Catch The Wave! Riding the Descanso 50 in San Diego County

I finally got to take Far to his first 50 in the Easyboot Glue-Ons on Saturday. This was to be the biggest experiment so far in the five-week transition. It was a resounding success: my ride this weekend confirmed this set-up as one that works well - even for a layman like me.

We had some challenges during the glue-on process on Thursday night because we ran out of tips to apply the Equi Pak glue around the top of the boot. It was a simple case of thinking there was another bag of tips in the box, when there were actually none left. The result was having to use our fingers to apply the bead of glue around the top of three boots. It worked just fine, but it did not look as professional.

Descanso is a six hour drive from home and is located in the mountains 45 miles east of San Diego at an elevation of 3,400 feet. We arrived at base camp early Friday afternoon; let the horses eat and drink for a few hours before vetting in, then prepared the two out check bags for ride day. The Glue-Ons were staying on nicely, but I was apprehensive about being caught out on the trail with a lost boot. The race was one long loop out of camp with three out vet checks, two of which were in the same location. Since Far wears a different sized boot on the front versus the hind, I packed two spare Easyboot Gloves in my saddle pack and two additional spares in each of the two out check crew bags. I would not need them, as it turned out.

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