And the conclusion of "Shanghai Trails" or..."How I learned Ground Controls Don't Work For Strider"

I promised I would do the conclusion, did I not?  I usually try and deliver....

I spent much of the day Saturday waffling on if I was going to ride Sunday or not.  I knew I wasn't riding Strider, but I had Dakini.  I even went and changed my entry to her.

And kept waffling.  And talked myself out of it.

Joe had to work his volunteer police gig Sunday.  I had surgery scheduled on Monday.  And, I know Dakini could have done the distance (27.5 miles), but...I was just fried emotionally and mentally and not on my game.  So I decided as I went to bed Saturday night I was heading home Sunday.

Which is exactly what I did.

I was able to break camp fairly quickly and easily, despite some SNAFUs getting out of camp (a truck and trailer parked right where I needed to drive to get OUT and a car also in the way).  Stood and talked with a friend's husband for a little bit...cleaned up the pen area as well as possible...loaded the kids and headed for home in a daze. 

I honestly don't remember much of the drive home.  I'm usually kind of zoned out, and I'm sure I was still decompressing the ride itself.  And turning my mind from "Ride weekend" to "I have surgery tomorrow!"

Unloaded the kids at the barn.  Noticed Dakini had pooped in the trailer...and, disconcertingly, Strider had not.  When I unloaded him, he ran off into his pen, bucking and farting, and then ran and grabbed a BIG drink of water.  Rolled.  Acted utterly and completely normal.  I thought back, remembered seeing a fresh pile of poop by the trailer after I loaded.  Told myself it was his, and then dashed off a message to a friend who had also been at Shanghai to see if she could look in on him when she dropped her boy off to make sure he was okay.

So, Monday is surgery.  I'm not even wasting my time talking about it.  Surgery is what surgery is.  Sayonara gall bladder!!

But, Monday evening I get a text; "Your horse is lame."

I get this a LOT.  Figured he was just sore from whatever he'd done to his left front, so fired a message back "Sure he's just sore from the ride.  Thanks for letting me know!  I'll check on him as soon as I can."  And then I promptly passed back out in that post-anesthesia haze.

Tuesday afternoon late, a new friend I met at the ride who is leasing one of my friend's horses says "He's lame." 

Told her "Yeah, I hear that a LOT.  I'm sure he's fine."

"No, he's LAME.  Right front.  Want me to send a video?"

And she does.

And I lose my mind.  Oh yeah.  He's LAME.  And I start to cry.  I can't get to the barn.  I cannot PHYSICALLY do ANYTHING for him because I'm not supposed to DO anything.

She's pretty sure it's the nails.

After seeing these photos, I agree.

Can you see what I see?

That nail RIGHT there is what we suspect was part of the problem.

Not going to lie, I started calling in favors I probably had no right to.  I was in a state of panic and hysteria.  My new friend said she'd pull it, but didn't have the right tools. 

Thankfully, my amazing farrier, who had JUST gotten home from a long day of trimming horses looked at my pictures of it after listening to me, said at first she'd check him tomorrow, but after seeing the video said "I'm going right now to pull those shoes and see if that helps."

So she, her son and, well, basically her "crew" rolled over to my barn, relieved my new friend from the whole thing and pulled his shoes.

She noticed that he'd ripped off a large flap of sole, but even after removing shoes, while he was better, he wasn't sound.

Obviously.  :(

So, suggestion of call the vet and go from there. 

Which I did on Wednesday morning at around 8:10am.

Now, we'd had a NASTY storm Tuesday night (this did NOT in any way reduce my anxiety or concern for him), so the wonderful vet at OnCallVet said I would be shuffled in as soon as possible, but it would be in the afternoon.  I explained to them that I physically could NOT be there due to my surgery.  Now, I had friends at the barn volunteering to hold him for the vet and offering to help (just thinking about the outpouring of generosity makes my heart swell).  THANKFULLY my farrier happened to be trimming at the barn when the vet made it out there, so she was able to hold and tell me what was what.

Due to the unshapeable ability of composite shoes, we feel that he got a hot nail in.  NOT my shoer's fault.  Just the way those shoes are made, they do not work for Strider.  So, vet said remove the back shoes (we'd left them on HOPING we could salvage and reset...not doing it though), antibiotics and to use his sole paint to toughen him up.

Holly went to get the sole paint for me (did I mention my farrier is an angel here on Earth?  Genuinely and truly sincere) on Saturday from the vet's office, and Joe and I met her at the barn that Saturday to see it go on.

Now, to wait.  To let the antibiotics do their job.  To let the sole paint do IT'S job.  And for me to figure out what on earth to do next for his feet.

My gut says "Just go steel shod.  Pad for rocky rides.  Stop fussing with composites."

So, with that said...anyone want to buy 2 BRAND NEW un-used Ground Control shoes in Size 0?  Teal.  I happen to have some.  *sigh*

First ride with Ground Controls...

So, I gave Strider 3 days off to adjust to his shoes with the plan of doing a very gentle and easy walk-only ride on Wednesday.

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. 

In which we get our dancing shoes...FINALLY!!!

Well, we FINALLY got it done!!

We finally FINALLY got our dancing shoes applied.  Despite the drizzle and rain, we got it done!

I get to the barn at 8am, grab Strider out of his pen and wander over to the barn with the wash rack and hitching rail.  Tie him off and ignore him dancing around and being a general jackass as he occasionally calls for Dakini.  When he gets impatient as I switch grooming tools to clean him up.  When he thrashes with that left rear and tries to jerk it out of my hand.  So I hang on.  And hang on.  And hang on.  When he finally settles down for 10 seconds, I gently place it down on the ground.  Give him a pause and do it all over again.  Little bit better.

He had mud and dirt packed in all 4 feet and it was NOT willing to let go and fall out.  I at least wanted all 4 feet somewhat clean before the shoer showed up.

I finally managed to get all of that done, then I just kind of sat down and let him dance around for a bit. 

This is the "calmest" he was all morning long.

He got particularly frustrated/annoyed/anxious when the young lady who feeds on the weekends came and got the grain for all the horses while he stood there.  He wasn't allowed to have any, so he was being a larger jerk than normal as she drove off in the mule to go feed. 

I just retied him while he pawed and danced and made a general nuisance of himself.  And kept an eye on the clock.

As 9 am rolled around, I grabbed some gloves, rechecked the instructions, then went to give him the meds.

I was genuinely concerned about how I was going to get this syringe under his tongue, except I just stuck my thumb between his jaws, he opened his mouth wide, and with his tongue up, I just squirted it in.  Quick and easy!  He licked and licked and I could tell he didn't like it, but whatever.  The deed was done!

And then I stood back and waited.

While he pawed and pawed and continued to dance around.

The young lady who fed came back so we stood and chatted while Strider kept up with his antics.

15 minutes.  Still dancing.  Lots of shifting around.  In the back of my mind all I can think is "This isn't going to work!  What am I going to do?  The shoer isn't going to shoe him if this doesn't work!"  My anxiety is slowly starting to spiral while I'm trying to keep myself together while carrying on an innocuous conversation.

20 minutes.   He's not dancing anymore.  Now he's standing still.  Maybe this is going to work?

30 minutes.  Rear foot cocked.  He's looking a little sleepy.

35 minutes.  His head is drooping and resting on the hitching bar as his eyes close.  He's got that "drunk" look to him.  Swaying slightly. 

Drunk pony is tasting the color blue....

What a relief.  It worked!

Oh man...this is some gooooooooood stuff....

Shoer showed up a few minutes late (weather related...no big deal).

And we get to work.

Nip, nip, nip and get those crazily overgrown feet cleaned up.  What a relief to see that. 

Get the shoes out, they're too wide, so he just cuts some of the excess off, and we get to work.

No lies, when he set that first nail to the hoof, I had a moment of panic and almost said "No, wait...is this REALLY what I want to do?!"  Then the nail went in, and I was fully committed to this course of action.

4 nails to each side.  First foot was quickly done.

Then over to Strider's right side.  Again, quickly done.

Second shoe going on...anxiety level for owner..decreasing.

Fronts done!!!  Well, the shoer WILL remove the excess nails once all 4 feet are done!!

LOOK AT HOW BLUE!!!!

Rear left...well, Strider, even dopey Strider, is still a little titchy with those back feet.  So he wriggled a little bit.  And wriggled some on the left rear too.

And then, we were done.  All 4 dancing shoes applied and on! 

Mother, you have denied me food for near unto over 2 hours.  This torture can NOT be borne any longer!!

We did decide when I order the next set, go down a size for his rears.  No problem.  CAN DO!

I then turned him loose after a few minutes to make sure he really was steady on his feet (he was).

Now to wait a few days and then see what I have!

Front dancing shoes:

Rear dancing shoes:

Friday afternoon ramblings...

We are a GO for Saturday morning for Strider's dancing shoes!!

9:30 am is our go time.

The plan is for me to get to the barn around 7:30.  Since I cannot really do much with him, I shall groom him and get him cleaned up.  If the weather will cooperate, he can have a bath before the shoer comes.  Except, looking at my weather app, the weather isn't going to cooperate.  In fact, it's going to be disgusting.  100% chance of rain all day.  At our appointment time, I'm looking at a 35%-435 chance of rain.  Lovely.

Thankfully, we have a barn and a covered area that we can go to if it's wet out.  There's even a wash rack if I need to coop him up in that (not sure if that would work, but hey...will do what I need to do!).

Depending on the weather, and how he's feeling, I MAY hop on for a quick jaunt around to see how he's feeling.  Heck, I -might- just even try him out on the rocky side of the property to see how he's feeling!! 

Slowly.  We'll go slow.

And, having talked with my farrier (not the shoer), I think I'll alter my plans for Shanghai at the end of the month.

Back to back LDs again.  As she pointed out, lots of angle changes, and keep an eye on that suspensory just in case.

And, we're probably not QUITE fit enough for my big goal of 50/25 for end of March.  But we'll be there for April.

So, much as I want to chase the points at a place I know I can do it, and do it well, we'll hop on board just to fine tune and make sure we're REALLY all the way back.

And, to be honest...while he would have done it.  While WE would have done it...maybe we're not where we need to be just yet.

Not 100% on the Back to Back LD track....but about 96% sure that's what I'll be doing.

Mail fairy delivers the goodies!!!

This won't be a long post. 

I got NOTHING done with the horses this past weekend.  Literally NOTHING and I'm mildly vexed by that.  It seems like life keeps kicking me in the crotch whenever I make plans to get riding done.  So, this week, no negotiating with the hostage-taker named "Life", I -will- go ride Friday.

Well, I guess life took me hostage Mon-Thur. 

I digress.  FRIDAY I SHALL RIDE!!!

Why?

Well, because BOTH of these showed up on the same day.

Ground Control shoe on the left and Scoot Boot on the right!

Close up of the bottom of the Ground Control shoe.

The screams of joy as I opened up the box of my Scoot Boots and the big envelope with my gorgeous turquoise shoes bounced off the walls.

The GC APPEARS so flexible to me in the photos online.  Don't ask me WHY I think that, but I do!  But, while there's some "give" to it, it's really fairly rigid. 

I was also HAPPILY shocked that when I got my Scoot Boots, it comes with ALL the colors of pastern straps!  Well, ALMOST all.  They've JUST introduced orange and red.  So, I can make "rainbow" boots if I so desire (guess what?  I desire!). 

I was going to go riding today, but...I haven't been sleeping well the past two nights and I'm kind of a zombie at work today.  Now, I literally was going to get my saddle "Just in case", but I realized, when I'm this tired, I'm a poor rider.  Well, worse than normal.  And that's just not fair to my horse, now is it?

So, tonight I will go to bed early so I can go riding tomorrow.

Haven't heard back from MM's shoer to confirm our Saturday morning appointment for Operation Shoe Installation.  But, I'm still on track to assume that's what we're doing.  Which means an early morning Saturday for me as I go out there well over an hour prior to the appointment to pull Strider off all food.  Then somehow figure out how on earth to get Demosedan under his TONGUE (how on earth does one achieve that?!). 

As long as it takes the edge off of him, I do so hope that this will be successful.  I'll leave him be on Sunday (unless I can sneak away in that brief amount of time I have before Joe has to go to his Sunday work gig), but will go ride him on Tuesday to see what we've got.

Tomorrow, I pull Dakini out to slap her Scoots on then go for a jaunt!!

Measuring and ordering our "dancing shoes"...

So, due to the vicious rains we had on Sunday night (tornado warnings, 60 mph straight line winds, hail, etc...yeah, storms were BRUTAL Sunday night!), MM rescheduled her shoer to come do her horses. 

Which means my schedule to have Strider sized for his shoes ALSO got pushed to Wednesday.

Which was fine with me.  I had things to do around the house Monday (though beyond grocery shopping, don't ask me WHAT I did, because I think I pretty much managed to get a whole lotta nada done!).

And, fetching my horse out of a mud pit at the barn didn't exactly appeal to me.

So, on Wednesday after work I shot out to the barn, both to watch MM's shoer do her horses and to get measured.

Educational experience.  I honestly had never watched a shoe being put on a horse.  And MM's shoer is very patient (not that MM's horses are naughty) and fast and efficient. 

I had the foresight to print out the Ground Control measurement brochure, so we were able to measure according to that, and the shoer says 0's all around. 

I finally swallowed my nerves and asked him what it would cost.  $100 all around since I'm supplying the shoes.  Well then, so in mid-stream I changed my plan from just shoeing fronts to go ahead and do it all the way around.  The extra insurance on the backs won't hurt me.  And, might benefit us long-run.  So, 4 new shoes. 

So, almost as soon as I got to work on Thursday, I was on the Ground Control website (www.plastichorseshoes.com) and ordered 6. 

I have no idea if that was smart or not.  My thinking goes like this:
I'll be using the first 4 all brand new.  I'll carry the spares in my trailer in case something happens when I'm at ride camp.  Invariably I'm sure that if I lose one at a ride, I can find someone to reapply a shoe for me. 

And, if after an initial set and re-set, the fronts shoes will probably be worthless, so they'll get tossed.  But, the rears -might- last longer.  If I can get a set and 2 re-sets out of them, then, in THEORY that means that the 6 shoes I've ordered will last me through the end of May.

Which means I've now jinxed myself.

Now I'm neurotically watching the USPS site to track my new shoes!!!