To glue or not to glue?

To glue or not to glue?

To use the strapons or glue on renegades?

I’m terribly conflicted on what to do for Wild West, which will impact my booting decision for Tevis.

After talking to Renegade, I think all of my boot failures, including the innumerable failures at American River, had a root cause in either using the wrong size boot OR not making ALL the modifications to the boots necessary for a perfect fit.

Here’s some of the tips I’ve learned from renegade regarding their strap on boots.

Before sharing, I want to stress that anyone trying to troubleshoot renegade boot retention problems should use this as a guide only. Renegade themselves should be your go-to source for answers – they are immensely helpful and know their product and will be able to definitively give you answers of why your boots aren’t staying on. And I can (almost) guarantee their solution is NOT going to be duct tape or vet wrap.

Tip 1 – If the shoe fits….doesn’t mean you should wear it. In this case just because you CAN pop the boot on the foot doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Clues that you may need a size bigger: Boot “pops” on the foot….and then you cuss like a sailor to get it off. Look at the sidewalls – is the hoof way bowing the wall out? Not good. Gina explained to me that just like a basketball can be forced into a ring that’s too small and it appears to be secure, give it the right force and it pops out – if you put the same ball into a ring where there’s space around it, it jiggles around in there happily. My RF boot came off at American river because I was shoving a size 2 foot in a size 1 boot. I’ve never had problems retaining a boot on this foot before….so this is definitely a good hypothesis. Especially considering that at American river when the boot wasn’t busy popping off, the sidewall was laying itself under the foot….Looking at the rest of the feet, the LF is moving towards a size 2 and the hinds are moving towards, or actually may be a size 1 depending on how I trim.

Tip 2 – if the boot needs to be cut back and the cables shortened, then the sidewalls should be shortened as well so they don’t interfere with the captivor. I had no idea. I cut back the sole of my LF boot on her first set of boots. I still ended up losing this boot so I tightened the cables, probably more than I should have. This was the boot that the cable snapped on at 20 MT. Hindsight being 20/20, what was happening was the captivator wasn’t in the optimal position due to the sidewalls, which was causing boot retention problems and when I finally DID get it to stay on by tightening the cables too much, they eventually snapped under the stress……then when I put new boots on for American River I didn’t cut back the boot at all (completely forgot I had cut back her first pair….). The combination of her hind feet and the rocks grabbed the excess and kept pulling that boot off. Solution – cut back the side walls of any boot I cut back the sole.

Tip 3 – The length of the boot needs to fit (cut back if necessary), even on hind feet. I learned that rocks (just like a heel on a too big sized sandel…) will grab the excess behind the feet (front OR back) and pull the boots off. If more than ¼” extends past the heels CUT IT OFF (and shorten the side walls too). This was probably responsible for ALL of my hind boot failures I’ve had since the very beginning (only happened once before American river, but….).

Tip 4 – Velcro straps can be UNFASTENED at vet checks, cleaned, and then used again. I need to find out more about this. If I have to undo a velco strap for any reason during a ride, then I replace it since I know that the “sticking” power of the Velcro is reduced in the presence of dirt, sand etc. It would be nice to be able to clean the Velcro.

The biggest lesson learned is that if my renegades are coming off, especially when they DID work before, there’s a reason and it’s probably going to be fixable. I’m so grateful that the boots are SO customizable and it’s so easy to do so. It’s also especially gratifying that ALL of my boots that “broke” due to my learning curve (snapped cables and busted cable canals) can be affordably fixed! How great is that? Through ALL of this I’ve only lost/damaged beyond repair 2 boots – and that’s after hundreds of miles in 8 months!

Here’s my problem – I’m confident that with these modifications the strap ons are going to continue to work very well for me. BUT, I don’t have time for them to “prove” themselves before I have to ride the 2 most significant rides I do in a season – the 3 day Wild West and Tevis.

• I CANNOT do 3 days of what I went through at American River. Wild West is the highlight of my season.
• One boot failure is too much for me at Tevis. I take that back. One boot failure that causes a strap on to hang around her pastern and requires me to dismount is too much. I’m perfectly willing to ride her barefoot until I can replace a boot if a boot comes off (she proved that much to me at Wild West). I’m much more likely to lose a boot “cleanly” if using glue ons.
  

So….what am I going to do?

• I have purchased glue ons from renegade and the adhere glue/accessories so now I have a backup plan no matter what I decide. I’m already feeling less stressed.
• For Wild West I can start off with Strapons, and if I have a disaster switch to glue ons (if I put glue ons on at ~5pm, would they be ready for a 6am start?). Or should I start with glueons and only use the strapons if the glueons fail? I’m on the fence about which way to go.
  

For Tevis I’m leaning towards glueons. Here’s why. Yes, it’s possible to get through Tevis with strapons, especially considering I got through 20MT, which was possibly even worse booting conditions than Tevis. However, Gina explained to me what was involved in getting their rider through Tevis with no booting issues using the strap ons last year:

• Kirt/Gina crewed for her. Her horse’s feet were groomed by Kirt and the boots were perfectly fitted for the horse by Renegade personally. At every vet check, (that crews were allowed at), the boots were checked by Kirt/Gina, the straps cleaned, adjustments made, and the boots reinstalled.

Here’s my reality – I will be the only person on my crew with booting experience. If I want ANY booting stuff taken care of at the ride I’m going to have to do it. I had enough trouble taking care of myself last year at Tevis, I just don’t think I’ll be able to do what Renegade did for their rider AND also ride the ride. Not to mention I very much doubt my ability to groom the foot and fit the boot perfectly comes even close to matching Kirt’s and Gina’s!

Having to deal with booting issues at Tevis would probably be too much. I think my best bet is to use glue ons, and have perfectly fitted strap ons (or at least as close as I can get them…) as backups. Even if I lose a glue on, I WON’T have to stop on the trail in an unsafe part to take the boot off because it WON’T be around her pastern. If worse comes to worse, Farley has great feet and would probably be OK barefoot for quite a few miles (she basically did most of American River barefoot….).

So considering everything – any advice of what do to for Wild West? I’m not making any final decisions about Tevis (booting or otherwise) until after Wild West, so let’s get that figured out first!

I know I can always put shoes back on, but I was really unhappy last year how “tall” her foot was with pads and where the breakover was and I would like the protection of the pads for this ride. I also did NOT like her feet looked coming out of pads AND her legs tend to fill more with shoes on….so putting shoes on is last resort – especially because if I lose boots (glue on or strapons) her feet are transitioned enough she’ll be sound on a rocky trail.

Strapons are my perferred way to go - Glueing on boots for a week or more can have an undesirable effect on the hoof, similar to shoeing. It would be worth it for a multi day (like Wild West) or Tevis, but I wouldn't glueon regularly.

And while everyone is in advice giving mode….anyone know if the footing at Virginia City 100 is easier on boots? If I do go with glueons for Tevis, would Virginia City be a good place to do another 100 in strap ons? Any cliffs to fall off of while I deal with boot issues?