I glued Zorro’s boots on this yesterday morning. I knew I was going to have to do it in the morning because the last few days have been very HOT. My grooming area with the thick rubber mats is in the shade until about noon. So I headed out at 8:30 to get this done!
I will be honest. I was stressed out about doing it. I watched this video about 10 times in the last month – 3 times yesterday! LOL
Whenever there is glue involved I feel like I have one shot. Just one chance to get things right. That is so stressful to me!
BUT I did like how easy they make putting this shoes on. You just put glue on the leather uppers of the boots. Then you slide the hoof in and pull the zip ties to tighten it all up! Easy peasy!
To get started I cleaned up Zorro’s hooves. I picked them with a hoof pick and then scrubbed them with some water and a scrubby brush, followed by my little metal brush. Then I cleaned out the little bits that didn’t come out with all the scrubbing, around his frog. I didn’t want anything to be in there festering and creating thrush.
Once his feet were clean I went ahead and trimmed him up. I didn’t want to take off much foot because the whole idea behind this is to help him grow more foot. Also there wasn’t much to take off because he’s been wearing them off on the track all by himself. Hence my problem! Zorro’s heels have been pulled forward and under his hoof for some time. I have been working diligently to get them to stand up straight and pull back under him. But I wasn’t getting anywhere. I researched glue on boots and came up with the Equine Jogging shoes… again!
Here is his left front after trimming:
His right front after trimming:
After trimming I tried the little shoes on. Each hoof needed a little of the flare removed in order to fit well.
I also had to trim the tops of the little shoes down so they wouldn’t touch Zorro’s coronet band. The glue can be caustic and is not good for the skin!
The boot on the left is pre cutting and the boot on the right is after cutting it down.
Once I got them fitting well (and they were a perfect fit!) then I had to rough up his hoof wall a bit so the glue would stick. That was stressful! I’ve always been taught NOT to use the rasp on the hoof wall…
After doing that I wiped his hooves down with some alcohol to be sure they were very clean for the glue.
Then came the mixing of the glue. It says in the directions that it has a processing time of 20-30 seconds and a curing time of 3 minutes. I found that the glue was stiffening in about 5 seconds! eeek! I had to work so fast and went through more glue than I meant to. I just hope his left boot will stay on because I didn’t feel like I got enough glue on the boot. Time will tell!
This photo was after I had pulled the zip ties tight and made sure there were no gaps around the top of the boots. I did not put any glue on the back of the boot as I didn’t want the glue on his heels.
The glue is interesting. It’s very foamy and stretchy when it dries. I can see why it works so well! It has a lot of movement to it. So do the boots. They are so soft and flexible.
Zorro’s Left Front
Zorro’s Right Front
I think these are pretty cool little boots! I can’t wait to see how they hold up!
Here is a little video showing him walk with the boots on. This is after he wore them all day and we had quite a rain storm! So far so good!
These boots should be able to stay on for 6 weeks. And depending on how many miles you put on them in that time, you can get a second 6 weeks out of one pair. They do not guarantee that, but I have my fingers crossed that is what will happen here!