The Seven Steps to Tevis Booted Success

Ali, Stoner and Far riding into Foresthill at 38.6 miles. Photo by Lucy Chaplin Trumbull.

The 2011 edition of Tevis was more successful than 2010 for Easyboot Glue-Ons. Of the 152 horse hooves that started the ride in Easyboot Glue-Ons, there was only one boot loss. That’s a 0.7% failure rate for Glue-Ons.

With the cool, damp temperatures during the week leading up to the event, we took extra precautions during our gluing sessions.

Here’s what we asked of each rider in preparation for their individual gluing appointments:

1. Bring a well-trimmed horse.
2. No oils or hoof conditioner on the feet or hooves.
3. Refrain from washing the horse before with shampoo. The oils from the shampoo run down the legs and coat the feet.
4. No fly spray on the feet and hoof walls.
5. If it’s raining, keep your horse in the trailer or stall with shavings. We may glue inside your trailer or stall. Don’t unload in the rain or wet. Find us first and we’ll agree on a plan together.
6. Keep your boot shells dry and clean. Do not to handle them with bare hands, be especially careful not to touch the inside of the boot shell: oils from your hands stick to the boot.
7. Don’t glue the day before the ride: the glues will not set up quickly enough in the cooler conditions and the risk of boot loss will increase significantly.

So if you’re gluing in cool, damp conditions, you should follow the above protocol. The one boot loss that did take place was on a horse that we did not glue ourselves.

1. In last week’s blog, ‘5 Facts About Easyboots at Tevis 2011‘, I listed the finishing riders who used Easyboot Glue-Ons, but missed the 84th place finisher, Frances Cole. Congratulations to Frances, and to Leslie Carrig of High Desert Hoof Care, who applied the boots for her.
2. Statistics and placing data include only those riders who have identified themselves to us as riding in Easyboot products. If you or someone you know is not included on this list, please send me a note. Tevis completion statistics taken from the Tevis Cup website at http://www.teviscup.org/webcast/finishline.php.

Next week: Step-By-Step: The Gluing Process for Tevis 2011.