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"We adopted a beautiful black standardbred a couple of years ago.  He was raced for the first half of his life as a pacer in Vancouver, B.C. He's had a few injuries in his day and a hard beginning as a racehorse. Consequently, when we got him his feet were contracted from having plates and shoes all his life and bucked when he was asked to do too much....a princes in every way.  First thing we did was to get rid of the shoes, start with a natural hoof trimming regime and let him play in the field to learn to be a horse again. There was lots of limping and leg pain for the first little while, but the feet slowly started to harden up.

My husband, who is an RCMP Officer and "Black" the standardbred (reg. name Clover Dutch (we changed it to Black) Sire: Just Camelot, Dam: Clover Dutchess) began to bond. Black would follow him around the yard with his nose on my husbands shoulder. My husband could not ride a horse. This horse begged my husband to get on him. So he did. However, my husband could not stay on him. He was constantly falling off. Black would just stand there with the saddle sometimes under his belly and wait for my husband to collect himself and get back on. It was really quite funny because a standardbred paces sometimes and their trot is huge. For a novice rider this is a big challenge but then again, a novice doesn't know any differently either. This miserable bucking racehorse would actually take care of my husband. If an experienced rider got on him, he would buck. If a child or my husband got on him, he was wonderful.

But, Black would not walk down the middle of a path, he was always walking off to the side with sore feet. Everyone told us to put shoes on him but I refused to hurt this horse any more than he'd already been hurt. So, I got him some Old Macs from EasyCare.

The first time I put them on Black lifted his feet so high; it was funny.

The photo I have attached is my husband riding Black in the local parade (can you believe it, a green rider on an ex-race horse down the middle of town) with the tack we borrowed from the RCMP headquarters. You will notice this RCMP "WANNABE" horse walking in the parade proudly sporting his OLD MAC's down the main street. In this town of Quesnel, B.C. it is mostly cowboys, not too many people use the OLD MAC's. The comments from the towns people were "look at that horse with his Niki's on". There were lots of comments and lots of questions about those OLD MAC boots which was really a conversation opener for my husband and his PR duties.

Most importantly, Black's hoofs are doing great, no contraction and no pain. I did natural hoof trimming on him from the moment I got him and together with the OLD MAC's you would never know that those were racing feet any longer. It took about 2 years to get his feet in shape but the OLD MAC's allowed us to be able to ride him while they were healing. We use them on all four feet The only time of year I don't use them in is the winter, I'm afraid he might slip on the ice and snow.

I have another horse I use from dressage and jumping. I got him a pair of OLD MAC's for his front feet while we are trail riding. When I saw the benefit of the boots on my standardbred I figured this was a good way to avoid stone bruising and to keep his feet in tip top shape for competition.

PS: I use the pastern wraps on both horses. The black doesn't really need them but I use them just in case. The competition horse gets sore without them.

Hope you enjoy the story.....it's all true!!!"

- Lynn Wang, Quesnel, B.C.