So What's Up (or Down) With The Easyboot?

Sierra is barefoot, 7x365. Just before a recent recreational trail ride, I commented to her owner how Sierra would (rather determinedly) move from one side of the trail to the other, often running into my leg to stay straight. I thought this to be an effort to avoid stones and gravel, and the generally hard footing here in the mountains, and suggested that perhaps she should be shod. The owner asked if I had ever tried an Easyboot Glove, that she just happened to have, but really hadn't used much. I'd never used Easyboots except for medical purposes, but said "Sure, let's see what happens".

Not 100 yards down the road, I was astounded. Not only did Sierra realize she no longer had to avoid the stones, but her neck and head magically went into the frame I'd been asking her to hold for the last several weeks - on loose rein! Sierra was never bad at holding frame, but would inexplicably "pop" her head occasionally, causing me to ask her to re-frame.

That's all completely, 100%, in the past. Now, I know that Sierra was apprehensive about stones, perhaps running into them sometimes. No more head-pops, she holds a low and collected frame on her own all the time, and increased traction on hard surfaces is a bonus.  Also, the "gloves" do not apparently affect break-over.

I don't actually know, but I suppose rubber shoes might accomplish the same thing - but those would have to be changed every six weeks, and the Glove needs to be replaced only when the tread wears out - replacing just the screw-attached sole once or twice a year (depending on mileage, wear-n-tear).

I'm completely sold on "Gloves".

Sierra Adventures

So I'll start with my star project... Sierra.  I met Sierra in late October 2011.  She's a Morgan, a brood mare from a well-known local Morgan farm. Through a series of different owners, she wound up with my current client, who requested we work on an easy canter. Easy enough, but what followed has amazed us all...

As I'm given to do, I first taught Sierra initial language skills using SATS technology... the four cardinal directions of left, right, up, and down. Total elapsed time 120 minutes, divided into three days of two twenty-minute sessions per day. The three following days, we did ground-training: learning body parts, targeting my dressage whip with her newly named body parts. By day-six she had the basics (on ground) of shoulder-in, leg yield, step up, back, leg-lift, and turn on the forehand.  During this time she began to communicate with me... she has a sometimes-bothersome allergy that irritates her distal sinus cavity and that her bit, gentle though it was, bothered her upper palate.

The allergy is a chronic thing I can't do much about, but the owner is administering herbal therapy that has seemed to help.

My favorite-bit-ever, a loose ring french snaffle didn't fit her, so I fell back to my next favorite, a loose ring hollow mouth snaffle.  No more head tossing, and she clearly communicated in five different tests that she preferred the feel of the hollow-mouth to the curved-mouth eggbutt she was using.

With these problems out of the way, we began learning the basic skills of dressage... bareback at first, and then translating ground-learned vocabulary to in-saddle cues. At six-weeks she had all the movements of a level-III test except the flying change, which more recently, she has demonstrated she can perform with ease.

So there's the Reader's Digest version of Sierra.  From here out I will blog her progress, with a slight detour to my experience with Easyboots (next blog).

Although a veteran I.T. professional, I have to admit I've never ventured into blogging.  Here goes... I'll try to keep it relevant and interesting, with no guarantees.  This blog will be about my adventures in the horse training and boarding worlds.  Welcome to the "King of Games" blogosphere.