A Big Hill and (#*$&!(#!#%&!!!!!

Yep. I said it. @(#$&%^Y!!! That's how I feel about my Easyboot Glove experience. Today I added Power Straps to the hind Gloves and wrapped her fronts (already Power-strapped) with Mueller Tape. I cursed and sang and did the BootStayOn Dance but it was to no avail. We crossed some water and then did a pretty epic hill, and first a hind boot failed and then a front. The hind boot was a weird fluke where the washer ripped through the boot so the hardware was still there but not actually attaching the two parts..then she sort of stepped on the front boot and sucked it off. I did up the gaiters tighter because lately the cheesy new Gaiter Velcro has been coming undone and my boots are just up and disappearing on the trail. I just went for it with powder in the gaiters and slick on the legs and Velcro-ed those suckers tight. Yep, you guessed it, her dainty ankles were rubbed pink after our (wet, steep) 9 miles. 

My riding buddy C is a good humored sort which is wonderful as I'm pretty much bi polar with the boots these days. Happily riding along chatting and then something happens to a  boot and all the past frustration boils to the surface again, I kinda change colors and steam may or may not pour out my ears as I dismount and deal with the booting issue..

My first attempt at taping..yeah..

Steed:

Heading off for the Big Hill:

Bottom of the Big Hill:

C and Sonny ready for the Hill:

Looking back down the hill from the top!

It was a good, sustained climb. We trotted for a bit and when their heart rates got too high (well, Sonny's, C was directing our progress as I don't care to use a heart rate monitor, too much crap to worry about for now) we slowed to a walk for a few minutes at most and then trotted on. I forgot my phone and my GPS kicked the bucket so I had no mileage or speed tracker and it made me twitchy. Become addicted to that stuff! Even my random mileage tracker phone app is better than nothing. But we did about 9 miles in 2 1/2 hrs. We hand walked the horses back down the hill and it was a good stretch of the legs.


Posing in the wild flowers at the top...You can just see Collins Lake and the valley in the gap of the trees behind my head, we could see the whole Butte Range and valley from the top of that hill!

The much cursed and beloved stream crossing. Cursed for the booting issues it causes and beloved for the horses to cool their toes and get a good long drink, as Desire did on the way back to the trailers..

I've had it with the Gloves. I'm glueing on for (hopefully) 2 50s at Hat Creek next week, and after that I'm trying out some used Renegades that are coming down the pipeline from a friend. If I like them she'll sell me the used ones. I've invested A LOT into the Gloves already and my husband is Over It. I am too though, and I've tried every conceivable thing to make the Gloves work, but it just isn't!

I got home and rage-mowed the lawn before I even went in the house. About halfway through I was tired and whiny and hungry and out of rage, but I had to finish, so there's that.