Monday, December 12, 2011

Fashionable accessories.

The leg work for Florida continues on.

Sinari got her shoes tacked on. For the last eight or nine years, we've gone barefoot, and competed successfully with nothing with what nature gave us, so the change was something that I had to think about.

Before hear the boo hiss of renegade hard-core barefoot people out there, I did it with a lot of thought in mind. First being keeping soundness during the year. In 2011 alone we've gone on more than 11 different surfaces, each one of them had their own challenges and features. Support was needed there.

Secondly, despite having a good hoof keeping her hooves from becoming bruised/sore/ect was a challenge during peak training times. The ground here changes rapidly from week to week especially in summer and being on different surfaces wear the hoof differently. She was literally wearing her hooves out. 

Finally, it was also a confidence issue. She just wasn't digging the pir's or mediums. I think she wasn't getting enough traction and re-directing the energy enough to really dig in and sit.

The change has been enormously positive she just motors in the mediums and has a bit more confidence in the collection. The compression is much stronger. This weekend on a new surface she dug in and was uphill, expressive and confident. The only thing that is lacking is the high gear fitness, she could only last maybe 10 minutes of intense work without a walk break.

Give it another three weeks and we can roll through a steady 4-1.

Entries also opened up for the Gold Coast opener. While I want to do Wellington, Ocala is turning out to be a more reasonable option as far as costs, move up scenarios and trailer time (10 minutes versus four hours). But then there's also the issue of scheduling, on the weekend of the Ocala show I have a Young Rider Graduate conference in Wellington, within the same week I may have a clinic to ride in as well.

So... choices. Either way we'll be stuck in a trailer, either way we'll be doing something.

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