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Sierra Trading Post

Removing grease #’s from your endurance horse after a ride

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 [...]

Getting through the Vet Checks at Tevis

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 [...]

Moving average versus total time and figuring out how to ride the Tevis!

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 [...]

Saddle Pad Heat Testing

The first two pads that I am currently testing to see how hot they get on the horses backs are a Toklat Woolback pad with inserts and a Reno Star Alpaca pad. I have heat tested several saddle pads over the years.  Using a pad that remains cooler reduces the heat load on my horse [...]

Musings about high-lining horses and improving the rate of rehydration post ride

Can you tell this is a spoiled horse? I mean really – look at how many bags of hay and buckets of water and feed he has? This is for just one horse! I put out plenty of water so that way I’d have it available for sponging during the vet checks, and also for [...]

Acclimating our endurance horses for heat and humidity

It has suddenly gotten hotter.  It should get up to 90 degrees here today and will get even warmer than that in the next few days.  I know in previous years when I have ridden my horses more in the heat, they acclimate to it rather well and have done well on rides that were [...]

Taking care of the rider

Here are some of the things I’ve been using on rides recently, mainly as snacks or for an energy or electrolyte boost for myself.  I find that if I do a pretty decent job taking care of myself, then I can do an even better job taking care of my horse. It can be hard [...]

Garmin GPS & Google Maps

This is kind of cool. There are lots of neat things you can do online with a GPS (and Google) – and this is one of them.  I gave it a try myself and in put the camp location of an upcoming ride and then downloaded it to my Nuvi – and it worked.  It [...]

Dealing with these ANNOYING scratches on my horse!

I have been meaning to do a thorough post on dealing with scratches.  I’ve gotten lots of input from friends this year and have learned about quite a few different treatments and ways to manage horses that are prone to scratches. I’ll need to work on the more thorough post later, till then here is [...]

Product Reviews: Zephyr’s Garden Thrush Spray

So far this  ride season, I’ve glued Renegade glue-on boots on Chief twice.  The first time he completed three endurance rides in the glue-ons, and the second time he completed four endurance rides in the glue-ons.  I know you are probably wondering what does that have to do with thrush spray? Well…a lot!  One of [...]

Pre endurance ride habits

I think most of us develop a routine each morning before we ride an endurance ride.  i’ll share with you one of mine.  What are yours? First of all – I love Emergen-C!  I’ve been using it for at least a decade now.  It really kept me going on the 2001 XP.  Back then there [...]

Endurance horse health: Vitamin E supplements

Adding extra Vitamin E to our endurance horses feed ration on a daily basis can be really helpful. Especially for those horse that are working consistently and do not live on pasture. I’ve always used the 400 I.E. gel caps that I get in a big jar from Costco.  I’ve been doing this for years [...]

Feed for great feet: Low starch, low NSC horse feeds

I’m going to share a few things that I learned about horse feed in this blog post.  Then I will do another one showing a bit more about what I learned about actually managing the horses hoof itself, when the horse is hoof sensitive. New Low Starch and Low NSC feeds are becoming readily available [...]

Pro Bono hoof photos, May 15, 2010

Here are some current photos of Bo’s hooves.   These were taken over the weekend while I was at the Hell’s Kitchen Canyon ride.  Bo has been doing very well barefoot.  I’ve ridden Bo barefoot on quite a few rides in the last few months.  I’ve found that it’s been really super easy to pull his [...]

On the trail of the pony express!

On the trail of the Pony Express. The express mail service lasted less than two years, but its lore lives on in a trail blazed across the West. The trip today offers intrigue and glimpses into history.  Click here to read the rest of this LA Times article!