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Discussion on Use of boots in snow
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Member:
akmikeb
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Posted on Sunday, Oct 5, 2008 - 3:18 pm:
Pulled the shoes off of our mare, but still slippery in the snow. Do not want shoes on her this winter, are there any advice on use of boots for occasional riding during winter months?
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Oct 6, 2008 - 8:20 am:
Hello akmikeb,
In general I am not sure you are going to find a boot more stable than the unshod foot of a horse. There must be ice under that snow and if this is true shoes with borium chips applied to the bottom is the only thing that might give you traction on ice.
DrO
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 - 7:03 am:
Akmikeb I have always left my horse unshod in the winter and have had no problems in the snow.
They do make borium tips for easy boots and boa boots. Have never tried them though.
https://www.centaurforge.com/Easyboot-Borium-Studs/productinfo/EASYSTUD/
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Member:
akmikeb
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Posted on Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 - 12:29 pm:
Thanx for the info. Iam going to get some boots, it will just make me feel better. Will just stay off the hard pack as much as possible.
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Member:
mrose
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 8, 2008 - 12:23 am:
We used to live where we had 3 or 4 feet of snow on the level on winter. I fond it depends a lot on the type of snow. When it was very cold and the snow was dry, the horses with no shoes did fine. Once the days warmed up the snow softened and then the horses got balls of snow in the center of their hoove whether they had shoes on or not. The ones that had shoes got bigger balls, but all of them had some problems. Also, when the melt started and we had ice, all of the horses had problems except those with borium on their shoes. Our climate was pretty extreme however, with days warm in the spring and nights DrOpping back down to zero degrees. Barefoot horses slip less on ice than the shod ones without the borium. Any horse I was going to ride very much during the winter, I had shod with borium added in little "globs" on each heel and on the toe. One warning, however; if you are on a young horse and it acts ups, it is very easy for it to get hurt with the borium on it's shoes and they upper leg will twist and the foot will not.
Another thing we did that helped with the type of snow we had, was to put pads under the shoes that had a ball in the center which popped out the snow and kept snow balls from forming.
I've never used Easy Boots in the winter, so I don't know how they are as far as the balling snow goes. I would think that with the borium they'd be good otherwise.
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