Strawberry Fields Forever/Easy Boot Gloves

Howard Kent and his terrific volunteers and vets put on a fabulous ride in the picturesque mountains near Heber City, Utah every year. I would have to say it's quite a difficult course but well worth the effort. The scenery is hard to beat! This year it rained heavily making it particularly hard going. As usual Flambeau and I encountered those challenges that always teach us invaluable lessons. As usual I met old and new friends to share special moments with and create the many stories I bring home with me. And as usual many strange things happened! Here is just one.

My Opportune Meeting with 'Mr. Easyboot' Right on the Trail at just the Right Time!!

I'm obviously passionate about Endurance Riding. Apart from meeting my husband Mernie, it's the best thing that's happened to my equine orientated existence. However, I'm happy to say that I'm even more passionate about keeping my horses barefoot and healthy right from the ground up. I trim my own horses and use Easy Boots to help protect their hooves; those precious structures that faithfully carry both of us everywhere we want to go. Flambeau is a hot- headed, easily wound up racing machine. We refer tosome of his gymnastic maneuvers as "the Flambeau Flip!" I'll have to admit I too can get pretty competitive and loopy at times. So I've had a love hate relationship with hoof boots and their tendency to be launched into orbit by my plunging and lunging Flamboyant Arab. Thankfully, trial and error has led me to the Easy Boot Glove. Flambeau is a great test pilot for hoof boots or anything else us humans try to attach to him. He can throw a boot so far off the trail you'll need an aircraft or maybe a sniffer dog to retrieve it! He takes off so fast he leaves a hole in the ground. Strawberry Fields Forever Endurance Ride in Utah this year was the real test. Mud, slush, rocks, rocks and mud, slushy, rocky water crossings, straight up, straight down, bogs left right and in between. Did they stay on? Almost! His back left popped off right when he was really wound up and racing with the hot shots. Bummer! I stopped to get off and fix it and, with riders going passed him, you can imagine just what a rodeo that was! Flambeau was spinning around with me chasing this near back hoof in a futile effort to remove the boot when a voice call out,
" Need help?"
"Yes", I replied, "this bloody boot has come off!"
Can you believe it, it was Garrett Ford, Mr Easyboot himself,
He kindly and expertly put the boot back on and advised me i needed a size smaller.He then ensured me he'd fix that problem back in camp; which he did. Off I rode through the muck .
I ended up riding one hundred miles with ones on the front and 0s on the rear through the most horrendous mud you can ever image and they DID NOT BUDGE! I was starting to think Flambeau was simply a horse impossible to keep booted. I now know that's not true.
Garrett showed me he how it requires technique rather than strength to apply the boot and how important it is to have a really snug fit in such adverse conditions.
I love the Easyboot Glove. They're light, durable, easy to apply and remove and they look great! Thank you Garrett for coming to my rescue and providing me with a product I can depend on through hell and high water!

Wyoming Pioneer 2009

Flambeau won both his rides in Basin Wyoming this week end. See him here showing off for the cameraman Ross Tolman (son of Jeanette the ride manager). I rode all three days (125 miles). Friday saw me aboard Dorothy Sue's handsome pinto, Dandy Fella coming 3rd in the 50. Flambeau did a 50 and a 25 miler. It rained and the last 8 or so miles of the 25 had us wallowing in (bentonite ) mud. Really snotty stuff. The horse were sliding around like drunken sailors!
I travelled with Bonnie Swiatek, Gary Brown and his lovely wife Mary. Gary and Bonnie rode all three days and snagged all the best condition awards. Yay!
I adore the Tolman rides! They are super friendly, well organised and a ton of fun!
Flambeau liked the grass!!!

The Kenlyn Urban Challenge, 2009

Hey, I'd love to get some comments just so i know people are reading my blog.And don't forget to click on images to enlarge them. R
Super Crewer Chris Compton took these photos. Here I am just changing the oil and doing regular maintenance after a long ride. Everything seems to be in good order. The blanky was a big hit and serves to conceal nicely what I'm really doing!!
Looking and moving out nicely at the end of 50 miles plus probably more than that the night before! Scroll down for more details about the latter!! Don't forget to comment and click on images to make them larger.
Quietly standing the evening before the ride minding his own business.

This year's Kenlyn Urban challenge Endurance Ride in Aurora Colorado was fantastic as usual but certainly not uneventful. Well not the evening before anyway. I arrived Friday about 2.30 pm with plenty of time to set up and relax. Bonnie Swiatek arrived around the same time and we hung out together before each returning to our trailers to endure the damp cold night. I finally got warm by pretending to tread water in my sleeping bag and nodded off around 10pm about the same time I heard a CRASH! I leaped up and looked out not fast enough to see what had happened.Through the darkness i thought i saw some horses racing off and know i saw........NO FLAMBEAU and a torn down electric pen. There was to be no sleep tonight! I grabbed a halter and some grain and trekked off meeting a few others and Tennessee Mahoney, the other marauding horses' owner. We headed off down the road and found her electric coral strewn along the road by the golf course. Bad sign! That horse was probably frenzied. No horses insight but more bad signs. A heavy cable fence had been practically ripped out of the ground and knocked over with horse hair all over the place. Grey horse hair!!! Someone said there was blood but it was dark and i was hoping that information was erroneous.
Ken Fisher came along on his four wheeler ( Linda was convinced this was all a horrible dream so thought it best to stay in bed and send Ken instead .Good thinking on Linda's part.) I hopped on the four wheeler then Sophie, a Kenlyn trainer hopped on and we searched the area along with Dave in his vehicle and I think a lady called Karen was kindly helping too. Remember it's dark and everyone is dressed for the cold so excuse me if i get the names and faces mixed up.
So we all wandered around walking, wheeling, whistling and wailing in the darkness. Within two hours we found one of Tenny's horses and Flambeau amazingly in one piece. I was expecting to pick up all the pieces and take him home in plastic bags. Tenny's horse was lame with road rash and her one other horse Magnum was still at large.The police were informed and apparently alerts and road blocks set up. By this time four of us had saddled up horses and were riding in the darkness. It was passed midnight. The weird think is, they had split up. Flambeau was spotted racing up and down a fence line whooping it up in true Falmbeau style while the other horse was found somewhere else. Goodness knows where the third horse was! We rode for hours with no sign of him. At around 2.30am we called it quits. (Oh and somewhere in there the lovely big horse Gus, I was riding got caught in barbed wire but was sensible enough to let me untangle him diverting another potential wreck. Lovely well behaved horse in spite of the fact he could knock your fillings out with his trot. ) I went and collected my wayward Arab and tied him to the trailer where he happily, and noisily ate for the small remaining hours before daylight. It was around 3am by this time and I dosed off thinking there's no way we are going on the 50 tomorrow.
Then as i tried hard to sleep though the bumping of Flambeau's big nose on the trailer as he savaged his hay I thought, ya know that bugger is doing that 50 miles and if he tells me he's tired i don't want ta hear it!!
The vet passed him and we went, had a fantastic ride, came in 2nd in my division and 4th over all. The best news is Tennessee's horse was found during the ride and although lame I don't think it was seriously injured. I need to find out more.
As for what started it, it's still a mystery. One person thought they saw two horse plough through, or at least come very close to ploughing through, Flambeau's coral and the rambunctious Arab went whoopee!
Someone else said they saw a grey horse plough through Tennessee's horses' coral and they all went whoopee!! Anyway, they ran amok and any one who has horses knows to expect the unexpected at any minute.Poor Tennessee, she's really had her fair share of incidents lately and I'm wishing for a big change in her luck for the better here on. (I emailed T and her horses are fine and she's off to the next ride. She actually considers herself 'lucky' under the circumstances and would like her luck to stay where it is. Good way of looking at it)
As Mernie has always said horses, from the time they are born they are bent on committing suicide. We just have to make sure they don't take us with them!

All this aside. Thanks to those people who helped us find our horses and thanks to Linda, Denise, her family, the vets and all those volunteers for putting on a great ride as always. See y'all in September.

More pics and editing to come.
Leg injury. Only took the hair off.
Shoulders . Not much more than scratches.And he has a few more little nicks and bumps.NO BLOOD!

Flamingo

Flambeau and Domingo = Flamingo. See them with their new toy.

more cartoon commissions

The same mob who had me do the award cartoons are putting together a set of four anagrammed mugs. They send me the anagram and I (with the witty assistance of hubby ) think of an image. I love this kind of work. It's quick and doesn't take me away from horse work for too long.
YEE HAH!!!

Finley the Foot Foot Fan

This is Finley Cole Younger. A most satisfied customer intensely watching the Brothers Foot for the umpteen time. He also has the CD and the Book and is driving everyone crazy with it. It the nicest way of course. To see and hear it for yourself go to www.footfootsong.com

IT'S OUT

Yay!!!! The Brothers Foot BOOK just became available yesterday!! Here's how to order. Go to any of these websites.
http://www.authorhouse.com/bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=58833

www.stevecormeymusic.com
www.footfootsong.com
www.stevecormey.blogspot.com
Stay tuned for 'The Dance!'
I can't think of a better gift for Easter and its 'calorie free!'
And NO this is not an April Fool's Joke!!!