Last September, Curly and I attended an ACTHA ride at the Washington State Horse Park in Cle Elum, Washington. When talking about my favorite boot, I have a tendency to put the Easyboot Glove on a pedestal (figuratively speaking). At this ride, my friends Lynda Allan and Bonnie Davis came up with a fun way for Curly to show off our favorite boots on an actual natural pedestal. I had never asked Curly to step up on a tree stump before but I am always game to try new obstacles and so is my horse. It was a lot of fun and Curly was a trooper about it, even when the larger stump started breaking away under him. Below is a fun photo Lynda took at one of the “unofficial” obstacles we found on the trail in between the ACTHA obstacles.
The Gloves are a great choice for ACTHA because of the lack of external hardware. Curly had developed a way of hopping through some obstacles when he wore his Easyboot Epics. He quickly learned to trust the Gloves and to not worry about anything when approaching obstacles that include: walking through a pile of brush, walking over a tarp, trotting around the wagon wheel, passing through “the recycle” (a box made out of poles and filled with empty plastic water bottles that produce a crinkling sound). I really appreciate the tread pattern and the traction on his boots – it enables Curly to go over slick bridges, boardwalks, and planks (yes some of our obstacles seem like we are walking the plank), and through it all we can trust this boot to not hinder but to actually help us achieve higher scores while competing in ACTHA rides.
Martha Nicholas