Tuesday, May 25, 2010

I'm getting ready for the John Wayne ride! I think I now have everything I need for the trip, except for one important thing that hasn't come in the mail yet. One of my Easyboot cables broke when my sister tried out my Easyboots not long ago. I ordered the replacement cable almost a full 2 weeks before I needed it, but I made the mistake of ordering from a cheap store that I hadn't heard of before. I've emailed them twice trying to find my order status and tried to look it up on their site - all to no avail. The site is HorseloverZ dot com. I can't recommend them. Valley Vet, on the other hand, had my gaiter and electrolyte order here on Monday, and I'd just placed it on Friday. I did pay for Priority Mail, but I wasn't expecting it that fast. Awesome.

I spent the day grocery shopping and picking up things like bug repellent, dog food for while I'm gone, a strangles booster for Dove, etc, etc. I spent the evening mixing Tonka's feed for the trip (a lot of feed!), getting some of his stuff together, and making alterations to my EasyBoots. I put two new gaiters on, cut out the heel straps, and cut the comfort pads to fit, but didn't slide them in yet. I'm going to try to clean up the boots first.

Back to the feed... Holy cow I hope I didn't go overboard. I won't get into amounts (I forgot the weights) but I mixed beet pulp, TACO (Timothy, Alfalfa, Corn, and Oat pellets), alfalfa pellets, Satin Finish, Equerry's vitamins, Probios, brewer's yeast, and extra vitamin e. At the time I feed him this (soaked) I'll add soybean oil and electrolytes. He'll also have grass hay and I'll put packer pellets in my saddle bags for lunch. I plan on checking his weight (and mine) before and after the ride. Then if I do this again I'll know what to change. Oh, and don't worry, we've been gradually working up to full feed for a couple weeks now. Well, he has. I've been trying to cut back on my feed. :)

Here are some pics from our ride yesterday. I took a bunch of video and was going to do another little virtual trail ride for you, but that's going to have to wait. Too much editing.

This part was the most fun, climbing up and up in the brush:
The view behind:
Almost to the top:

2 comments:

arlene said...

I've bought things from HorseloverZ and they came pretty fast. Maybe it was just luck. I have an order in now for three of their $5 break away halters. (A new halter costs the same as the replacement strap).

I've never had problems with riding shod horses and have hardly ever rode a horse shoeless. When I canter or gallop I just pick out the soft areas. Those were the good old days!!!!!

I love the pics and wish I was there riding along telling jokes and singing cowboy songs...(being a bit of a pest).

Kara said...

That sounds like so much fun! I wish I was going on a nice trail ride this summer. Heck, I wish I was riding at all...I've been staying off the horses since I've been getting bigger in pregnancy.

Are just you going on this ride? Are your sister or your husband going along?