Sure Foot Pads - Reviews, Knockoffs?

[Ottbaxel]

While I am trying to sort out my gelding’s NPA, I am looking for some less expensive ways to try and help his very tight muscles. I do stretches with him, Masterson Method etc but I feel like it’s not quite enough and I am intrigued by the sure foot pads.

Has anyone bought them and genuinely seen a large difference? Was it hard to convince your horse to stand on them at first (my guy is pretty squirrelly about placing his feet where you want them)?

Also, I see some knockoffs on Amazon as well as some people just using exercise mats or something similar. Are these any good? The sure foot has all the different thicknesses so I am skeptical about just ordering a random exercise mat and using it.

[luvmyhackney]

I use garden knee pads from the dollar tree and different places. All variable thicknesses and softness.

[kaya842]

I use the super extra thick garden mats from Amazon. Been told by several body worker type people my mats work just as well as their Sure Foots. I’ve had 3 horses on them - they usually step on them fine it’s getting them to stay is the issue. I haven’t seen a huge difference but also haven’t used them consistently enough. My pads were $20.

[RJC]

For all the different things you could spend money on for your boy, I would get a couple $20 pads off Amazon before spending hundreds on a set of surefoot pads. My PT prescribes balance pad usage as part of PT and general fittening up and I’m a believer, but if I was willing to spend a couple hundred on a sore horse who already consumed a lot of financial resources, I would probably opt for PEMF, professional massage or bodywork, or muscle injections instead and keep using my $40 worth of Amazon balance pads. The other two riders in my barn also use cheap amazon pads, though we all have different brands/styles.

My horse had strong opinions about balance pads, which I wasn’t expecting. It was really hard to keep his hinds on the pads at first and he flat out refused to stand on them under his front feet for the first 15 tries. As he got stronger and more accustomed to it, he stopped fighting the pads on the hinds. To get him willing to stand with pads under his fronts, I had to break it down to the starting point of “foot is placed on pad and cookies are immediately shoved continuously into his face until he steps off it.” That eventually got us able to stand on both front pads like a civil horse.

I will say that doing tail pulls while he’s on balance pads sometimes causes him to have HUGE releases with lots of yawning. My PT thinks the pads + exercises cause him to engage his glutes in a way that helps release…something…

[Texarkana]

I also bought some dense gardening kneeling pads from Amazon. Although I haven’t tried them yet.

[Kyrabee]

I have some Surefoot pads and they don’t hold up very well. Covers started cracking like the third use. They are still functional with light use but when I replace them, I am going for the cheap Amazon pads.

[TWH_Girl]

Tomorrow and Wednesday are Prime Days. I’ve got the Amazon pads in my cart too. Worth trying as a starting point.

[Ottbaxel]

Thank you guys! I agree the price point for the real ones are kind of crazy-going to try the garden mats!

[wtxhunter]

My occasionally squirrel esque mare refuses to stand on them. Another waste of $$ but some have success

[wtxhunter]

I’ve also seen people cover the pads in duct tape to keep from ripping.

[SmlHpy1]

Do you have a link to the ones you are buying?

[JBCool]

Ok, what are they supposed to do? The web site tells me how great they are, but doesn’t explain what they do, how to use them or what they help with. Even the FAQ page just has a list of questions, but no answers

[Ottbaxel]

@JBCool

Even the FAQ page just has a list of questions, but no answers

I found the website overall to be unhelpful. I didn’t dig around too much, but I couldn’t find anything to show which thickness pads you are supposed to use and in what succession, and slanted vs unslanted? I have no idea.

AFAIK, the purpose is just to help with massage/chiro releases. The way I think of it is when I lay down on an exercise mat, I can feel my back crack a whole lot and feel looser. It seems like the knockoffs are a cheap thing to try, if they do actually do anything so I’ve been pondering them since my guy won’t really let me stretch him out much.

[JBCool]

Ok, glad it wasn’t just me. My guy definitely loves pampering like his posture prep curry and I have joked about getting him his own percussion massager. (I love mine and also do mat stretches myself like you). So I might play with some cheapies sometime just out of curiosity. Thanks!

[RJC]

I don’t really know much about the surefoot pads, but this is what I do know regarding general balance pads- My PT prescribes the pads to help increase the difficulty of static exercises, increase balance, and improve proprioception. Like if you stood on a squishy surface (like a mattress or thick carpet or…your home balance pad ) and tried to stand on one foot, it would be a lot harder than standing on one foot on a hard floor (try it). If you keep practicing on the squishy surface every day, you will get better and more stable over time.

When the horse is on both hind pads (and the pads are squishy), you can sometimes see them gently shifting weight side to side, trying to find their equilibrium. That is them working and getting benefit just standing in crossties. Balance challenges all the little stabilizing muscles that don’t have to work very hard and firm, flat ground. When you then start adding exercises like lateral tail pulls, single leg balances, single leg balances with weight shifts, single leg pulls, etc, it ups the difficulty of those exercises even more and increases how hard the horse has to work to stabilize.

Because my horse was accustomed to doing carrot stretches and such on an exercise mat already, our balance pads are pretty thick and squishy (I think ~2.5 inches thick). The harder and thinner a pad is, the less difficult it is.

[Texarkana]

@JBCool

Ok, what are they supposed to do? The web site tells me how great they are, but doesn’t explain what they do, how to use them or what they help with. Even the FAQ page just has a list of questions, but no answers

So I had never even heard of them until I saw a silly Instagram post on MadBarn’s page:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-tHKSgyaWx/?igsh=dGM3M3k1dGQ3NDR6

Basically, having a horse with some weird neuro/pain/muscle wasting going on made me curious if it could help per the study they cited.

However, they have been sitting in my house since they arrived since I don’t have enough hours in a day ATM to make my horse stand on foam pads.

[TWH_Girl]

@SmlHpy1

Do you have a link to the ones you are buying?

https://a.co/d/fsJzsKX

Hopefully this worked. You can just search balance pads on Amazon.

[Texarkana]

I was inspired to finally try mine tonight. My good girl standardbred mare had no problems standing like a statue for 5 min with a pad under each foot. Her reaction to everything is, “well this is weird but okay.”

Curious if I’ll see any improvement in her nondescript hind end issues if I keep this up.

[Ottbaxel]

@Texarkana please keep it up and let us know! I’m so curious.

I think I’m going to go for the mats from Amazon-worst case scenario, I can use them when i’m painting my house next year and it won’t be a total waste if my guys won’t stand on them.

[FjordBCRF]

I ordered one of these larger ones exercise mats to use with our Jec Ballou workouts!

2K views · 70 reactions | Horse Exercise - Balance on an Unstable Surface |...