In 2013, my mare and I were competing at a CTR with extremely rocky footing and despite having shoes with pour in pads, she got a deep stone bruise that turned into the abscess from hell. Long story short because of the abscess, she had to have a small part of her coffin bone removed and has a permanent deformity from where the abscess blew out at the coronet. (yes, before anyone asks, there was a vet involved, xrays, farrier, antibiotics, the whole nine yards)
After the mess was finally resolved and she was sound barefoot- we tried to put shoes back on. Farrier shod her in traditional steel shoes and she wasn’t outright lame but NQR. We tried a variety of different shoes, pad, etc- all of them she’s NQR. So we went back to barefoot and started using boots (started out with Renegades, now using EasyBoot Gloves).
It’s now been 1.5 years since we’ve seen any lameness. I’ve successfully started her back competing as well- both in CTR’s and Competitive Mounted Orienteering. All of this has been in boots.
This past weekend, we went to our first endurance ride since 2014. Mare is in fantastic shape and very ready. We did our normal boot protocol and headed out on trail. Mare is clocking along (first 2 miles of the ride is a climb up the mountain and she kept a steady 10mph trot up the whole thing without blinking an eye) and then we hit a wicked down hill section with nothing but fetlock deep, churned up mud, loose rock/boulders and switchbacks. About 1/2 down, she pulled a boot. Normally her boots stay on TIGHT but this footing was so wicked, several horses pulled shoes, etc. When I got off to put the boot back on, I found out it was broken and the washer that attaches the gaiter to the boot had actually pulled through (somehow without ripping the rubber??)- she must have really put some force on it to be able to do that. This basically meant I was SOL and done my 30 mile competition in 3.5 miles. Oh and of course, it’s the foot with the previous injury that the boot came off of 
I did try to fix the boot- but ended up just cutting myself with my pocket knife instead and yes, I should have been carrying a spare but I honestly think it wouldn’t have stayed on without being able to mallet and tape like usual. So we walked back to base camp and rider optioned (basically retired without the negative mark of lame, etc for the non-endurance folk). She did get vetted out when we got back- and was completely sound.
So now, I’ve got another tough, rocky mountainous 30 at the beginning of August and I need to figure out what to do as far as her hoofware. I currently have 2 thoughts
1 is to use the EasyBoot Glue on performance shoes. I know a lot of people are having great success with them. Farrier and I think we can glue at the front and nail at the back and we should be okay (these shoes are designed to be glued or nailed or both). BUT everyone says they are very slippery on wet grass, mud, etc unless you use studs. I don’t mind doing studs for rides, but she lives out 24/7 in a big grass field in MD- it’s wet with dew every day. So I’m worried about when her and her buddies decide to do crazy laps in the field and am I going to have issues with slipping???
Option 2 is to glue on Easy Boot shells. This could be a really good option as it will be the same as her current boots just without the gaiters. Worry here is that majority of people that to compete in glue-on boots tend to be out West where it’s dry all the time. Here on the East Coast, esp in the summer, am I ever going to be able to get her hooves dry enough to take the glue? If I do these, she will inside for 24 hours and shavings and then we will use a heat gun to make sure hooves are DRY.
I am not willing to try steel again but I am very open to other suggestions as long as they provide sole protection also.
On a good note for this weekend’s ride- even though I didn’t get to finish, two of my students did. For both of them it was their first endurance ride- one on a young, boisterous Arab and one on a 1/2 draft (amazing she was able to take care of this horse so well as to complete in super hot, humid weather). I am so proud that they were able to finish even after they had to continue on without me and go by themselves:)
