Eastern Mojave Scenic, Day 2

We weren't able to get out in time to make it for Day 1 of this multi-day ride. Since my surgery is now scheduled for March 3, I found myself with far more to get done than there's really enough time for. As it was, we got out late, and arrived at camp at just about 6pm. This meant setting up camp pretty much in the dark! What an adventure! I was very glad to have my husband along.

 

I went to the ride management area and got my ride map and put my card in the famous box. Then I returned to camp to help my husband finish setting up camp. We were given by a friend a rather large tent. It's tall enough in the center to stand up in. Love it. It claims to sleep eight, but I can't for the life of me see how that's happening. Still, it's large enough that we had our king-size air mattress, both camp chairs, and all our clothes and two dogs in the tent quite comfortably. Of course, if I go to a ride by myself, I probably won't be able to set up this particular tent by myself!

 

It was cold in the morning, and the forecast predicted a cold day. I got up early to give Hoss a bran mash and hay, then back to bed for another hour or so. My husband got up and made breakfast, bless him. I hadn't slept well, so I had a hard time dragging myself out of my sleeping bag and getting dressed. I even ate my breakfast in bed!

 

Once I was up and moving, I started to feel more motivated. I stripped off Hoss's blanket and got him groomed and saddled up. I took him to the vet for his official vet in, and we were off. We got out on the trail just a little bit after the official start. Hoss was being his usual self, absolutely hell-bent on catching up to the horses that had already left camp. I tried using a trick we had started on in our training sessions, which he knows now what he's supposed to do. Instead of listening to me and walking quietly, he pitched a hissy fit. He kicked out, bucked, and just generally gave me a hard time. When I got him back under control, I heard a chorus of impressed sounds. I was told by onlookers that they thought for sure he was gonna pitch me. Honestly, I never felt even remotely like I was in any danger of losing my seat. I was a little confused; must've looked worse than it felt!

 

I really didn't have as much control as I'd like, but I was able to keep Hoss to a fast walk that was more of a jig. I wasn't about to let him start trotting until he walked properly! Finally, I got a few steps of walking, and I gave him to cue to trot. He was a little surprised, and didn't trot immediately, going back into his jiggy walk at first, but then settled in to a nice, if fast, trot. We caught up to some other horses, and I let him latch on for a bit. Then I made him move out and get on more or less by himself.

 

At some point, we got bundled up with three other riders, one on another mustang. I was perfectly content to stay with them and let them set the pace. So we stayed behind the two horses with the other mustang. The other riders were pleasant and easy-going, not going too fast nor too slow.

 

We started trotting at the last bit of the downhill portion of a dip. The horse in front of us negotiated over/around a chunk of Joshua tree that had fallen on the trail. In the process of doing so, he managed to touch it just enough to cause it to roll toward Hoss. Hoss saw it, stepped over it with his front feet, then proceeded to try to kick it on his way by. He didn't exactly pick the best place to try this trick. We were in the bottom of the dip, and when he kicked out, his front feet needed to start ascending the hill. Not exactly the easiest thing to do while kicking. He ended up tripping and on his knees. Hoss is a very athletic horse. He didn't even miss a beat. He hit his knees, got his hind feet underneath him, got back up on his feet, and continued on his way. You would have thought nothing had happened.

 

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Of course I left my camera behind in the truck! I was quite annoyed with myself for that particular failure. Although, it's likely that I wouldn't have been able to get too many pictures with Hoss behaving as he was.

 

We came in to the vet check to the most wonderful aroma: Hot dogs on the grill! I scooped up Hoss's crew bag as he was pulsed in, and took him in to the old corral to feed him. I tied him to the fence and gave him his alfalfa, then went to make his bran mash. Once I got him settled, I went and got myself some lunch. Hot dogs have never tasted so wonderful.

 

Toward the end of our hold time, I packed up the remainder of Hoss's hay and got him ready to be seen by the vet. She commented that it looked like he needed to drink more. I told her he had had a good drink at the last water stop and a nice sloppy bran mash during the hold. She was satisfied with this, stating that it can take a while for a good drink to show up in the skin tent test.

 

At these rides, the vet check is a bit more relaxed than at other rides.  All the vet did was listen to his heart, check his skin tent, and watch him trot.  Over the course of the days, this became somewhat less, to the point where on the last day, the vet only listened to his heart and watched him trot.  I'm gonna get downright spoiled by these rides.  One vet check, and they don't go over my horse like it's a pre-purchase exam?  Love it!  The vet did, on mid-ride checks, feel the horses' butt muscles to make sure nobody was cramping up.

 

(The very first time I did Death Valley with Phoenix, I came in toward the tail end of one day of rides. I brought Phoenix up to the trailer where the vet, Dr. Dave "The Duck" Nicholson was. I knocked on the door. He poked his head out, looked at Phoenix, and said, "Okay, see ya tomorrow." This is a Duck vet check!)

 

On the second half of the ride, I continued to stay with the other three riders.  We were all getting along just fine, and everybody was happy enough.  However, at some point, the other mustang rider and I managed to lose the other two ladies!  We were trotting along happily enough, she thought to ask a question, we looked back, and they were gone.  Well, that was all right.  Our two mustangs got along just fine, and were well matched to boot.

 

The ride was virtually flat, so I certainly didn't mind letting Hoss move out a bit.  While he's still recovering from the hock injury, I don't want to over-stress him.  The flat stuff and the slight downhill stuff, though, he feels really good on.  He'd hardly taken a bad step or tripped at all without an obvious reason.  And, I have to say, he feels like he's moving out better with the boots than he did in shoes.  I have no explanation for this beyond the simple weight of shoes changing the flight arc of his feet.

 

We continued on in with the other mustang.  It was really a lot of fun.  We joked about "Mustang Power!"  At some point, while we were trotting on down the trail, Hoss managed to run my right knee into a Joshua tree.  Boy, was I annoyed at him!  I'd been asking him to go around it a little wider, but because it was my right leg, and near the end, I wasn't able to give him a terribly strong cue, so he ignored me.

 

Once back at camp, we went straight to the vet and checked out.  Hoss looked pretty good!  I got him back to the trailer, untacked him, gave him some beet pulp and more electrolytes and hay, and let him relax.  The sun was out, so I didn't put his blanket on just yet.  I've learned he really prefers not to have it on if it's daylight and not raining.  It doesn't seem to harm him any to leave him unblanketed, either.  He does have quite a thick winter coat on, so I'm not too worried about him getting too cold!

 

My husband was quite surprised to see me come into camp at 330 in the afternoon.  Our ride time was 7 hours 30 minutes!  Fastest 50 we've ever done.  I must say, it's really nice to finish in the daylight.  Now that I know he can do it, I'll be doing less holding him back than I have been!

Learning Curve

I recently received a set of Easyboot Gloves for Hoss.  I was very careful about the process. I trimmed and measured his feet.  Based on my measurements, I ordered a Fit Kit.  When I got the Fit Kit, I tried them on, and came up with sizes.  Oddly, although based on my measurements he should wear a size 2, I wound up ordering 1.5s for his fronts and 1s for his hinds. With the Fit Kit, it looked like those sizes were perfect.  It even looked like 1s would be too small for his fronts.
So today I took him out for a "test drive" in his new boots.  We went to the steel bridge, where I knew I could test the boots over very challenging terrain.  I wouldn't call it a disaster.  Although the fronts stayed on just fine, it was clear when I removed them that they were just ever so slightly on the big side.  They certainly shouldn't have contained that much water if they fit right!  The hinds, though.  I had to fix one early on in our ride.  Later, I realized it had come off again, only this time, the gaiter was ripped halfway off.  After crossing the water, I let Hoss gallop.  Both hinds came off, although remained attached by the gaiters to his pasterns.  On one, two of the screws attaching the gaiter to the boot had pulled clean through.
The conclusion is clear.  Although removing the boots by hand felt something like trying to remove shoes without the benefit of shoe pullers, I've got the wrong sizes.
When we returned to the trailer, I pulled off the front boots and tried the hind ones on.  With the little bit of lubrication from his feet being wet, they went on well.  I now feel that the 1s are more appropriate for his fronts than the 1.5s, despite the fact that the 1.5s did not come off nor cause any trouble.  On his hinds, the 1s were a disaster.
I'm debating taking Hoss to the Eastern Mojave Scenic endurance ride this week.  It's a multi-day ride through the Mojave desert.  He's now effectively fully recovered from his hock injury, provided we don't do a whole lot of collected work.  My plan had been to go entirely in boots.  Now, that's clearly not possible.
What to do?  I'm thinking about just going ahead and nailing a pair of shoes and pads on his hind feet, and using the size 1 boots on his fronts.  I'll have to take him out again on this set up before we go, just to be sure I like the feel of it.
In the mean time, I'm going to order another Fit Kit, and see what the heck those hind feet really ought to be! I'm thinking there's a bit of a learning curve on these things, and I need to look a little more closely at what I'm doing.  I should have gotten another Fit Kit before ordering the boots in the first place.  That was a poor choice on my part.
If I go to Eastern Mojave, which I hope I can, I'll be shooting for 3 days of 50s.  It's the last chance to go to a ride I have before my surgery, and I don't expect to be truly back to fighting shape until Descanso in June.  There've been some serious machinations in getting the opportunity to do this ride without spending money, so I really, really want to go!

Horse Show!

I saw the show bill at the feed store. The show was on a Saturday. It had what I like to call the "old lady/young horse" classes (also known as Walk/Trot Open) that are all the more I'm really ready for. The only obstacle: a saddle I could use.

Most horse shows are on Sundays. This presents a problem. Since I sing with my church choir and play in one of the bell choirs, it's a little tough to find shows that I can do. So a Saturday show is a wonderful thing.

I decided to try the dressage saddle on Hoss. If it fit, I would collect up show clothes for me on a shoestring, and we'd go. I already had plenty of leather bridles; finding one to fit wasn't much of a challenge! So I put the dressage saddle on Hoss, and was not surprised to find it fit! I rode him in it the week before the ride to be sure it fit well enough and to accustom myself to the different feel.

I went to the used tack store to find show clothing. I found a very nice show coat for $25. It fit me perfectly. I also found a nice pair of tan breeches. There were no show shirts, but I figured I could make do with something from my closet with one of the ratcatchers from my daughter's showing days. I also couldn't find a pair of tall boots in my size at any price, so I would make do with my riding boots and half chaps.

Kinda clean up nice, don't I?

On Friday I did my best to get Hoss nice and clean after our trail ride. I trimmed up his mane, and clipped his whiskers and legs. Admittedly I did this while he was still a little damp, and he wound up looking a little odd, but by the time I saw this, it was too late to do anything about it. I loaded Hoss up in the trailer and off we went to get to the horse show!

It's early, but, hey, he's ready!

I entered three classes. We did Halter, English Equitation Walk/Trot Open, and English Pleasure Walk/Trot Open.

The Halter class went well. There were twelve horses in the class. Aside from constantly wanting to look back, Hoss stood quietly. I corrected him each time he moved. I was more interested in teaching him to do it right than placing well! In the end, we placed sixth. Can't complain about that.

Entering the ring for Halter

Posing with our Halter ribbon

English Equitation was a big class. I was dismayed to see some of the young kids who were also doing the Walk/Trot/Canter classes – and doing well in them – were also entered in the Walk/Trot. Well, there were no restrictions, so that was just the way it was! We didn't place in this class, and I wasn't terribly surprised. I couldn't remember what diagonal to post on. Hoss's head was in the stratosphere. These things, however, I expected. I went in with no expectation of winning anything!

Can't quite keep his attention, but he sure is pretty!

English Pleasure was smaller, with only six horses. I commented that I'd get a ribbon in this class! We did, sixth place! Of course, Hoss wasn't being much of a pleasure to ride. One of the first things he did was try to bolt. I managed to keep him from getting out of hand, but he was clearly misbehaving. But it's okay. We got a ribbon anyway.

Only my horse manages to blink when the picture is taken

All in all, it was a fun day. I will most certainly be doing this again! Unfortunately I will miss next month's show. My surgery has finally been scheduled. I will be getting my rotator cuff repaired on March 3!

Six Weeks Barefoot

I'm a little uncomfortable talking about the whole shod-to-barefoot experience. It seems like everybody who makes the switch does it. If I had switched him from barefoot to shod, I probably wouldn't be talking about it much at all. The reality is those who own and ride barefoot horses are generally more attentive to their horses' feet. This isn't always true. If the horse isn't using boots, the rider is probably not spending so much time and angst on the horse's feet. Boots change things a bit in that the feet have to be maintained more closely to consistently fit in the boots.

I know that since I took Hoss's shoes off, I've spent far more time hunched over with one of his feet in my hands than I ever did while he was shod (confession moment: the farrier who tells her clients they should pick out their horses feet before and after every ride almost never picked up her own horse's feet between shoeings). So, of course, the thing that is on my mind the most is, he's got no shoes on. I am far more aware of how he's moving now than I ever was before. I always noticed how he was going, of course, but I feel I'm more into the minutiae lately.

Hoss has been doing great. I started riding him regularly in late January, first just around our roads, but more recently we've been getting in the trailer and doing longer rides.

We went on out to Hollenbeck Canyon for our first "road test" of the barefoot thing. Hoss sure stepped out lively! Admittedly it had been a while since he'd been anywhere but at home, and he was eager for a change of scenery. So was I, and so were the dogs. I was generally happy with the way Hoss was travelling, but I noticed that he wasn't quite so eager to do the all-out run on the flat part that he'll usually want to do.

We rode several times on the local roads before heading out to Hollenbeck again. Hoss once again did reasonably well, but was still a teensy bit slower than usual. Still, good progress is being made.

In addition to riding, Hoss is continuing to go on the morning walks with me. It sure seems like he's looking forward to it! He's always waiting at his gate for me to get him, and shoves his head into his halter. It's been really nice to take him along, as it's taught him somewhat better ground manners and I feel like we have a closer relationship as a result of the extra time spent together on the ground.

I measured Hoss's feet, and ordered a "Fit Kit" from EasyCare, the company that produces the boots I want to use. The Fit Kit arrived, and I immediately went to work fitting Hoss for boots. I dinked around with his feet for a while, and came up with a suitable fit. I then went back in the house, got on the phone, and ordered the boots from Griffin's Tack.

As an "acid test," I took Hoss out to the steel bridge, where some of the trails are far more rocky and intense. He did great until we hit some of those rocks, and then it became clear he was more than a little sensitive on his hind feet. I ended up dismounting and leading him through much of this, until we got back to the softer stuff he was better prepared to handle. I even ended up cutting the ride short. We were going to the local horse show the next day (details in another post!), and I didn't want to risk making him sore footed.

The day after the show, we went for another ride at Hollenbeck, and Hoss was very definitely tender. Indeed, at some places, he was downright lame. I left him alone with the exception of the morning walks until we went for a lesson two days later. He was still clearly just a little bit tender on his hinds, especially his left hind. He was also showing a little sore in his left hock, which is not unexpected, considering he had strained it just six weeks earlier and here we were making him do collected work! Despite that, he was fine, and did not develop any swelling or heat as a result. Clearly it was a simple case of more work than he could do without soreness.

Don’t Tell Anybody….

Shortly after bringing Hoss home from Death Valley, I pulled his shoes. The reasoning was to try to keep him from ramming around too much while recovering. Still, in the back of my head, I was thinking, this guy could and should be barefoot.

I've had a history of problems keeping shoes on Hoss. I've been unhappy with how I have to set up his feet in order for him to keep his shoes on. If I trim him where his feet should be, he pulls shoes. I don't like the way I have to trim his feet to keep his shoes on. I think it increases the odds of injury. I can't be entirely sure his hock injury wasn't related to the way I had to set up his feet.

Hoss started needing shoes while he was in training. His toes got painfully short, and it was evident he'd need shoes to complete his training. I suppose I could have gotten him boots then, but I doubt Beth would have thanked me for it. Her time is valuable enough without me requiring her to dink around with boots on my horse! Additionally, I hadn't yet seen a boot that I really liked.

While volunteering at Warner Springs, I got a close up look at the EasyCare Glove boots. At Descanso last year, Hoss wore one for the last half of the ride after losing a shoe and becoming sore. It stayed on well, didn't collect a bunch of garbage (stuff got in there, don't get me wrong, but it didn't harm him), and he completed sound. Previous boots I've seen I've not liked for one reason or another. The Gloves, though, I like. They are simple, no hardware, fit closely, and stay on well. I still don't like that they only come in one shape. I mean, seriously, anyone who has looked at front and hind hooves will know that there is a difference in shape.

Having a layup for an injury seemed like a good time to try transitioning barefoot. I pulled Hoss's shoes and just rounded the edges of his feet. I did no trimming whatsoever, just took the sharp edge off so he wouldn't chip up badly. After two weeks in the corral, it was time to start the hand walking phase. Our roads where we walk are dirt and hard. If there's a test for soundness for barefoot, this is it. Never once has he shown any soreness or discomfort on our walks.

The true test was getting on and riding him the three mile loop, again on our hard packed dirt roads. Hoss came home with no sign of soreness, stepping out nicely.

So we will continue on this path. I do want to buy him a set of Gloves. I really can't see him going straight to completely barefoot over every trail, and I don't believe for an instant he'll ever be able to, either. There are just some places he won't be able to handle barefoot. Additionally, it takes a year to completely condition the feet. In a year, he'll have grown a whole new hoof. Between now and then, he will always compete with boots on, and we'll do as much conditioning as he can handle barefoot. After that, we'll only use the boots on an "as needed" basis.

Of course, there is always the possibility that this won't work out. While it looks to me that he is moving significantly differently than he was while in training, there is nothing to guarantee that he won't someday need shoes again. This may not work. I am in hopes that it will.

I will surely catch hell as soon as my farrier colleagues find out about this. I will be viewed as having gone over to the dark side or something. There has been so much vitriol thrown back and forth between farriers and the barefoot community. Of course, the secret truth is, farriers would much rather trim horses than shoe them. We are, after all, inherently lazy. And, there is so much less overhead in a trim, we make a pretty significant profit on them. So if the barefoot advocates were right – that every horse can and should go barefoot – we'd be gleefully jumping on the bandwagon. Unfortunately, they're not right, and steel horse shoes are never going to go away.

Boots have given us another option. It's a beautiful thing. Before if a horse became sore doing his job he would then necessarily wear shoes. Now, that same horse can wear boots only when he needs them. It's less expensive for the horse owner, and more profit for the farrier. I don't believe shoes are inherently harmful, or that barefoot is inherently healthier. The idea is to use the method that works best for the horse and owner. Some owners are not going to have the wherewithal to use boots, and some horses can't walk from their feeder to their water bucket without soreness. Other horses step out fine barefoot on 90 percent of the trails they are used on, but that other 10 percent is a problem. Well, with the boots, no longer do the 90 percenters have to choose between not using the other 10 percent of trails or shoeing. They can use boots! Boots aren't a solution for every horse. The horse has to have a hoof that fits well into the options available. Of course, having looked closely at the boots available, I think most horses can use boots, provided they are otherwise able to go barefoot.

As a farrier, I find the boots not a threat, but another tool in the box. Fewer horses wearing steel is a good thing for the rest of the world, too. Recycled steel is used to make horse shoes. When we as farriers fail to recycle the shoes we remove (and I know more farriers who don't recycle than do), we risk raising the price of steel, which is already through the roof as it is. So, to me, the advent of easily applied, functional boots has the potential to not only improve my bottom line as a farrier, but to help reduce the amount of steel that is removed from the steel market. Love it.

I will surely be considered to be off my nut because of this!