Equilibrium Tri-Zone Over Reach Boots

It’s the little design features that makes our Tri-Zone Over Reach boots a market leader and popular tack room staple with an anti-spin heel button, a robust Kevlar type material strike pad and shaped heel areas for the perfect fit.

Carefully designed and long lasting, our Tri-Zone Over Reach boots are now the preferred choice of many international riders. Suitable for a wide range of uses from show jumping, cross country, hacking and turnout.

By selecting hard wearing materials known for their advanced technical properties the Tri-Zone Over Reach boot is robust and highly protective.

Available in two adjustable sizes to suit a vast array of horses and ponies.

Tested to the Limits

As riders, we protect our most vital areas (head and torso) with riding hats, body protectors and more recently air jackets. Rider protective equipment is subjected to extensive testing to meet standards and regulations and we believe that as a vital part of your horse, protective boots for your horse’s legs should undergo a similar testing process.

Tri-Zone Over Reach boots go through a unique 3-phase testing process giving you confidence that you are choosing the best leg protection for your horse. Materials are carefully selected to provide maximum protection but without being bulky, heavy and not make your horses legs hot and sweaty. Each individual layer in the Tri-Zone Over Reach boot is researched and sourced for their advanced technical properties and tested in an independent laboratory before it goes anywhere near a horse’s leg.

What Materials Do We Use?

Protection is concentrated where it is needed, at the heel.  This area is made from non-PVC Kevlar type fabric, which is exceptionally tough and highly resistant to abrasion.

The outer fabric is ballistic PU Nylon, which is very hard-wearing, waterproof and rot-proof.

The inner layer of EVA foam is used as a shock absorber in the Tri-Zone Over Reach boots.

EVA (Ethylene-vinyl acetate) is a material which is tough and flexible even at low temperatures. It has a number of uses in various different states and forms including in ski boots, bicycle saddles, hockey pads, wakeboard boots and shock absorbers in sports shoes.

What is the Testing Process?

Testing Phase 1

In the same laboratory that test standards of riding hats and body protectors, Tri-Zone Over Reach boots are safety tested to their limits for their ability to withstand concussion and penetration.

For concussion and penetration the testing is carried out using a custom made test rig consisting of a tower from which either a blunt hammer or a cutting blade is dropped onto the boots in a controlled fashion. The weight of the blade and hammer are fixed and different forces are applied to the boots by varying the height from which they were dropped onto the boots. Boots were hit with forces ranging from 1.25 to 20 Joules. These forces were chosen as being those likely to occur in the horse during exercise, for example when hitting obstacles or over-reaching. Here we used a carrot at 5 joules to replicate the soft tissue in a horses’ leg hitting an obstacle.

Adding even small amounts of weight to the end of the leg in the form of a boot significantly increases the effort the horse must make to run and can also alter the stride characteristics. Some boots can double in weight if the horse is being exercised in the rain, on wet ground or going through water. This can seriously affect stamina and performance. We design and test our boots to minimise water absorption, excess weight but without compromising on protection.

Testing Phase 2 

The boots then undergo trials by an extensive tester panel of horse owners and riders who test them for the fit, comfort, ease of use and washing to ensure we have not only a safe product but one that people can easily use and trust.

Testing Phase 3

Finally the boots go through the rigorous test of being used all day, every day on busy competition yards by teams of professional riders. The Tri-Zone Over Reach boots are worn either at home or at competitions by an array of Olympic riders, world champions and top producers.