I need to find durable turnout boots that can be used over shoes so my horse doesn’t pull a shoe every few days. Suggestions?
Do you mean bell boots? If so, I like the pull-on Italian ones.
Bell boots, maybe. If you really mean boots over shoes to keep them from being pulled off, you should consider a new farrier instead. Shoes don’t just fall off.
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Oh dear.
You disagree?
I’ll amend my comment – Shoes just don’t fall off every few days. If a horse is pulling shoes that often, the farrier needs to reevaluate things.
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I have done that - boots on over shoes- but it is not a slam-dunk to keep shoes on. Horses can pull both the boot and shoe at the same time :mad:. Partly it will depend on how long the horse is turned out and how much moisture you are dealing with. Tall wet grass. dew on the grass, mud - all make the boots stretch and heavier so that they slow down the flight path of the front feet. Wet boots also hold in moisture which is usually not what you want if you are dealing with less than ideal hoof wall quality.
I was using boots for turnout with a foundered horse with poor hoof quality. She had on shoes, casts, and I would add boots when I turned her out. Well off she gallops. Boot goes flying. Find boot - inside is the cast, shoe and half her hoof wall :eek: !!! Yikes!
This summer has been really bad. Full disclaimer, I’ve never tried this but it does make me wonder if it might be worth it: http://www.shoesecure.com/
I feel like someone on COTH used them. Maybe worth searching. In certain circumstances this might be really useful - when my farrier was working to get my previously neglected mare’s feet corrected, he set her shoes back to encourage heel growth and stop them from running forward. She pulled a few during that period. Something like this might have been useful.
I’ve always used easyboots - but not long term for daily turn out (for abscess healing mostly). They never came off accidentally and have several adjustments to fit snugly (but I DID put a bell boot on over it). I like them because they don’t cover the entire hoof. But since I initially bought mine like 17 or 18 years ago, there are so many more products available nowadays that I have no experience with.
https://www.easycareinc.com/our_boots/Original-Easyboot.asp
I have a 17+ hand warmblood that over reaches with his rear legs and would loosen or pull off his front shoes. We did a few things - 1) farrier blunted the front of his rear hooves slightly (+shoes to match) as they are more oval than round in shape 2) added clips to all 4 shoes to make them more secure 3) turned out in bell boots always. I went through a lot of bell boots! LOL He’d still come back in with chunks missing out of the boots on occasion… but we lost no more shoes. He is now barefoot in the back, so no more issues and no need for bell boots. Bell boots aren’t cheap for a horse with hooves that take a size 4 or 5 shoe!
Horse already in bell boots. He has pulled so many front shoes his feet are now a mess and after consultation with both vet and farrier we are going to try glue ons for a few shoeing cycles to get some growth so there is something to nail to. But I’m thinking ahead to when we can go back to regular shoes and want to prevent this cycle from starting over again. So I’m thinking of daily turnout boots (Easyboots, Softride, etc) that can be put on over shoes? (Horse is barefoot in back.)
It can really help but I wouldn’t turn a horse out 24x7 with a herd and expect them to stay on.
My mare really needed front shoes to be comfortable and she wasn’t growing any foot. She then pulled her shoes so many times her feet were nubs. So she went from shoes to shoes with casts with booted turnout. Then she was pulling the shoes with casts and there was nothing to nail to. So she went to casts with booted turnout. She kept pulling them so she went to wrapped orthotic devices the vet fashioned for her. Finally she grew enough decent hoof wall she was comfortable barefoot. She still goes out in boots but if one comes off - which happens a lot when she starts bucking - she is pretty comfortable out there barefoot.
But I had to change her management. She can’t go out with her girlfriend that LUVS to run everywhere. She goes out with a gimpy pony. She no longer has a 15 acre pasture. She gets 1/2 acre and the girlfriend gets 14 1/2 acres. She doesn’t stay out more than 12 hours and less if it is raining, or the bugs are bad. She also tore up a LOT of boots.
I haven’t tried the Scoot Boots. They may be vented better so they don’t stay wet. I have used Old Mac’s and Cavallo’s. I doubt Softrides will stay on a very active horse.
What are casts? Thanks.
So is this a temporary issue or the vet and farrier think this is a permanent problem?
To be honest I’ve never really heard of a horse that couldn’t ever wear shoes because they would pull them. I have heard of many horses that pulled shoes for a period of time, usually while they were correcting a trim.
Unless the horse is really clutzy and steps on its shoes when weaving or pacing, it shouldn’t continually overreach and grab them. If so, it seems like the same probably will occur with boots over shoes, and possibly worse because the turnover rate in front might be slower with heavier footwear.
If you are going to do boots, I’d just do boots without shoes. Most boots are not built to be fitted over shoes.
Casts look like fiberglass? strips that you drop in water and then quickly wrap around the foot before the stuff sets up and gets hard. They look like vetwrap but harden so much that it takes a circular saw to cut them off. They help keep shoes on when you wrap them around the nail holes and under the foot. Sometimes they are used in conjunction with dentil impression packing. I have also seen pictures that look like the casts were applied and then some of the shoeing nails driven through the cast.
I have seen them used mainly when a horse does not have good hoof wall and the farrier has to use fewer nails because of the crappy wall. They help keep the shoes on with fewer nails.
They have good and bad effects. My vet does not like to use them more than one or two shoeings. They along with packing helped my mare get more sole depth. BUT they constricted her feet and made her heels contract and run under. She does not have that foot conformation so that resolved after she came out of casts. She also developed really bad hoof wall separation - maybe from the constant pressure of the cast. That too has resolved. However she was in them for a year or two. It was a case of do this or put her down. Short term use doesn’t seem to create these problems.
IMHO, covering shoes with hoof boots is only masking what sounds like a serious hoof issue — I would rather get to the root of WHY instead of throwing a bigger bandaid on the problem.
I would also include taking a good hard look at the horse’s diet — regardless of how perfect the diet might seem.
If the horse has shelly hooves to where shoes won’t hold, it sounds like something is missing in the diet. If your area is high in iron, copper:zinc are low, and that it one thing that could lead to lousy hooves, for example.
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We have a tree at the barn that we put my horse’s lost and miraculously found shoes in.
My horse is considered short coupled with a large over-track. He used to pull front shoes in turnout regularly. He’s out in a personal pasture or at most shares with one other horse 24/7. We moved to shoes with clips, and I use Centaur bell boots because the large size cover the bulbs and the ends of the shoe well. I tried other bell boots and they don’t work as well for my horse as Centaur.
My farrier of 5 years (best in the area) puts shorter shoes on the front with good heel support for 6 weeks at the max. Horse is on a 5-6 week cycle. My vet likes the farrier’s work and would like to see more support, but also knows my horse’s movement makes him prone to pulling shoes. We just have to work with his conformation and movement.
My farrier recently moved his front feet up to a larger size and tried 2 nails to give his feet a break. Didn’t work, as he lost a shoes again, even with clips. We’re back to 3 nails per shoe.
My farrier and I have noticed a huge difference with Centaurs, as opposed to other brands, because of their fit on my horse. He has never had pastern rubs and rarely loses shoes in between visits. The boots might last 8 weeks or so, but they’re cheap enough that I can keep a steady supply on hand. Pull-ons were too short.
My barnmate turns her horse out with Professional’s Choice boots up front. I wouldn’t use them because they tend to attract moisture, I think. But her horse has no problems with them (for years now). They also protect her horse’s bulbs and front shoes.
Good luck!
Mine does! His shoes are not corrective. He has no issues, just is short-coupled and big-moving. He also gets distracted enough in turnout (he’s easily distracted) that he’s not always aware of his feet. When he was 4 and 5, he used to lose back shoes because he’d step on them. My farrier seriously beveled them.
And now? I can definitely see young, growing horses having all kinds of clumsy interference issues.
The post by J-Lu is the sort of thing I would expect a farrier to recommend, rather than put boots over shoes. Shorter shoes in front; beveled hinds; bell boots, or even double sets of bell boots, for example. And potentially changes in diet and turnout groups to limit silliness and/or fence walking which might just result in clutzy accidents…
But not boots over shoes. That sounds like a big, wet, clunky and expensive bandaid.
Before all of the new kind of boots came out…I used the blue Davis boots on my guy - he had been nerved and was wearing heart bars. They worked great and never came off (although you need to put some holes in the bottom for water to drain in case it rains). In later years I used Boa boots and they worked great too but I don’t think they make them anymore. A friend of mine got Cavallo boots and they are working great as well and have been staying on just fine. If you do use boots over the shoe have your farrier cut some pads for the bottom - they will last longer that way.
