Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

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Laminitis: New Study on Sugar and Starch as a Cause

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The October Cold Springs Ride IS Cancelled

It's official, the Cold Springs 50/75/100 Elevator ride scheduled for October 28, 2007 in the West Region has been cancelled. 

Bryce Canyon Basecamp & Getting Here!

Tigger grazes in camp.  I'm letting the horses take turns. There are only a couple of other horses in camp so we don't have to worry about bothering anybody, and neither of my horses will get out of sight of the other one.  We are in a large fenced secluded area.  You can see Chief watch Tig in the next photo.  I switch them out every couple of hours, so Chief will get a turn to move around and graze for a bit.  I'm sitting here watching them.  They never have to be 'caught', I just call and they come, or walk over to them and they come to me.  They are both really nice that way. ;)  It's peaceful and quiet.  The ride starts on Thursday so I expect riders to start showing up in another day or two. 

The last photo shows the drive train that fell out of Dave Rabe's truck on the trip here.  We were 80 to 90 miles either side of cell service or any help when it happened.  Luckily after much effort we were able to get the other end of it unbolted and Dave was able to drive in 4WD.  A truck tire was also damaged so that had to be changed as well.  Parts have been ordered and everything will be fixed this coming week.  Sometimes getting to the ride IS the hard part!

Quotations

My will shall shape the future.  Whether I fail or succeed shall be no person’s doing but my own.  I am the force.  I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze.  My choice, my responsibility.  Win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.   Elaine Maxwell

We are all so bent and determined to get what we want, we miss the lessons that could be learned from life’s experiences.  Many of my AIDS patients discovered that the last year of their lives was by far their best.  Many have said they wouldn’t have traded the rich quality of that last year of life for a healthier body.  Sadly, it is only when tragedy strikes that most of us begin attending to the deeper aspects of life.  It is only then that we attempt to go beyond surface concerns—what we look like, how much money we make, and so forth—to discover what’s really important.  Elisasbeth Kuebler-Ross

Easyboots for upcoming ride

I have a few Easyboots ready for Bryce.  I always like to use boots that have been broken in on an endurance ride.  I don't like to use anything new actually, during an actual competition.  These are some of the boots I'll be using for the upcoming 5 day ride.  I'll probably use Easyfoam to put them on and leave them for the week.  I will probably foam Bares (minus the gaiters) on Chief's hind feet.  He travels so close behind and does better with Bares back there. 

Ted and Peggy Recommend Easyboots - New video Contest Entry

There is still time to submit a video entry for the EasyCare Summer Video Contest.  It ends on August 31st.  Lots of great prizes are going to be given out to ten lucky winners.  Visit the EasyCare Video Blog to view the submissions so far. 

EasyCare Press Releases

The EasyCare website is kept current with the press releases I send out.  I try not to do more than two a month.  Sometimes it's hard to narrow it down to the two topics that are the most newsworthy.  The most recent PR was about our new German distributor. 

In case you thought you had a bad day....

It probably wasn't as bad as this guy had.  I can't believe this kind of stuff even makes news.  hehe

Okay, so to make this somewhat horse related - I've been getting ready for the Bryce XP.  It's a 5 day 250 mile ride and one of the most beautiful trails that I've ridden.  I am taking Chief and Tigger.  I hope to alternate them, 3 days on Chief and 2 on Tigger.  Trying to resist the urge to ride Chief all 5 days.  Or at least, attempt to.  You never know what can happen, horses are fragile. 

Winnie's Surgery

Here's what you get for $350 from the vet hospital when your dog needs surgery to remove a growth from her side:

1)  Groggy Doggy
2)  Large shaved area (well, it is summer)
3)  Sutures in shaved area, oh what fun to keep the groggy doggy from chewing/licking when she is less groggy (good thing we have a plastic hood for her already...) 
4)  Antibiotics to torture the groggy doggy with twice a day for a week, this will get more fun after she is not groggy... ugh 
5)  Cheezy colorful bandana.  If she weren't so groggy she'd be insisting we remove it NOW!! 

Winnie is happy to be home, she had a rough day yesterday.  She's not feeling well you can tell.  She'll be able to eat again tomorrow.  She's currently snoring, but will start crying if you pet her, mainly from being so happy to be home.  She deserves lots of hugs and attention.  Poor girl.  Tomorrow will be a better day. 

Cool photos of Traveler, the USC Mascot

This is Traveler, the USC Mascot - who performs using Easyboots.  He also uses Epics, and Old Mac's G2.  I wonder what my horses would think of having a job like that?  They would probably really like the attention.  Not sure about the lights at night though. 

Here are some more photos of Traveler. 

Couple of Quotes

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like this one too:

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.  Tom Lehrer

A lot of people have jobs similar to this ;)

Name the new EasyCare Boot update

Here is a list of names submitted so far.  It's close to 1200.  When you see duplicates it is because more than one person submitted that name.  You can submit more name ideas to us at this email address.  We'll keep accepting entries until September 15, 2007.  The first person to submit the name that we choose will win a year supply of the new hoof boots!  The new boot is shaping up to be very promising but will be kept top secret until all necessary paperwork has been completed as well as passing through a very thorough testing process.  I want this boot to hold up to extreme conditions and be an improvement over the current EasyCare line of boots, which is asking a lot. 

Bride and Groom humor

Click here.  Hopefully you'll think this is kind of funny too!  ;)

Riveted on Easyboot Buckles, how to get FREE Easyboot parts

I tried several different tools today to see if I could find something besides a drill or a dremmel tool that would allow me to separate a riveted on Easyboot buckle from the boot.  I tried a few different kinds of cutting tools as well as hoof care nippers, and pull-offs.  Nothing seemed to do the trick reliably enough.  If anybody has any suggestions for something that will work that isn't an electric tool let me know.  I may see if I can find a drill bit to work on my cordless electric screwdriver - that may be all I need so that I can help others repair their older boots when I am rides.  Ideas, anyone? 

The newer EasyCare boots all have easily changed out parts - all you need for those is a screwdriver.  During the month of August you can get up to four Easyboot parts for FREE!  Click here for more details.  For those that have older boots with riveted on buckles and want to change them out, or change the cable - you can but will probably need to drill the rivets out, remove the buckle and then replace it and the cable with the new parts.  Specials like this don't (and won't) come along often, so don't pass up this opportunity to stock up on extra parts. 

Book List, EasyCare stuff

I just updated a couple of the newest books to my book list -it's in the right hand column of this blog.  I read about half the books and listen (audio books) to the other half when I am traveling.  I haven't been adding some of the ones I've read recently that were chores to get through though.  Most of the time I get through at least two books a week, more when I am doing a lot of driving.  I get many of the audiobooks from my library, download them to my laptop and then over to my Zen for listening. 

Speaking of traveling, I just spent several days last week in Tucson at EasyCare headquarters.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us with new product launches planned for 2008.  Next week I'm leaving for the Bryce Canyon XP ride where I hope to ride all 5 days on Chief and Tigger, and where we'll also be doing one of our annual photo shoots, for the upcoming 2008 catalog and other graphics needs. 

What came in the mail today from AERC

I think I am probably about one of around twenty people to have reached this milestone....

Successful use of Easyfoam and Easyboot Bares

Here are some comments sent with the photos by Carol Layton:  Hello from Australia.  I had a great ride on the weekend on Omani Mr Sqiggle trialling the Easyfoam with four Bares at a endurance ride held at Windeyer, near Mudgee in NSW.  I needed to trial the foam for the Shahzada marathon in the last week of August and now I know this is the answer for us.  I am totally delighted with the result, no need to be concerned about the possibility of rubbing from the gaiters.  I mean I have been able to do 160km rides and 400km marathons with boots and not had any rubbing from gaiters but this foam means it doesn't need to be on my mind. I don't have to fiddle with Sportstape or vetwrap.   It was easy to mix the glue together and put the boots on, we just removed the gaiters.   Ride photo by Peter Jackson.

EasyCare Video Contest

Here is a video that was recently submitted for the EasyCare 2007 Summer Video Contest.  It's not too late to enter, you have until the end of August.  You can view most of the submitted entries so far here on our video blog.  Ten winners will receive a lot of great prizes, you could be one of them! 

Cold Springs Station bar, restaurant burn

The main building at Cold Springs Station, located approximately 65 miles east of Fallon on Highway 50, burned late Saturday night, destroying the bar and restaurant.  Click here for the rest of the story.  Cold Springs has been host to multiple XP endurance rides.  The next ride is still scheduled to take place there on October 27, 2007 and is a 50/75/100 mile elevator ride. 

5 Ways to Help Your Horse Live Longer

Follow these five simple rules to increase your horse's chance of living to a ripe old age.

Pete Ramey "Under the Horse" Sneak Preview

Stay tuned to my blog and the EasyCare website for more info on this 16 hour hoof rehabilitation series by Pete Ramey!

The pair of Easyboots winner is......

On the first day of accepting names for one of our new hoof  boots that are in development we received 755 name submissions!  The person with the closest guess at 672 is Skyla Stewart.  To date we are well over a 1000 name submissions.  For more information on submitting an idea for a name for the new boot, click here.  The first person to submit the name that we choose will win a year supply of the new boot for their horse!

The Comfort Pads I used at EHSC

photo left:  Chief and buddy Rocky eat hay at the out vet check

Below are photos (click to enlarge) of Chief's comfort pads and boots that he used on the EHSC 50 yesterday.  The pads I used are 12 mm size small comfort pads and now that they have done 50 miles they are broken in just right for the next ride.  I normally wouldn't use new pads on a ride but I wanted to test these to see how well they would hold up.  I find that horses that have well balanced feet and a good fit on their boots don't wear the pads extremely fast.  If they do then I use the pads as a learning tool.  Several of us used pads in our boots on this ride, and they all came through in good enough shape to use again.  The terrain is rough and technical, I'm really glad that I had the pads in all four boots. 

I used the same Easyboot Epics on Chief's front feet that I used at Strawberry Fields.  They now have 205 competition miles on them.  What you see in the photos are the boots and pads as soon as I took them off, without being cleaned.  The first photos show the four pads I used with the two below pads that Dave Rabe used in the 50 on his horse.  The next photos are showing Chief's pasterns at different angles.  As usual, he came through the ride without any rubbing anywhere.  There is also a photo of the bottom of the tread on the Bares that I used on his hind feet - I've lost count how many rides those boots have done but it is quite a few.  I prefer to use 'used' boots on an endurance ride and only break in new boots on training rides.   

Eastern High Sierra Classic, Video of Trail

This is why I am glad that Chief had four hoof boots on today.  I used Epics on his fronts, and Bares on his hinds (same Epics he used at Strawberry Fields).  The Bares seem to last forever on him, they just go and go and go.  I'll post more later on the ride.  It was fabulous, and great scenery.  LOTS of rocks tho!     

Eastern High Sierra Classic

Off in a few minutes to the EHSC 50 that is near Bridgeport, California.  Here are photos from a previous year.  This is a really beautiful ride. 

Cool graphic of rider in the hoof boot contest

This is Kylie and her horse Jack who is wearing his Bares.  This is the second year they are participating on the EasyCare Hoof Boot Contest.  The photo is by Karen White Ellenbank Photography and the graphic is by Elizabeth Oates.  Kylie is riding in a Freeform saddle.

Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes

You can also view this on the Ted site.

I feel human again!

Finally had to go see the doc today for my allergy reaction.  I hate going, really--the office is always full of sick people and you always have to wait a long time (at least at my doctor's office you do). 

EasyCare Hoof Boot Contest Update - Over 13,485 Miles to Date!

It's great that there are 70 (yes, SEVENTY!) of us out there competing in rides of 50 miles or greater with bare booted horses.  Riders have now ridden more than 13,485 miles in distances of one day 50, 75, 100 and up to five day 250 mile multiday rides. 

Here is a preview of the September Endurance News ad with an update on the EasyCare $10,000 Hoof Boot Contest.  It's not too late to enter. 

Keep guessing # of names for the new hoof boot!

Click here to go to the previous post where you can still submit a guess in the comment section for your chance to win a pair of Easyboots.  It's really easy to win - just guess how many name suggestions you think EasyCare received on August 1st.  I'll give it a few more days and then announce the winner.  We've been having a terrific response to this new contest and have received some really great name suggestions.  We'll keep accepting name suggestions through September 15th.

Horses, yardwork, allergies and rashes

Spent most of today trimming junipers, then raking them up and hauling a full truckload to the dump.  Should have worn long sleeves and pants, as my arms and legs are completely covered in a nice bubbly reddish purple rash!  Ugh!  As if that wasn't enough, even with allergy medication I'm sneezing so bad my sinuses feel like they are being hammered with a brick.  So to make everything better, I took Tigger out for a ride.  It was hot, but fairly breezy so didn't seem so bad.  It was good to see that he isn't spooky in the wind.  You can see from his photo here that he's filled out very well, and doesn't seem so small anymore!  To the left of him hanging on the stall door is part of my Easyboot collection.  The red ones are mostly size 2's. 

Quote about luck

When ill luck besets us, to ease the tension we have only to remember that happiness is relative.  The next time you are tempted to grumble about what has happened to you, why not pause and be glad that it is no worse than it is?  Dale Carnegie

Horse Musings

Yesterday when I was walking Zenos, my blackberry jumped out of it's holster, and somehow managed to land right where Z's next footfall landed.  Good. Gawd.  I just about fainted, but luckily enough I backed him up asap and he didn't bear any weight on it.  the bb still worked.  yay!  Zenos hurt his leg in April and it's still healing.  He's not a good patient so things aren't going swimmingly well (understatement). I'm really bummed. 

So tonight when I went for a ride on Chief, I left my cell phone in the barn and forgot that I'd left it there.  No use tempting fate.  Chief was a bit obnoxious.  It was still 95 degrees and I figured that I would longe him for a few minutes before taking him out.  His last ride was the three day 155 miles he did at Strawberry Fields towards the end of June.  It's not like he's just been sitting around doing nothing either, but he has not done any endurance rides.  So now he is in the obnoxious stage.  I longed him till he got nice and sweaty, then saddled him up and out to the trail we went.  A police car drove past us on the way down the street and pulled over and stopped.  Uh oh, was I getting pulled over?  Did I break a law because my tack wasn't properly matching?  Were my shorts too short?  Turns out he was just letting me go by and was being polite.  Chief zipped right along down the trail moving smoothly and with enthusiasm and eagerness even over the rocks and bad footing.  Didn't bother putting boots on him so he was barefoot.  I knew I should have gone farther with him than I did, just a few miles out...because it wasn't enough for him even in the heat and being longed first.  We did a lot of cantering in place (or cantering at a slow trot speed anyway).  I laughed as I flopped around in the Freeform saddle, while Chief felt frisky and energetic but at least behaved enough not to buck though I am sure it crossed his mind at least once.  Thank Goodness I have him entered in a ride on the 11th.  Don't want to know how obnoxious he'd get if he had any more time between actual competitions. 

Chief is in the national mileage standings!

Not sure how this happened, but we managed to find ourselves in the top ten national AERC mileage standings!  Last year I tried really hard not to ride Chief as much as I had the previous two years.  This year he has continued to do well and really does best when he is ridden more.  He is still having a much lighter year than he did a couple of years ago.  Anyway, I was surprised to see this today!  Dave Rabe's horse Lightning and Sarah Martin's horse Sierra are also in the top ten - they are also riders who are riding bare-booted horses.