Sissy awaited a mid-December early Christmas surprise: Mega-LOCK Horserunners for all four hooves. We could hardly wait to test the Megasus on all four hooves because in the months prior, we had tested the hoof protection only on the front two hooves. We are excited to share our experience with Sissy’s ‘’winter shoes’’ and tell you what differences we noticed from the last few weeks and how they performed on the frozen, slippery and smooth grounds.

If you’re interested in reading Sissy’s back story, you can read through our Megasus Experience report: Click Here

My Mounting Debut!

This time, the mounting of the Megasus Horserunners was a small debut for me; under the supervision of an experienced Megasus hoof trimmer, I mounted them myself for the first time! Mounting was really fun and working with the jigsaw became easier after a few test runs.  For Sissy, I chose to use the Mega-LOCK System, because it’s important that it’s always easy to access her hooves for a trim.

The Mega-Lock Tapes work like a Velcro strip, allowing me to take the shoes off and put them on as needed. I keep them on Sissy’s hooves for about 2-3 weeks and take them off to trim and shorten the bars when needed. Apart from that, she wears her ‘’horse sneakers’’ around the clock.

Luxus Pur – Sissy blossoms

Right after mounting the Megasus, I could clearly see that Sissy was enjoying walking around and she had such a cheeky look on her face. This time, she had the beloved Megasus Horserunners on all four hooves instead of just two. She marched back and forth happily and motivated in the open stable, despite her typically being a bit of a lazy bum.

‘’Sissy’s been at it all day, she’s been marching around the whole stable!’’ That’s what I was greeted with the following day upon returning! This kind of news makes the rider’s heart in me beat faster! In the summer months, we made many accomplishments and experienced all that we could. Sissy really took to the new feel and wasn’t just more active, but she was also more balanced and friendly. In the following weeks, she confirmed my impression that the addition of protection on the back two hooves had greatly improved her overall joy for movement.

Naturally, there were in-between days where she didn’t feel in the mood to move around a lot, but there is nothing better than knowing 100% that she’s able to move freely and pain- free.
A clear conclusion to our week-long tests: Sissy is now as fresh as a daisy and when riding, she is an absolute rocket!

She marches forward with delight and moves around in the open stable noticeably more. This proves to me that having the Megasus on all four hooves does a lot of good and gives her more freedom. She now has the freedom to go about without worrying about the characteristics of the ground-  and she loves it. Sometimes, it’s like she’s a brand-new Sissy because she was formally more of an energy saver. In the last weeks, she was almost always motivated and making her way through our riding lessons, which surprised not only me but also our trainer. She runs now with ease and loves it, and she shows me what she can do in our training sessions.

Snow Powder, Mud, and Ice

We don’t have a riding arena to use and we’re always out and about. We didn’t just test the Megasus Horserunners in fairytale-like snow powder, but also in different extreme conditions. We rode for hours at a time in frozen, and sometimes overflown riding tracks, across fields of meadows, and forest paths. Not just me, but Sissy also took our tests very seriously and marched diligently through the mud in the open stable. On all terrain, we were not limited only to hard and frozen grounds, we also galloped through thick muddy-meadows. Despite the recommendation from Megasus, we did not mount studs or spikes because we had enough grip. To provide even more comfort for Sissy, the soles of our Horserunners were padded with a special filling. So, her feet are extra cozy! It has the feeling of going barehoof. We didn’t have to worry about slipping or about losing our Megasus. Just once, during a wild all-terrain ride, where we were a tad bit over-motivated, with Sissy giving off several excited bucks, galloping full speed over a muddy grass patch, we lost the front left Horserunner. We found it right away and it was interesting for us to reflect upon how Sissy had lost it: just a meter before, there had been a deep rut in a patch of deep clayey mud. You could really see exactly how the Megasus had been sucked off – the combination of deep mud and the fast tempo were in this case treacherous. As soon as we found our missing Megasus, we fixed it back on the hoof and since then, we have never lost another shoe. It was absolutely an isolated case – and: no, we haven’t stopped galloping across muddy meadows fields like a rocket.

Going barehoof on rock hard and frozen grounds was always an issue for us. Any time that the ground was too hard, Sissy would walk very stiffly and carefully. With the Horserunners on all four hooves – which I call Sissy’s wellness package –  she has marched over the frozen ground completely unfazed and that really impressed me.