Best laid plans and all that...
Let me summarize and say: It was NOT a walk only ride.
I did make sure to take photos of his shoes. My goal is to take photos of them at least once a week to keep an eye on wear pattern and to show how the Ground Controls wear here in Texas.
For point of reference; Strider is kept in a large pen which is primarily dirt with some sand. No rocks in the pen. Riding terrain varies from rocky sand to loose sand to hard pack dirt.
Here are his shoes after the 3 days.
Shot of his fronts:
Shot of his rears:
Strider's left front:
Strider's left rear:
Strider's right rear:
Strider's right front:
Saddled up and I lead him over to the Pecan Grove side of the property. This side has lots of trees and shade with a section of some hills. Which means we will be riding over a little bit of hard pack with some rocks mixed in, some loose sand, some slippery mud, and thanks to recent rains, some puddles.
To get him there, I must get him to walk down the alley between the many pens at the barn. Traditionally, Strider drifts to the shoulder where the grass is because it's soft. He attempted to do so again on Wednesday, but I held him to the center of the alley and made him walk on the rocky ground. He seemed to gain confidence as we travelled.
I mounted up and away we went. He tried his usual antics of trying to turn around, "ping pong"ing down the trail. I want to note though, at the start, he limited it to about 2 bunny bucks. Usually I have a handful of them to sit. I am not sure if his anxiety about impending foot pain led to the bunny bucks, or if it's still neurological or what they're about, but I did notice that they decreased in number for this ride.
He was eager to move out, though was a little "lookey-lou" at things. Thankfully they'd left the gates open for the Pecan Grove side so I was able to easily move through the entire piece of property from what I consider the "upper" section to the "lower" section.
When we got to the hill section, he begged to go. Okay then...so I let the reins out a bit and let him stretch his legs out.
And he FLEW. POUNDED the ground and took off like a bullet from a gun. And didn't want to stop. He seemed to have zero regard for his safety as he shot around the curves and turns, down the hills and up them again. He seemed to resent my grabbing his mane for extra "safety" as he charged ahead.
It was exhilarating. I won't lie. I was whooping with laughter (and sometimes whoa'ing him out of concern for his safety), and enjoying this new-to-me horse. We did all the trails down there. Then did them in reverse. Then headed back to the hills where he again asked to fly and I gave him his wings to go.
He is now brave on his feet, and entirely fearless about the terrain.
There's a dirt track at the upper end of the Pecan Grove side. I almost always try to make 1 or 2 laps. I noticed on our second lap, the imprints from his feet seemed very deep. So, is he "digging in" more now? Or are the shoes responsible? The ground on the track is only loose dirt on the top layer, the bottom is usually fairly packed.
My take away from my first ride with him in his shoes; he truly IS stronger. As I've mentioned previously, I'm riding without my Endomondo. I semi-regret it for this ride because, while I'm not utterly confident, I feel fairly certain he was moving faster than our normal conditioning speeds. Usually we average at a conditioning speed of 5.5 to 6. I feel we were doing a solid 6.5 to 7. And he was itching for more.
However, I will say this. I wasn't wearing my helmet (I couldn't find it, and after already NOT having ridden as much as I need and want to, I wasn't going to let it COMPLETELY stop me!), and I hadn't realized now how much more confident I feel wearing it. I used to be completely okay riding bare-headed, but now that I do endurance and it's just the "norm" to wear your helmet at a ride, it's become my norm at home too. So, I was feeling a little anxious without it on, ESPECIALLY as fast as he was wanting to go.
So, final thoughts and assessments?
He does, in fact, appear to be stronger in shoes. I will know more as we get more and more miles in them.
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