At that point, I discovered he had too much flare to rough the hoof, so I gave him an even more diligent trim. 

After prepping his feet, I squirted a little Coppertox into his frogs to be safe. When I took the boots off, there was no thrushy smell - the boots just smelled a little like well-used athletic socks <pooh!>,

The Goober Glue is really sticky, so hard to smear. When you try, all that happens is it sticks to your finger and you smear it all over the outside of the boot and yourself by mistake.

Three boots on. 

Lots of goop on Roo's leg from him stepping out of the right front boot. As it turns out, even though he's been wearing 0.5 Gloves in front, that right front foot is his "small foot" and he should have been in an 0 all along. When we rode Cache Creek last month, the only real front boot failure was towards the end of the ride when he tripped and flipped that boot around to the front. Now I know why. More about this small foot later.

Another problem was notice how he's got his rear foot cocked. He did this a lot and each time he did it, the rear boot heel would slip off the the foot. And whenever I pushed on his butt to get him to stand square, he'd twist in a front boot. As a result of all that, I wasn't convinced the right rear boot was very well attached. When he walked on it while it was setting up, it made air-slurping noises...

But I was glad that we glued on Sunday so that I would a) be able to do a short but steep pre-ride on Tuesday evening to see if they stayed on and b) if they didn't stay on, I still had a few more days to glue them back on again... and back on again... and back on again...

At the time of gluing, I said that If this boot came off during the week, I would try the next size smaller. Predictably, later in the week I forgot all about this ... long, tough week at work, a bear of little brain.

After he stepped out of the front boot so easily and then the right rear seemed really slippery, we let the left rear cure longer before putting it on. At the time, it seemed relatively solid and I was more concerned about the right one (this is his "push off" foot and therefore the boot that usually twists off on the trail). Mayhap letting it cure too long was also a mistake .

It was hard to tell how much of the apparent toe-in of the boots was his actual toed-in-ness and how much from twisted boots, but upon rechecking, his left front was nicely centered, while the right front was slightly off <grrr>.

It's his smaller foot and I took off a bunch of flare just before putting the boot on, making it even smaller (nice trim job, though). 

Plus, as mentioned above, the boot is slightly twisted. At this point, I thought that this one might have to come off and be re-glued before the weekend.

Day 2 consisted of even more vertical climbs, riding for several miles in the river bed, crossing and crossing again through the river, followed by more vertical climbs, followed by more vertical descents, followed by more vertical climbs - repeat.

9,600+ feet of climbing... 

Walking the last part to the top of the hill after the Glue-on failure,
looking back to make sure the Glove is properly seated.

(*The "tired, well-used Gloves" had actually not done very many miles, but suffered badly on our excursion on CA Loop, preriding some Tevis trail. I was ecstatic that they stayed on so well - finally a boot that Roo couldn't twist off on uphills, but unfortunately now I had to remedy a toe-dragging problem.)

And I'm pleased to report that the Glove stayed on very nicely, despite still having a few steep climbs to do. There was a downside of having to carry a bunch of spare boots "just in case" (OK, so again, OCD - I had two front Gloves, two back Gloves and a pair of back Renegades, "just in case"), but this being the first attempt, I wasn't sure what to expect.

At the lunch vet check, I'm sorry to say I was remiss in checking under the gaiter for crud, and equally remiss about remembering to put on a pastern wrap (little strip of neoprene velcroed around his leg). He seems less prone to rubbing in the back and didn't rub at all on the spare back Glove he wore at Cache Creek, so I think that's why I got complacent.

Having finished Loop 2 in the Glove, it was another ten miles or so into the next loop before I happened to glance down and notice that, uh, if I didn't replace that back Glove soon, he was going to come through the front of the boot. Oops. At the next trough, I switched it out with the other, equally worn, spare Glove and we finished the ride like that. And not wanting him to be lopsided, I actually left the Glove on until Monday morning when I finally prised the left rear Glue-on off - and realised he had a rub on his pastern from the gaiter. Sorry Roop. Next time I'll do better.

The two-days at Cooley Ranch turned out to be one of the hardest rides I've ever done, so in terms of a Tevis try-out, it was excellent. I couldn't have asked for more extreme climbs to see how well the Glue-ons would work.

Post-Ride Inspection After Removal

Using a large flat-head screwdriver taking the boots off wasn't hard - although they were still very tightly attached. I removed them while Roo was wandering around loose, grazing, and only once did I inadvertently prise too hard on the side of the hoof wall. To avoid this, you have to jam the screwdriver down the side all the way to the bottom and then prise, so you're not levering on the hoof.

	Front boots - the Right Front was harder to remove and it looks like we got more glue in it. As we got to practice gluing throughout the week, the later boots seemed to get more glue in them - and any excess glue smooshed down into the bottom of the boot. This seems to have been a good thing - there was a inch wide strip holding the bottom of the boot on. There was some coarse sand in both front boots, esp. in the toes, although it wasn't enough to cause any problems (remember that we went through multiple creeks, including wading through one up to their bellies and spent several miles trudging through sand and gravel in the creek bed). Curiously, even though it was smeared there to start with, there didn't seem to be much glue in the quarter areas of the hoofwall on any of the boots. I'm not sure if it gets wiped off when you apply the boot or if the horse's movement just pushes the glue away from that area before it sets up. Both these boots will be cleaned up and reused. That said, it occurs to me that if I'm concerned that they won't get clean enough for re-gluing (worries about fresh glue not adhering properly to old glue?), I can just stick gaiters on them and use them as Gloves - the Goober Glue is rubbery enough that it won't cause any problems.
	Rear boots - notice how the left rear has way more glue in it - particularly on the bottom - compared to the right rear which twisted off. Next time more glue and I'm pretty sure it would stay on. Apart from the lack of toe material, these boots could also be reused - although probably just as Gloves with gaiters. No point re-gluing them on with no toes - although if they were glued on, would the lack of toes matter? The glue is nice and rubbery so any in the sole works as a cushion. Although Goober Glue a little time consuming to put on and I'd say needs some practice to perfect (<grin>), I really like the fact that any excess glue won't cause a problem in the boots. Although I have no experience with it, I understand the Vettec Adhere sets up a little harder.
	Left Front - you can see how the excess glue mounded up next to his frog.
	Left Front
	Left Rear - this shows why you should put oil or something on the horse's hair around the back - lucky Roop didn't mind getting some pulled out <gulp>. Again, plenty of glue in the bottom (we didn't put glue in the bottom when smearing it - the excess just got pushed down in there).
	Right Rear - this is the one that came off and comparing it to the others, I can't say I'm surprised - not enough glue. That said, it still stayed on for 60-70 miles with lots of extreme climbing which is pretty impressive.
	Right Front - I sat on my back deck yesterday afternoon and peeled glue off this boot with big and small flathead screwdrivers. It's now clean enough to re-glue (or put the gaiter back on and use as a Glove). Peeling the glue off was a lot like dealing with a fondue pan with burnt-on cheese.
Toe Dragging I'm not sure why Roo's suddenly started going through the toes of his back boots with such alarming speed. This began to happen when I finally smooshed him into the 00.5s. Before that, he'd been wearing either 0s or Renegades and no boot trashing at all. Roo's back boots after Cooley Ranch The two main things I can think of are that since switching to the smaller boots, we've done rides with lots of downhill - CA Loop and Cooley Ranch. The other factor is that the smaller boots are stretched really, really taut across the toes, putting them under stress. Either way, thank goodness EZ Care are reinforcing the toes on the boots.
	I think these Gloves are done. The gaiters can be reused, though.
	Glue-ons

Back Boot Musings

Although I think I can get the back boots to work for Roo, I've run out of time to get them perfected for Tevis in seven weeks (even a long training ride doesn't mimic the abuse these boots will get, so unless I could try them on a 50, I wouldn't be confident enough to rely on them) . Until I've had a chance to try out the reinforced toe shells (not available until July), I won't know if they will be sturdy enough for him over such extreme terrain/100 miles.

So yesterday, I booked my shoer for back shoes two and half weeks before the Ride. Roo will be wearing boots on the front. He hasn't worn shoes since Christmas, as we've been doing all our riding booted since then. After Tevis, they will come off and I'm hoping he won't need to go back into shoes again. On any future rides, I'll have time to fiddle if we have any minor boot failures - Tevis is the exception.

I'm kind of bummed about it, because I think the concussion protection of the boots is really good. At Cooley Ranch, when we weren't climbing-climbing-climbing or trudging through creek beds, we were making up time by travelling at a good clip on hard dirt road. Roo's legs looked great afterwards - although he's not prone to a lot of filling, he had none at all, despite only using ice boots at the end of Day 1 and applying Sore-No-More. I didn't wrap his legs at all.