Re: Rock (Was NATRC shoeing rules)

["Nancy Mitts" <mitts_n@hotmail.com>]

Nancy,
I too have ridden lots of "Rocky" places, but the rocks were worn smooth 
or large and dispursed enough to miss. The rocks here on the Ozarks 
trails are predominantly golf ball to baseball size, but not necessarily 
round. With edges broken off SHARP. I don't pad my horses till I start 
competing on them regularly, usually 50 miles or farther. But I had a 
rider at the ride I manage who's horses SOLE was punctured by a small 
knifelike chunk of rock. Good horse with good tuff feet. You just can't 
avoid them all unless you're prepared to walk most of a ride. If you 
have to endurance in places like this, it is wise to pad for these 
trails if you care about your horse.
Nancy Mitts

>Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 20:23:08 -0800
>To: "Nancy Mitts" <mitts_n@hotmail.com>
>From: Nancy DuPont <htrails@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: NATRC shoeing rules
>Cc: ridecamp@endurance.net
>
>A couple of other posts tonight suggested that we can help by watching
>where we are going - that is a true partnership!  
>
>I have ridden all my life in the mountains. I condition on Mt. Diablo, 
a
>rocky terrain with narrow trails up to 4000 ft elevation.  I ride NATRC 
and
>pleasure ride ten days in a row in the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite (The
>rockiest toughest trails anywhere!). My Arabian gelding is now 19 years
>old. Never padded. Always sound. I rode from Nogales on the Mexican 
Border
>to San Francisco. 1500 miles and in 52 days.  He was perfectly sound. 
No
>pads.  He is a Karadjordje, Serafix Witez cross, mostly Polish. Good 
feet.  
>There is a way to ride sound horses without pads!  Like one old timer 
says:
>"You can ride anywhere, any time, but you cannot make any old horse 
sound."
>
>At 01:16 PM 2/2/99 PST, you wrote:
>>Nothing wrong with the foot~just some of the places we ride. Horses 
>>would not "naturally" go the places we ask them to, nor for the 
distance 
>>& length of time we ask them. Recognizing that is the first step 
toward 
>>true partnership.
>>Nancy Mitts  
>>>
>>>Once you pad a horses foot you have a different goal- because you are
>>>acknowledging something is wrong with the foot.  
>>
>>
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>
>


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