LeMieux LMX Shoc Air Cross Country Boots Front

The LeMieux LMX Shoc Air Cross Country Boots are made for the cross-country phase, for the front legs. Instead of a rigid tendon plate, there are vertical strips of impact-responsive material behind the tendon: supple as long as no pressure is on it, hard at the moment of impact. With a ventilated EVA shell and no more than 240 grams per boot, they stay light. For eventers.

About these boots

What the Shoc layer actually is. LeMieux calls this an impact-responsive smart layer, and the material behind it is a dilatant material. Dilatant means that the viscosity increases under pressure. The molecules lie loose from one another as long as nothing happens, which keeps the material supple and pliable and lets it move with the leg. At the moment of impact those molecules slide against one another and interlock, so that a hard, shock-absorbing layer briefly forms. As soon as the pressure is gone, the material turns supple again. That is why LeMieux has replaced the classic rigid tendon plate with vertical strips of this material: the boot flexes along with every canter stride and stiffens only where and when something strikes it.

The shell and the ventilation. The outer shell is a perforated, moulded EVA shell: light, pliable and open. At the front there are air openings that force air inwards as you ride, the inner layer is 3D mesh and against that sits a soft, stretchy cotton lining. That lets heat and moisture escape from under the boot, which counts on a cross-country course because the work lasts a long time and falls in summer. Per boot LeMieux states no more than 240 grams, and they are sold in pairs.

Fitting them is not a detail here. LeMieux supplies a detailed instruction with them, and it is worth reading. First squeeze the strike pads soft between your fingers: they are pressed flat in the packaging and have to be pliable again before they will sit properly. Lay the brushing boot behind the tendon with a cupped hand and then close the top, the middle and the bottom strap in that order. After that, go back to the middle strap and tighten it again: it has an elastic section that takes up the space where the leg is narrower, and that is what holds the boot in place. The bottom strap runs slightly downwards around the fetlock. LeMieux itself adds that the build and the material make this model hard to pull too tight.

Competition and limits. On the cross-country course, leg protection is permitted and the FEI rules lay down no shape for it. In the dressage test of an event, boots may not come along: they have to be off before you ride into the space around the competition arena. In the jumping phase the showjumping rules apply, and there everything that sits on one leg together may weigh no more than 500 grams; at no more than 240 grams per boot, this model is well under that. Beyond that: this is a model for the front legs, it does not fit behind, and a pliable shell is a different thing from a rigid plate. If you want a hard, moulded shell over the tendon, this is not the model you are after.

LeMieux

LeMieux is een Brits ruitersportmerk dat wereldwijd bekendstaat om zijn hoogwaardige uitrusting voor paard en ruiter. Het merk combineert innovatief design met technische materialen om producten te ontwikkelen die comfort, prestaties en stijl samenbrengen.

LeMieux is vooral populair om zijn zadeldekjes, beschermers, dekens en verzorgingsproducten, die ontworpen zijn met aandacht voor pasvorm, duurzaamheid en een elegante uitstraling. De producten worden ontwikkeld in samenwerking met professionele ruiters om te voldoen aan de eisen van zowel training als wedstrijd.

Dankzij de combinatie van kwaliteit, functioneel design en moderne kleuren en collecties is LeMieux uitgegroeid tot een van de meest geliefde merken binnen de internationale ruitersport.