rubber/gel like horse shoes?

I usually only use my boots at rides since I am lucky enough to have good trails to condition on. I had a friend that tried to compete barefoot, but even in the "barefoot ok rides", I've been much more comfortable using my boots and I do so at all rides since I'm not always familiar with what might come up on the trails and because I don't want to come up lame during a ride and waste all that time and money :(

I like my easy boot gloves and they're pretty popular. I've also heard of the epics and glue-ons being used a lot, but I trust my gloves quite a bit. You'll need to keep up your trimmings, and I recommend getting a rasp to trim on your own in between trimmings. I also recommend a rubber mallet - they often make a world of a difference in putting the gloves on.

And I'm with you on the gravel thing ;)

Personally, I've seen quite a few horses w/t/c on gravel if they're trimmed appropriately. I was taught to take out enough sole to get it off the ground, yet not get near/into the sensitive tissue. None of the horses ever went lame from abscess or a stone bruise unless the gravel was extremely large.
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Okay I will research on easy boot gloves. See we don't have our farrier trim the frog or sole. He leaves those alone. He just trims the length. But it's still not enough for riding on gravel. If I had my own trailer id just haul to trails but I don't. :(.
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This is the basis of a good barefoot trim - balance the hoof and leave the frog alone. My trimmer has only touched the frog on my horses once, and that was because of thrush. He sounds like he knows what he's doing - hey may know about using boots if you ask him.

Our gravel roads are terrible. I've ridden him on them for 3 years now and we still can't trot on them long before he kind of tiptoes then I stop him. I've tried conditioning his feet on them and its not working. According to many farriers he has nice hard feet. Our gravel roads have rocks. I shouldn't say gravel like pebbles like they put on playgrounds. More like ping pong sized rocks. Not fun to drive on either. That's why everyone goes 20mph :p. That's considered gravel around here unfortunately.
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Yes I love love love my farrier. He's awesome. I love the square toes he does. The trims seem to last longer that way. I will ask him next time he is out here. We are about due for trims!
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I'm curious about the square toes. Ours are more rounded, but she does put a mustang roll on them so they wear and break evenly.

He said the square shape helps it wear more evenly. I don't like round or long toes.
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It seems to me he moves differently with round toes but my imagination runs wild hahahahahaha
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Pics?
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