The Pitfalls of a New Idea

continued from On Hoof Boots

Well, not so new if you live in the States. Hoof Boots, as I understand it, have been around in some shape or form since the 70's. But here in Germany, among a people who -- at least in their own minds-- see themselves as the world's greatest equestrians, hoof boots are greeted with skepticism. First of all, Hoof Boots were not developed in Germany; a big minus in the German mind. What do Americans and, god forbid, Australians, know about horsemanship! Running around playing cowboy! Which, I guess, explains the big Western Riding craze here in Germany.Luckily for me, two Germans are very interested in Hoof Boots, enough to risk starting a business based on the hoof boot product.

In principle, the hoof boot is a good idea, but I think a lot of horse owners approach this good idea as sort of the end all solution to their horse's hoof problems. Therefore, when something goes wrong as a result of using the product, they panic, or toss it out, proclaiming it to be a "very bad idea".

In the first two weeks of using the hoof boots on Tamara, I noticed an immediate improvement starting on day one. It was though she was saying, "Oh this feels so good . Thank you!" She certainly appeared to be a new horse; lot's of pep in her step, and almost giddy to the point that while leading her out to the pasture, she would begin bucking and prancing with joy. But we had our first challenge on the third week.

We had a light snow. Enough to dust the pasture in a thin white blanket. According to the BOA instruction book, the boots work good in snow so I put them on her and turned her out. A few hours later a local farmer came to our house and told us that our horse had galloped through the pasture , apparently lost her footing, and literally flew through the electric fence, into a ditch and eventually ended up on her back on the tractor path. The farmer said that after being stunned, Tamara rolled over, sat still for a few minutes, then stood up and went to the adjacent field and then began grazing. He also said that she was bleeding from the mouth.

Great! If it isn't one thing, it's another! , I thought to myself.

Back in the stable we assessed the damage. A few scrapes on her back (luckily she was wearing her turnout blanket), no visible lameness, or damage to her legs or bad hock (big relief) but a big cut on her upper lip that went all the way through. "Time to call the vet, again."

The stable owner, a German, a former riding instructor and Eventing competitor, was convinced that it was the fault of "those stupid boots". The farmer saw the crash wasn't too exact as to how Tamara went through the fence and landed on her mouth before eventually ending up on her back. So I wasn't too quick to blame it on the boots. Fact is, there was snow on the ground, it was slippery, and any horse, wearing boots , or not, could have lost their footing and slipped.

We hashed over the physics for a while, and I came to the conclusion that she must have "put on the breaks" just before approaching the fence. The hoof boots probably worked too well, causing her to stop too suddenly, fly head first through the fence, and smash her muzzle against the ground before the rest of her body followed her into the ditch. It's the only explanation I can find for the busted lip (which required 8 stitches).

After the accident, I reassessed the worth of the boots. I knew that I couldn't go back to traditional shoes. Tamara just has too many problems with those. After seven months of recovery and a massive Vet bill as a result of infection brought on by lacerations from her own shoes, I wasn't about to call the farrier. On the other hand, she had just sustained an injury that had at least a 50% chance of having been from her new hoof boots. And the injury could have been much worse than it was. The perfect is the definition of "Dilemma ".

I came up with an alternative. I decided to use the boots while riding on rocky, and hard surfaces, but going barefoot when the ground is soft. BOA (the boot's manufacturer) suggests that as well. But I'm going to go one step further. I will also avoid turning her out when the ground is frozen and hard.

There is a "loneliness issue" that comes along with this decision. Horses are herd animals after all. They don't like being left alone in a little corral while everyone else gets to go out and play. Tamara seems to be adjusted to this and doesn't flip out like her stable buddies when left alone. We'll see. Keeping the fingers crossed.