Best Laid Plans...

Tomorrow Rhio and I head off to our first ride of the season - and our first time riding at the northern Kettle Moraine.  We're stoked!  I've been cleaning stuff (i.e. buckets, saddle pads, etc), 'erranding' to make sure we're well supplied, packing and repacking, forgetting and remembering stuff endlessly all day.  In short, its been a routine day-before-we-leave-for-a-ride day.  In the evening, I headed to the barn to give Rhio a pre-ride mash with salt and a new pro- and pre- biotic we're trying.  While he was chowing down, I was working on the endless process of shedding out his winter fuzzies.  Glancing at his right front foot - WHAT?!?!?!  NO SHOE?!?!?!  It (the hoof) is fine - no chunks missing.  It (the shoe) is nowhere to be found, even in just the drylot (which is a confined area to search, right?).  However, we leave at 3 pm tomorrow and I'm sure I can't get my farrier out to get that shoe back on before we leave.  And, so, what to do?  I do have my extremely worn Gloves, completely missing their toes from all our asphalt riding.  Putting one on the right front hoof will hopefully help even him out, since with the shoe still on the left front, he will be asymmetrical as he moves - both in height and in weight.  Asymmetry is generally an enemy when we do the number of miles and hours of movement that we do in endurance.  I will try the booted right front and see how it goes.  I was planning for a 25 miler each day, but I will now just *hope* for no issues and a solid completion in the first 25 miles, then go from there. 

Left front

Right front

I put so much time and effort into prepping for rides, both in conditioning my horse, but also in organizing life at home so that I can be away for a weekend, that the thought of having to miss one that I'm all set to go on is really disappointing.  We are going!  Let's just cross a few fingers, toes, and hooves, that Lady Luck will be in our corner this weekend. 

Practicing our smiles