A while back another person asked this same question on one of the COTH forums. I emailed a friend to ask her opinion of using glue-on boots continuously. She has two barefoot horses and uses the regular gloves for training and glue-ons for competitions.
Her experience is that they only stay on for 7-12 days before the glue gives out. it is easiest to remove the old glue by soaking the boots for a while in a bucket of hot water. However, her opinion was that it was bad for the feet as they got very moist in the boots.
Years ago I had to use an Easy Boot for a couple of months on a horse that had a great deal of hoof wall removed to clear up a bad case of white Line Disease. His foot got very soft and soggy and became a breeding ground for WLD. I wouldn’t use a boot like that again.
Another possibility that you might want to consider is this:
Shoes with pour-in pads.
I had a thin walled and thin soled horse that just couldn’t compete over rocks without a pad of some kind. My farrier would put the Vettec pour-in pads on her when I had a rocky ride coming up. It’s used with a gutter guard mesh that is nailed between the shoe and the foot then the pad injected thru the mesh. This stuff really adhered to the foot super well and almost glued the shoe in place.
My farrier began shoeing for a friend that has an extremely thin walled TB who just can’t keep shoes on. Her walls just couldn’t hold up to the nails and she lost shoes immediately and her walls fell apart. Still, with the new farrier she asked him to try shoeing this horse. He did and used the pour-in pads. She kept her shoes on the hoof walls were fine. the pour-in pads let the soles take more of the horses weight, the walls had much less stress on them and no longer broke down. The farrier and horse owner were both happy. In fact, he began to use the pour-ins on more horses. The foot stays dry and clean under the pads and seems to be quite healthy.
Just another idea.
chicamuxen
