Christoph Schork recaps the Kentucky North American Championship

Dian and Christoph from Global Endurance

October 14^th was the day for the biggest endurance event in North America the North American Endurance Championship. Serving at the same time as the pre ride for the 2010 World Equestrian Games and World Championship, this was a prestigious and important race. Riders needed to qualify to enter and needed an invitation to attend. The USA was represented by 5 Teams of 6 riders each, one team for each time zone, with the exception of the Pacific time zone, which was allowed two teams. Christoph Schork, who co-owns the Global Endurance Training Center with Dian Woodward, was invited to represent the Mountain Zone. Riders from 23 countries all over the world were also invited to enter either the 100 mile Championship race or the 75 mile Kentucky Cup race. Riders from North America were not allowed to enter the Kentucky Cup race.

On October 7^th, Christoph left sunny Moab Utah with 5 horses to start his 1600 mile drive to Kentucky.  Upon entering Missouri the torrential rain forced a full day layover in Warrenton. Within a 36 hour period, Missouri received between 8 and 10 inches of rain, countless roads being flooded and closed as a result. Once the rain eased a little, we continued the journey. It is important to arrive early after a long trailer haul, to give the horses several days to recover from the travelling stress. This gave Christoph ample time to equip his horses with Easyboot Glue-On boots, that were studded, especially manufactured by EasyCare, Inc, for conditions like we would encounter in Kentucky: Lots of wet grass with mud everywhere.

A close up shot of the studs.

The boots were glued on with Vettec Adhere at the hoof wall and Goober Glue for the sole of the hoof. Because of the wet conditions, Christoph was applying the boots in a dry barn, taking especially good care of drying the hoof walls thoroughly with a heat gun.

Easyboots in place before the mud.

The morning of the race, the rain pelted the riders relentlessly. 40 degrees temps and rain without end. The trails were flooded and mudded over in no time. Christoph started the 100 mile race on TC Mounshine, a horse already now qualified for the WEC next year. Other GETC horses entered were:

DWA Express, ridden by Nikolay Melbard from Russia

Stars Aflame, ridden by Leo Steinbruch from Brasil

DWA Millennium, leased to a rider from Japan. She did not start because of the conditions.

.Salty did also not start, because the rider from France was a no show.

The rain intensified and the conditions were so bad, that Ride Management decided to shorten the course for the well being of the horse from 100 mile to 75 mile. A very smart decision.

Heading out on another muddy loop.

In the end, Christoph ended up in 10^th place for the Championship race, 9^th among the North American riders. The Mountain Zone Team won the Bronze Medal, Third Place in the Team Championship. Among the Mountain Zone Team riders was Doug Swingley from Montana, also riding his horse with Easyboot Glue-on studded boots. Stars Aflame ended up in 8^th place in the Kentucky Cup race, first American horse. The horses ahead of her were flown in from the UAE. She also wore studded Glue-ons. Another Top Ten rider with Glue ons was also Farzad Faryadi, riding for the East Zone.

Miriam Rezine in the Kentucky Mud.

The studded Easyboot Glue-Ons really made a difference. Where other riders were slipping, the studs gave the necessary traction for the horses. What an excellent idea to add the studs to the glue ons. We also had some Gloves equipped with studs and carried them on our saddles, in case we would loose a boot. We thought that the relentless rain might loosen a boot. We did not need to worry. The boots held extremely well, we did not loose any boots. The Vettec Adhere really works well to keep these boots on the hooves, no matter what the ambient conditions. As long as we follow the recommended glue on procedure, the boots stay on.

Only 6 horses of all the starters had their hooves equipped with EasyCare Glue-On boots, and 4 ended up in Top Ten position. In a race with a completion rate of only 40% and 50 % respectively and a really tough competition and very difficult footing conditions, that is an incredible result for the glue ons. The glue on boots again provided results that speak for themselves.

Christoph and TC Mounshine on the way to a 10th place finish.

Dian Woodward & Christoph Schork

www.globalendurance.com