Holy mutha f'in deerflies!

Since foxhunting starts for us in a few weeks, I figured it'd be best to test out the new polyurethane shoes on my trails before we found ourselves in the middle of a foxhunt with a shoe failure.  So Wednesday after work, I ran home, quickly tacked up the mare and embarked on the 1/2 mile hack down the street to the trail head.  It had been cool, so I was hopeful the bugs would be tolerable and heck, if not we could always just trot on, right?

OMG, we made it to the trail just fine, but no more than 30 feet into the woods we were swarmed by deer flies.  Awful, horrible, hateful, nasty things.  Daatje was ok with them as long as I kept swatting them away with my dingbat whacker so we continued on for 3.7 miles.  (most at a strong trot)

The whole ride was a blur of branches, rocks, hills, and the whacker popping my horse on the head, ears and neck to keep the blood sucking horrors away.  I was keeping an ear out for a shoe problem, and a feel for her gaits to detect any abnormalities, but none popped up.  She actually felt fantastic.

Traction was equal to bare, even over rocks, roots and mud, which was encouraging.  The brook we had to cross has a rocky bottom that she doesn't like the feel of.  In the Ground Control shoes, she waded in and stopped, noticing the difference; seemingly pleased with it.

We got back just before the sun set and I inspected the shoes.  Clinches were tight, shoes didn't budge and no stones or debris was caught underneath.

A very positive test result!  This Sunday, we're trailering down to Bradley Palmer in Ipswich, MA to go for a nice long ride so that will be the next opportunity to test the shoes.  Perhaps over some natural jumps........