Color Me Black And Red

I ORDERED BOOTS!!!!

I am so very excited that I couldn't possibly add enough exclamation points to convey it.

Wednesday morning I called Renegade bright and early to discuss my boot fitting woes. I then realized that they were not on the East coast and therefore were not open bright and early my time. I extricated my heart from my throat and waited until a normal West Coast time to call back.

I got Ashley.

Now everything I have read about Renegade as a company has been so positive about their customer service that I found myself being a little skeptical. As I am wont to be. I must say that everything I had heard was true and then some.

I called and spoke briefly with her about my Gemmiecakes. She then gave me her email address to send her pictures since I was so worried that her heels may be too high for the captivators to sit properly. She emailed me back very quickly and assured me that while Gem may not be the next Renegade Hoof Model Extraordinaire (ok she didn't say those words) that her heels even in the front were well within the range for the boots to fit and function.

I was psyched.

She recommended that I go with Vipers all around which actually surprised me since I had heard the Vipers were for the rounder hoof and Gem is pretty oval in the back. She wanted the original captivators up front and the Vipers for the better tread in our slick SC clay soil. Size 130 x 120 for both. I ordered those in Red.

She then recommended that I go with the Viper capitvators in the back and said to go with the 125 x 115. Apparently Gem is between sizes in the hinds (HA! I knew it) for the Renegades, but the Vipers are much more customizable for sizing and these are her go to for those in between hooves. I ordered them in Black.

Then she emailed right back saying that she actually knew us! She follows the blog!! HI ASHLEY!!
I was super stoked that she recognized us. She offered up a trial box of 4-5 different shells that we could try for a small fee. I was tempted to do that and it was probably the smarter thing to do, but honestly I am tired of fit kits and trials. I want to try the whole shebang all at once and they have a 30 day exchange policy so if these aren't quite right I can send them back.

She recommended I either call to order or do it online, but I didn't want to mess it up with the asking for different captivators up front. I called and got someone else who was equally awesome. She placed my order and then offered up a $40 discount. Apparently they have some boots that come off the line with a bubble or a scuff or some other cosmetic defect that makes them not perfect. She assured me that they are 100% sound and fully functional and still have the same warranty. Except they are $20 less a pair. Sign me up.

My pretty new boots are on there way. She said 2-3 days and it is Thursday so there is a small chance they may make it here by Saturday so I can try them this weekend. I have a hunter pace to go to that is 6 miles of really good trails, so it would be a nice test.

I CAN'T WAIT!

Its Not You...No..Wait...It Is You

It is probably all my fault. I jinxed it by pre writing a lovely blog post about how awesome Gem's feet now fit the Gloves and yada...yada..yada. Never do that.

(WARNING: This post has a ton of probably boring hoof pictures. I put them all at the end so you can avoid them if you wish, but I will still have the ability to look back through them for comparison in the future)

Let's back up.

Lady Farrier had been out two weeks prior and I had no interest in having her out ever again. Thanks to Liz over at In Omnia Paratus  I felt empowered to do the rasping every other week myself. This past Saturday saw me hunched over rasping away at her while cursing the heat and humidity. Thankfully I took Liz's advice and had on work gloves. Unlike some man in my life who told me "If I hit my hand instead of his hoof I deserve to get hurt" Well, wouldn't you know it he had big bloody abrasions all over his thumbs when he did Pete. Sometimes a man just has to learn the hard way. I was actually very proud of the job I did and felt confident enough to work on her for the foreseeable future.

By the time I was finished I had zero tolerance to mess with boots, so I put it off until Sunday after our ride. Well, then Sunday was hot and I was tired and had a headache and still had zero tolerance for messing with boots and I put it off until Tuesday night. Come Tuesday, I was ready to go.

I got to the barn and pulled Gem out to see this:

Can we just take a moment to look past the massive wound and focus on her big, shiny, bay butt? That is some serious shine pre grooming and after standing in the heat all day.  Gem is looking fantastic this year.

Ok...I panicked a bit. I mean seriously, that thing is big.  I called Dusty and had him come to the barn with Wyatt to take a look. She was standing evenly and there was no heat or swelling to the leg, but it was obviously tender to the touch. There is no barbed wire on property, so my best guess is that she cut it on the run in shelter in the pasture. Or a nail on a fence post. Or a broken off tree branch. Or any number of things horses find amusing to nearly kill themselves on. Hopefully it will heal quickly and without issue and for now she is still sound.

As I waited for the hubby to arrive, I figured I might as well try on the boots. I had thought ahead and just ordered two Fit Kits to give me every size from 00 to 1.5.

All the pretty boots

To avoid dragging this out ad nauseum, I will fast forward through all the fitting attempts, curse words and sweat dripping into my eyes and get to the point:

GLOVES DON'T WORK

At least not for us and not for right now.

The only hoof that left me with confidence was her front right which nicely fit into the size 0.5 with the right amount of torque/mallet work to get it on and the right amount of torque/hoof pick use to get it off. It looked beautiful on her hoof: perfect splaying of the front central V, tight hoof wall match and nicely cupped heel bulbs.

The others just didn't work out. They were all between sizes: the size up fit perfect for length, but was way too easy to get on and off and the size down wouldn't go on right even with all the mallet pounding and twisting I was capable of. When the toe would eventually seat into the boot, it was obvious that the length was just too short for her hoof.

I've read enough articles/blogs/FB posts on Gloves to know my options. I could get the size up and get power straps to tighten the width. I could try the wide sizes. I could mummify her hoof in Mueller tape then apply the larger size boot. Yes, I could do any or all of those things. But you know what? I don't want to.

It goes against my #1 rule when it comes to Gem and horses in general: Keep it Simple.

All those things above add a layer of complexity and annoyance that I have no interest in doing. If it takes me an hour to tack up my horse, I'm doing it wrong.

Gem's hoof shape is vastly improved from the first time I tried the Gloves, but they still aren't perfect and the Gloves require damn near perfection to work. Easy Care is perfectly upfront about that too. They either fit or they don't. Maybe in a year when she has a brand new hoof capsule grown out they will work. But not now.

If I didn't have WV or TN coming up I would just wait and keep riding and trimming until her hoof was the perfect shape for the Gloves and try again. But I have WV and TN coming up and have no time for that. So...plan B it is.

Renegades.

I've always loved the Renegades although that is mostly due to the pretty colors they come in. The reason they were not my plan A is that there are too many parts to them. The Glove is a simple shell. No moving parts. No cables. No wires. Simple. See, I really do like to follow my #1 rule.

The Renegades have the shell, then a heel captivator that is attached with cables and screws and Velcro. All parts that can break. The Renegades, however, also have wiggle room. Yes, they need to fit and perhaps they won't right now either, but they don't need to fit quite so perfectly.

Of course this means measuring again. Which I suck at. So I decided to avoid that and take a picture of the hoof with the tape measurer applied. I'll let Renegade help. I am waiting to call them and speak with them personally about boot fit and where to send my pictures to for help. Hopefully they will have some positive words for me and I can get these things ordered in time to condition in them before WV. 

Photo Dump Time:

Front Right:

Left Front:

Right Hind:

Left Hind:

Summer Has Arrived in the SE

I knew it was going to be hot, so I set my alarm for the butt crack of dawn...er...I mean 0500. I snoozed until 0530 and then dragged my butt off to the barn. Gem wasn't so thrilled to see me that early knowing that I only show up before daylight when we have a long way to go, but she came right to me and loaded in the trailer without issue.

Even at 0730, when I climbed aboard and headed into the woods, it was hot. The woods were a bit stifling with the humidity and lack of air flow. I planned to do the same loop we did at the Equathon for 15 miles because a) I know it super well and b) it has a lot of difficult climbs. Gem was in a good mood and started off well.

The one thing I have been disappointed with in our move to SC is the lack of wild life. While WI may have been a frozen tundra there were a ton of song birds, bald eagles, a migration of swans twice a year as well as deer, coyote, fox, raccoons etc... I think the most I've seen here is a squirrel and some snakes.

As we were cruising along I saw this beauty and grabbed my phone to take a picture:

Dusty had shown up by then to hike with Wyatt and the dogs and I was just sending him a text with my find when I got this message from him:

"Just flushed 10 wild hogs of various sizes including piglets. Very cute. They took off. Be careful"

Damnit. Now my stupid turtle didn't seem so cool. I hoped I'd see the hogs before I was finished since he was on the same trail as me, but I never did. I know they can be really aggressive so maybe it was better that I didn't.

Gem did really well keeping a solid citizen pace up for the first 5 miles. She tackled the hills without pause and was a very good mare. At mile 5 she started to slow and I could hear her breathing harder then normal. I got off and walked her a bit.

We were both dripping with sweat and it was getting hotter. I knew there was some grass up ahead so I let her stop and shove her face full. At least she would get some water and electrolytes from the grass. She had ignored every creek we came across which isn't unusual for her. I got back on her after the next steep climb and asked her to move out but kept her to around 4-5 mph. I didn't want to push her but knew it would only be getting hotter so dragging the ride out wasn't smart either.

Once we were out of the woods, she actually cooled down and dried off a good bit. The sun was blazing hot, but there was a slight breeze and the humidity was down once we were out of the trees.

By mile 7 I was growing concerned. She had dropped to a 1.7 mph walk which is ridiculously slow even for her. The humidity in the woods was killer and I had just about emptied my 2L Camelbak. I hopped off and gave her another break.

We kept moving and I allowed her to choose her own pace up the hills, but asked for a decent trot on the flat and downhill sections. She did okay and kept up an average 4 mph pace which I was perfectly fine with. Still her breathing was harder than I liked.

When I came across the 3 mile marker for the red loop we were 9 miles into the ride and had about 5 left if we kept going forward. At our current pace it would have been another 1 1/2 hours to finish and it was getting hotter and hotter out. I made the choice to turn around and do the 3 miles back to the trail head. It meant finishing 13 miles instead of 15 but I didn't really care. I just hoped I hadn't pushed her too hard.

She moved fine the next 2 miles keeping the 4 mph pace up. At the 1 mile marker she quit. She stopped and looked back at me asking me to get off. I obliged and hand walked her in the last mile watching her closely. She was moving slow and breathing slightly hard but was sound and ok.

Once we reached the trail head I threw her tack off as quickly as possible and cold hosed her down for forever. Her heart rate lowered quickly and once she was cool she attacked the grass. I hadn't brought a mash for her because the barn was locked before I got there Saturday night and wasn't opened yet Sunday morning. There has been some thievery at the barn so the BO has been locking up the feed room to avoid losing more bags of feed.

I loaded her up and got her back to the barn and made her a wet mash. She gobbled it down and then drank probably 5 gallons from the tank in her pasture before heading off to her herd. She looked fine but very tired.

 

The temperature was 92 at 1130 when I loaded her back up at the trail head. I found out later that the heat index was 100. Even having drank all 2L of water I spent the rest of the day overly fatigued and with a killer headache. It was insanely hot in those woods. Had I known that in advance I would have gotten up at 0300 and been on her by 0500. Apparently full blown summer has hit SC.

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For The Movies

Any Buck Cherry fans out there catch the title? No? Too bad...its a good song.

Throughout high school and college one of my great friends, Tim, and I went to the movies at least weekly if not more frequently. Going to the movies was one of my all time favorite things to do and it's a self perpetuating and addictive past time. You go to the theater and watch previews of which at least one will strike your fancy. So you remind yourself to see it when it comes out. Then a preview from that one catches your eye and so on. I couldn't tell you how many movies we went to see. Then another good friend, Caroline, got a summer job at the theater and it was a free for all. It didn't even matter anymore if a movie looked interesting. We saw it anyway. Add to that a kick ass drive in that was kept in good condition with double features for $5 and there was nary a movie we didn't see.

Of course movies were like $4 back then plus we had a theater that showed movies after they'd been pulled by the other theaters but before they came out on VHS. Yep...you read that right. This was all pre DVDs. This theater charged $1 and had a candy stand in front with 10 pieces of candy for $1 and $0.50 cans of pop. It was the life.

This love of the big screen carried into my marriage too and Dusty and I went a lot while I was in med school. Prices had soared to $8 by the time I moved from OH to WI, which made me a little more picky about which ones I saw versus waited for on DVD. I remember one epic day of seeing a movie in the theater then following it with a double feature at a not so kick ass but serviceable drive in in OH.

Since the little man has joined our family we have only seen one movie In 2.5 years and it was the poorly executed with even worse castes Les Mis in February of 2013. That's a long time to go without stepping foot in a theater.

For my birthday back in April my brother got me gift cards to Fandango and I finally sorta got to use them Friday night. I say sorta because apparently if you hand your Fandango gift cards to the theater cashier they look at you like you just stepped off the short bus. You have to redeem them online first. Oops. We paid out of pocket and I danced a little dance inside at the thought of getting to see another movie in the future. Win for me!

My brother and his crew watched Wyatt for us and we saw Spy. Dusty wanted to see Jurassic World but I love Statham and they were my tickets so Spy it was. I'm so very glad I chose it.

I won't bore you all with the movie itself, but it was hysterically funny. I can't remember the last movie that made me laugh out loud like that. I actually don't really tend to like Melissa McCartheys humor much but she had me in tears.

It was a great time out and a much needed reprieve from a lot of work crap that keeps getting me down. I had some flash backs to my more carefree days and I really miss going to the movies. I can't wait until Wyatt is old enough to go with me. Some of my best memories with my dad was going to the movies with him. We saw all sorts together and I really looked forward to our father daughter dates at the theater. I hope Wyatt does too in the future.

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Becoming A Ride Manager

Poor hubby. There he was innocently running an endless number of 3 mile loops in the woods over and over and over again (he did 22 total laps before his legs called it quits) in 95 degree heat and humidity thinking about forward motion and nutrition never suspecting that his wife would be signing him up for things in the future.

It all happened in a blur, I swear!

I was hanging out with Wyatt enjoying spending the day with him and checking in on Dusty throughout to make sure he didn't need anything when the RM who put on the Clemson R&T and Equathon posted on the FB page that she wouldn't be hosting the event any longer. She lives 2 hours or so away and only began putting it on here when she got kicked out of Biltmore due to logistics and she needed a last second venue swap. It has been difficult for her to continue to put it on at a location far away where she has actually never even seen the trails and needs to rely on others to do the marking. She asked if anyone else would want to take over for her.

I might have replied yes before completely thinking it through.

I did manage to gather my brain cells together enough to send her a private message asking about the financial commitment since we really have zero extra dollars to invest in a ride. She said that most of the time she breaks even depending on how big she goes on the awards and such. With Dusty being a vet and having vetted the ride last year, we will save even more money.

I'm very excited to do this. I've been dreaming of putting on a ride for years. I am already thinking of different award ideas and how I want to mark the trails. There are some great trails that haven't been used in the last 2 years that I want to incorporate.

The R&T doesn't have a great turn out which plays in my favor. It has different needs than an endurance ride, but with 15 or so entries I can manage it without feeling overwhelmed with a ton of people.

My ultimate goal is to run the R&T here in 2016 then add a 25 and 50 endurance ride for 2017. It is a great venue with a ton of stalls and primitive camping areas for use. We will see how it goes!!!

 

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Spending Spree

Nothing like a ride looming in the not so distant future to make you get your ducks in a row. And to make your hubby question you when he looks at the bank account. Sorry Honey, but things needed bought. Fortunately for him the spending spree was pretty much limited to items under $30. For now anyway.

First on my agenda is getting the trailer fixed. I really like being able to tie Gemmie on the side with the tack room door and right now that is laying somewhere at the trial head in Clemson. Never having broken something quite so expensive before, I reached out to Facebook for advice and ideas of how to fix it. After looking through lots of suggestions I decided to go with these bad boys:

Galvanized steel tie rings. $2.50 a piece. I ordered 8 total. One will replace the broken tie ring for Gem. I will then add another one above it as well as two on the roof line to both sides. This will give me 4 tie spots on both sides of the trailer so that I should never have to tie anything to the same ring as my horse again. If she loses her marbles again and pulls free of the trailer at least nothing will be chasing her next time.

The very helpful gentleman on FB even went so far as to recommend the hardware to attach them with:

:

Self taping screws from Advanced Autoparts. I followed the link, but was immediately confused. The picture showed three sizes and a price of just over $2, but beyond that I couldn't tell if I got all three for that price or what. I put it in my cart to see if there was a next step to select size, but it didn't so I assume I would get one of each length. I don't need all three however. In fact, I don't even know what size I actually do need. Given that I figure it is prudent to just wait on the hardware until the actual rings show up and then head to the local store to figure it out. I know that they shouldn't go all the way through the wall, so I need to be careful on the length. I will need 32 total.

Since we will be working on the trailer anyway, I thought it is high time to finish up the interior a bit more. Last summer we added the door groom organizer and it has made my life so much easier. The tack room part of the trailer is small, so anything I can do to get stuff off the ground and neatly in its place is lovely. The other issue is that the trailer is aluminum and fiberglass. This makes it super light to pull and decreases the risk of rust and such, but makes modifications a headache. In order to hang the groom organizer we had to first attach pieces of wood (stained a lovely shade of red) to span the aluminum struts and attach the organizer to the wood. Not a big ordeal, but makes me more aware of what all I can work with.

The latest annoyance in the tack area are her saddle pads and blankets. Right now they are just thrown on top of the saddles, but they then tend to fall off during transit and I worry about them getting ruined. Plus, her light weight rain sheet isn't even in the trailer due to no room. This needs remedied.

The tack room has one completely free wall that is 42" across with a vertical aluminum strut at each end from floor to ceiling and another one midway up that is horizontal. Adding a blanket bar or two would be really nice, but they top out at 36" and are quite expensive for a one blanket holder. Instead I found this beauty:

Schneider has these lovely blanket bags which claim to hold a heavy weight or 2 mediums or numerous sheets. Reviews are all positive and state that it holds much more. At around $20, I figured
it was a great deal and put a nice red one in my cart. I looked at the monogram options, but monograming is also $20 and I refuse to pay as much for her name as I did for the bag. This will go along the horizontal strut at the midway point of the wall and will hold her fleece cooler and light weight rain sheet. This winter I plan to get her a medium weight and a fly sheet for at rides, so those can all neatly fit in there as well. This won't solve my saddle pad issue, but I have another idea for that for in the future. Small steps at a time.

Next up...boots. I need these pre WV and want to get them early enough to get some good conditioning miles in first. That means another Fit Kit.

With zero skills in measuring a hoof myself plus awesome skills at finding a barefoot trimmer who can't be bothered to measure a hoof for a client, I don't think attempting it again is in my favor. At only $12 a kit I think it is more prudent to just go ahead and order two kits. The lady at Easycare finds it strange but laughs anyway as I place my order for a size 1 Fit Kit (sizes 0.5, 1, 1.5) and a size 00.5 Fit Kit (sizes 00, 00.5 and 0). This given me 6 chances for success and if none of these fit then I know that the gloves won't work for her. Either trying Epics or Renegades would be next up.

All in all each item was under $30 and most were under $20 so I didn't break the bank which is a bonus. I have a few more ideas to finish up the interior tack room area and make it all better organized and cleaner, but they all won't get done this summer. These should get me through WV nicely.

I will post pics once I get everything hooked up and ready to use as well as my round two with the
gloves.

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Storms A Brewin'

The plan: 

Have Dusty pick Wyatt up at school so I could head straight to the barn from work to get some riding in. Temperatures were in the low 90s which is great for heat conditioning work. Ride for an hour using intervals of trot and canter around the grassy lanes to get heart rate up. Be home in time for dinner and bed.

The Execution:

Show up on time and hear random thunder in the distance. Grab Gem from pasture and put her in cross ties while making a mash. Note that the temperature has dropped significantly since arrival. Look out barn door to see a darkening sky and lightening. Hear loud thunder moving closer. Decide to give Gem her mash now and watch as the storm front moves in. Beg Gem to hurry up and eat already so you don't get stuck in a thunder storm. Put her back out, clean up barn aisle mess and run to car just as the sky lets loose and the lightening begins big time. Drive past pasture and swear Gem is laughing at you.