Silly Videos And Schooling Attempts

First off, Solo wanted to send a wise look with his readers, with a little help from my best girl, Smokey.  Smokey is a 15 year old German Shepherd/Collie mix that we picked up from the pound at 8 weeks old.  She was one of my 4-H dogs, won all our showmanship and conformation classes, and has been a wonderful friend.  I can't believe she has been as healthy as she is, but that dog has never been sick or hurt a day in her life -- I told her I would keep feeding her as long as she promised to live forever.  Best. Dog. Ever. Although I do hate that I sound like an idiotic 15-year-old on videos. Cannot be helped, I suppose.



If you've glanced at our calendar, you know that Solo and I are off to a schooling horse trial this Sunday at a nearby farm. We won the Beginner Novice division here last fall, complete with bucket of goodies, so now I have been spoiled. Solo's jumped every jump which will be on our course, except for one, which is a white bench in a window frame that I don't believe will cause any problems. We have, I believe, conquered our liverpool issues, so the liverpool jump this organizer loves to place on the Novice stadium course should be a breeze. We've been schooling jumping widths up to about 4', so her equally beloved giant wide oxers ought to roll on by.

I feel as prepared as I can be. I would have liked to have another dressage lesson beforehand, but the budget put its foot down. Here is our final attempt at schooling our test this evening. Canine obstacles were provided free of charge. BO offers background commentary as my complimentary eyes on the ground, er, on the back of her horse. If you have any constructive suggestions, feel free to share!

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Boot Basics

So, as a lot of folks have observed in our forays into the wild, wonderful world of horse boots, the choices are nearly endless. How DO you go about choosing a set for your charge?

A few points to remember:
(1) Boots DO NOT offer support. They are for strike protection only. Neoprene and velcro cannot abate the loading forces on a horse's leg bones, tendons, and ligaments.

(2) Restricting range of motion is BAD (caveat: unless your vet tells you otherwise). The tendons in the lower leg need to stretch to their full extent in order to absorb the shock of the leg hitting the ground. Any reduction of that joint's motion means that shock is transferred directly up the leg (not good) instead of being absorbed farther down (good). This is why I do not like boots with a pastern/fetlock wraparound strap. I want the suspensory ligaments to be able to go to their full extent, unhindered, doing the job they were designed to do.

(3) You do NOT have to spend $150 to have a good, effective boot. Marketing is nothing but marketing -- try to ignore the fluff and pay attention to the hard facts.

(4) Eventers, we all love our colours. But, as one commenter noted, they can be hard to find or can restrict your options unnecessarily. Especially if you have a colour other than royal blue, hunter green, or red, buy black and accent with coloured tape if you want a professional, yet personalized look.

With those points in mind, let's make a list which will help us to choose the best match for our horse.

(a) Does the horse interfere with himself while working? This includes brushing at the fetlock or pastern, overreaching, or forging. If not, then I would not use boots or wraps on the flat -- you are trapping heat for no purpose.

(b) If the horse DOES interfere, where does it happen? For example, Solo is prone to forging and he also can brush behind. A friend has a horse who only nicks his hind pasterns with his hooves.

(c) Take your interference locations and aim to protect those. For Solo, this means bell boots up front all the time (special shoes up front too, so more to grab). Usually nothing else for flatwork or trail riding. For above friend's horse, this means only pastern wraps behind.

What boots protect what leg parts? In my humble opinion, less is more and I only want to put on as much boot as I absolutely need for the type of ride that day. I especially don't like to use boots while trail riding; it is too easy for dirt/sand/whatever to work its way inside a boot and quickly create a raw spot.

Coronary band, heel, shoe: bell boots, quarter bells, or grab boots

Pastern: pastern wraps

Fetlock: ankle boots (and for you reining people, skid boots protect the bottom of the fetlock against road rash during slides)

Cannon bone and tendon: galloping boots, splint boots (these two are essentially the same in function), polo wraps, brushing boots (generally a little lighter weight/duty than a galloping boot); in this category, choice is mostly personal preference

Tendon only: open front boots

Materials do vary -- neoprene is generally not super breathable, but is easy to clean. Some companies are now making "breathable" (generally perforated) neoprene. Effectiveness may vary widely. A few horses do have neoprene allergies, so just pay attention. I don't like fluffy, fuzzy linings for the cleaning issue. Some companies trumpet that their boots are super tough because they are made of Kevlar -- well, Kevlar was designed to stop an impact from a bullet, so it is good for direct strikes, but holds up poorly to friction, like brushing from a hoof. So unless you plan on shooting your horse in the legs, I fail to see the benefit of paying extra for this.

Beyond that, it is up to you to know the demands and risks of your discipline. For dressage, unless your horse is interfering, you should not need anything (step away from the white polos with your hands up!). For arena jumping, I like to protect the front foot and cannon bone and the fetlocks from brushing on all four. I like that open front boots let the horse feel a pole knock. For XC, I want cannon bones, tendons, ankles and hooves protected so will use the appropriate boots to do so.

The important thing is to be realistic about what you are going to do. If you are only doing dressage, your horse probably doesn't need his legs sheathed in layers from the knee down. If he interferes that badly, there may be other issues that need to be addressed. If you are only working in an arena with collapsable jumps, the hind tendons can probably be left bare to breathe as he certainly can't kick those.

Also, stick to your budget. Sure, you can blow $150 on those Eskadrons because all the other kids have them and you will look oh so trendy like everyone else, but you know what? The $35 Romas perform just as well, last just as long, and you can laugh all the way to the concession stand at your next show that you will actually be able to visit because you were smart so you still have some cash in hand to spend. Shop around and look closely at materials and design, always asking what you are actually paying for and how much of a pain in the butt will it be to clean (ok, the latter is a HUGE one for me because I don't want to waste time scrubbing silly things).  There really is an option out there for almost every price point, the tedious part is just sorting through them.

More questions? Post them in the comments and we can take a stab at it!

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We Have Finally Achieved Normalcy!!

It only took four years.

You can read about our struggles to conquer Solo's abusive longeing past here. If you are not familiar with the story, it will help you understand why I led my horse back to the barn with a huge grin on my face today.

We have received an ungodly amount of thunderstorms over the past few days, everything is wet and I have two long days at work ahead of me, so I decided to just put Solo in the vienna reins and give him a longe workout. There was a ground pole up in the arena, so I just incorporated that into our circle to let Solo work out how to fit it into his stride on his own at the trot and canter, which he did.

And why is this so exciting? Because MY HORSE CANTERED CALMLY IN MULTIPLE CIRCLES IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. This is a BIG BIG BIG deal. Even when he was thrown off balance the first few times cantering over the pole -- he didn't get the distance right and ended up in a lopsided cross canter -- he broke to trot, I gave a quiet kiss and he stepped right back up into a rhythmic canter.

No bug eyes. No flinging self about. He had one nervous moment where he stopped, but I put him back in a trot and he calmly picked up the canter shortly thereafter.

And after cantering, no racing about in crazy trot, anticipating the terror of yet more canter! We calmly resumed a metronome of a trot, spiraling in and out from 5-20 m circles and I'll be damned if he didn't keep a perfect rhythm the entire time.

I try to be a good horsey, mom!

Modeled here (besides, of course, Mr. Shiny Pants' big fat cute nose) are also Solo's brand new fly boots! I had an old pair, the cheapie four pack that I think I got from Horse.com or somewhere, they were HORRIBLE and I threw them away. They sagged down around his ankles like worthless slouch socks (ah, 1986, how I remember your glory). I picked these up from Dover, they are "The Original Fly Wraps" and they are so far (ok, days used = 0, but we'll go with initial impression) soo much better! They do have plastic stays so they do not sag, nice velcro with stretchy bits for give, lovely fleece binding, and you can pick lots of fun colours! The set of four is still only around $40. These will go along way to reducing summer hoof cracking!

I am going to confess a little secret, I was, ahem, almost irresistibly tempted to buy purple ones (or blue, OMG, how am I supposed to resist our official colour!), but I had to give in to sensibility and stick with the nice, heat dispersing white.

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Need A Coat As Show Season Heats Up?

I am going to take a moment for shameless advertisement. Ok, maybe there's a little shame. Well, no, actually that's a lie, there isn't. I have just listed a show coat for sale on eBay and on the off chance anyone is looking for a lovely, lightweight coat, well, here you go! I purchased it at a local humane society benefit and it's just a bit too big for me.

eBay Listing

This is a Wellington Collection jacket, you can find them in Dover for $140. And bonus: you can throw it in the washing machine! Completely brand new, with tags, from my very own smoke free home. It really does look nice in person and the lining is just beautiful, this cheapie camera does not do it justice. Bidding starts at $0.99 and I have no reserve on it, so name your price!

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This Is How We Roll: Horse Boots

I have mentioned my personal addiction love for boots of all shapes and sizes. So I thought I'd share what Solo and I have settled on after years of trying and watching about everything out there.

I do not use boots for dressage schooling, except for front bell boots to protect his special shoes, because I don't like to heat up tendons if I don't have to.  For jump schooling, we use open front boots to protect the front tendons and galloping boots behind to ward off interference along with the standard front bell boots.  At a show, I will use hind ankle boots instead of galloping boots (lighter).  For XC, we always go all out:  bell boots all around, rear heavy duty galloping boots, super awesome N.E.W. sport boots up front.      

Tri-Zone bell boots

Bell Boots

I'm actually pretty happy with a cheapie lot of Roma double lock bell boots I purchased as a group of 8. The velcro is ridiculously grippy and it takes me both hands & some patience to get them off, but I use these for our turnout boots; they hold up surprisingly well. Not bad for $7.

For competition, we are stuck with a pair of Equilibrium Tri-Zone no-turn bell boots.   If by "no-turn" you mean "pretty-much-always-turn." They have the little knobby in the back, but it does basically nothing. Having ripped boots at a horse show, I had to pick some up at the tack tent and this is all they had, so I had to cough up about $30 for them, ugh. As a plus, they are very professional looking & durable; aside from being dirty, they are in impeccable shape despite several trips around XC & schooling & mud. I think we will be stuck with their turniness for a while, which is kind of annoying on a shaped boot.

When we run XC, I also put a pair of simple pull-ons on his back feet, just to protect from interference.  I picked them up for about $10, no complaints.

Hind Boots

Solo sports 2-strap Woofs behind

It's all Woof wear back here. For schooling, I adore my Woof All-Around galloping boot. I will buy these forever & ever. If the ones I have ever die. They are simple, single-lock, two strap velcro, usually on sale at Dover for around $30. I have never had them budge or give way. After about three years of use, they are worn, but still perfectly serviceable. They used to be used for competitions as well, so they've seen a XC course or two, until....

I found a pair of 5-strap Woof sport boots in the trash can while volunteering at an event. Silly rich people (these are $60 boots)...yay for me! They were in perfect shape except for a tiny rub on one edge. So now they are our competition boots due to their heavy duty construction, I have no worries that Solo is going to bash through them. On the downside, they are quite heavy & do not breathe at all, but they don't seem to absorb too much water either.

I also recently bought a pair of hind ankle boots for stadium jumping, my barn-mates all use them & I really liked their lighter weight & smaller design.  The galloping boots seemed like overkill for stadium and, again, I don't like to heat up those tendons!  I found a set of Moxie breathable neoprene boots on sale for about $28.  They come in fun colours & are super light.  NO, mine are NOT hot pink, of COURSE they are a lovely dark powder blue!!  I would give them only a moderate breathability rating -- the ankle pad breathes pretty well, but the strip around the cannon bone does not.   

Front Boots

In the past, I've ridden stadium in plain open front boots from Roma -- durable, fit well, and affordable (around $25ish).  Easy to clean, but like the Woofs, lined with neoprene so again, not so breathable.  Then I ride XC in some generic neoprene splint boots that I think I paid a whopping $12 for.  The splint boots are now disintegrating after three years of faithful service, so it was time to find a replacement (I'll keep the open fronts for stadium, but want the front of the leg protected for XC).

In my other boot post, I told you how I'd learned some startling statistics about boots & injury. I also learned that something like 80% of sporthorse injuries were to the lower front limbs. So I wanted to be sure that this time, I had the best protection I could find. I wanted breathability, lightness, & a serious tendon strike plate.

I ended up with these: the N.E.W Airoflow XC boot. Yes, I paid a ridiculous amount of money for them. I'm not telling, but I did get them on sale. I think because the labels are sewn on upside down. But I am hoping to get some serious years out of them. Oh, and I tried them tonight for the first time. And they are totally AWESOME.

The inside is some kind of techy impact foam.  But the material is a very open weave, not quite a waffle weave, but same concept.  When I took them off of Solo's legs after a sweaty dressage workout on a humid night, his legs were almost totally dry!!!!  The outside is a super tough looking nylon & the cannon is encased in a carbon fiber strike plate that is molded around the leg & padded with the foamy stuff.  Oh and the best part:  they are machine washable.  Now THERE'S practical design!

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