Tevis 2012 - Great Finish For Booted Horses,

A Solid First Attempt For Barefoot

The Arabian Horse World Magazine wrote a nice article on the top 4 finishers, all representatives of Easy Care: The “Easy Team” Takes Top Four Places in the Western States 100-Mile Trail Ride"

One of those horse and rider teams, Rusty Toth and "Stoner", took home the Haggin Cup award for best condition - it was a great finishing for booted horses, over al!. There are two great stories on Easy Cares blog page. Here's the Tevis page with the link to the results.... http://www.teviscup.org/ a lot of these horses were booted.

Here's another link to Lynne Glazer's great Tevis 2012 Haggin Cup pictures, which catches the type of hoof protection used as well as showing some of the quality of movement in all of the top ten finishers. All of the top ten finishing horses looked great! Lynne has pictures of all or most of the Tevis teams on her site...

Barefoot is one thing, but Tevis 2012 Barefoot with no boots or shoes?

I found out a few weeks before Tevis that two riders asked for and received permission to ride Tevis barefoot. When I heard they were really going to try it, I made a point of connecting with them through David from Hoof Armor so that I could check the horses and their feet out even if they didn't complete the ride.

The riders were Heather Tolland and Tera Allen of the Redding CA area. I don't know what the approval process to ride Tevis barefoot is, what the requirements are, but I wanted to meet these two women and their horses.

They had a good start the morning of Tevis, and did get 55 miles, all the way to to Deadwood. They weren't pulled for lameness - which was very cool. I really wanted to see those horses feet! I love riding a barefoot horse, love distance riding and prefer riding barefoot to riding booted, but have always felt that we "need" hoof protection like boots for most rides, particularly for Tevis. But I keep an open mind about it because I know vets won't let a foot sore horse continue. My friend Darolyn Butler has completed many endurance rides barefoot... I was really curious about feet that could attempt this.

All of us who are into barefoot hoof care are.

So here are the pictures and some of the stories. I don't know much about their trimming history, just that Heather and Tera are friends, Heathers horse has always been barefoot and Heather taught Tera how to trim. They were riding barefoot because that's the only way they ride, and both have completed multi day rides with similar footing to Tevis barefoot.

Heather Tolland

Rickey is an 8YO Morab out of Heather's mare. He has never been shod, She attempted Tevis barefoot (2012) and pulled at Deadwood, 55 miles with a mild colic. Apparently the water ran out at the two water stops before Deadwood, and when they got to Deadwood, Rickey tanked up and either drank too much or too fast, and had a mild colic so was pulled. His feet were great and he was sound. He was fine not long after pulling.

He gained weight on the 55 mile leg of Tevis... The picture to the right is post-ride!

The first thing I noticed when I looked at his feet is that he has fantastic digital cushions and super broad heels for a domestically bred and raised horse. He always competes barefoot, has 555 AERC miles and has done the Moab multi-day

A Barefoot Riders Nightmare??

Horses that are ridden barefoot in some areas develop a thick durable retained sole that provides protection from rocks and gravel. To Heathers horror, Rickey shed this sole on all of his feet the day prior to Tevis! Fearing the worst and hoping for the best, Heather cleaned up his trim and went ahead with her plans to ride barefoot.

Rickey has feet like a mustang, he was fine on the tough tooting! His bars were a little prominent to the sole in these shots, but passive to the ground, and he was VERY sound the next day.

Tera Allen

Tera Allen's horse Jazz attempted Tevis barefoot and also got as far as Deadwood,55 miles. Tera pulled because the heat in the canyons got to her - they had Jazz checked and he got all "A"s on his vet card! He was definitely fit to continue.

David from Hoof Armor, LLC agreed ahead of time to help Tera put Hoof Armor on Jazz's feet to help give him an edge without booting. They applied the Hoof Armor the day before Tevis as well as adding another layer at one of the vet checks; I'm not sure which one. I've used Hoof Armor therapeutically, and what it seems to do is bond to the sole and help resist wear and help the foot retain calloused sole

If you want more information about Hoof Armor you can check their web site or contact David at david@hoofarmor.com

Jazz is trotting and Government Morgan bloodlines. He's had a variety of old injuries was shod in front for a few months, but Tera pulled his shoes as soon as she got him. e Tera has owned him. His legs aren't perfectly clean because of the old injuries, but he looks great.

When I look at these pictures, I remind myself that Tera isn't a professional trimmer. Her trim strategy is simple; she takes off any hoof she feels needs to go with an angle grinder. These feet aren't perfectly balanced the way I expect to have my trims be, but apparently that doesn't matter! These are SUPER strong and thick soled feet. Very healthy. I have some great feet in my practice but I don't know if any of my clients horses could keep up with this guy.

Tera says that she's clocked Jazz doing a 22mph trot down a gravel road! Super thick soles and very hard digital cushions, thick Lateral Cartilages too, but not hard and calcified. he has very thick sole.

He dislikes boots, complains as they go on and stumbled in them when Tera tried them, so he's gone barefoot since coming out of shoes. According to Tera "He did Wild West, 155 miles barefoot . He has 255 AERC miles, and this is our 3rd year of doing endurance. (1 year of LD's, last year 50s, and this year) He's also my eventer/jumper. :)"

I love his weight.... great looking horse!