Stylin with Class and Weekend Ride

My mare, Stylin With Class, and I joined some friends for a ride Saturday morning and tried out Stylin's new Renegade Hoof Boots. She definitely was "stylin". We got the Arizona Copper colored boots and they looked good and performed well. We went thru water, mud and sand - walked, trotted and cantered and they didn't slip, turn or twist. They also allowed her to move out very naturally. We really like them and hope after a slight adjustment they are the perfect size for her.
Here's a couple of shots of my friends and their animals. First is Michelle and two of her mustangs, Rocky and Izzy. Her nickname is Mustang as she has four of them.

This is Cathy and her gelding Busta aka "The Beast". He's a handsome guy, but acts like an ornery teenager sometimes.

This is Marilyn on her john mule, Clyde along with her friend Susan on Wendy, a little Morgan pony.

Here's Chele and her little man, Ranger.

Another good ride with great friends. The End.

Paying Our Respects

My husband and I were both off on Friday and were able to stand along the roadside to honor the return of Lt Commander Scott Speicher's remains to Jacksonville, FL. I was proud to see that many people stopped what they were doing and took the time to honor one of our own fallen heroes.

Coco for Sale - 9 yr old Quarter Horse Mare

This horse used to belong to my friend Charlotte and she sold her last year. Unfortunately, the new owner is no longer able to keep her and we are trying to find a new home for her.

Coco is a 9 year old, quarter horse mare, registered, very dark brown almost black and up to date on her shots. She stands about 14.1 hands. Coco had a 30 day professional tune up when Charlotte purchased her and she is a good, calm trail horse.

The current owner, Melanie, wants to sell her for $1000.00. Melanie Howard's phone numbers are home (90) 261-1181 and cell (90) 624-0162.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun !!

Am I The Only Goofy One?

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Since I took my mare barefoot almost 3 years ago I have flip flopped back and forth about how to handle her still tender soles. Do I keep her barefoot, do I put shoes back on, do I just use hoof boots? Does anyone else agonize about these silly kind of decisions?

When she first went barefoot, she was being trimmed by the farrier who had always shod her and he did a good job but I never could ride her immediately after a trim...she would be too sore. I tried a pair of Easy Boots but they were too hard to put on and I sent them back.I wound up buying Boa Hoof Boots for her and they worked well except the cable laces would loosen during our rides and I would have to dismount several times and retighten them. The cables would also fray and have to be replaced several times a year.


I got tired of replacing cables so the next boots I got were Cavallo Simple Boots. These boots are great, stay on well through sand, mud and water crossings. The only thing is they alter her gait at a canter - maybe because they are a little bulky. For over a year now we have been using a Natural Hoof Practitioner and she is never sore after a trim anymore, however we still can't walk on limerock roads or rocks without the boots.



Since it's about time to order new boots, I have been wondering if I could justify spending the extra money and purchasing a pair of Renegade Hoof Boots. I have been looking at these things on line for over a month or so and had lot's of e-mails back and forth with the owner and inventor of the boots about our sizing dilema. Stylin's front feet are now wider than they are long and the Renegades can be altered to a certain extent without additional cost.


I sold some items recently on e-Bay so that I could have a little extra funds in case I wanted to buy myself a new pair of boots....so instead of getting new boots for me- I'm getting them for Style. I made the final decision tonight , pressed the button and purchased a brandy new pair of copper colored boots. You can read the testimonials on line where these boots are used sucessfully on endurance rides and hopefully I can add my own testimonial soon.

Jacksonville Equestrian Center

Jenny's horse, Maybe (who is Stylin's daughter)

The city of Jacksonville built a fabulous equestrian facility several years ago, but just recently opened some multi use trails. The grand opening for the trails will be this month and I think all my riding buddies will show up. It is a wonderful show and event facility and now they are making the arenas more available for us recreational riders when there are no events scheduled. There are plans to expand the trails to join up with two State Forests. This is especially cool for me because it's only a 10 minute trailer ride from my house.

Me on Stylin and Jenny on Maybe

My daughter Jenny, joined me and my friend Cathy for a couple hour ride to explore the new trails. The trails run through property that used to belong to the Cecil Field Naval Air Base and there are still sections that have signs reading - DANGER - UNEXPLODED ORDNANCE. We made sure not to do any bush whacking through that area.

Cathy on my other horse Dixie

The trails start off paved for the cylclists and walkers, but we were able to continue on old roads that run through the woods. There were several offshoot trails but they were too deep from the recent heavy rains we've had. More exploring for another day.
There were lots of concrete bunkers covered in vines and overgrowth - one of them that we checked out had bats roosting in it.

We ended up our ride by circling the facility and checking out the barns and grounds. Stylin enjoyed looking at herself in the reflective glass of the doors. :-)

Here's a final picture of Jenny, her horse, and her dog Millie. Millie had a blast once we got in the woods and could let her off the leash. It's nice when our schedules allow us to ride together. Can you tell that we like to ride short horses? :-)