While we “only” rode the LD at Whiskeytown, this involved bringing home and starting conditioning on a non Arabian with a few challenges, something that others may find interesting, as I certainly have and continue to.

HORSE

Kenny the Morgan/Welsh pony came home in November 2015. He was approximately 10 years old, had been broke to ride on the tough Whiskeytown trails themselves, and had been living on pasture with a few years of light work under his girth when I got him.

 trail ride in Redding the day he came home 

(and a saddle he would never wear again, way too wide!)

Kenny is the type of horse that you can throw a beginner on, tuck him behind some horses, and have a fine trail ride. However he had nearly zero experience leading, tracking straight, listening to his rider, being his own independent and polite citizen and riding entity basically. He is incredibly smart and incredibly half pony and that coupled with some leasors that he had successfully bullied in the past has led to some pretty strong chats about life in our few months together. 

Home and in the program, husband safe, but lots of finite training and booting details to work out:

After dental and a chiro check, my attention was mainly focused on his excessive hoof growth, along with the facts that his front hooves are very upright *and* on his toed-out front legs crookedly. I have previously discussed my struggles and eventual success with booting him for conditioning Here.  Aside from hoof adjustments and personality discussions,  there was the undeniable fact that Kenny had a whole lot more hair than my Arabians and he was a foaming, sweaty mess after even 5 miles. 

so hot bro

With help from his former owner/my good buddy T we spent one long afternoon giving Kenny a working clip and roaching off his mane. He was a total raging shit, throwing his body around dangerously, but Tera and I were determined, patient, and absolutely not having any of his shenanigans. The pony WILL NOT attempt bodily harm on humans was gradually firmed into his lexicon in a few sessions throughout the afternoon and by the end I was holding a loose rope in one hand and a doxie in the other as T finished the clip.And oh, it was so worth it, on all levels.

Lighter in hoof and body, we rode a total of 156.8 trail miles from the time of his arrival home in November to the last shake out ride before the Whiskeytown event (so a bit over 4 months). Most of the miles were in sub 10 mile intervals, taking a few hours each time.

ponying his buddy Apache and getting fit!

He finished a hilly 13 mile ride in February with plenty of sass left which was reassuring, so after 2 more 10 mile rides rides I bumped him to a 19 mile training ride that took about 5 hours and was 2 weeks before Whiskeytown. He finished that 19 miles feeling fresh, reassuring me that the LD was well within our grasp. I then turned him out to rest, aside from one more relaxed 5 mile leg stretcher the Monday before the event. This made the LD itself, a true 25 miler in tough terrain, the longest mileage he had yet done.

week before Whiskeytown

HOOFCARE CHOICES

Due to the previously mentioned wonky angles on Kenny’s fronts and the prospect of a local boot-killer ride (think bog+HILLS+Water..all day) in May becoming a 2 day event, my mind finally turned to learning to glue on Renegades. I’ve had great luck on all sorts of steeds and up to 50 miles distance with strap-on Renegades, but Kenny’s wild front feet presented challenges that made me not at all relish strap-on boots for events. Since I wanted to learn sooner than later, kind fellow Renegader and buddy Mel agreed to show me the ropes of gluing, while actually gluing on said boots herself so that I wasn’t relying on first time “skills” for an event. 

• denatured Alcohol, DA: (NOT rubbing alcohol)–can be found at Home Depot or equivalent
• nitrile gloves–GLOVES ARE GOOD!!
• glue gun
•  Glue ons, with spares, and ideally a size above and below the size you think you need (I just had 6 size 0s, the size he wears in strap-on)*
• Glueing tips, plenty to spare*
• fresh tube of Adhere*: while you can keep a used tube around at ride weekend, if you are gluing for a new event: don’t cheap out, buy new glue!
• approx. 40 grit sandpaper–I  used both block and flat paper and they were both good
• tin snips or similar to cut notches in shell if needed
• Hoof stand
• rasp
• hoof nippers–to nip off excess boot shell if needed
• if weather is over 70, cooler with ice to rest glue in before use
• paper towels
• trash bag

*available at Renegade Hoof Boots

Hoof prep is key in gluing, and that was my main task as the student this time. Vigorous sanding of the lower 3/4 of the hoof must be done until no imperfections can be seen or felt. This is Kenny’s wonkiest foot after sanding, hard to tell here but it’s high to the outside among other things, I’ve been working diligently at bringing it down and even but it’s a process and his feet are *much* better than they were. This foot particularly did not entirely seat in the glue on shell and gapped the quarters out, which is highly inconvenient as the quarters are your main glue adhesion area.

Fortunately, Mel has done this a time or two, and promptly cut *2*small triangle notches out of each front boot (a few people said YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT CENTERED RIGHT??! There’s two notches..two). Just like that, with flex points added by notching, the boot was able to match his weird angles and seated well at the toe with nearly zero quarter gapping, so away we went. You can see here how unevenly seated that right front looks, that’s merely an accurate reflection of the high sided hoof/crooked leg. The left front is more normal but also benefitted from the notches, while his hinds are quite regular and required no alteration. (that left hind hasn’t been prepped/sanded yet in this photo)

I didn’t get more photos because I was actively learning but the basic process is this: After sanding the bottom 3/4 of the hoof AND the inside of the boot shell, the shell and hoof are carefully cleaned with DA, placing a spare shell on the clean hoof as a slipper so it doesn’t re touch the ground. Glue is squirted around the quarters and toe of the boot, ever careful not to get any on the sole, and the boot is applied *quickly* and held strongly in place, with thumbs pressing down the quarters to really encourage a smooth tight seal. The glue is warm to the touch as it sets and you can feel from the outside where glue is smooth to hoof and where there are gaps (ideally there aren’t gaps). After a few minutes of holding the hoof up and pressing, the hoof can be set down, but it’s important the horse not wiggle or torque while the glue is setting. Holding up the opposite leg can assist in stillness.

May we all have such helpful and hilarious friends!  Glue and all around rockstar Mel photobombs

(check the matching redhead toe-outs too, hahaha)

And there we are–Kenny clipped, conditioned, glued, and ready to set off on his first AERC Adventure on a fine Friday morning:

To Be Continued…

10 year old, 14 hh, Morgan/Welsh Pony gelding Kenny came home to RHE last November. He’s a hoot to ride and as full of personality as the breeds that he is made of might suggest! In the short time that he’s been here he has already provided me with a couple of first time challenges, namely clipping a horse (thanks for your ninja skills T!) and booting. Since I have 3 Arabians with nearly ideal Renegade, specifically Viper, hooves, Kenny really is just the ticket to mix things up a bit around here! He’s big boned and a very fun ride with strong and healthy hooves–he also toes out in the front and his right foreleg and hoof particularly are on crooked. Ideal endurance horse conformation he has not, but he wouldn’t be the first unlikely horse to get ‘er done on the trail.

Bring it on, Says Kenny. Here he is not long after arrival, you can see he has quite a bit of hoof to address, but conformationally he will always have upright, Morgan-type hooves that don’t ideally match barefoot booting angles

Previously I discussed the difference in the Renegade models  and used Kenny as a prime example for needing the more oval Classic model versus the broad quartered Viper.

Kenny front, Classics needed

Kenny is a size 0 Classic all the way around and his hind hooves have more normal angles than his upright fronts. Below, you can see the hinds are seated evenly and nicely in the 0 Classics, while the visible left front’s upright conformation forces it to sit less deeply and evenly in the boot shell as well as needing a cable loosening to accommodate the  captivator reaching to a higher heel bulb (the tell in that respect is the cable buckle end of the toe strap on that left front being flush back against the cable channel, with no cable visible there the captivator cannot flex properly. The left hind best shows an appropriate amount of cable visible by toe strap).

yes, technically your velcro straps should close outward as on the hinds 😉

Even after cable adjustments and some corrective trimming over the first few months, Kenny’s front boots continued to want to twist.

Note the uneven amount of hoof showing on the right front below, demonstrating the inward or left hand twist that boot did repeatedly.

Kenny hooves, early 2016

Kenny’s  hoof angles are now better than ever but up front he will always be conformationally upright, toed out, and slightly crooked in the hoof. Which took me some time, as in up until last week,  to *truly* grasp. Why was an even, straight, well fitted and adjusted boot twisting? Why? Why?  Read that first sentence of the paragraph again.

Putting Straight on Crooked = Twist

So what if…I adjusted *one* cable, thereby making a crooked captivator that might match his crooked leg/hoof.

Crooked on Crooked= Straight, to him!

Adjusted to match Kenny, cutback size 0 Classic

I’ve done a couple of test rides now with his fronts adjusted “crooked” to match him and we’ve had total success! Success often looks like not many photos because the ride is going too well, but there should be some more soon if the rain ever stops again.

Kenny has been a great reminder to look at and take into account the entire big picture of what you’re actually dealing with instead of getting stuck on ideals. With an extremely boot challenging hill-and-water endurance ride recently announcing itself as a 2 day early this season, the next adventure in booting for us will be getting proficient with Glue ons! Stay tuned 🙂

~People often ask me how I manage to ride so much and the answer is, I’m determined. I have been blessed with a few crucial people who have cared in this life, including members of my non horsey family who think I’m nuts–and I have grabbed onto those opportunities and run with them. From my teenage years getting off the school bus between things to muck stalls, to boarding my mare in the hills while I worked and went to college, to the journey up north and eventual purchase of our own home 6 years ago, through a near split and panicked herd reshuffling, and reuniting again..I’ve been busy in many ways and various life styles and have shaped my life around horses because it’s my life blood. If that does anything other than encourage you, I wish you solace and a perspective change. ~

Things are rolling right along here at RHE as usual!  Last week saw big Orange and I loading up in our Renegade Hoof Boots duds and crossing a refreshingly snow hugged Donner Pass into Nevada for the annual national AERC Convention. It was my second year working the Renny booth with GoPony’s Ashley and we had a great time again, from endless tack and horse ruminations to the odd purchase and of course connecting with friends old and new. This was my first year attending the National Awards Banquet and it was great fun, from being cleaner than ever before (or again?) with endurance buddies to the great food, fabulous Emcees, and inspiring awards.

photo by Lisa Chadwick

A hoof client cancellation Monday morning meant my next week started fabulously in the saddle, as it ended!

 Hands down awesome trail time with stallion Aqua and his human W

Aqua & Kenny

Kenny’s second outing of the week included ponying his bossy broham Apache. Inevitably there is gear being added or subtracted in testing, and this time it was slightly downhill Apache’s turn for a crupper intro. Despite having been tacked up by me maybe twice ever, including the time he assisted me into the dirt last summer, Apache was entirely blase about the busy parking lot and tacking up experience. He takes great comfort from Kenny and myself and has assumed an air of “Well, my nutty human is doing something silly again, let’s indulge it.” While sensitive, he isn’t spooky per se, being quite bold with natural objects and taking new things in stride easily; his discomfort now seems to lie entirely in human Stranger Danger and a nervousness about horses riding behind him (haven’t quite pinned that down yet..he was very nervous about Aqua behind but cared not if Kenny was..so is it stranger horses, or a stallion, or?) 

I feel entirely safe in my above claims of Apache’s cool character after that day’s *true* crupper test–he attempted to pass in-his-mind-Slow Kenny on a narrow trail while being ponied, slid off of the side with an oncoming tree, pirouetted back on trail without a scratch, and continued trotting, as I juggled reins and ropes and gaped like a fish. There was no further reaction from him so I didn’t know why W seemed so aware of our incident as soon as we pulled up behind them farther down the trail–until I turned fully around and saw beer barrel shaped Apache with his saddle twisted almost under his belly and the crupper cranked tight around his tail, standing with a hoof cocked like What? Get on with it Then.    !!!!!!!! This horse..

..was not done being awesome! My husband had a few hours one morning  so I handed him Kenny’s reins, put on Apache’s bitless bridle, and we headed out through the noisy neighborhood. I can’t express the fulfillment and joy that comes from having misunderstood and eaten dirt off a horse previously, only to connect so deeply and trust myself to him, barefoot, bitless, and bareback out in the world. It was our first “trail ride” together and I want More, more, more.

Stallion Aqua’s human, W, is a Renegade client also getting into endurance, so we just can’t get enough of riding and playing with tack and boots. Saturday saw me hauling a tap dancing, hollering, trailer rattling Sheza over to W’s for some boot experiments and a country road ride. Sheza made no less than 8 people jump with her announcement of our arrival at the gas station on our way over, she’s well aware the Oscars are this weekend you see and won’t be put out of the running just yet! Fortunately her drama really is skin deep and with an unimpressed lifted eyebrow, some gentle spacial reminders of what manners are, and a stout tie pole for her to ruminate at, she was her good little self after the initial excitement. Through various experimentation she ended up wearing 3 different sized vipers AND a size 0 Renegade all quite successfully and seemed to really enjoy stepping out with all four hooves protected.

Meanwhile, my husband was home getting the septic repaired and pumped and while I must say he got the shitty end of that stick, it’s really just been a great week. Wishing you all happy trails and pony progress!

Life is very interesting when you have not 1, not 2, but 3 green horses! Of course throughout our hopefully long partnerships with our horses lessons will continue to be learned or unlearned, but those early days, months, and years of shaping a saddle horse are undeniably most precarious and important. My endless quest to cruise the trails with a horse that enjoys it like Desire did (this ride story also illustrates why I went Renegade!) now finds me at this interesting stage:

Sheza: my home raised coming 5 year old is the lightest, best trained under saddle of the 3 greenies. She’s young all the way around which means she does and will for a while yet get used the least, but she’s had the benefit of a near flawless life experience so far and trailers great (with occasional reminders), EDPP under saddle or not, stands like a rock for mounting, collects and side passes feather light, and rides out at the walk on a loose rein (she’s barely allowed to know she can go above a walk yet). Still she’s a young filly with notions, like squealing and trotting away when I tried to jump on her bareback in pasture the other day. You know what that means–I did it some more!

Sheza yesterday

momma Desire

❤

Apache: home with us for nearly a year now; thanks to a friend’s brave willing butt, we’ve now got him going on trail, bareback in a halter, and my own nervy butt hopping up there as well. Next up is saddle re intro, including crupper due to his conformation. I introduce him to all available strangers. He hungers for trail and is a truly competitive boy, the first real reference to Desire’s enthusiasm I’ve seen since retiring her. His previous bad experiences have weighed heavily on him but his Try is legendary and the positive experiences are starting to outweigh the bad. We are both nervous, together. He’s not really non compliant at all, I have to say.

Kenny: A really interesting fellow, this Morgan/Welsh has been home about 3 months now. He falls into the broke but not trained category: EDPP with the best of them, throw a beginner on and put him in a line of horses and he’ll pack them there and back. Ask for him to stand nicely for mounting, take the lead, travel in a straight line, not reference potential giraffe genealogy with his carriage, or try to give him a hair cut clip–big deals, big big deals. While he’s generally a sweet, non spooky, non Arab, Kenny actually requires a fast moving, horse savvy, stubborn human who won’t be bullied.  Fortunately…

Sunday am

Sunday pm

…he found one!  The clipping took literally all afternoon and myself and his previous owner. She is a wizard with clippers and with a couple wraps around a stout pole, I can hold a really rude pony. Sweet little Kenny acted as if we were out for horse meat, and was prepared to use his big boned solid body against us, so while we were incredibly patient and worked in sessions, rewarding him at the least cooperation–we were also very very firm that he was to keep his body *to himself.*

I can’t claim to have 4 greenies anymore, because as of last weekend Rushcreek Aurora found a wonderful home with a local AERC ride manager with other Rushcreeks. She leaves after the AERC convention this week and I look forward to watching her continued progress!

Greenies are fun, challenging, frustrating, and rewarding. I really enjoy my little trio and am eternally grateful for the savvy horsewomen who support me.

Onward!