Hoofprints in the Snow

Horse of Course December 1976

Winter… Snowballs and ice are great for sport… Except when they’re under your horse’s feet. But the snow doesn’t pack in the hooves of Mary Ann Buchholz’s horses anymore.

If you’re kind of proud of your ability to recognize animal tracks along the trail, you may be a bit surprised if you follow us down a trail someday. Our houses are leaving a completely new kind of hoofprint in the sand. In fact, you might not necessarily recognize it as a hoofprint at all.

It all started about four years ago. Winter had come on early and our horses were slipping around on huge balls of wet snow, tightly packed into their shod hoofs. No matter how many times we would pick them out, the balls of snow would freeze again after just a few steps. The past winter we had pads put on under one of our horse’s shoes, to help keep out the snow, but during thaws mud and manure had gotten in under them. Despite the packing and because they couldn’t be removed for cleaning, she had a good case of thrush by re-set time. So we ruled out using pads to keep out the snow this time. With the horseshoer due in a few days, though, we had to decide whether to leave the horses barefoot to let their heels spread and lessen the risk of their slipping on the snowballed feet, or to have them reshod so that we could ride freely over our rocky trails through the winter.

Somehow, neither decision seemed ideal, but we opted for the barefeet. Then we rode, but even with care their feet couldn’t avoid getting more and more chips from the basalt rock common on our trails. Finally our mare Ginger got a sole bruise and we knew we had to do something if we were going to continue ridding.

At this point a friend made a suggestion that has proven to be the best solution for us. She told us about a neighbor’s invention that she was using they were Neel Glass’ Easyboots.

Like most people with horses we were somewhat reluctant to try something new. In fact we hadn’t even taken any free Easyboots to try, when Mr. Glass was perfecting them. Would they stay on, would they be safe for the horse, how hard were they to get off and on, how long did they last? The best way to find out, we decided, was to buy a set and try them. So we did.

To say they were at first a 100 percent success would be an exaggeration. Like anything else that is so totally new, I had my share of exasperation. In fact, being not too strong, female and somewhat contrary, I felt I had to work out some of the answers on my own, since the directions didn’t always work out to be practical in my situation.

First, I had trouble snapping down the catch on Ginger’s back feet. When I applied pressure she would lift her foot. So we came up with a way to snap it really tight while holding the foot up in the normal cleaning position. I use a 5 inch long piece of steel pipe, put it over the latch and pull it toward me. The extra leverage makes the difference between being able to fasten the boot tightly enough to be practical or leaving it several notches looser. To remove the boot, I used the pipe in reverse, using a hoof pick to lift the latch enough to get the pipe on, and then lifting with the pipe. This method worked so well, I now use it on the front feet too. It also made it possible for our daughter Elaine to put the Easyboots on and off by herself.

Now that I had come up with ways to get them on and off, we were ready to try the Easyboots out. We found Ginger had no problem adjusting to the new kind of shoes at all. After not being able to walk along the graveled roadside the day before without limping, she was soon trotting on the same gravel more freely then she had even with steel shoes on.

Of course there were still adjustments to be made… the boots come fairly high in the back, so that they can also be used for soaking. With Ginger, however, who had unusually low heels, we found we had to trim down the boots and inside straps so that they would be completely below the coronet band, to assure no possibility of irritating living tissue at the bulbs of her heels.

Then came the months of winter riding. There was no doubt in our minds we had the best year of winter riding we had ever had. We even got boots for our gelding Misty and put on the ice studs that are available for the boots. These seemed to almost double the already good traction the boots had on slippery surfaces and we later noticed they greatly protected the Easyboots from wear.

As time went on we experimented with leaving the boots on for longer periods of time, when we knew we would be ridding several days in a row. Not surprisingly, we found the hoofs were, if anything, in as good if not better condition than ever. By this time we had drilled small holes all over the sides and bottom of the boots to make sure there would be adequate air circulation, and mud and water would not build up inside. We also made packing pads of thick plastic dish scouring rounds soaked in pine tar to give extra frog pressure and to lessen the chance of thrush. These pads have worked unusually well, in that they still let air circulate in the frog area, hold pine tar well, conform to the contours of the frog and sole, give additional shock absorption, and usually can be reused for several months. We also discovered early in our experience with Easyboots that thick, lubricating hoof conditioners are best put on a day or two before the boot is to be used. They seem to make the interior and hoof gripping mechanisms of the boot slippery and increase the likelihood of a boot slipping off.

With spring and its alternating periods of mud and snow, we came into possibly our most difficult time with the boots. The mud had a tremendous amount of suction and there were more than a few times when I had to ride back a ways to find a boot. Then there was the day on a trail ride with our riding club along the Rio Grande, when I slid down the steep bank of a huge mud hole and almost landed head first in its black and smelly depth, while trying to retrieve the only boot I’ve lost permanently. It turned out there was just no way was I going to be able to wade out and search the bottom for that boot. About that time I had a few second thoughts on the practicality of the boots.

Fortunately, when I went to get a replacement for my lost Easyboot, I found Mr. Glass had recently made tow of his most valuable innovations to the boots. One is a pronged metal tab that is fastened at the front of the inside strap and can be adjusted several ways to grab the hoof at the quarters. Instead of 6 or 8 large nail holes through the hoof wall to hold on steel shoes, there are 4 tiny pits in the hoof wall about ½ and 1 inch from the bottom of the wall, where the prongs reseat each time, to tightly hold on the boots. The other is a light plastic strap that can be fastened around the horse’s pastern and attached to the boot by a nylon loop around the inside strap. It is available as an added precaution to assure you of not losing the boot should it come off somewhere where you could not easily retrieve it.

We now feel the Easyboots are an essential part of our horse gear. Even when the kids talk us into using steel shoes during the snow season, we still often use the boots for extra protection when riding our rough and rocky trails or roadsides with sharp gravel and broken glass an unavoidable danger. In the mountains when a lost steel shoe could prove more than an inconvenience, we always bring along an Easyboot in the saddle bag, if we don’t already have them on. After more than three years, probably the most amazing thing of all to us in this rocky country is that both original sets (minus one boot) are still in use.

It took a little learning, innovating and persistence, but for us it was worth it to find this unique alternative answer to a perennial horse problem.

Now when you are out riding the trails, don’t be surprised if you see a new kind of hoofprint in the snow. Look at it carefully; you may be the first in the group to identify the elusive Easyboot print.