Karen's Musings & Endurance Ride Stuff » 2010

Desert Gold – The Finale! (finally)

Karen Chaton — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:54:46 +0000

The weather cleared up by morning and we were able to tack up without getting wet. It had rained a couple of times lightly during the night. I set the alarm a half an hour earlier than usual because I thought that I might be moving realllly slowly based on how I felt after the second day (did I mention how it felt like I’d been run over by a bus?).

Just as I’m

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Desert Gold 2010 continued…(ride day 2)

Karen Chaton — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:11 +0000

Weather report for the second day of the ride: it WAS going to rain on us. It was warmer, 40 degrees versus the previous mornings’ 28. I already had my goretex rain pants tied on the back of my saddle along with Chief’s rump rug. I wore my usual long sleeve riding shirt, a fleece jacket and a waterproof shell with a hood, and my regular riding tights.

The night before I brought Chief’s

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Desert Gold 2010 continued…(ride day 1)

Karen Chaton — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:57:59 +0000

We spent some time the evening that we arrived at the ride hanging out at the campfire talking with Scott Sansom, Ken Cook, and other ride volunteers. We learned just how much work is involved in putting on the Desert Gold ride. It’s HUGE!!

The ride takes place on public lands in Fort Ord, near the Monterey Bay in CA. Since there are other trail users the endurance ride has to be extremely careful

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Last ride of the season: Desert Gold

Karen Chaton — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:02:05 +0000

Desert Gold day 2 completion award photo. Chief was one of six horses to complete all three days.

As with many rides this time of year, getting to and from the ride is as much or more of an adventure than the ride itself. This time was no exception. I hadn’t really been planning on going to Desert Gold though I always like going to rides that I haven’t done before. What

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Barefoot endurance horse hoof photos: November 2010 – Pro Bono

Karen Chaton — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 19:14:16 +0000

These photos of Bo’s hooves were taken 11/4/2010. His feet have turned out to be quite nice. I think that they even look a bit “prettier” than Chief’s hooves do. Even though my horse’s feet aren’t perfect….they get the job done!

The interesting thing is that in the last three or four months I have had to do very little as far as trimming on Bo’s hooves. It was as if his feet reached

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Grand Canyon XP Day 2: “It’s Tulip Time”

Karen Chaton — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 03:19:42 +0000

Here I am on Tulip, riding next to Nannette and Sensational Flame. Photo by Steve Bradley.

I think that I am pretty fortunate to be offered the opportunity to ride Tulip on the second day. For those that don’t know, Tulip is a Morab endurance horse that holds the record for having the most endurance miles on the sport.

With this ride, Tulip has 21,630 miles. Here is a link to his AERC

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Riding in the rain: The 1st day of the Grand Canyon XP – what went right and what didn’t!

Karen Chaton — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:09:26 +0000

Day 1, Grand Canyon North Rim. Photo by Steve Bradley.

The fall colors this year at the Grand Canyon XP were stunning! I went down early to help out. Dave Rabe did also. No sooner had we gotten camp set up and situated then we hopped into the jeep with Dave and Ann and went out to saw logs and clear some trail.

That went well and after several logs were sawed and

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Renegades sweep AERC National Championships!

Karen Chaton — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:52:04 +0000

Isn’t this great for Renegade hoof boots? I wanted to share some good news! Made in the good ‘ol USA too! I’m copying this good news (see below) from the Renegade hoof boot website, with permission. I found it really interesting that the 55 mile race was won so fast (3:29) and that riders 7 through 11 were pulled at the finish line. Ouch!

Renegade glue-ons come in eight colors – you can read

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Grand Canyon XP, October 6-10, 2010!

Karen Chaton — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 03:57:06 +0000

Here are a few photos from camp and some of the trails. The fall colors are going to be really great for the ride this year. I’ve got Chief and Bo here with me, and Dave has Tulip and White Cloud. The horses were able to enjoy a little bit of fun time, taking turns. They all get along really well together. We tricked Chief — I put his own hay in Dave’s hay

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Bryce XP 2010: The anything but ordinary ride!!

Karen Chaton — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:45:08 +0000

After all of the drama during the pre-ride preparations I was really looking forward to the actual ride. This trip was already the kind that made me appreciate all of the rides I’ve done where everything falls into place and things just….go right. It wasn’t happening quite that way this year, and not just for me but for others as well. Or it could be that I was just more aware of other people

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