If you ride in any kind of hoof boot you already know that they require a certain amount of work to maintain them.
That amount of work depends on the type of boot and how often you ride in it and how hard or easy your horse is on your boots.
It’s no different than any other type of tack or riding equipment that you use. If you take care of your hoof boots, they will last longer and provide better service with less trouble.
A lot of problems I see people having with boots can be avoided. It takes attention to detail, and often times some fiddling to get everything right. Once you do then the effort is worth it. Maintenance is an important part of using hoof boots successfully. It can also keep you from having to experience a boot failure on the trail.
I mainly use Renegade strap on boots. On a few occasions each year I will use the glue-on version of the boots. The glue-ons are pretty easy – I trim the backs to the exact length of my horses hoof prior to gluing them on. Then, when I remove them I simply throw them away.
With the strap-on version of the Renegades I will usually get several hundred miles out of a set of boots. During that time I usually will need to replace the toe straps a couple of times and possibly the pastern straps.
The pastern straps usually do not need to be replaced as frequently as the toe straps do. The important strap is the toe strap.
For the really rocky rides I will also replace worn or old rubber O-rings and lots of times will put three O-rings on each toe strap. That way if one breaks I still have two left.
For this post I am only going to cover what to do AFTER riding in the boots and not go into anything having to do with fitting, sizing or applying boots. However, I would like to mention that if somebody is having difficulty with their boots that they should contact the manufacturer directly for help. Or, check with another boot user that is having good luck with the same type of boots that rides in the same type of terrain as you do.
As an example of what I do to maintain my horses hoof boots, I can start with what I did after I finished the EHSC 50 a week ago on Chief. For that ride I used four orange Renegades – two size 1′s (fronts) and two size 0′s (hinds). The only time I removed the boots was after I finished the ride. I then put them into a 5 gallon bucket of water. While my boots were in the bucket of water I used a soft brush to clean the back of Chief’s pasterns thoroughly. This makes sure there are no sand pebbles, rocks or dirt embedded anywhere. I like to inspect everything thoroughly to make sure there are no rubs, tenderness or sore spots. This is something I will continue to do for a few days after every ride. So far, I have not had any rubs from using these boots. (knocking on wood–this is why I LOVE these boots!) Note: I also check and clean the pasterns prior to applying boots to make sure everything is clean on the horse and on the boots!
Next I take a medium soft brush and use it to clean each boot. I unstrap the velcro and pull it apart. Using the brush I will go over the surface of the velcro on both sides. This removes any dirt, sand or other debris. Those that really want their velcro clean can use a cleaner made exclusively for cleaning velcro. I just received one of these as a completion award at the Strawberry Fields Ride. I haven’t opened it yet, and have yet to have ever used anything like that to clean velcro on any of my hoof boots. Usually water and brushing over it is sufficient.
I then continue cleaning the boots, taking care to make sure that the inside of the pastern straps and the captivator liner in the heel area is clean. I make sure the inside of the boot is clean and the bottom is clean.
Check the tread wear on the bottom of the boot. Is it wearing evenly? If it is not, then you may want to check your horses trim and/or way of going. Once boots get worn down enough that you can no longer see any tread they may become slippery. Don’t keep using them once they reach that point. Once my boots get worn down to a certain point I usually relegate them to “spares”. At that point they still have tread remaining.
An example of a frayed cable
The next thing is to check for any fraying of the cables. If your horse has stepped and pulled a boot off or had one come off then there is a chance there a cable may be frayed. A boot that comes off with the pastern strap still attached is more likely to become frayed than a boot that comes completely off.
On a rare occasion, a cable will need to be replaced. It is a good idea to have a couple of extra cables in each size. It helps to use silicone spray to get the cables to guide through easier. Click here for instructions on how to change a cable on a Renegade boot.
Now that I have a clean and inspected boot I will fold the velcro back onto itself. This trains it to go the way you will want it once you put the boots back on your horse. I don’t feed the pastern strap back through the captivator though, I just lay it over the top of the pastern strap. This will also help keep your boots from getting attached to each other. If I am going to store the boots for a couple of weeks between uses, I will do so like this (boot strap tip).
Thoroughly inspect the velcro straps on your boots. Look for signs that the velcro is wearing out. Over time you will learn on average how often you might need to replace any straps. That amount of time will vary considerably depending upon the terrain that you ride in, your horse, and also how you care for your boots and velcro.
You will often see my boots drying on the back of my trailer ramp each day at an endurance ride. Like trailer tires, it’s not good to leave your boots out in the hot sun for extended periods so I will bring the boots inside as soon as they are dry.
If you don’t have time to rinse your boots out after riding or it is too cold then be prepared with enough extra straps ahead of time. That way you can switch them out and then get the dirty ones cleaned later. It is really important to keep the velcro clean so that it will work properly.
I have found that using any kind of hoof boot requires attention to detail and a bit of effort. It isn’t as easy as having shoes nailed on your horse. Using strap on boots is also not a easy for a rider as using boots that are glued-on, but I believe are healthier in the long run if used more often than glue-ons are used.
It is up to each of us to decide how much effort and time we are willing to devote to keeping our horses barefoot and/or to using hoof boots. If you are going to use hoof boots, it pays to become as educated as possible on their use, which includes proper care and maintenance.
We got Winnie (we also spell it “Whinny”) for our 10th wedding anniversary. She is now a teenager, and is 1/2 blue heeler (cattle dog) and 1/2 dalmatian. She has been the best dog. She loves to play fetch, loves to swim and play in water. She is fearless, in a good way – she never gets nervous when there are loud thunderstorms or fireworks or other loud noises. You couldn’t chase her away – no way would she run off or leave our sides.
We have been really lucky that Winnie has always been so healthy and is also the happiest dog to be around. We always joke about whatever it is she is taking, we want some! Who wouldn’t wan to have such a positive outlook on everything.
What a great traveler Winnie has been. She has always loved going on trips, including being on the road with us and the horses for 9 weeks on the 2001 XP. Getting to see the world.
Winnie loves going on long walks almost every day with our other dog, Dax– and never lets the horses get out of her sight if she goes along on a ride. Now that she is older, she doesn’t go out with the horses as much (or as far) but still does go out for walks almost every night.
A night ago, Winnie started to have difficulty breathing. She became increasingly uncomfortable and suddenly in the the middle of the night got up and would not stay still. She was clearly uncomfortable, and panting.
I took Winnie to the vet where she was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. Her heart is failing. She was placed on some medications. We can still take her out for walks, but need to cut them down to about 2 miles (or whatever she can handle).
The vet thinks it helped a lot having Winnie in such good shape and getting so much exercise her entire life that kept her going this long. You can see in the xray how her heart is enlarged and on one side is squashing her lung.
Things are better now, she’s sleeping quietly. On occasion she’ll pant a little but not like the other night. We are hoping that with the medication, she’ll be around a bit longer. We are all really worried about our Winnie the Pooh.
This year was the 25th anniversary of one of the most popular rides in the West region. This ride is very popular for good reason too – it’s in incredibly beautiful country (the Sierra’s) plus it’s got a lot of fun technical trails. The 50 mile ride consists of two loops. The first one is slightly over 20 miles and has the technical terrain on it that includes a lot of boulders, narrow singletrack trail and creek crossings through large boulders and deadfall. This year was drier than most so the water crossings and mud were pretty safe.
The second loop is 30 miles and is also the LD trail. There are three vet checks on the 50, and one on the LD. The 50′s start at 6 a.m. and have 12 hours while the 30′s started at 8 and had 7:15 to complete.
The 50′s had over 100 entries (and the LD’s around 30′ish). We started out in a controlled start at a walk that took us across the highway crossing then up and over a small hill. Once we got down to a two track trail on the other side we were able to start trotting. Soon after that we turned right and headed up the first good climb of the day. This is always a fun trail to ride because your horse has to pay attention to the turns and the rocks. It gets steeper as you go as well.
I was riding Chief and he loves these kinds of trails. My main goal was to get him in his own space without having a train of horses in front, or behind. He does best when he can be in his own space, either alone or with another horse behind him. He can walk pretty fast when he wants to, making it hard to keep him behind other horses on that kind of a trail.
Due to the difficulty of the trail there is a vet check pretty early on the ride – 6 miles. We drop down a steep switchback with lots of boulders to step or hop over and around. Then a pulse down to 60 with a vet check and trot out. After I did that I moved off to the side of the trail and let Chief grab a couple of bites of grass and pee. Now we had a mile or so to go down the road around one of the Twin Lakes before heading up on the Cattle Canyon loop (more steep climbing).
It didn’t take long until we were able to manage to get into our own space. I ended up riding with Gary. I pulled over once to let a couple of horses go by and then realized that it was a lot more than a couple of horses – they all got in front and then of course, slowed to a really slow walk. I had to keep stopping Chief but not for long, once they got through the rock boulder section they took off trotting and I used the opportunity to take a restroom break (for me and Chief). Then we crossed a nice creek crossing and found ourselves in a nice sweet spot – just myself and Gary.
I always love the rushing sound of Horsetail falls as we ride past them. The roar of the water sometimes causes the horses some concern, but not much more than a side look. Chief had ridden this part of the trail last Saturday when we marked it. I saw that from the falls down the rest of the mountain all of our ribbons had been pulled. I saw one ribbon on that entire section of trail – the rest were gone. Fortunately it is a singletrack going downhill so it’s easy to figure out where to go even without the ribbons.
When we had marked the trail some sections had been a bit washed out. It was good to see that after a few horses had gone over it that those areas looked a lot better – some flatness to them now. Much of this loop is on singletrack trail and we maintained our not spot all the way down — not too close to anybody in front and there was nobody right behind us pushing us either. That was nice.
We made it into camp about 10:30. It took us 4 1/2 hours to do just a little over 20 miles. I pulled Chief’s tack then we went over to get our pulse checked and then vetted through. Time for lunch and a one hour hold! While Chief dug in to his hay and mash I enjoyed a nice break and took the time to rehydrate myself and eat. The hour went by fairly quickly and before I knew it we were on our way out again. We had a 30 mile loop ahead of us, with one more vet check that had a 1/2 hour hold.
Now for the really exciting part – on the way out on this loop Tony had put up a banner. How romantic! Sue was riding behind me and I can only imagine her surprise and elation at seeing this!! I’m pretty sure she was speechless after seeing this, especially knowing that everybody else on the ride saw it too!
We trotted all the way out until the trail started to climb then started to walk and alternate trotting. Chief was feeling pretty good. We had a good long climb ahead of us. It didn’t seem so bad we walked a lot of it but also did some trotting wherever it leveled out for a bit. We were in the tall pines and aspens so had some shade. It was hot!
I was wearing my Cool Medics vest and never felt warm though I could tell that the heat and climb were causing Chief to heat up. All I had to do was put my hand on his neck! Every so often I put a squirt of water from my water bottle on him. We’d get an occasional light breeze which helped. I made good use of my sponge on a few occasions in the creeks and kept Chief cooled down as much as possible.
We made it into the Buckeye vet check for the first time through (no check till 2nd time through) at around 2 p.m. From here we went out and did another 10+ mile or so loop and then came back for the vet check. They had hay here for the horses plus water, drinks and candy for us.
This upper Buckeye loop was nice. It goes through large meadows, pines and aspen trees. We are at high elevation so are surrounded by towering mountains and incredible scenery. Nevermind the clean, crisp air! There are several creek crossings so the horses have plenty of chances to drink as well as eat. The cattle this year were way up at the farthest point – probably trying to escape the heat.
Once we crossed the water crossing at the farthest point we had another section of narrow technical trail that went through boulders and some mud. A narrow spot with drops here and there to keep it interesting.
Criteria all day was 60 pulse. They had two vets at Buckeye so the lines weren’t bad – I let Chief eat (not a problem, lol) until I saw an opening and then went and vetted. We came into the check with a 58 pulse on first check without cooling Chief down first. After that I did sponge him a bit and then let him eat. He enjoyed the mash I had for him as well as the hay that was provided. He also was happy to eat the green grass. Chief’s recoveries have been the best they ever have been this year. It’s interesting to me anyway, since I haven’t really changed anything other than to add a supplement. It seems to have helped Bo’s recoveries too.
It’s always nice to see the same volunteers at this ride year after year. Carly runs the Buckeye check and does a great job of it. Jackie Beaupre was also there taking pulses.
We headed out for the last few miles back to camp. I had a couple of people pass me. One was a front runner that had apparently done the upper Buckeye loop twice (oops).
I wasn’t in any hurry to get in, knowing that I had plenty of time. Chief was starting to bounce off the walls the closer to camp we got so I did more walking rather than argue with him over our speed at a trot though we did a fair amount of moving out as well. That worked out well and we still finished at about 4:30. I’m never in a hurry on this ride because it is so enjoyable and fun to ride. Chief came through without a scratch, yay!
I pulled tack immediately and vetted right through with Susan McCartney – everything looked good and we got our completion. The only thing I left on Chief was his strap on Renegades – they had stayed on 100% all day and had done a remarkable job for us considering the trail we had been over. I was surprised to see so many riders there with Renegades on. I had not even considered gluing boots on for this ride – it’s just one day and definitely wouldn’t have been worth the effort. Not when the strap on Renegades worked so well. I used them on this ride last year too. From the moment I got to this ride I was constantly being asked about boots from other riders – there is definitely a lot of interest. I don’t think I’ve been asked about boots so much at a ride before!
I was happy to vet out with good scores, this was Chief’s first ride since he reached 10,000 miles in June and this was also my 500th ride completion. It was kind of cool that it was this ride that I got to reach that milestone since this was my first endurance ride 16 years ago.
The dinner they served was to die for! They had everything and it was delicious! Various salads, fruit, corn on the cob, potatos, beans, tri-tip, bread, brownies and ice cream, two kinds of cobbler…it was one of the best ride dinners I’ve ever had. Come to think of it, this was also one of the best rides I’ve ever had – all in all a fantastic experience. I can’t wait to do this ride again!
I’m not sure what the official results are – I think I finished around 47th. There were over 100 on the 50 and around 15 pulls, a mix of metabolics – some horses didn’t recover. Others came up a little off or fell on the rocks. First was Kim Mileo and BC went to Michele Roush. My friend Jackie Floyd finished the 30 miler on James Dean – their first ride in a few years.
Congratulations are also in order to Sue and Tony!!
Wow! Will try to write more later and post more photos. Till then, if you are on FB, check them out there! I rode Chief today and had a GREAT time with Dave and Jackie (who were on White Cloud and James Dean). Karen
These two beautiful galaxies, NGC 5905 (left) and NGC 5908 lie about 140 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco. Separated by about 500,000 light-years, the pair are actually both spiral galaxies and nicely illustrate the striking contrasts in appearance possible when viewing spirals from different perspectives. Seen face-on, NGC 5905 is clearly a spiral galaxy with bright star clusters tracing arms that wind outward from a prominent central bar. Oriented edge-on to our view, the spiral nature of NGC 5908 is revealed by a bright nucleus and dark band of obscuring dust characteristic of a spiral galaxy’s disk. Ponder the fact that the light captured in this photo, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, takes 140 million years to reach Earth.
I rode Bo today, maybe 10 to 12 miles with Jackie and her horse Tank. We had a really great ride. I still have not managed to find the time to finish writing up about our Tevis adventures.
Though, suffice it to say we had a really great ride and since then Bo has been a superstar. Bo has been extremely friendly, even leaving food to come over and say hi and get petted and scratched.
Bo has been frisky and playful from the moment he got home from Auburn and is also energetic and enthusiastic about getting to go out on the trail. I took him for hand walks at first, then started riding him for an hour or so mostly at a walk and have gradually increased it. Boy has this horse come a long way in the last year — in a lot of ways!!
Today was Bo’s longest ride yet (since completing Tevis). We did a pretty fair amount of climbing and mixed in a few sessions of cantering (mostly trotting) which he always loves to do.
Yesterday I went down to Twin Lakes with my friend “J” and we marked one of the loops on the Eastern High Sierra Classic ride. I’m entered in the 50 this coming Saturday. I love this ride. The trail is a lot of fun and the scenery is hard to beat anywhere. This was the first endurance ride that I ever did so I am particularly fond of it.
Riding the Cattle Canyon loop was a good workout for Chief and a lot of fun. There is a lot of nice singletrack with several water crossings. We encountered dozens of hikers as this is a popular area – no wonder — it doesn’t get much more dramatic scenery wise than this!
Afterward, Chief had no signs of any kind of heat bumps or tenderness in his armpits. That’s a good thing–yippee! I’d changed my saddle rigging after Chief had the heat bumps and swelling from the Tevis trail 24 mile pre-ride and that has been working beautifully on both horses ever since. The saddle is even more stable as an added benefit.
Tomorrow I am taking Chief on another ride on the Tahoe Rim Trail with a couple of friends. This will also be a good workout in some of the most beautiful country in the world. Can’t wait!
Check this out, 7 of the top 10 horses in the AERC National Mileage Championship are competing in hoof boots and are NOT using nailed on shoes for hoof protection!
My two horses are both in the standings – Chief is 4th with 970 miles and Bo is 7th with 750 miles- though Bo now has another 100 miles to his credit. Bo has done a lot of miles totally barefoot as well, and Chief has too (tho not as much as Bo has).
Cool, huh? In 2005, I won the mileage championship using boots – the first time that had been done in history. Kind of surprising really, that it will take 5 years for it to happen again but I predict that it will. Congratulations to these riders for doing what it takes to keep their horses free of nailed on shoes. My horses are better off, though it is more work – they are worth it! By the way – all of Bo’s mileage has been done in strap on Renegades up until the Tevis – the first time in 14 months I competed on him with a glued on boot. Chief has had a mixture of both and has only used glue-ons when he has done rides that have been 3 days or more. Mostly I’m excited to see that Chief is still placing in national standings now that he’s past the 10,000 mile mark – I wonder how much it helped him pulling his shoes six ride seasons ago contributed? Gotta love these outstanding horses, all of them – good luck everyone on the rest of your ride seasons! I can’t wait for the next ride!! See you on trail…..
Here I am taking Bo for a walk on the trail the day after we got home from Tevis. You can clearly see the #49 on his butt. It's about to come off!
I really dislike having those awful grease #’s on my horses. Fortunately, most rides that I go to do not use them. It reminds me of a horse that came from an auction. I’m sure for some it’s like having a badge of honor. But at some point, it’s just nice to have it off of your horse!
Here is a step by step guide on how to remove grease numbers for your endurance horse’s behind. Photos at the bottom refer to each item in the instructions. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
1) Get everything together that you will need – a medium stiff brush, a wash mitt, a curry comb, horse shampoo, a degreaser (dishwashing detergent works too), bucket and water hose. I’m using “Gojo” for a degreaser, and Eqyss medicated horse shampoo.
2) Start by getting the horse wet. This is a good time to do an entire bath, if your horse needs it.
3) Apply some degreaser to the brush and then scrub gently over the area with the number.
4) Rinse and repeat, this time with the wash mitt.
5) Rinse again and then reapply more of the degreaser with either the brush or the wash mitt. It is easier on the horse if you do this in stages rather than a huge amount of “scrubbing” all at once.
6) Use the metal curry comb to GENTLY to remove any last little bits of the grease. Take your time and be extra careful. If you are too aggressive your horse will not like this part!
7) Rinse again then shampoo with the regular horse shampoo. This will ensure that all of the degreaser has been removed. Some horses may be sensitive skinned so you want to do this entire process as quickly as possible while making sure to remove ALL of the degreaser and shampoo.
Now you should at least have removed the majority, if not all, of the grease marker. Remember to be gentle as some horses will be more sensitive about all of the “scrubbing” on their behinds. I can tell you that of Bo’s entire Tevis experience, this was probably the one thing he disliked the most! I made it up to him by giving him a small mash and then walking him around the neighborhood while he dried off and then letting him graze. He was okay with that .
“To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when the stars shine brightest”
“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.”
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
“If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”
“I haven’t a clue as to how my story will end. But that’s all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, you don’t conclude the road has vanished. And how else could we discover the stars?”
Oh man, the anticipation and thrill of getting to go over Cougar Rock was one of the highlights of riding the Tevis for me this year.
I so enjoyed getting to go up and over Cougar Rock with Bo! I felt safe, secure and knew he was going to be sensible and that he would get us both over it in good order.
It is hard to describe the feeling of the satisfaction of getting safely over Cougar Rock. Truly a great feeling and a total rush. I think the best part was the anticipation. Knowing it was coming up and knowing how privileged I was to be “one of the lucky ones” – that is even fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to do something this incredible. I mean being able to ride the Tevis.
The best part though, was feeling the trust and bond that I had with Bo throughout the entire ride on Saturday. Going over Cougar Rock like we did was just icing on the cake. No, make that the whipped cream with a cherry on top of the icing on the cake, ala’mode yet!
Hughes got the photos up earlier today and I got my order in right away! They even sent me the digital versions that I ordered and will be mailing my enlargements out as well.
Arriving at the Last Chance Vet Check. The first thing we see are lots of volunteers. While Bo drinks we get ready to sponge him and get his pulse taken.
After getting my pulse, I walked over to the vet. Note the vet card is partially filled out. I was handed the card and told to trot away from the vet. If there was a problem they would call me back, otherwise keep going.
One of the most useful pieces of advice I was given prior to riding the Tevis this year was to make sure I got in line to vet as soon as I got my horse’s pulse timed in.
This is good advice. If you stop for even a minute after getting your pulse and in-time to let your horse eat, or for you to run to the restroom – when you come back you could have a half a dozen horses or more in front of you in the line to vet through.
On a ride like Tevis, every minute counts. If you spend five extra minutes at 8 of the vet checks, that is forty minutes that you could have used walking later in the ride rather than trotting if you are pushing the cut-off times.
Sara vetted behind me. I got to the other side and stopped at the hay to let Bo eat while we waited. This is Sarah trotting towards me.
I had luck on my side this year because I never had to wait in a line to vet. Perhaps there would be one horse in front of me but the majority of the time I just walked up to the vet and vetted right through.
I never had to wait for Bo’s pulse to drop down to or below criteria either. That was really nice! All of the heat training I did paid off. I can do another post about that later. I also added some new supplements to his diet a couple of months prior to the ride that I think also helped.
I thought they did an excellent job of setting up the vet checks at the Tevis this year. I will try to explain through posting a couple of photos and describing how the system worked. This may help riders who are contemplating this ride for the first time.
When we first arrived at the check, there was water and volunteers to take down our arrival time. Prior to each vet check was a 1/4 mile vet check sign.
We let the horses drink and put some water on them to cool them. The volunteers are great at helping with this! Most of the time a volunteer was available to do a courtesy P&R check. Then once our horses were down, we got our in-time slips and walked to the vet area.
Each time we went through a checkpoint or got our pulse taken (assuming it was down to criteria) we were handed a piece of blue paper with our # and time on it. We had to keep that to use when we left the check so they would know who we were. It was nice that they did this as it saved time by not having to write on the actual vet cards as many times.
One of the volunteers holds Bo while I get something to drink and a snack.
The next step was to have a veterinarian look over our horses. Assuming we passed the initial check they would then tell us to trot out away from the vet and not to come back unless they called us back. That is why you do not see the scores written in for gait and attitude on my vet card. This kept the line flowing smoothly and the checks from getting as congested as they might have been otherwise. Fortunately for me, I was able to get through all of the checks when they were not crowded.
Once we finished trotting out there was another area with more volunteers, water and food. This was great! Another chance to let the horses drink, eat and also for us riders to get taken care of. The volunteers were happy to get anything for us that we wanted. They refilled our water bottles for us, handed us lemonade, sports drinks, watermellon, held our horses and even helped cool them down if we wanted.
Another volunteer (different checkpoint) holds Bo while he eats and I run to the restroom!
At this point, we could stay for as long as we wanted or needed to. I spent the time wisely, choosing to get as many things accomplished as quickly as possible. Get the horse eating, either a wet mash or hay – I tried to give him wet hay when I could as he liked that and I prefer feeding it on a hot ride whenever possible.
I also would get the horse electrolyted, my water bottles filled, try to drink an additional cup or two of lemonade or sports drink, eat something, go to the restroom. Making sure the horse was cooled and wet prior to leaving the checks – then we’d mount up and ride on down the trail. It sounds like a lot but the reality is that you can get all of that done in a few minutes.
If a rider wanted to, they could stay at the entrance of the vet check where there were also all of the amenities. I would only do that if I needed to wait for the horse to recover. My goal was to get through the vet check as quickly as possible and THEN spend extra time if I had it to spend allowing the horse to eat or doing additional cooling. This way I didn’t run the risk of getting hung up in a line and wasting time.
At a checkpoint, volunteers helped me sponge and cool Bo down while he ate for a few minutes. This really helped him after that big climb up the canyon in the heat of the day. Thank you!
There were checks that I let Bo stay longer and eat later into the ride. I knew I had the time and am more conservative than competitive so felt comfortable doing that rather than trying to push or be in a hurry. I did not want to risk having Bo run into a metabolic problem.
I felt that the vet checks on the entire ride were set up really well and very user friendly especially for the horses. Bo really benefited from the great layout and from all of the hay, carrots and mashes that were provided, as well as the huge amounts of water that was available for cooling (including the volunteers to help with that!).
Many thanks to all of the volunteers, ride management and veterinarians for doing such a fabulous job setting up the logistics on this ride. It really made for a positive experience for us and helped contribute to a successful ride for us.
My actual “moving” average speed on the Tevis was 6.07 mph. During the 24 hours of the Tevis Cup there were 2 one-hour holds (vet checks), and eight vet checks total. The majority of the vet checks do not have hold times so you have to ride so that you have time to allow for the time spent in those checks.
My ride numbers: 5:15 start, 3:33 finish. That left me with 1:42 time remaining. Which works out to a 22:18 total elapsed time. If I subtract 2 hours for hold times that leaves me with = 20.18 total ride time. My overall average time for 100 miles, less mandatory hold times = 4.94 mph.
If I figure that I spent 16:24 hours actually moving and subtract the difference – I spent 3:54 doing stuff other than moving down the trail or in the two one hour vet holds. It’s interesting when you look at it like that. I was always out on time, the horse was always down the first time he was checked and we did that as fast as was possible at every check.
That probably explains why Bo had some of the best gut sounds on the ride, and CRI’s that dropped 4 beats each time (at RF and FH). I knew I would spend at least two additional hours getting through the other no-hold vet checks but the reality is that I need to count on it being double that if I really want to get an accurate number on what my real moving average needs to be. Which I already knew/know what it is for both horses. Not moving includes time spent drinking, letting the horse eat, sponging…basically stopping for any reason.
This is why the GPS is more valuable to me than a watch. Because it is figuring out what is really going on based on actual distance on rides. You simply cannot calculate your speed average on most rides as none of them are alike. I also know that the time spent doing stuff like drinking and cooling off before climbing up Devil’s Thumb eats into the ride time. However, by keeping the horse moving at an overall average moving speed of 6 mph, I now know I have time to take care of my horse. I knew throughout the ride that I could be going faster but felt more comfortable using the time I had to take care of Bo. I think it paid off, he came home looking really great!
Here is my rider query report from the Tevis Webcast. I was rider #49 – it was a lucky number I think! We kept a fairly steady pace throughout the ride and lucked out getting through the vet checks without ever having to wait.
It may look like we spent more time getting short distances midway through the ride – that was mainly due to staying and sponging Bo to cool him down or letting him eat. Fortunately, Bo had a really good day and we never had to wait for his pulse to come down to criteria – he was always down or below every time he was checked. Which was a relief, because I did not ride with a heart rate monitor, or even a watch.
Bo on Sunday morning after finishing Tevis
I knew if I put on a watch that I’d spend too much time looking at it and “worrying about the time”. Time may change me, but I can’t change time! I also didn’t add a HRM because I don’t normally use one and didn’t want to worry about that either.
The video below is of us riding up Devil’s Thumb. It’s a pretty good climb, during the heat of the day and is a really good workout for the horses.
Below the video embedded here are links to several other short videos that I have posted to You Tube. The quality isn’t very good but it will give you an idea of what the trail is like.
If you have trouble viewing the photo album I posted earlier, you can also view it on my Facebook page at this link.
Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy. — ~Napoleon Hill
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If you ride in any kind of hoof boot you already know that they require a certain amount of work to maintain them.
I mainly use Renegade strap on boots. On a few occasions each year I will use the glue-on version of the boots. The glue-ons are pretty easy – I trim the backs to the exact length of my horses hoof prior to gluing them on. Then, when I remove them I simply throw them away.
As an example of what I do to maintain my horses hoof boots, I can start with what I did after I finished the EHSC 50 a week ago on Chief. For that ride I used four orange Renegades – two size 1′s (fronts) and two size 0′s (hinds). The only time I removed the boots was after I finished the ride. I then put them into a 5 gallon bucket of water. While my boots were in the bucket of water I used a soft brush to clean the back of Chief’s pasterns thoroughly. This makes sure there are no sand pebbles, rocks or dirt embedded anywhere. I like to inspect everything thoroughly to make sure there are no rubs, tenderness or sore spots. This is something I will continue to do for a few days after every ride. So far, I have not had any rubs from using these boots. (knocking on wood–this is why I LOVE these boots!) Note: I also check and clean the pasterns prior to applying boots to make sure everything is clean on the horse and on the boots! 
Next I take a medium soft brush and use it to clean each boot. I unstrap the velcro and pull it apart. Using the brush I will go over the surface of the velcro on both sides. This removes any dirt, sand or other debris. Those that really want their velcro clean can use a cleaner made exclusively for cleaning velcro. I just received one of these as a completion award at the Strawberry Fields Ride. I haven’t opened it yet, and have yet to have ever used anything like that to clean velcro on any of my hoof boots. Usually water and brushing over it is sufficient.
You will often see my boots drying on the back of my trailer ramp each day at an endurance ride. Like trailer tires, it’s not good to leave your boots out in the hot sun for extended periods so I will bring the boots inside as soon as they are dry.
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