What's the best way to spend Mother's Day? Go to an endurance ride with your Mom, rough it in a tent and ride a hard 55 miles together. Yes, Mother's Day is a week away but it was still a blast.
My Mom and I did the 28th annual 55 mile endurance ride on Saturday. I did this ride several times as a junior in the 80's and several times in the late 90's and again in early 2000. It was great to go back and see all the familiar faces.
Tall Pines is a wonderful ride put on by the Trinkle and Kinter families. This year was the second year of a new base camp in a flatter, less hilly area. I thought the ride would be easier than the old trail but boy was I wrong. The first loop was relatively easy with good footing but was every bit of the 26.5 miles listed on the map. We set off on the second loop assuming the same. The second loop was roughly 15 miles and ended up taking around 4 hours. It was super hilly and the footing was brutal. It's one of the toughest loops on any ride.
The third loop had good footing but the long sandy washes challenged the horses. We ended the day 8th and 9th and were both happy to complete a challenging event with healthy, sound horses.
I've been working on several new boot styles that are testing well on conditioning rides from the house. EasyCare has a great deal of new products in the hopper right now and it's time to really put some of the new stuff to the test. This weekend I tested eight Easyboot glue on shells for the 55 mile event. The boots are a combination heat and glue fit and after application fit the hoof like a second skin. They are sweet. The shells, materials and glue are still in the R&D stage but I believe they will be part of the EasyCare product line soon. The boots fit so well it's hard to even see them. Many people thought our horses were barefoot (including some of the vets).
Take a look at the photos below. Are the horses booted or barefoot? Hard to tell isn't it. Every horse shown in this post is booted on all four feet.
Nice tent mom!!
Posted by: Tyler Ford | May 06, 2008 at 09:08 PM