Suzy is an 8yr old black clydesdale/appaloosa cross. She had some sort of accident in her earlier years that resulted in damage to her coronet on the inside near front hoof. The incident went undetected until she came to us, and the “feathers” were lifted for a trim. We found that she had very little hoof wall over her inside quarter and it continually breaks away.

Holding a shoe on this foot is a nightmare, and with a little bit of convincing from me, we decided to try her in some boots.

We had her fitted and found the easyboot gloves did not come in her size. She had a round foot that measures nearly 150mm in both length and diameter. Our fitter recommended Easyboot Epics. Suzy completed the 40km, however we experienced untold mishaps with the boots.

Five km’s out the boot (on her bad foot) came undone, and it seemed every few km’s we were getting off to do up the boot again. At the 15km mark we called for help. In our request for help we asked for some paper clips, tape and pliers. I found an environmentally friendly bag in the rescue cars and cut that up and stuffed that down the back of the boot as the gator appeared to have moved from sitting over the boot to having a big gap. I used the paper clips to put through the holes at the clip on the front (I believe there are special clips for the Epics, to stop the clip from lifting, but we did not receive any with the boot) The paper clips did the trick with only one more incident at the 30km mark where one of the paper clips on the back boot broke and allowed the clip to open.

An examination of the boot with our fitter after the event found that gator had given way and a new gator was needed. I also expressed that I could not seem to get the boot tight enough and it was decided that shorter wires might do the trick. Size 3 wires were supplied and I volunteered to fit the new gator and wires.

I watched the videos, read the instructions and it took me 2 hours to get the new gator and the smaller wire on the boot. I must admit I was never into meccano sets or even lego for that matter. Changing the wire on the other 3 took me about 15 minutes per boot. Very fiddley.

Will be giving them a test run tomorrow.

Barefoot was not something I had considered and had just assumed from childhood that if you were riding distance or going over rough ground then you should put shoes on your horse. This same childhood experience quickly showed me that if I did not have shoes on, then my horse often finished up lame. I had no mentor or other information available to me, nor did I seek other information, to challenge this belief.

What an eye opener the barefoot clinic was. This whole new world opened up before me. Suddenly I found myself watching whether a horse landed heal first, paid particular attention to hoof angles and heel height. Quickly I discovered that I had been very naive and I set about changing that status.

The clinic showed me how to trim to natural parameters, and gave me a good overview of the dynamics of the horses hoof and leg. Further research at home mainly on the internet led me to some amazing sites and barefoot trimmers and advocates such as Pete Ramey and John the Vet along with Barefoot for Soundness, Natural horse trim and the Strausser method of trimming. I’ve spent countless hours pouring over this information to the point where my partner finds it very rare to find me on the computer without at least 5 websites up with information about horses feet!

I am in the fortunate position where I have access to 10 sets of feet practice my new found skills on and now that the endurance season has commenced it was a natural progression to move into hoof boots. I had been training barefoot, but the terrain I train on compared to the terrain where the endurance rides are held are chalk and cheese. Home terrain is soft lush grassy laneways and fields, endurance country is rocky and mountainous, riding this country without protection on a horse not trained on it is asking for lameness.

So a few weeks ago a trained professional barefoot trimmer came in and measured us up for boots. I was very pleased when she commended my hoof care, it was a real buzz. We fitted two horses for easyboot gloves and one for easyboot epics. The only reason we went epic for the other was because gloves dont come in size 4! The horse in question is a clydesdale appaloosa cross and has big feet.

I will be capturing each horse’s progress in boots in further articles.

On 19 April 2009 the Kuranda Endurance Ride was held at Tolga.

Jameel and I came in first and completed the course in 6 hours 25 minutes and went on to take out fittest horse in the Open Weight division.

This is the first time Jameel or I have won fittest horse, so I thought a photo was in order of the perpetual trophy.

I did not take a camera with me on this ride, so there are no photos taken from horseback this time. There are some images that I have put into the gallery that have been extracted from video that was taken.

The course was easy compared to the rides held at Wondecla, for one thing there was only one gate for the whole 80km, that is a bonus specially when your horse is tall and your not. The weather was perfect and the ground firm.

The stats:
Vet score - total 168 points
Heart rate score - 17
Surface factors - 7 out of 10
Appearance - 8 out of 10
Gaits - 24 out of 30

Time score
Maximum 200 points

Weight score - total 67 points
The heaviest rider weights minus riders weight, subtracted from 100

The North Queensland Endurance Riding Season has commenced, with the first ride being held at Wondecla on March 29 2009. Wondecla is a small town on the Atherton Tablelands that has abundant state forest and incredible ride trails.

Barry & I competed in the full ride, being 82 kilometers.
We were first over the line, and successfully vetted through.

Jameel was again the ‘camera horse’ and some good pictures were taken from his back, his ears can be seen in many of the endurance ride pictures I have taken, which are in the photo gallery.

The full endurance ride commenced at 6am and the weather was kind, which is a bonus in Wondecla as it can be freezing, however I guess that had something to do with the time of the year as well.

We were about 4km out and I noticed that Jameel appeared a bit fresh giving a couple of pig roots and jumping around a bit, when we were 5km out and Barry says “Stop, you have to stop and get off” I thought that’s strange so I stopped and jumped off, only to find my girth had come undone and flapping around his legs. No wonder he was jumping around.

We caught up with the riders that had passed us around the 20km mark and continued on to make good time. I finished the 82km in 7 hours 1 minute.

The terrain for the two legs was hilly, but not as rough or as steep as some of the other tracks that Wondecla has to offer. I think they were being kind to us, given that it was the first ride for the season. I was pleased that it wasn’t any tougher because coming up to the 60km mark was tough for me, my knees, feet and thighs were hurting. At the 66km mark all I could think about was there was only 14km to go and that was less than our regular training circuit. Then I saw the 70km marker and that meant that in one kilometers time I would be in single digits and it would be over soon.

I didn’t tell Barry that I was totally over it at the 60km mark, how could I! He is 72 years and he wasn’t complaining! Barry Akers - you are incredible.

If you have come to this site as a result of Horse Deals magazine and are looking for more pictures of Barry’s horses listed in magazine, please go the Photo gallery

Stacy Westfall on the Ellen Degeneres Show 3/14/08 Part 1
Stacey Westfall part 1
Part 2
Stacey Westfall part 2

The season is drawing to a close as I write this with only 2 rides left up here.

We went to the Pioneer Endurance Ride held at Wondecla, Queensland. The Pioneer is a 5 days ride with riders able to compete in a marathon of 80km per day for 5 days, or choose between a 20, 40 or 80 km day on each and any day.

Go to the Photo Gallery to see more pictures.

To date 41 countries have qualified with either a team or an individual to compete at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Games.

Seven countries have a team qualified in all disiplines these countries are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and USA. Teams consist of a minimum of 3 horses and 3 riders per discipline.

Other Countries who also qualified a team for the Dressage are:
Denmark, Spain, Japan, The Netherlands & Switzerland

Other Countries who also qualified a team for the Jumping are:
Saudi Arabia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland & Ukraine

Other Countries who also qualified a team for the Eventing are:
France, Ireland, Italy & New Zealand

Other Nations being represented by Individuals for the Dressage are:
Antigua, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Finland, France, Italy, Korea, Mexico, South Africa & Russia

Other Nations being represented by Individuals for the Jumping are:
Argentina, Azerbajijan, Belgium, Bermuda, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Ireland, Jordan, Japan, Russia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, China/Hong Kong, Chile, Denmark, Jamaica, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Russia & Switzerland.

The Far North Queensland Endurance Riders Association second event called the Kuranda ride was held on 20th April 2008 in Tolga.
Since my last entry the horse I rode on the previous ride looks like he has been sold, so I rode another Arab named Bandito. Bandito is Barry’s preferred horse however an injury to his foot delayed his training. He is an experienced endurance horse and I found the ride very pleasant.

Annika rode Early again and completed successfully. Barry was Chief Steward and therefore didn’t ride. Deb rode the full 80km ride on the horse Barry rode in the previous ride, Metharina Mahzada (pronounced Mazarda) and was the first back, winning her division.

On the last weekend in March we attended our first endurance event for the year it was held in Herberton North Queenland Aust.
The one I mentioned previously was canceled due to copious amounts of rain.

Barry completed 80km and won his division, whilst Anika and I completed our 40km event. All the horses got through the vet check without any problems. Though having said that my horse who’s heart beat is usually quite low, was very unsure of the covered arena and all the other horses around him surprised me with a 52 heart rate on the Saturday to qualify for the event. To qualify they must have a heart rate less than 55 beats per minute. Ironically after he had completed his 40km and was near his own pen, his heart rate was down to 40, however once again when he got into the arena he managed to scrape in a pass with another 52 beats per minute.

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