Skip to content 
We had a really fantastic ride at the Owyhee Fandango last weekend. I rode Chief 50 miles on Friday and Bo 100 miles on Sunday. Both horses did well. Bo finished the 100 with a 11:48 ride time, in 3rd place!
On Friday, we rode through a fair amount of mud with several water crossings. I have concluded that Chief no longer needs to use boots with extra padding in them – he is back to being solid-footed enough that I will only use regular Renegades on him. The padding makes the boots more slippery so they didn’t stay on very well in those conditions.
Lucky for me, Chief is a patient horse and tolerates anything I do to him. Now that I know he can go a mile down the trail barefoot over rocks and not even hint that his boot had come off, I guess I really don’t need to try and baby him with extra padding in his boots. The good thing is that once I changed over to the regular Renegade® strap-on boots, they stayed on! It was a good learning experience for me.
My luck on the 100 with the Renegade® strap-ons was better! We had a really super ride. Bo and
his Renegades went through the boulder field both times without any slipping, no dings or dents – it was great! We had one O-ring break and that was the extent of it. Not bad! I even went out into the Snake River in the mud a couple of feet and the boots were secure. I pre-rode in the boots the day before and made sure I had them sized and adjusted properly.
Any time this year I’ve had a boot issue, it was due to my own inability to pay attention to the fit and adjustments that sometimes need to be monitored and changes made. I’m still learning!
I’m happy with how well the boots have been working for my horses this season. Bo has been using the strap-on versions of the boots exclusively while Chief has used a combination of the glue-ons and the strap-on versions.
Happy trails,
Karen
Karen’s Endurance Blog
