Submitted by Gene Limlaw
I went to the Foxcatcher 50 in Fairhill, Maryland a couple of weeks ago. The natural resource area is a 5,633 acres and is used for a variety of equine and non events. It consists of lovely hay meadows and wooded trails. There are some rocky all up and down rolling hills scattered with overpasses, underpasses and covered bridges. It is simply park like.
Being pretty good footing I figured I could get away with front boots only. I decided to glue on Thursday before we left. I had picked up my glue products the day before at the local trail tack shop. I got Grace prepped and ready to glued on her first boot. Half way through it I ran out of Adhere. So I grabbed the new package and ripped it open. Wait a minute when did they put a red label on it. Oh dam, I got Sole-guard instead! Now as I said I have one boot half on. Well I decided to use this as a experiment and finished with the Goober glue to seal it.
Now for the other foot. I just used the Goober Glue. I do like the fact that you don’t have to rush as much as with the Adhere. This product takes longer to set up so I left her tied for about 15 minutes or so. Then I put a wrap of plastic wrap around the foot and duct-taped it to keep any hay or mud off. Then I turned her out and figured I would see what we had in the morning.
Come morning all looked good and off to the ride we went. It is about a 9 hour drive from here and we spent 45 minutes in traffic crossing the Delaware Bridge, but we got there and got all checked in and ready for morning. The footing at Fairhill was pretty heavy soil and we had a couple rain storms then it rained pretty steady most of the night. So I figured it could be a interesting ride. Also they had about a 150 entries between the 50 and the LD.
The first loop was 24 miles and about 3/4 of the way through I came a across a paved road and heard that familiar sound of a foot with no boot on. I looked down and she had lost the left front. Lucky for me the footing was mostly soft so I just finished the loop and vetted through with nothing on that hoof.
I slapped on a Glove and finished the rest of the ride with no problem. The boot I lost was her left with Adhere and Goober Glue. the completely GG one stayed perfectly. And it came off easily when the ride was over and it was time to remove. I figure I did not have enough adhere to seal out the foot is the real reason it sucked off in the muck. But I decided to not panic and just went with it and it all turned out great.
So when you’re at the tack store getting supplies and knock the Vettec rack over when picking up your products remember to take a second look and make sure you have the right stuff to do the job you want. And if you don’t, don’t panic, be flexible and it will be okay. I may do some gluing with just the Goober Glue as it is so easy to remove.
Happy Trails.
Gene Limlaw
Weathersfield, Vt
