Karen's EasyCare & Endurance Musings

AERC Tradeshow Photos

Here are a few photos from today's AERC tradeshow.  Chief did a great job demo-ing Easyboots in the EasyCare booth.  We also took time to visit the other vendors as we entered and exited the building for breaks.  As you can see, Chief decided quite quickly that his favorite vendors are the feed vendors like Purina, ABC, LMF and Farmer's.  It was the Triple Crown feed at the Farmer's booth that he ultimately decided was his most favorite, though the others were also high on his list! 

Dave and Mike spent the day repairing old boots for endurance riders while Chief and I did demonstrations on how to use Easyboots, Epics and Bares. 

Chief wanted to make friends with the fake horse but it just never seemed to warm up to him.  He knew the horse must be okay, since it also has Easyboots on!  The floor inside is concrete so it's a really good thing that he has boots on to maneuver around in.  I hope he will be as good tomorrow as he was today. 

Chief spent last night at the Reno Livestock Events Center.  The AERC convention and tradeshow starts today.  Last night was his first night ever in an enclosed stall.  I took him out to walk and as you can see he took advantage of the only spot of dirt available!  Everything is locked up and where we were allowed to park and around the barns is ALL pavement!  I'm about to head over and pick him up at 7 a.m. this morning.  That'll give us time to get back to downtown Reno and get him unloaded.  I've got his four Epics picked out to put on him so he'll be able to walk through all of the pavement and concrete in the tradeshow floor without slipping.  I'll get photos today of his digs inside.  I hope he will be a good boy again this year!

The convention (trade show) center is actually farther away this year than it was the last time we stayed at the Silver Legacy.  It'll be interesting to see how that works out.  Some of the vendors are kind of upset about it because they don't think anybody will come over because the lectures and meetings are so far away.  I hope that maybe they'll come over and stay over longer because it will be so much extra effort and time to go back and forth.  It certainly isn't an ideal situation. 

AANHCP Update

Everything has been going great so far!  Here is a photo of myself with Debbie and Jaime Jackson.

Update: made it back home after two days of visiting with AANHCP members and listening to lectures on various topics.  Yesterday I spoke about endurance riding and managing barefoot endurance horses. 

I'm now repacking and getting ready to head back to Reno tomorrow morning to start getting set up for the AERC convention which starts on Friday.  It is at the Silver Legacy. 

Chief had his feet touched up by Leslie at High Desert Hoofcare this afternoon.  It took longer to wash the mud off from the knee down than it did to do a quick go-over with a rasp on his hooves.  The mud is back to being gawd-awful again.  Yuck! 

I took Rocky's G2's with dome pads off of his feet today.  He'd been wearing them for weeks.  I have checked on them every few days.  He hasn't had any rubbing though his heel bulbs were a little soft.  Yet, I think they probably would have been soft had he not been wearing the boots and he isn't raw or sore anywhere so am glad he could wear the boots for that period of time when things were freezing up so he had the comfort of the padded boots each morning when things were frozen hard.   Once things dry out and get firmer again I'll put the boots and pads back on him again.  He is moving around great and we are going to keep a close eye on his diet and keep him out of pasture from now on and hope that he will grow out a nice hoof and stay healthy and happy. 

Going to Reno for AANHCP

I'm getting ready to leave for Reno for the AANHCP Symposium which starts today.  It is open to the public on Monday and Tuesday and continues through Thursday for AANHCP members. 

I'm looking forward to learning a lot.  I'm also going to be able to share my experiences with Chief as one of the guest speakers. 

Here is a recent hoof photo of one of Chief's feet.  Can you believe he's now into his fourth ride season being kept unshod?  And his feet haven't fallen off!   

Going to Reno for AANHCP

I'm getting ready to leave for Reno for the AANHCP Symposium which starts today.  It is open to the public on Monday and Tuesday and continues through Thursday for AANHCP members. 

I'm looking forward to learning a lot.  I'm also going to be able to share my experiences with Chief as one of the guest speakers. 

Here is a recent hoof photo of one of Chief's feet.  Can you believe he's now into his fourth ride season being kept unshod?  And his feet haven't fallen off!  <g> 

My tulips are blooming :) Yay for spring!

Hay Testing

Here is the link to Equi Analytical.  They will send you a free kit for testing your hay.  Here is a pdf of my test results from my hay. 

Soaking Beet Pulp, the easy way!

I find that my horses stay more level headed during ride starts if I soak their beet pulp ahead of time and drain off the excess sugar as much as possible.  For the longest time I had been doing it the hard way - filling up a bucket of water, putting the BP into it, and then when done soaking draining off the excess water. 

Now I have found a much easier way to do it!  I went to the $1 store and bought two of these metal mesh baskets.  They are the perfect size to fit into my little 8 quart buckets. 

I use pelleted beet pulp.  The local feed store doesn't carry shredded, which is fine with me because I can store more in less space by using pellets. 

First I measure out a scoop of the pellets and place into the mesh basket.

Next I nearly fill up the 8 quart bucket with water.

Now I place the basket with the beet pulp into the bucket with water.  Let soak for two hours.  You can soak for more or less, depending upon temperature and your schedule.

Once done, remove the basket with the now plumped up beet pulp.  Set down and allow to drain. 

Dump out the soaking water.  You may refill the 8 quart bucket again with fresh water and rinse the beet pulp one more time.

That's it - simple and easy! 

New domain name to make things easier

For those that want to find my blog quickly without having to remember the long URL, this should help:   karenchaton.com

Insulin Resistance Horses

I got the results back from the vet clinic on Rocky.  He doesn't have cushings but was at a 68 on his insulin level with 65 being the top level of normal.  Fortunately I have had my hay tested and know what he's been being fed.  My current hay tested really good, so I am good there.  I think that Rocky's problem started in November when I opened up the fall pasture to all of the horses for two weeks while I was gone on a trip.  He was able to enjoy grazing on the grass, which was by that point brown.  I now know not to do that again!  Fortunately he is doing well and is happy wearing his G2's with dome comfort pads. 

Here is an excerpt from an article on safergras.org:

Eastern Mojave Scenic Pioneer Ride Photos

Here are a couple of photos from the Mojave ride that Merri took.  The first one is me and Tigger at the start on day 3.  He was super well behaved all day and seemed to really enjoy getting to go down the trail another day.  We had a lot of fun!  The other photo is of Les and Tulip.  Tulip lost a shoe early in the ride so got to do the last couple of days with an Easyboot.  Tulip is the current highest mileage AERC horse still going down the trail. 

Here is a photo album of additional photos that I took all three days during the ride.  Photo on left is junior rider Rachel who rode with me on day 3.  Lots of trail photos, some camp and some vet check photos.  I rode Tigger two of the days, 100 miles and Chief on the middle day - 55 miles.  This was a perfect opportunity for Tig as he is starting to 'get it' and this was a really good experience for him.  He has been doing everything right - he eats and drinks well, and is controllable in the S-hackamore.  He is paying attention to where he places his feet and goes smoothly through dips and ruts rather than  just stumbling through like a clod. :)    On another positive note - Laurie Ledbetter came and rode a couple of days.  Here is a video of her mounting her horse at Bryce.  Her horse lies down for her to get on, since she is quadriplegic.  It's really great to see her riding, and she is always so polite and cheerful on the trail.  

Eastern Mojave Photos, Day 1

Here are some photos from todays ride.  It was wonderful!  I rode little Tigger and he was pretty much perfect all day and we had a really wonderful day - I really enjoyed riding him!  I vetted Chief in for tomorrow.  Here are some photos of some of the riders, including a couple of the Australians that are here visting and riding.  There is also one of Dave Rabe picking up a whip that somebody dropped on the trail off of Thunder, who is a very tall horse!  One photo of Tigger's hooves after finishing tonight showing no rubs anywhere.  He used Edge's on those feet today and they worked really well.  No vetwrap and no rubs, yay!

Chief's Award Plaque from Grand Canyon XP

I got a plaque and matching mug today.  I had to share - here is a photo of the plaque.  At the Grand Canyon XP last October, Chief reached the 7,000 AERC mileage mark.  I'll post photos soon from todays 50 at the Eastern Mojave endurance ride.  It was a great day! 

Eastern Mojave Ride

The three day Eastern Mojave endurance ride starts tomorrow.  The first couple of photos are of my horses, Tigger and Chief.  It is a bit cool (50) today with a little breeze.  Looks like we will have excellent weather for the ride! 

Tigger was a bit full of energy earlier when I tacked him up and took him for a walk around camp - I ended up longing him on a line to let him get all of that excess explosive energy out.  Chief just looked on with a calm eye.  I am planning on riding Tigger tomorrow and then will decide based upon his behavior how many days he will get to do.  I think I'd like to ride him at least two days, and then ride Chief on the middle day.

The second two photos are of Michael and Julia from Horses Dacor.  They are vendors of endurance tack and equipment and are set up at the ride.  As you can see they utilized a joshua tree to hang some of their items up with!  You can tell from their photo (the one where they are holding Easyboots) that the breeze has made things a bit chilly. 

There will be several Team Easyboot members at this ride who are going to be helping test various products.  During the last couple of days we have been getting everything fitted and product sized up with various horses that'll be competing in this event.  It looks like it will be a great ride!

New Survey - Easyboots in Colors

Google just introduced a really neat new feature to their Google Docs.  They now will allow you to create surveys and it automatically fills out a spreadsheet for you to see all of the results.  So I'd like to try it out with this question:

Would you like to see Easyboots in colors?

Please answer even if you have done so previously - we'd like to know how much interest there is.  You can see that we did previously have regular Easyboots in red, and they are still very popular and I see them used at every endurance ride I go to. 

Old Mac's G2's and Dome Comfort Pads Make for a Happy Horse :)

I took a few photos earlier this morning of Rocky and his Old Macs G2's.  Looks like the spring thaw is well underway and we have been alternating between muddy swampy goop and frozen hard ground.  As you can see from these photos, it's quite the mess! 

Rocky has been wearing his G2's for four days now in these conditions and I wanted to see how things looked inside.  Well, I didn't really *want* to (lol), but I figured that I had better check to make sure he wasn't getting any rubs anywhere, or scratches.  I'll put a note next to each of the photos below explaining what they are.  Click to enlarge. 

This shows the area that the horses are in now.  It's been like this all week.  It melts during the day and becomes a goopy mess.  Then at night, freezes up hard. 

Here is how the boots look on Rocky when I got him out.  He's wearing the G2's on his fronts, with dome comfort pads inside.  I'm not using an inside gaiter or anything because I thought it might get too messy and wanted to see how it would work without.

After digging through the caked on mud, I found the end of the leather buckle strap.  Used a tool to grab onto it and pull it to open.  I did this same thing when putting the boot back on and was able to get it nice and snug.

Here is how the boots looked inside.  I was able to use a hoofpick to clean a bit of the mud out.  Once things dry out further, I'll take the boots off and give them a good cleaning. 

I bought some medicated foot powder at the $1 store and have been putting that inside the boots.  This helps keep it from getting smelly and so far so good - no signs of any thrush and no stench. 

I used a brush and brushed off the foot that I took the boot off of.  You can see that there has been no rubbing from the boots and everything looks great!

Another view showing Rocky's RF from the outside.  There are no signs of scratches, rubbing, or tenderness.  I am pretty sure that he is going to be diagnosed with insulin resistance (since he has all the signs) and am glad that he can wear the boots for extended periods in these kinds of conditions.  I am really glad that he can walk around comfortably on the frozen uneven ground and have total hoof protection.  Rocky is a happy camper! 

Now if only this mud would dry out and stay dried out!! 

 

Blog feed and horse feed

The RSS feed for my blog should be working now.  I think it was a setting with Feedblitz and we got it fixed.  If not, let me know! 

Onto the topic of horse feed.  I lucked out today and was able to pick up 15 bales of straight grass hay.  Which is not quite a ton.  Cost:  $225.00.  OMG - somebody get me a bag so I can stop hyperventilating!  Can you believe that grass hay is that expensive, and that I was lucky to even find it at all?  I still have enough of my grass alfalfa mix left so that with this hay I'll be able to go a couple of months before needing more.  Fortunately this hay is really good quality and has been tested so it perfect to feed to Rocky.  I'll get his results back this coming week and will know if he is IR (insulin resistant), or is starting to get Cushings.  The vets think he is probably IR which can be controlled with diet.  Now at least I will be okay leaving for the Mojave ride this coming week.      

Quotation

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm!  Ralph Waldo Emerson

My feed isn't loading

Working with Typepad now to figure out why my blog stopped sending feed updates after 1/23.  Hope to have it fixed soon, sorry for the technical difficulties! 

Thank you Chief!

They say to touch Heaven, your soul must go higher
to streets that are paved with gold and with pearls
But for me, it's a ridge, high above an endless valley,
being one with my horse, at the top of the world
Thank you Chief, for showing me the world thru your ears.

I wrote that when Chief made it into the AERC yearbook with 5000 miles.  This last week he received his 7000 mileage patch from the AERC, plus his 7000 mileage marker for his AHA plaque from the Arabian Horse Association. I think that I was really lucky to have had two such terrific endurance horses to begin with Weaver and Rocky. Then somehow another miracle happened, and I ended up with a third horse (Cheefy!) that has been such a great gift for me it is beyond words to explain how special he is.  I think most of what makes him so special is that he isn't perfect, and it has taken a great deal of effort and determination on my part to do what works best for him.  He and I both understand each other, even if we don't always agree, we are a team.  Mostly we argue about how fast we should be going.  He loses those arguments.  You just never know, if I keep him going slow and consistent what he might be able to do - he may even make the AERC Decade Teams like Weaver and Rocky did. This is his 7th ride season. 

Starting a new horse is hard, if I had a choice I would never have ever started another horse.  Are you kidding?  I would ride Weaver off into the sunset, and Rocky into the sunrise day after day if I could.  Yet, once you do you realize that you can again develop another super special but different relationship with another horse you know it is worth the effort.  It isn’t easy, and no horse will ever replace one that you’ve had that special relationship with.  But, it is worth doing because you have yet another opportunity to have something just as special as you had before.  But in a different way.  None of our horses is with us long enough, so be sure and appreciate them every moment in your life that you are fortunate enough to have them.

A new EasyCare ad

Horse Quotations

A horse is worth more than riches.

You don't have to go to the stables and ride EVERY day, just the ones that end in "y"

You show me someone that doesn't like horses and I'll show you someone who can't ride.

Definition of a horse: A beast that bites at one end; kicks at the other; and is slippery in the middle.

I have seen things so beautiful they have brought tears to my eyes. Yet, none of them can match the gracefulness and beauty of a horse running free.

The world is best viewed through the ears of a horse.

Barefoot Horses and hoof care

Here is an article on going barefoot.  (horses, of course)  I've very busy these last few weeks.  Between work, shows like WESA and Equine Affaire, plus trying to keep up with everything around the place including the horses.  I'm probably not doing a very good job of anything because I feel so scattered about.  I'm not really cut out for this being away from home so much.   

Now that I am home for a few days I have a lot of things to catch up on.  One of them is the horses hooves.  Since we have had so much going on we decided to ask Leslie Carrig from High Desert Hoofcare to come out and trim the horses feet.  She did a great job and here are a few photos.  Fortunately, three out of my four horses have good feet and were all in good shape. 

Rocky needs help and Leslie suggested I talk to my vet about having him tested for Cushings, and also test my hay to see if that could be contributing to some of his health and hoof issues.  I've had my hay tested before in the past, but not any from the loads that are still left in the barn.  It is a grass mix with some alfalfa.  I'll know in a couple of weeks what the results are and will post them then.  In the meantime, I'm on a search to find more hay (almost out anyway).  Finding good hay is extremely difficult, especially this time of year. 

For now I'm going to start turning Rocky out in boots and Comfort pads most of the time.  That will be good for him and it's a good way for me to test some of the new boots and gaiters and see how they hold up on a horse 24x7.  Rocky is the kind of horse that if he can, he will destroy anything (including his own self, via dings and dents always in a new spot each time!).  He does well with boots though, and did nearly all of his 7600 or so AERC miles with them, and has indeed worn them for weeks at a time in turnout previously and they hold up to even his orneriness. 

Fortunately, the other three horses all have good feet as you can see in these photos.  The top photo is Leslie with Chief's left front foot.  He has nice round hooves.  The photo below here on the left is one of Tigger's - and believe it or not, it is a front hoof.  His front feet are shaped more like a lot of horses hind feet are.  He has nice feet and I think will be a nice little multi-day or high mileage endurance horse.  He was such a good boy today too with Leslie, I was so pleased with him!  The next photo is of one of Zenos' hooves - a hind.  He has beautiful hooves.  The photo showing the concavity is of one of Chief's hooves (I think) - if it's not Chief, it's Zenos.  They are full brothers and both have nice hooves, though Leslie also agreed that Z's are probably a bit nicer than Chief's.  It's still good though, that Chief can show you don't have to have perfect feet to be able to do a lot of trail miles.  :) 

Funny YouTube Video - misheard lyrics