Tor & Sof hoof boot review - Easy treck, old mac, renegades and floating boots

My collection of boots!

I thought I would make a positive out of my terrible boot buying affliction and do a quick Tor&Sof review of hoof boots.

Easy trek trails

I used these on Tonto before he retired. My rating - pants!

Pros: Can put therapeutic pads in, they are easy enough to get on

Cons: Far too easy to get off. I spent most rides collecting these from puddles after they had disappeared off at speed, the Velcro was just not enough to hold them on, they also seemed to spin. They wore quickly and more than one pair broke on me. They also look ridiculous, Sof would not be caught dead in these! I did try these briefly on Sof and she trotted like she was in clown shoes, admittedly they were too big for her. The boots are affordable at least.

Tip: don't buy these

*I should however caveat that this review was based on my experience with T, who is very hard wearing on boots and has a poor gait (twists his feet on the ground and scrapes his toes). A friend of mine borrowed these for her mare and had no issues, baring internal boot wear.

Old Mac G2

Used very briefly on Tonto before he retired and fairly extensively with Sof. My rating -  great all rounder

Old macs on the font, classics on the back

Pros: Can put therapeutic pads in, not too fiddly to get on, the velcro stays reasonable clean despite the mud. They have never come off or moved on either horse! I have galloped and jumped Sof in these and they are fine, Tonto overreached badly in the school on the first trial and the boot stayed put. I use gaiters on Sofie and they have never rubbed her. We have yet to have major slipping issues, but have not done a lot of work in deep mud. Fairly forgiving in fit, can use throughout the trim cycle and can cope with some hoof deformation. With all the padding we can happily canter on concrete without fear of concussion issues.

Cons: They look ridiculous, Sofie knows these as the trainers of shame, they are a very clumpy boot and Sofie thunders along in them which is a bit alarming. I also noticed with Tonto and his ringbone the internal strap was a problem. It was not big enough to go round his fat cob ankles and he did not like the pressure over his deformed joints. These are expensive.

Tip: label these left and right I always put the wrong boot on first and have to switch over.

Floating boots

  

Used twice on Sofie. My rating -  not for us

boots with black setting and gaiters

Pros: they look quite cool, come in different colors. Not excessively clumpy. The grip is meant to be excellent though I have not tried this. They are meant to be reasonably forgiving in fit - though I have not experienced this. They are very easy to keep clean and there is no velcro to get clogged up with mud. On the breif trail Sof strided out in them so I think horses are fairly confident in their footing with these. My friends horse went for one hack in them and they did not budge.

 Yellow Floating on the front
renegades on the back

boots with black setting no gaiters

Cons: they fell off Sof :(. Not sure I had the fit right with Sofie, but they fell off within 2 mins of testing after she forged.  They were also fairly fiddly to put on, I imagine pulling at the rubber straps with frozen fingers would be hard. I got one stuck on after fastening it a bit too tight. Both Sofie and my friends horse who tried it on didn't seem to like the pressure on their heal bulbs - again I might have been putting the boot on wrong. The gaiters do not quite do up properly and rise above the front of the boot exposing the plastic strap to the skin. On the short trials this did not appear to cause any rubbing though. These are expensive.

Tip: get a specialist fitter if you want these.

Renegade Classics

Used extensively on Sofie. My rating - Great specialist boot - these are my favorite boots on the market.

Christmas boots

Pros: they look soo cool, I love all the colours and that they are so streamlined. The Gooche of the hoof boot world. The grip is fairly good in new boots, worn tread does make them treacherous. If you have the fit right they will not budge. If they break (rarely) you can easily replace parts at minimal cost. I have jumped and galloped and span Sofie in these and they were fab. They have never rubbed, and with so little of the boot in contact with the skin I find it hard to imagine how they could. These boots are hard wearing.

Cons: not very forgiving on fit or deformities. Sof tends to wear her toes to a point, and by the end of the trim cycle I notice the boots start to twist slightly as a result. It is also hard to put any padding in these, there just isn't the room and you would need to glue it in. Not a boot to transition with, these are for when your hoof shape has been established. I find them a bit fiddly to put on, you need to get the tension right either side of the front strap and need to get the heal captivator at the right height. The do tend to get muddy and with so much relying on velcro you have to clean them every time you use them in the winter. Twigs and grit have got stuck in the heal captivator on rides. The are pricey.

Tip: better to have the hoof captivator a little roomy, a tight fit will make the boots twist. 

Renegade Vipers

Used briefly on Sofie. My rating - Great boot but hard to fit

  

Vipers on the front
Classics on the back

Pros: similar to the classics, look great, even better grip, replace parts, no rubbing, hard wearing with the added benefit that twigs no longer get stuck in the heal captivator.

Cons: most of the same cons and the classics but even less forgiving on fit. Unless your horse has perfect match to the boot shape these will twist. They were great on Sofies round front feet until she out grew them. They just did not work on her oval feet behind. despite doing custom fit these boots still rely on a fairly symmetrical hoof. It is a shame as these are generally an improvement on the classics.

Tip: check your hoof dimensions before you buy.

Asking nicely

Sofie has been going strength from strength recently. Her behavior is worlds apart from the bardgy headstrong haflinger I was describing last summer. She is increasingly gentle, calm, sensible and sweat. She now nannies nervous horses on roads, babysits small children, and calmly accompanies Mr T on estate jaunts, gamely herding him and standing to hold gates open for him as required. She will wait on the yard without protest, and can be left untied without fear of her charging off.

I have come to realise I was very wrong on my initial assessment of Sofie. Sof is in fact very willing by nature. All of her behaviour issues seem to stem from insecurity not naughtiness. Yes she can be very excitable – but I think it is normally when she is feeling a little worried by something. Using force on her tends to have a negative response – she panics, asking gently seems to work much more effectively. Loading case in point.

She still has a few behavioral issues. The main ones for riding are still her aversion to white lines, and sometimes break failure. I’ve been trying to work out the best way to deal with these for Sofie, in particular the break failure.

When the pace increases, particularly on the way home, Sof can gather pace and does not stop when asked. Sometimes she just stays in a steady canter, but won’t trot, other times she just gets faster and faster. Pulling the reigns has no effect, if anything she just pulls more. It is not frightening, she is not blind bolting – but not helpful when you are with other nervous riders. I bought a Pelham bit thinking that a stronger bit would work – but haven’t had the heart to put it on her. My instincts are telling me this is the wrong course of action.

Sofie does not respond well to force.

Sofie does not stop when you pull harder.

More force and more pulling are perhaps not the answer.

And so I have ordered a bitless bridle to try. It is an unusual response to a strong horse – but my logic is she may well be speeding up because she is nervous in the situation and the pain from me pulling the bit is making it worse. I am a bit worried about testing out this theory – I think we will start in the school then progress to the front field so that we are nice and safe.

You never know, in a few months’ time I may well be a proper barefoot bitless treeless hippy. I’ll keep you posted.

Bringing the past with you

I had a little tidy up the other day. I have acrude a mountain of horse stuff and it desperately needed some sorting. Whilst I was pulling all of my stuff out for re-packing Adrian pointed out Sof has more stuff from her previous owner in a box.

I didn't really need any more stuff, but I was curious so I decided to sift through the box to see what was there.

The box revealed long neglected brides, grackle nose band, overreach boots, lunging lines, side reigns, an old muzel. Adrian said she came with much much more, but it was given away as they had no space to store it. Going through these old belongings from her past life made me really sad. It felt a bit like going through the possessions of someone who has passed away.

Sofie was clearly loved, really loved. I wondered if the grackle was for cross country, did so prefer the linked snaffle for dressage? What adventures did they have together? Did her old owner have the same unbridled joy for buying sofie new things? How must she have felt when she had to give her up?

I sat there holding the old bridles for a while thinking about this. I thought about putting them back in the box, shutting the past away. But that somehow feels wrong. Instead I will restore them. Oil and soap them back into their former glory. Let sofie's old owner help me find what works best for sof. Keep her with us in some way.

GBEC Autumn show 2015

Off on another outing, this time in a box with Smee and her X-racer lucky to GBEC show.

I entered Sof and I for intro A walk and trot test and 2ft 3 novice jumping.

Dressage was a flop. Sof has been stiff in her hocks for the last couple of weeks so we haven’t done any schooling, GBEC is a big hill so no real place to warm up and a lack of marshals meant I was late for my test so I had to argue my way in having missed my time slot. Net result was a very pedestrian test, I got forgot the last bit and messed it up, Sof wasn’t really striding out. I haven’t even read the judges’ comments. Never mind. I’m not sure dressage is our bag anyway.

Jumping however, now jumping is Sofies thing! I haven’t really jumped Sof over the summer due to her ill-fitting GP saddle. I was stupidly intimidated by 2ft 3 (annoying as I would have thought nothing of it when I was 10), so was not hopeful of a good round. But Sof was great. She went from half asleep outside the ring to show jumping pocket rocket. She got us round all the fences bar one triple – which she only messed up because a marshal spooked her and her rider was no use what-so-ever. I desperately tried to slow the whole thing down – I’m a bit too nervous for Sofies speed and bless her, even though she found it frustrating ,she did slow up for me. Only had to crash her into a hedge once to slow up. With a better rider she would have def gotten placed.

Mission for this time next year: jump confidently and not feel the need to hold Sofie back. We might even try the dizzying heights of 2ft 6!

Learning to share

Since been offered Sofie as my own I have been desperately trying to find a way of affording her. Fact of the matter is my salary only goes so far, and with a mortgage, a wedding, and a poorly Mr T to pay for already Sofie is a bit of a stretch.

On top of this the betrothed is not too delighted to hear that I want to get another horse – the first one has been an expensive pet for the last two years so I can understand where he is coming from.

So I have compromised, I will take Sof on full loan (with view to ‘buy’ when Mr T pops his clogs) and I will get a sharer for half the week to help with her running costs. It seems to be the most pragmatic thing I can do given my circumstances.

This does mean I have to share my princess, but it is in her best interests. More riding would help our slimming world efforts. I was a bit nervous about finding the right sharer though. I have put a lot of effort into turning Sof into a lovely horse. It would be horrid to have that undone. On top of this I have to find someone who has the patience to persevere with barefoot.

As luck would have it the perfect sharer arrived almost instantaneously. Emma was looking for a horse to share so she could ride with her daughter who has a little pony at the yard. I’ve known Emma for years, we used to ride together back in the days when Tonto had working legs and she owned a welsh D. Emma is a good rider, perfectly capable of dealing with Sofies strops but not unkind in any way. And as they are mainly going for gentle hacks around the estate there is no real need to put boots on Sofie. Her feet are pretty good now anyway.

Emma is also happy to help me feed Mr T his meds – and she knows all of his quirks which helps. I can have 3 guilt free pony days off a week. Sharing seems positively beneficial in fact.