20 MT - yes really, the last post

First, if you haven't check out Equine Ink's description of different types of horse people, run on over here and check it out. I'd say the endurance rider is spot on....

Here's some pics for 20 MT (that is, I would say, a GREAT reason to post yet another 20 MT post). Sorry, I don't have any pictures of ME, because although the boyfriends internet is working, his scanner is not.

First up - Renegades.

Is this pic, you can see the renegade fail....



BTW - isn't that sparkly yellow color divine?

Upon closer look, you can see where the cable failed. Where the cable attaches to the velcro holder, it just...snapped off.



As you can see, this boot has plenty of wear left as a conditioning book, so I think I'm going to take a cable off of one of my older boots and repair this. Next time I order renegades, I'm going to order a spare cable.



Below you can see where I ziptied the toe strap. This is the ONLY reason my boots stayed on in the muck.


Another shot of the failure.



Here's a pic of the boots at the ride. These are hind feet. It's hard to tell in this pic, but the pastern strap velcro has totally failed and has ONLY stayed in place because of the o-rings. Which is why I decided to ziptie the pastern straps on the hind boots at lunch - backup insurance. The hind boots take the brunt of the mud and grime so I felt like I needed it. I was confident the boots would stay on, that I was fine ziptieing the pastern strap, even though it would take more time to get the boot off if I DID have an issue.


Pic of the 3 boots that stayed on the entire race. One thing I did worry about was the extra weight all the mud added to the boots.....couldn't have been good for her legs.


close up of the boot that I replaced ~60 miles. all these pictures are at the finish (100 miles). As you can see the toe strap isn't even attached - and yet it still stayed on. The velcro was short (I hadn't adjusted the boot properly prior to the ride) so I couldn't get it through the o-rings. I did ziptie it, but it was not substitute for a properly adjusted strap.


The rest of the pictures are shots from the saddle, all between the 30 and 65 mile point.

There are few topics that, even after the previous verbose posts, I COMPLETELY forgot to mention. Amazing. So. Let's begin.




This should have gone into the Juicy tidbit post......I sorta lost my rider card. My rider card was in decent shape considering the weather. ie: the card was mostly readable even if chunks of it had disintegrated. It was in a sandwich baggie, I just didn't get the baggie closed all the way sometimes. At the dinner check I had the vet card in my hand. I vetted in. The vet filled in the card. I put it back in my hand. I went to camp. I said to myself "I really don't want to forget it", so I put it in my pocket.......I saddled up and went on my way.

I get to the 90 mile vet check. I realize it isn't the saddle bag pocket that I ALWAYS put it into. I told the vet I had lost my card on the trail. Something was nagging at me......I get to the finish. I tell them I lost the card on the trail. No problem. Something was nagging at me....

I wake up in the morning and put my hand in my pocket. There it is! *sigh* I did NOT tell ride management I was an idiot.


(Below - picture of hail in Farley's mane)


The rump rug! How in the world could I have forgotten to tell you about the rump rug? So although I've "used" it, I haven't really used it because it just doesn't get cold enough here. I used it at 20 MT and I'm pleased to announce that it worked VERY well. It was PERFECT. My strategy was to leave it down when it was raining and pull it up when it wasn't raining. I found I didn't even need to button it up - because it's fleece, when I pulled it up behind the saddle it stayed there. The double layer fleece worked perfectly and even without a waterproof cover kept her rump muscles dry and warm. I credit the rump rug for the solid "A's" I got all ride on muscle tone. It's just big enough to give coverage without being bulky. I give myself a solid A+ on this project.

I just washed it this afternoon and I'm VERY pleased to see that it came out of the wash just as good as it went on - it was completely handstiched so I wasn't sure what the result would be.....


So remember the "wall" I told you Farley "hit" around mile 75 or so? I just downloaded the GPS map of that loop......and coincidentally that big "wall" was actually a HUGE, GIANT, LONG hill. LOL. Funny what the dark does to your perspective....I didn't even really notice how steep it was even when I got off to walk part of it!





That's it folks. I really mean it. :)