As with anything related to endurance, futzing with feet is a long-term process for most. For myself, I’m super-duper stubborn and man have we been on a journey without quite an end in sight with Tarma’s feet and hoof protection for endurance rides. To start with, let me list my priorities, so you know partly why I’m being so dogged with messing with boots and composites:

1. Barefoot (as much as possible)
2. Building the best barefoot Tarma is capable of having, given the environment I keep her in (a boarding barn in the Willamette Valley)
3. No nails and no metal: Tarma’s never had metal shoes or nails, and unless I’m down to my last option I’m aiming to keep it that way. My reasons are many; nails can mess up a good foot and if applied incorrectly, can seriously lame her; ripping them out can be a ride ender and cause a hazard until they are found in the pasture; they rip up pastures more than bare hooves do; it’s a lot harder to maintain hoof health in metal, and they absorb a lot less concussion than composites or boots.
4. Self-learning: I’m slowly teaching myself about healthy hooves and how to maintain Tarma’s feet myself, and especially applying boots and shoes. I’ll never be strong enough or educated enough to apply metal shoes and nails.
5. Cost: Once I find what works, composite shoes or boot wise, overall the costs tend to be cheaper long term over a set of non-reusable metal shoes every four to five weeks, even only accounting for ride season shoeing.

That said, so far every combo of boots or shoes have had problems. Some have been user error (I am rubbish at measuring things correctly), some have been Tarma specific (she has very sensitive skin and dynamic movement, especially on the hinds), and some have been type specific (some boots don’t provide enough protection for the logging roads we power down in the winter).

1. When I first brought her home, her feet were not in the best shape and we had to pry them off the ground to get her trimmed. I tried Renegades as they had worked for my last gelding, and promptly gave up on them when I lost one over a cliff (before I had Benny to fetch flying boots for me!). This was years ago and I haven’t tried them again even though plenty of endurance folks have good luck with them, because they are on the clunkier side, and I’m afraid they’ll just fly off again or rub, though I may be willing to try them again with a professional fitter involved.
2. Next up were the Flex boots, which work really well for a friend’s gelding, however they again flew off, especially during canter departs, and weren’t thick enough sole protection. Plus, they are hard to get in the US.
3. I tried the Cavallos, but they are super clunky for speed work and no matter how carefully I fit and conditioned them, they rubbed Tarma’s heel bulbs raw (but they never came off!) I made a mistake during one 50 of using one as a spare when she lost a shoe, and even three miles rubbed her so badly I had to get off and hand walk her two miles past the chunky rock before I could remount on the dirt road and continue on.
4. I tried the EasyCare Epics (the kind with the wires) and managed to cut myself once and they just never were quite right, possibly due to a sizing error on my part. They did stay more than 75% of the time and never rubbed.
5. I’ve tried the regular Scoot boots all around, but on her fronts I couldn’t get either the sizing of the boot right and they twisted, or the sizing of the mud straps right (to stop the twisting) and then she rubbed under the mud straps. Plus they don’t offer quite enough protection from the winter gravel roads at speed, but they do for her hinds. I tried the Enduros and front or back, they were just too weak at the strap attachment points and she kept ripping them off.
6. My current winter set up is EasyCare Gloves (without wires) for her fronts, and regular Scoot Boots with mud straps for her hinds. This has been working for conditioning rides without rubs or coming off, however when I had the Scoots at Mary and Anna (a weirdly sandy ride) her rear heel bulbs rubbed so badly when the sand got in them. But I did manage to finish the ride with four boots on!
7. For composites I love the EasyCare glue on shoes…when the dang things stay on. I used a set for the Cross State ride (with acrylic glue) and those suckers stayed on. The Versa’s (with the Octo tabs and Super Glue) would work sometimes and then fly or get pried off by the long grass in her pasture, I just don’t think they worked for her foot shape but she went like gangbusters when they did stay on. I did another set with acrylic glue but got caught between farriers and she went almost two months between trims and we had to start building her foot back up almost all over again, so I don’t really want to leave shoes on for an entire cycle unless I have to.
8. EasyCare recently came out with the Ones with mushroom cuffs (applied with Super Glue), which in theory you leave the cuffs on and only put the shoes on when you ride, so they can be barefoot in pasture. To me this is the perfect solution, if I can get it to work. My first application was hot garbage, and I was able to pry two cuffs off the next day only with my questionable hand strength (two cuffs are already lost in the pasture). However, I didn’t really follow all the prep steps, especially about roughing the hoof wall to give the Super Glue space to adhere to. I also measured not quite right so the fronts are too small, so I ordered a new set and I’m going to try, try, try again, this time following every single step to the letter. If this doesn’t work, I’m going to try to find a professional to pop them on, and if that doesn’t work I’ll just lay in a hole in the ground and cry, because due to her injury she can’t wear front boots for months at least.

So, that’s where we stand with Tarma’s feet. They are in a good place but finding the right balance of protective footwear that A. just works; B. allows for healthy feet; C. doesn’t entirely annihilate the bank; and D. JUST FREAKING WORKS is so very difficult. If the mushroom cuffs pop on/pop off doesn’t work, I may just have to suck up having her in acrylic glued on shoes during the ride season, and some combo of boots for winter work. The other main point about the glue-ons is that sometimes, with enough effort, they are reusable, although harder to do so with the acrylic glue. We’ll figure it out, but it’s definitely in the “frustrating” stage. At least Tarma is absolutely amazing to have her feet fussed over and she’ll stand like a happy little rock the entire time I’m crawling around, swearing and gluing myself to the ground!