Measuring and Ordering Mini Horse and Pony Boots

As you know, we sell Equine Fusion shoes! We also sell a therapy boot made by Countryside Harness. We only carry these boots in mini horse and small pony sizes.

Here, I will go over the differences and then talk about the best way to decide what size you need.

The Therapy Boot (formally called the Road Boot)

The Therapy boot is made out of leather on the upper part and then the bottom is a hard plastic. The top part of the boot is stapled to the lower part.

These boots do not have any break over in the toe so aren’t appropriate for driving or riding.

There is no cushion to these boots but you can add pads to them for minis, ponies and donkeys suffering from laminitis. I suggest looking up the Comfort Pads by EasyCare Inc.

The Equine Fusion Shoe

We have the Equine Fusion Active shoes and the Equine Fusion Trekking shoes. There are blogs that show the differences between these two types.

Testimonial – Equine Jogging Boots – Active Model

Equine Fusion Trekking Boots

This style of boot or shoe is excellent for driving, riding, hiking, therapy animals, basically anything in which the animal has to wear the shoes for long periods over varied terrain.

They have lots of cushioning in the sole of the boot, as well as, a very good break over at the toe. These shoes have proven to stay on no matter where we are driving, crossing water, going through ankle deep mud, going through sand, down gravel roads or working on pavement or asphalt.

How To Measure

I often have people send me photos of the hoof with the measuring tape on it. This is a great idea IF you have the camera perfectly centered over the hoof and the tape is straight. Like this:

However, if you have the camera off to the side or the tape slips so it’s not straight this will affect my ability to read the numbers. This can result in me suggesting a wrong boot size. The photos below show what I mean:

Also, please be sure the tape is on the hoof so it starts at 1″ on one side and then shows the inches on the other side of the hoof. Sometimes people send me photos like this:

Not only is the ruler crooked, it doesn’t even start on an even inch.

We have a video showing exactly how to measure the hoof. You can find that here:

Figuring out what size boot your equine needs is very important. It’s frustrating for both you and me when we have to ship boots back and forth because the sizing is off. So measuring well is key!!!

The best thing is for you to measure your equine’s hooves, then give me the measurements in inches. This will look like:

LF (left front) – 2 7/8 wide x 3 1/4″ long
LR (left rear) – 2 3/4″ wide x 2 7/8″ long
RF (right front) – 2 7/8″ wide x 3 1/4″ long
RR (right rear) – 2 3/4″ wide x 3″ long

I will convert the inches to centimeters, using Google converter, and compare them to our Equine Fusion size chart.

For the Therapy style boots you can see the size chart (which is in inches!) on the product here: Therapy Boots

Hopefully this will help everyone get a more accurate hoof measurement. If you have any questions please email me at mindy@chimacumtack.com!