Thursday, May 26, 2011

Getting Ready for CTR

I'm getting excited! Tomorrow I'll be headed off to the Crooked River CTR. This will be Louie's first "real" CTR as we are going to attempt the one day 30 mile distance. His last ride at Acadia was a conditioning distance ride so only counted for lifetime mileage, not towards any awards. I've done all I can to get him ready Now I guess we'll see....

My friend Barbara will be riding Marie in the 30 mile CTR also. My farrier, Scott, was out today and put new shoes on both Louie and Marie. Marie was at 6 weeks with her shoes so she was due. It's barely been 4 weeks for Louie but his feet have grown quite a lot and his shoes were quite worn. He's also been tripping occasionally in front since he's had shoes put on. He never did when he was barefoot. When I called Scott and told him I thought Louie would need new shoes, he was a bit skeptical. I was not going to be home when he came but I told him to do what he thought best and I trust him to do that. I did get home just as Scott was finishing up and getting ready to leave. He told me he was quite amazed at both the amount of growth Louie had on his feet and how worn his shoes were. So, Louie got new shoes all around. Scott put a slight rock on the toe to see if this helped with the tripping. Louie has had a big hole in his left rear hoof from....... well I'm not totally sure what from but I suspect he got stepped on by my boarders mule when she had borium shoes on. The hole has been growing down the hoof wall and it's just a little off the the left of the front. The hole has now grown right to the bottom of the hoof wall and looks awful. It's quite a big hole. It doesn't seem to bother Louie at all. Scott put shoes with clips on the back thinking this would aid in keeping the shoe secure.

So, I guess Louie and I are as ready as we can be. It's been a long hard road to this day (biting nails......)

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