Boots or Shoes for Minis

[Becky Horat]

Would like some feedback for anyone that has used boots or shoes for their Minis for driving. I don't believe the build-a-bear shoes would work, as this is more long drives. Want to try them on one of our driving horses to see if it helps him. He has great, hard, dark feet, but has always seemed ouchy on hard, rocky surfaces. As an example, we notice immediately he seems just a little tender if getting off to the side of our arena that is hard w/ little rocks. The rest of our arena is sand and he moves nicely. We drive on trails and he really seem sluggish and slow. If we hit a soft surface area, he immediately picks up speed and moves out. We have no problems with any of our other Minis and some have soft, white feet. We try to leave a little more wall on his feet, instead of getting him down too short. Anyway, would like to try some boots, just to see if we find an improvement. Have even thought of wrapping gauze padding w/ vetrap to see if see a change. Anyone else have this problem? Has anyone used boots and what was your feeling?? I see Chimicum has some boots I was thinking of trying

 

[Marty]

contact

www.easycareinc.com for boots

in the meantime you can get some Venice Turpentine and using a 2' paint brush put a generous amount on the bottom of the soles

It builds up a protective coating. Worked great when we used to use our horses in parades.

 

[happy appy]

I use the Easyboot 000 and love them. They have the gators and I don't think I would wear them without them.

 

[susanne]

Look at the Chimacum Comfy Fit Leather Road Boots.

http://www.comfyfitharness.com/index.html

(scroll down to the bottom right)

They are durable and inexpensive -- $25 each regular, $56 each with rubber grip. They have A, B, and C mini sizes -- sadly Mingus is too big for them...

 

[Carolyn R]

There are also products made by vettec like sole gaurd that will protect the sole

 

[rbrown]

There are also products made by vettec like sole gaurd that will protect the sole

One of my mares currently has front shoes made out of Vettec Superfast. They're a little slippery on pavement but otherwise they work great for her needs- she was ouchy on gravel and we were competing at an event that entailed a few km of trotting on dirt roads.