Submitted by Stacey Maloney, 2014 Team Easyboot Member
Back before the snow hit the ground a good friend and I set out on an adventure to the west, into the foothills of Alberta in search of new trails to condition our distance horses on. With guide book in hand we arrived in the Sibbald Flats area of the Kananaskis Provincial Park at the Cox Hill Trail Head. Now the book did say steep elevation gains, parts of the trail were quite severe and that only fit horses need attempt the ascent. We naively set out with the though of “how bad can it be”, “we’re seasoned distance riders” and “there’s no way this has anything on the difficulty of the Rattle Snake Round UP CTR trail we just completed”. Oh silly girls.
The trail did in fact go up, up and UP some more. Cox Hill was indeed a mountain and the way to the top was once a lovely hiking and riding trail but now due to recent flooding had sections washed out and resembling more of a goat trail on this day. Lucky I had my most trusted mountain steed with meet booted with my most trusted Easyboot Epics.
We spent 4-5 hours out there climbing up and down. Though most of the trail was nice dirt there were some very steep sections of loose rock and shale and we spent about 2 miles each way on the gravel road getting to and from the trailhead.
This was definitely a trail not for the faint of heart and certainly not appropriate for horses without hoof protection. The grip of the Easyboot Epics allowed us to safely travel the rocky sections of trail and they always remain securely in place, never shifting of twisting on KC’s hooves.
My horses truly go everywhere in their Easyboot Epics. This year we’ve achieved our 500 mile patch in our Competitive Trail Riding club and that only counts our competition miles; many more miles are spent in preparation and pleasure on the trails, country roads and mountain sides.
Our future holds many more trips and miles with EasyCare protecting my horses feet and in the future we will heed the advice of the trail guide author – turns out she is no sissy!
