.1 h gelding. I really want Renegades. They’re so easy to put on! He’s a size 2 in width, but his hooves are wider than they are long. He needs the 2 for width, but they were twisting when we tried them on. My trimmer is helping me with research for boots that fit well when width exceeds length. She said she can put epoxy in the Renegades, but I’m not sure that’s the best route to take.
She also didn’t think any of the Easy Boot models would fit him well due to his hoof shape.
Has anyone else had any luck with a wide hoof?
Arent Boa’s better for wide hooves? That’s what i was told when doing my barefoot trimmer training. They were too wide for all the arabs and ponies i tried them on. They seemed bulky to me, but i know they have good reviews too. They may come large enough for the OPs shire.
Honestly, size is why i mentioned the Hoof Wings cause they are custom fit, or rather used to be since i just checked the website and they now offer a bazillion sizes rather than doing the molds of the foot they used to do.
Here are the sizes:
http://hoofwings.com/hoofwings.dwt#Hoofwings
They are expensive, but to my knowledge they are the only boot that you can send in to have resurfaced. You can also get colors and sparkles! If you like a little flair… 
I drove my Hackney pony in Boa boots on the front, and he did fine in them except for the hassle of me having to stop every mile or so to tighten them. He seemed to go fine in them. I chose Boa boots because they were the only ones I could find small enough that I could still handle putting on and taking off without help.
I tried Cavallo boots on the front for my probably Welsh pony, and even though they seemed to fit just fine, he just detested them. He would act up in ways I’d never seen before–he’s normally very calm and steady under harness. I tried them on him for a couple of hours in the pasture to see if he would get himself over it, and he just got more and more upset. So I cut the test short, and they now gather dust in my tackroom. Should sell those things one of these days, but I haven’t seen much call for size 0 boots. I chose Cavallo for him for the same reasons as my Boa choice for the Hackney, except I would not do Boa again because of the constant loosening.
What I like about boots is being able to use them only when needed. Shoes are a challenge in this climate as we can get snow in Colorado from mid September through early June, and shoes just act like ice skates in my pastures. Additionally, depending on how much moisture we’ve gotten, most of the time my ponies have been able to go barefoot on the dirt roads. It’s only after a long dry spell that I have needed something on the front.
If I had to drive on pavement all the time, boots on all four would seem very attractive.
Rebecca
I used Hoofwings when driving a pony on paved roads. They are custom made, you send in tracings of your horse’s hooves and you get them back labeled “RF, LF, RH, LH”. Surprisingly they are not priced badly for being custom, definitely worth looking into.
I have no comparison for wear. They lasted several years but that doesn’t say much because I don’t know how many “miles” we put on them. They were still FAR cheaper than shoes, and extremely easy to put on. The only real problem I had was that one boot in particular had a tendency to rotate. We’re talking round little pony hooves though, and it didn’t happen all the time. I think it had something to do with the way she stepped off with that foot. Customer service with Hoofwings was fantastic. When you call, you are talking to the person who is making the Hoofwings for you, or at least that’s what it was like a few years ago.
boots
Another vote for Hoofwings and they offer the big sizes. My second choice is Cavallo, they are ‘bulkier’ but didn’t seem to bother my horse after a few minutes of getting used to them. I also use the gaiter or socks with both to keep sand/dirt chaffing.
Easy boots never worked for me and I haven’t tried all the new styles so can’t comment.
Proper measuring is critical as is keeping up the trim. You can’t expect the boot to fit the same if you go too long in between trims.
I drove various horses/ponies with succes in the various models of EasyBoot (I liked Epics best at the time but they have some new models now) and the Cavallo Simple Boot (clunky and one higher stepping horse winged badly wearing them). The last horse went through so many different boots trying for a good fit I ended up shoeing with holes drilled and tapped studs (like I for use jumping). Was so much easier simply setting the right studs for the expected footing than fighting the boot rubs/sizing/lost boots/etc. I already had a well stocked stud kit though and already knew how to use studs. I could set eight studs in less time than getting the various boots applied.
Never drove a draft, so your mileage will vary 
My vote is for Cavallo’s. I have tried a couple different kinds of the Easyboots and absolutely hate them. Fit terribly and fell off over and over on various horses I used them on.
I’d save myself the hassle of boots and just shoe up front.
Boots
I use to trail ride, no I drive. I have used Easy Boots, and they did well on the trail even in mud. But are a pain to get on and off. I recently bought Cavellos, and I love the ease of putting them on. 
