My friend Terri and I were planning on a 50 at the local Chalk Rock Ride last weekend. Due to her horse being off, we decided it was no time like the present to take the young girls out for their first "endurance experience". Her mare is a big, beautiful, black 6yo Morab with a fairly quiet disposition. Mine is a smaller, bay, cute 1/2 Arab-1/2 mutt (with lots of Morgan in that half) DR Thunderbask 4yo. Her disposition leaves much to be desired at times (very opinionated alpha mare) and she is known for her quick moves when she spooks or gets in a tizzy because she wants it HER WAY. But when she settles down she is a sweet and fun horse.
Chalk Rock is beautiful, but VERY rocky, as 80% of the ride is on gravel ranch roads. So despite the fact that we were only doing the 10 mile (more like 12 mile) "Fun Ride," we were going to boot them up. Our club has 4 rides a year and all but one offers a fun ride, which is a great way to introduce new riders or young horses to the sport. You get to camp, do a pre and post ride vet check, and ride out on trail with other horses and such. We'd taken the Morab camping before, but not to a ride. And my filly just came back from her first 60 days of training, so was pretty green and goofy... They camped like champs, though the vetting could have been better (note to self, practice lip lifting and gum checking), and on Sat morning we were all set to go.
Well, we had to hand walk the first mile or 2, as they were neck arched and snorting at EVERY log and rock (like they've never seen those before). When we finally got up and moving, it was better, but being stupid and goofy, I sure had my hands full with the 4yo. We had Bares on the Morab, and Epics on front (another note to self...too many of our horses share sizes...need more boots!) and Gloves behind on my filly. The boots did GREAT! Neither of them had a single bad step on all the rock, and the boots stayed put, despite the many attempts at spooks, airs above ground, and jumps over tiny trickles of water my filly tried. I would have thought the boots would come off at the first spool across the road, but nope, they stuck like glue. And neither of the girls stumbled or otherwise felt like the boots interfered with their gaits (which are often already not the most coordinated thing at that age). We got to camp in one piece (and were MUCH calmer at the end of the ride...amazing what miles will do...) and overall it was a great first ride!
So even though it wasn't a "mileage" test as such, the boots got a solid workout and did wonderfully well. We followed that ride with another 12 miles at a local trail yesterday, and this time had twice as much jumping around (including into thick brush, up and down embankments, and into creeks...she is such a goofy kid...has potential for sure, but needs to settle down some :) ), but the boots stayed on until I took them off (Gloves all around this time). And my filly also has "non-standard" feet that are really wide and don't really measure to fit in a Glove, but with the flexibility of the material, they worked fine and didn't rotate or anything. I REALLY like the Gloves!
Natalie Herman
Comments