Submitted by Karen Bumgarner, Team Easyboot 2012 Member
Go back through the endurance time tunnel, way back, to 1977: my first year of endurance riding. I was fresh off the racetrack, Thoroughbreds and ponyhorses. And it was my Appaloosa outride and ponyhorse that I hauled to Vale, OR for my very first AERC ride, the Oregon Trail Endurance Ride. Most of the time my ponyhorses were barefoot and I trimmed my own. But for an endurance ride I found a plater to put on a set of steel training plates and leather pads on Sunny. There were no “cowboy” shoers available as we called them.
That ride was a big 50 mile loop and at 40 miles I cut out the the ragged remains of my leather pads with a pocket knife. At the finish Sunny’s plates were so thin a guy could have shaved with them. This ride was my first introduction to Easyboots. A few people used them over shoes. Hmmmm, have to check into that. I also needed to learn a better way to carry water, that water tank stuff didn’t taste very good. But it was better than nothing. We lived without a lot of frills back then, but that’s another story.
Sunny Spots R and myself at Mt Burney ride, 1978, in California with his Easyboots. Hughes photo.
At one of the rides I met Neil and Lucille Glass and I got myself some Easyboots. We had a lot to talk about because Neil rode a big Appaloosa gelding too. Good times, as I look back on the many people I met in the early days of the sport.
I used the old style Easyboot on the front of Zapped+/ over his shoes on the multi-day rides for added rock protection. I always carried one for a “spare tire” and often loaned my boots out to others in need.
Andi and me riding Fort Schellbourne in 2000. Andi rode SH Frisky Affair who lost a shoe in the hind and we booted her bare hoof to finish. Zap had them on his fronts over shoes.
I wasn’t always the fastest rider but we often went a lot of miles. Sunny Spots R completed 4,410 AERC miles, Moka’s Pat-A-Dott 5,515 miles, Zapped+/ 6,480 miles. Often with Easyboots over shoes. As I look back, I think I should have used them over shoes a lot more often than I did.
Fast forward to just a the 90s when Garrett Ford purchased Easycare, Inc and improved upon Neil’s design of Easyboots, with Bares and the Epics, then the Edge. And then what I think is the greatest of all, the Glove. I had tried to use the other models full time when riding, but for various reasons they just didn’t quite work out.
But the Glove. Ah, love the Glove. Easy to apply, easy to fit, easy for me to become even more independent. I love independence
Z Summer Thunder getting his 3,000 miles at Owyhee Canyonlands, Steve Bradley photo.
The horses that I have today have completed most of their rides in Gloves or Glue-Ons. The problems encountered with the Gloves have been few and far between, and it seems as though Easycare or a Team Easyboot member is always there to help us think it through. A huge thanks for that.
Z Blue Lightening, getting his 1,000 miles at Owyhee Halloweenies, another Steve Bradley photo.
Could we have done the miles without Easyboots of any kind over the years? Maybe yes maybe no. I do know that with using boots that my horses have less leg filling after the rides because the frog can still circulate blood through the hoof. The hoof can also flex, contract and expand just as it does when barefoot without a boot. I am very happy to tell you that my horses have healthy happy hooves and no problems, and I have no intention of returning to shoes. You just can’t beat a recipe that helps keep a good horse sound for the miles.
Karen Bumgarner
