A planning forum held in May 2020 voted 87% in favour of Remit 5, that is to allow the use of Hoof Boots in Dressage competition. See minutes.
There are some stipulations as to colour (black or brown only), the boots to be lower than the coronet, and not to cover the heel, as well as to be easily removable by veterinarians.
It was decided to form a sub-committee to further clarify what that means and what type of boots are going to be allowed under those rules.
It appears the boots below are acceptable for dressage competitions:
Easyboot Epic, but only with gaiter removed. This would allow you to use the boot as is for training and general hacking, then take the gaiter off for the dressage competition.Easyboot Fury Sling. Select the boot for the width of the hoof, then adjust the heel slider for the length of the hoof. The height of the heel cage can also be individually adjusted for each hoof.
I had this great opportunity to be invited to present at the ESANA CE and the Holistic Hoofcare Foundation Seminar in the USA a couple of weeks ago.
What a great bunch of people. And, as so often happens in these seminars, some great aha-moments were had by the participants. When you see a horse change from tense and tight in the muscles with a toe-first loading stride, to one that relaxes, drops the shoulder blade, and strides out better – just in the one demo trim – that is truely special.
some participants @ USA 2019
my accommodation
getting their TLC
honing those trimming skills
Even more exciting when you get feedback like this:
“… I got the most significant release indicators I’ve seen in ages….craned his neck all the way around, ears up and big licks and chews. Moreover, he moved so much better right away and particularly in the morning when we got a blanket of light snow to usher in a new era. Words are inadequate to express my gratitude. “
“I can not recommend Thorsten Kaiser more! He gave an outstanding seminar this week. I highly recommend him to anyone remotely horsey related. “
Interested in our Seminars or Professional Training? click here.
I have to admit, when I first had the new Easyboot Fury Heart boots in my hand, naturally, I tried to fasten the straps in the front – to my surprise, it was quite tricky. My first impression was, wow, if I as a practitioner struggle with this already, how are customers going to get on with this?
But then, it all changes when the boot is actually on the hoof. The moment you have a horse stand in the boot, fastening those straps couldn’t be any easier. I couldn’t believe the difference. I got my wife to do up the boots – same result, she thought it was quite easy to do.
See the video below to get an idea of what I mean:
Fastening Easyboot Fury Straps
The boot itself is quite easy to apply and remove from the hoof.
Basically, select the size for the width of the hoof,
then adjust the heel length specificly to the hoof,
lift the foot and tighten the screws underneath.
Check the heel strap height position and adjust if needed, e.g. to accommodate a club foot
Fasten the straps in the front.
Then take it for a test ride or inhand walk to see if the settings are good.
When happy with the settings, take the boot off and take out the bottom screws one at a time and apply some locktite, then screw it back in and tighten. Basically, this prevents the screws from accidentially coming undone and loosen the fit.
Depending on the length setting you end up with, there might be excess boot extending past the heel strap. Simply take a sharp hoof knife and cut off the excess to have a nice flush finish.
So, final impressions are that the boot is quite practical and simple to work with. Definitely a great tool to have.
Thorsten will be presenting two seminars in this year’s Equitana in Auckland.
You can download the exact time table from here, once it is available.
Understanding the difference between Laminitis and Founder
Friday, 22nd November, 14:30 | Equine Mind Coach Classroom 1
When people get asked about the difference between these two conditions, often the answer is that they are the same thing. However, they aren’t. This presentation is going to explore what Laminits and Founder mean to the horse and hoof, how they can be recognised, how they can be differentiated from each other, how they interrelate, how they can be treated, and most importantly, how they can be prevented.
The presentation is going to show that Laminitis and Founder are not mysterious conditions they are often made out to be, but rather that they can be dealt with logically and systematically.
Boot Fitting Strategies – How to make Booting work for you!
Saturday, 23rd November 09:30 | Equine Mind Coach Classroom 2
In Saddle-Fitting, there are two main strategies to fit saddles: 1) fit to the existing horse’s back, and 2) fit to where the horse’s back is intended to develop towards and fit for that. In Boot-fitting, we find the same two strategies.
This presentation is going to discuss the two approaches and weigh up their pro’s and con’s with each other. After the presentation, you will be able to make a more informed decision on which approach might be more suitable for your horse.
Here a nice little dissection video of a hoof in the way we look at hooves at our hoofcare seminar. It’s always great to see when people walk away from a seminar with enriched understanding.
A little video for you to share my excitement as I dissect a frog out to peek inside this foot!Hoof TK1www.patreon.com/hoofstudies
The key thing to understand here, but not mentioned in the video, is that some internal structures, aka pedal bone, navicular bone, and deep digital flexor tendon are descending slightly on weight bearing. When you see how little space there is from the top of the collateral groove to those descending structures, then it starts to make sense, that if the horn is not “moving out of the way”, aka is not descending as well, the soft-tissue in between will get compressed. Since this is uncomfortable to the horse, the horse will choose not to load the back part of the hoof, i.e. it will not demonstrate a heel-first loading in movement or it will stand under when at rest. Unfortunately, this is easily mistaken for conformational issues, or we hear statements like “that’s just how this horse is”, but we must realise that is a compensation issue.
The purpose of trimming such a foot must be to establish the correct deflection of the hoof capsule in the compromised araes and with that establishing comfort. This will alter the way the horse chooses to load the feet in movement and rest. In order to achieve this, the trim must focus on the internal structures and hoof deformations at corium level, rather than aiming for a certain look on the outside. Illustrated here.
If you would like to improve your understanding of the hoof, come and attend one of our seminars.
We are very excited about attending EquiDays this year. See us at site EM10 in the marquee.
IBEM will have people on site to provide info on holistic hoofcare and our seminars and professional’s course. We will be giving some trimming demos on site at regular intervals. Check our FB page for time announcements.
Thorsten will also be presenting some seminars in the Seminar Classroom:
Friday (10am) and Sunday (12pm): Thorsten will talk about the difference between Laminitis and Founder. How to recognise it, understand the causes, and how to treat those conditions.
Saturday (1pm): The presentation is on making hoof boots work for you. The focus is on some common fitting issues and how to use boots as a tool to develop a healthier hoof.
We also will have a section dedicated to where you can see and purchase our products like hoof boots, trimming tools, etc. In particular, we will have the new hoof boot The Fury on display.
Why do we see
this instant change? Horses choose a stance that is most comfortable to them,
or rather, is least painful for them. In the before-trim photos, the horse
unloads the heels by standing under and putting more weight on the toes. Once
the hooves are trimmed for comfort, then the horse finds it quite pleasant to
load the heels and chooses to stand with vertical cannon bones, which allows it
to use it’s stay-apparatus.
These photos show the immediate impact of a physiologically correct trim on a
horse’s stance. On the left is how the horse chose to stand when it was “due”
for a trim. Here we see how it stands
under with the front end and compensates by standing under with the backend.
Immediately after a trim, the horse chose to stand “square”, aka vertical canon
bones.
This
illustrates the meaning when a horse is “due” for a trim. It should not be
driven by a trimming interval as we set it in the calendar, but rather should
be dictated by the horse’s comfort level, which we can gauge by its way of
standing. If it chooses not to stand with vertical canon bones, then the horse
is compensating for some discomfort in the body. This can be a number of
things, or combinations thereof. However, more often than not, as shown in
these cases, the hooves are a major contributor.
Update
Below an update of this horse. At the next trim, 3 weeks later, the horse is standing under again, see blue lines. I also placed the original red lines on it from the first comparison. However, the horse is not standing under quite as much. Immediatly post-trim, the horse stands square again.
Horse Stance comparison before and after trim
This hightlights the point made above. As time progresses between trims, most horses tend to start compensating for uncomfortable feet again. A physiological trim can remove the pain sources and allow the horse to stand correctly. Trimming intervals must be chosen based on when the horse starts to compenstate, rather than an arbitary date in the calendar.
Another aspect to point out, the better the boarding conditions support the horse’s needs, the later the compensation will set in.
