10 year old, 14 hh, Morgan/Welsh Pony gelding Kenny came home to RHE last November. He’s a hoot to ride and as full of personality as the breeds that he is made of might suggest! In the short time that he’s been here he has already provided me with a couple of first time challenges, namely clipping a horse (thanks for your ninja skills T!) and booting. Since I have 3 Arabians with nearly ideal Renegade, specifically Viper, hooves, Kenny really is just the ticket to mix things up a bit around here! He’s big boned and a very fun ride with strong and healthy hooves–he also toes out in the front and his right foreleg and hoof particularly are on crooked. Ideal endurance horse conformation he has not, but he wouldn’t be the first unlikely horse to get ‘er done on the trail.

Bring it on, Says Kenny. Here he is not long after arrival, you can see he has quite a bit of hoof to address, but conformationally he will always have upright, Morgan-type hooves that don’t ideally match barefoot booting angles

Previously I discussed the difference in the Renegade models  and used Kenny as a prime example for needing the more oval Classic model versus the broad quartered Viper.

Kenny is a size 0 Classic all the way around and his hind hooves have more normal angles than his upright fronts. Below, you can see the hinds are seated evenly and nicely in the 0 Classics, while the visible left front’s upright conformation forces it to sit less deeply and evenly in the boot shell as well as needing a cable loosening to accommodate the  captivator reaching to a higher heel bulb (the tell in that respect is the cable buckle end of the toe strap on that left front being flush back against the cable channel, with no cable visible there the captivator cannot flex properly. The left hind best shows an appropriate amount of cable visible by toe strap).

Even after cable adjustments and some corrective trimming over the first few months, Kenny’s front boots continued to want to twist.

Note the uneven amount of hoof showing on the right front below, demonstrating the inward or left hand twist that boot did repeatedly.

Kenny’s  hoof angles are now better than ever but up front he will always be conformationally upright, toed out, and slightly crooked in the hoof. Which took me some time, as in up until last week,  to *truly* grasp. Why was an even, straight, well fitted and adjusted boot twisting? Why? Why?  Read that first sentence of the paragraph again.

Putting Straight on Crooked = Twist

So what if…I adjusted *one* cable, thereby making a crooked captivator that might match his crooked leg/hoof.

Crooked on Crooked= Straight, to him!

I’ve done a couple of test rides now with his fronts adjusted “crooked” to match him and we’ve had total success! Success often looks like not many photos because the ride is going too well, but there should be some more soon if the rain ever stops again.

Kenny has been a great reminder to look at and take into account the entire big picture of what you’re actually dealing with instead of getting stuck on ideals. With an extremely boot challenging hill-and-water endurance ride recently announcing itself as a 2 day early this season, the next adventure in booting for us will be getting proficient with Glue ons! Stay tuned 🙂