Suzy is an 8yr old black clydesdale/appaloosa cross. She had some sort of accident in her earlier years that resulted in damage to her coronet on the inside near front hoof. The incident went undetected until she came to us, and the “feathers” were lifted for a trim. We found that she had very little hoof wall over her inside quarter and it continually breaks away.

Holding a shoe on this foot is a nightmare, and with a little bit of convincing from me, we decided to try her in some boots.

We had her fitted and found the easyboot gloves did not come in her size. She had a round foot that measures nearly 150mm in both length and diameter. Our fitter recommended Easyboot Epics. Suzy completed the 40km, however we experienced untold mishaps with the boots.

Five km’s out the boot (on her bad foot) came undone, and it seemed every few km’s we were getting off to do up the boot again. At the 15km mark we called for help. In our request for help we asked for some paper clips, tape and pliers. I found an environmentally friendly bag in the rescue cars and cut that up and stuffed that down the back of the boot as the gator appeared to have moved from sitting over the boot to having a big gap. I used the paper clips to put through the holes at the clip on the front (I believe there are special clips for the Epics, to stop the clip from lifting, but we did not receive any with the boot) The paper clips did the trick with only one more incident at the 30km mark where one of the paper clips on the back boot broke and allowed the clip to open.

An examination of the boot with our fitter after the event found that gator had given way and a new gator was needed. I also expressed that I could not seem to get the boot tight enough and it was decided that shorter wires might do the trick. Size 3 wires were supplied and I volunteered to fit the new gator and wires.

I watched the videos, read the instructions and it took me 2 hours to get the new gator and the smaller wire on the boot. I must admit I was never into meccano sets or even lego for that matter. Changing the wire on the other 3 took me about 15 minutes per boot. Very fiddley.

Will be giving them a test run tomorrow.