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Re: [RC] [RC] Riding Too Slow & Easy Boot Epics - terry banisterNever tarry, never hurryBecause if you ride too slow, you have no margin for error, especially in winter when the cold darkness sets in by 5 p.m. Forget about winning, I condition my horse to be able to sustain a trot long enough to get us to the finish line by 4:00, which is time enough to vet and care for the horse - and still make it to dinner before the food is gone! We blew our completion and dinner this weekend at the Turkey Trot because of navigational errors, and went out of the lunch check 5 miles in the wrong direction because a volunteer had put chalk marks and arrow pointing 25-milers to the right and 50-milers to the left. Since the markings were fresh, and we had seen someone else going back out that way, we trusted the markings and the ribbon color was correct. Unfortunately, we backtracked nearly 5 miles looking for the needed right turn that never came and realized we were wrong. So, even though our horses were fine, we went back to the "25-miler" trail that we knew would lead us to basecamp in 14 miles, but we were out of daylight and didn't think there would be glowsticks. So we gave it up and phoned for a trailer, which got us back to basecamp by 8 p.m. in the pouring rain. My GPS read 47 miles. The Good News is that we did'nt loose a completion because of our barefoot horse's feet! We were testing the new Easy Boot Epics, and I put them on in the morning and never touched them until we arrived back at basecamp, other than to open the gaiter and check the pastern and heel area. The terrain was challenging and the gaiter in the back really worked to protect the heel and prevent debris. We had put a cotter pin in the little hole on the latch to keep it from lifting, which worked, but in the rain and darkness, we were cussing those cotter pins because we couldn't get the boots off fast enough. When the boots came off, we had no rubbing and no debris. We had to laugh that we were cussing hoof boots because we couldn't get them OFF :-) That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Terry "May the Horse be with you"
Good thoughts, Karen. You'd know, fer sure. Okay was it MMS or Julie Suhr that said "Never tarry, never hurry"......that makes sense to me. F. _________________________________________________________________ Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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