Renegade Glue-On Boots at Cuyama XP

Hello Kirt and Gina: Here are some photos of Chief’s Renegade boots that were glued on for the Cuyama XP that you can use on the news page. I glued these boots on last week on Monday night (March 16) with my husbands help and they were removed this morning (March 24). During that time Chief marked trail on the ride plus he completed two days and 105 miles of the ride. The boots worked great even in the mud on day 2 and we had a really great ride with no worries and zero boot issues, it was a wonderful experience!

I wanted to point out in these photos that the quarters on Chief’s front boots between the hoof and the boot had become separated. At first I thought that I needed to add more glue or that it meant that the boots were going to loosen up and come off. However, I found that wasn’t the case at all and in fact the boots were still on so well and were definitely not going to come off. After I figured out that the boots were just allowing for proper hoof mechanism by letting the hoof expand with each stride I realized that it didn’t really matter that the quarters stayed glued 100%. You know that Chief always has those great heel-first landings so I am happy that he is able to expand and contract the entire hoof as naturally as possible while still wearing hoof protection.

I am glad that I only left the boots on for one week this time. Everything looked good when they were removed – no thrush, no smell, clean inside and I am happy with how Chief’s feet looked. If you look at some of the photos closely you can see where the glue remained and where I needed to rasp or sandpaper (or still do) to get it off entirely. You can see the glue easier after the hoof dressing was applied. You can also see the marks from rasping or sand papering from the hoof preparation process. I’ve already gotten in trouble with Dave (farrier/husband) for the damage that I’ve caused to the horses feet preparing and using the glue-on boots so I am going to be extremely careful from now on and also rotate which horse I do this with so that any one horse isn’t going to wear glue-on boots very often on endurance rides.

I used the Renegade strap-ons on Pro Bono for 50 miles and for trail marking at Cuyama and will get you some of those photos soon – the boots worked flawlessly on him and I never had to touch one of them all day and that included the quicksand/river crossing. I really like how those boots are working for him!

I thought Chief’s feet grew too much when I left the boots on for three weeks last time and I won’t do that again. I think that leaving glued on boots on a horse very long or very often is going to have the same affect as having a nailed on shoe with a pad – the horse will lose their hoof toughness. I can’t risk that happening with Chief, he’s got several rides coming up and I need his feet to remain as tough as possible! Chief will be using the strap ons for his next event – they are so easy, thanks!

The four horses (my two, Jim’s and the Duck’s) that marked trail on the Cuyama XP ride this year prior to the ride did so using Renegade hoof boots!!

Karen Chaton
http://www.enduranceridestuff.com/blog