Check it Out!    
RideCamp@endurance.net
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index] [Subject Index]

Silver State - - - long



Robyn Levash questarabians@inreach.com
I haven't been on RC in a while, and received some posts from others
letting me know the discussion that has come up. I had heard that there
were a couple other people, other than myself, that were planning on
riding their horses barefoot at this ride. However, I am not sure if they
did or not (I didn't see any other barefoot horses out there). Some of the
comments are referring to my horse --- however I am a bit confused since
some of the comments don't accurately add up. So if we are talking about
my horse, this is a "perfect example" how things on Ride Camp get blown
WAY out of proportion,  people make assumptions, people don't KNOW the
facts, and the "facts" are not presented accurately.

Not to make excuses, but I find it really interesting that the "barefoot"
horse(s) were the target of criticism. What about mentioning some of the
really "ouchy" or lame shod/ EZ booted horses at the ride? What about
mentioning the well known/ respected rider who's horse (shod) who was
pretty "ouchy/ slight head bob" at lunch, but walked their horse the whole
way on the last 15 mile loop? You know, it's not my business to talk about
these people, or particular person, to begin with. I know this person
would not *intentionally" ever hurt their horse.  I know that Sh*t happens
on the trail. And I only know a fraction of the story (what I saw). If my
horse was shod I guarantee this discussion would have never popped up.

Karen, you know absolutely nothing about me or my horse. If you knew
anything about me you'd know that my horse has had a 100% completion rate,
and has done all his previous ride (six 50 mile rides and one LD barefoot)
(3 of these rides were rocky rides). My horse has NEVER had metabolic or
lameness problems whatsoever, and has had nothing less than high vets
scores . Ask any of the vets that vet the rides. However, I am not going
to lie --- Silver State was a less than perfect ride.

So I don't have to retype here's the story of my ride that I posted a few
days ago to another list:



>>>The ride was held just outside of Las Vegas on the Bureau of Land
Management land. Out a ways, and on some of the trails we traversed were
where the wild horses roam. It's really cool out there. The terrain to say
the least is unforgiving . The rare spots where it looked like fluffy soft
dirt, and easy going, occasional sharp rocks would remind your horse that
a break from the rocks wasn't happening. The majority of the ride,
consisted of sharp lava rock, rocky/gravel washes, and hard packed road
with medium to small rocks that jutted up. There was some sections of slow
going and SHARP SHARP rocks.

I was surprised how well  Adelante (Wiley) handled these kind of rocks. He
trotted over them like he didn't even notice them. He was quite full of
himself the first ten miles. Then he started to really relax and get down
to business rather than fooling around and acting like a silly kid. About
15 miles out, we did some cross country trail. It was really neat. There
was little florescent paint rocks that marked the trail. At times it was a
little difficult to follow, but it worked out fine. At one point in our
cross country journey, I asked Wiley to move over to avoid my leg from
having a collision with a sharp pointy cactus looking thing. He responded
a little too well, and ended up whacking his left front ankle really hard
on a rock that was jutting out. He took some horribly lame steps, and I
immediately did a flying dismount. I could see the blood on his ankle from
where he whacked it. It didn't look too bad, but the horribly lame steps
that proceeded, scared the crap out of me. Not only were we in remote,
rugged terrain, but there is no way for anyone to get anywhere near us via
truck and horse trailer. I hand walked Wiley, and fortunately he quickly
worked out of the lameness. So, I proceeded to ride him, and he felt fine
with no hint of lameness. After a couple miles we caught up to Kristen
Olko, and her beautiful Thoroughbred mare. Wiley seemed really happy and
relaxed staying behind Kristen's mare. Kristen was riding really smart and
conservative over the terrain. She really worked with her horse, and took
great care of her. We rode many miles together, and it was a pleasure to
ride and see such a great *team*.

The last 5 mile section that headed us back to Vet check 1 at 35 miles was
sharp nasty terrain, with some ankle twisting rocks and slow going. So we
took it real easy, and just cruised to vet check 1.

At the vet check I told Barney what had happened, and thought that the
ankle was bugging him a bit. On the trot out Wiley would slightly favor
the left front for a couple steps then he'd immediately work out of it and
trot perfect. At the end of my hour hold I came back to Barney. I told him
that I was not quite sure if he should go on. Barney really assessed
Wiley. This time I trotted Wiley out on the rocky road with Easy Boots on
to see if they made a difference. I trotted him out a couple times. Barney
told me that it was definitely not his feet, as there was no difference in
his trot with the boots on or off . He agreed it was the ankle. Barney did
a Cardiac Recovery Index (CRI) on him, and he came out good at 62/62.
Barney felt Wiley was fine to continue on. The last 15 miles was a good
majority of the same brutal trail we covered in the end portion of loop
one.  I wanted to see if the Easy Boots on the front feet made a
difference or not since it seemed to be the #1 hoof protection of choice
at the ride. I got about 200 yards of riding Wiley with the Easy Boots
outside of camp, and decided to take them off. He moved horribly in them,
and immediately kept stumbling (like he couldn't feel his feet). It was
quite a much different feeling then when you are used to riding a totally
barefoot horse. I have never conditioned Wiley in Easy boots, and didn't
think it was wise trying something new that was not helping him anyway.
Especially in the remote terrain we were heading for. So it took about 1.5
seconds to decide to take them off and tie them onto my saddle.

Several miles of walk/ trotting later . . . (I'm just not used to carrying
Easy Boots on my saddle) I looked down, and noticed that they were no
longer tied to my saddle --- they had fallen off. I thought
" No way am I going back for them as they could be anywhere from here to
basecamp". Then I could hear my boyfriend's  voice screaming at me , "
That's 70 dollars down the drain . . . go back and get them!" But, I
really felt it may not be  such a great idea to risk doing too many more
extra miles in this terrain, and risk adding stress to Wiley's ankle. So
we continued on just cruising, trotting here and there, but mostly
walking. Approximately 7 miles from the finish was the same repeat of
trail of sharp rocky terrain, with some good climbs, and rocky gravel
washes. Wiley was very content and comfortable just walking --- so that's
all we did. I savored the beautiful day, the relaxed pace, and the quality
miles we spent on the trail together. It was an enjoyable day aside from
the worries.

We ended up finishing mid pack (29th out of 56 horse/riders). I was
pleased that we accomplished what I had came there to accomplish. I wanted
to do the multi-day to help teach Wiley to settle down and focus. He did
just that in a good majority of day one. I finished with a much more,
smarter, sensible, relaxed horse than when we started. We got to do brutal
rock conditioning, and was able to finish (thankfully) on a sound horse.
Day 2 and 3 of the multi-day is supposed to be better terrain, but I
decided it would not be wise to chance it. There is always next year.

The feet hardly wore at all. The hoof walls seemed to wear to a smoothly
rounded over texture.

 The next morning,  I took Wiley with me on about a five mile hike to see
if I could find the Easy Boots I lost. He looked good, and seemed to enjoy
the walk. I ended up finding one of the Easy Boots just outside of base
camp. I never found the other one though (oh well).>>>

Now responding to some of the comments.


>>>The horse was looked really lame out on the trail, it was so
sore that even my junior couldn't believe the rider didn't get off and
walk
it back to camp.  I guess it **barely** passed the vet check with a grade
2
lameness at the end. >>>

The part that confuses me is that the only time I ever you (Karen) on the
trail is right outside of base camp (continuing on for loop 2) when I was
having problems with the Easy Boots, and was off my horse pulling them off
and tying them on the saddle. You so kindly asked as you were passing " Is
everything OK", I told you "Yes, thanks." you proceeded to canter off and
finished WAY ahead of me (Do you remember now?). So I am not quite sure
how you got such an accurate assessment of my horse if my horse is the one
you are referring to? I had the great pleasure of riding with several
other people and their comments were quite the opposite, " Wow he's really
doing well." "Boy he sure makes this barefoot thing look easy". Yes, he
was having an occasional problem with favoring the ankle then he'd work
out and be perfect. I was going to pull him at lunch, but Barney and his
wife (farrier Linda) really looked him over and felt he was fine to
continue on. Barney did not tell me to slow down for the last 15 miles. I
slowed down on my own judgment, and walked him most of the last 15 miles.

I am not aware that my horse had a grade 2 lameness. The first trot out at
the final vet in he had a couple bad stumbles. The second trot out he was
much better.


>>>But later, it looked worse and in a lot of
discomfort. That poor horse stood for hours all night with four feet
together rocking in
pain.  I never saw it try to eat a bite of food in all that time.>>>

Hmmm. . . this is interesting. I walked him several times that night
because the ankle was stiffening up. Never saw him standing with all feet
together and rocking in pain. In fact every time I went to check on him
that night, he was eating and in fact ate all his hay and oats so I gave
him more. It's not quite as dramatic as Karen would like to believe.

I am not going to deny that my horse had off moments. He did. But they
were not bad (except for when he initially whacked his ankle on a rock)
but he worked right out of them.  I love my horse very much --- that is
why I consulted with Barney and told him myself, " that the ankle is
bugging him, I am not quite sure if he should go out for the second loop."
Barney gave him a thorough evaluation along with his wife who is a
farrier. I encourage anyone that believes what I say to be otherwise to
contact Barney yourself. Also, anyone is more than welcome to come to my
place and see my horse --- you'll see that he's just fine.

Thanks for your time.

Robyn







    Check it Out!    

Home    Events    Groups    Rider Directory    Market    RideCamp    Stuff

Back to TOC