A July Cool Front = Time to Ride!

This week has been gloriously cool and breezing, giving us all a respite from the unrelenting heat & flies.  The horses seem so relaxed, and of course it has been lovely riding weather.  On Tuesday, Rhio and I headed out for our first solo conditioning ride in a very long time (almost 6 weeks!).  It was only in the upper 60s and mostly sunny with a light breeze, so I thought we'd be pretty safe from flies for the most part and off we went.

Heading out the driveway

The neighbor's are cutting hay, which is now in our indoor arena awaiting unloading.

Rhio argued, and then moped, about going out alone, but pretty soon was merrily trotting along with his ears pricked as usual.  We were trying out the attempt boot repair on the Renegades, and a few miles in to the ride he suddenly seemed "off."  His right front boot had turned on his hoof, so I hopped off to fix it.  At this point, I realized the adhesive I'd tried to repair the boots with was clearly not up to the job and the cracks were already bigger & badder than they'd been to start.  Quickly revising my route, we opted to do an out-and-back just on gravel roads rather than the "big loop."

After that one boot adjustment, and many, many glances down over his shoulders to check boot status, we had no additional difficulties and completed our 9 mile route easily.  The boots are definitely in worse shape after those miles, though, and I am debating whether to attempt another repair with some other kind of adhesive, or just give up on them.

Poor boot

It turns out I was partially correct in my assumptions about the fly situation.  Along the open road, the flies were minimal and neither one of us was bothered.  As soon as we hit a stretch of road with trees along the sides, however, it was a deer fly frenzy.  Poor Rhio did not have the fly mask on (my fault) and was being driven progressively more insane by the flies.  I was doing my best to slap the ones I could reach, but they have a nasty habit of landing somewhere where I can neither see nor reach them, and my only clue to their presence is Rhio's frantic head tossing.  Slowing even to a slow trot was miserable, the flies were swarming & biting us both, so I broke a bit of leafy branch off as we passed by a likely looking small tree and proceeded to "beat" my horse upside the head with it.  At first he thought I was offering him something to eat, and kept turning & trying to grab the leaves to munch on.  He quickly realized the utility of the branch, however, and seemed to welcome my waving it around & bonking his face with it.  The rest of our ride was much more peaceful, fly-wise, and I discarded that branch only when we got home to the barn.

Rhio's opinion of being gooped, daubed, and slathered with various ointments before being turned back out (SWAT for his bitten sheath, sunscreen for his sensitive pink nose, and desitin for his scratches-prone pasterns)

32 Miles

Got treats?

It's begun!  The roads are clear enough to do some serious conditioning, and my endurance season has officially begun.  Our first ride is MnDRA I on May 7 & 8, a mere 5 weeks away.  I always plan on riding Limited Distance (25 miles) at that ride, because our spring weather is so fickle here in the Northland.  It's hard to predict how much conditioning I'll actually be able to do in preparation for this first ride.  So, I plan for the first ride to be 25 miles of conditioning, and a really fun time catching up with everyone I haven't seen since Point Chaser in October.

We've had a great week of rides.  Rhio and I did a total of 32 miles this past week, in rides of 9 miles, 9 miles, and 14 miles.  Our first 9 miler was Tuesday, 3/29.  We have had lovely afternoons for riding, with temps in the 40s and sunshine.  We set off with Kelso, heading toward our closest significant training hill with the intention of doing a little hill work and heading home.  Just as we turned to head up the hill, here comes Jodi & Rana down the hill toward us.  Well met, pretty mare & fine friend!  The horses were both in full spring mode, spooking and trying to race, and we rode up & back along the clear portion of road (hemmed in by shady/icy sections and paved roads without good clear shoulders) enjoying each other's company and lamenting together about the fact of riding spring-fresh horses.  Rhio had been pretty unmotivated riding out alone, but of course as soon as we met up with a buddy, he was overwrought with energy & the inability to disperse it efficiently into useful forward motion.  As a result, I was riding a stiff board of a horse with a rock-solid neck jutting up in front of me, head-tossing & neck-snaking his way along at a stilted canter, hooves slapping the ground and jarring my internal organs in a most unpleasant fashion.  I have to say, the experience really wasn't all that enjoyable.  But, it was fairly reminiscent of the start of an endurance ride, so in its way it was a useful training situation.  He did not buck, rear, bolt, or lose his mind.  In past years, it would not have been unthinkable for him to do all those and then some in a situation like this.

Still a little fancy footwork required to negotiate the remaining icy patches on the road, but it's totally doable!

Our second 9 miler was two days later, and Gesa & Paco joined us for more road riding.  This was our first time booted for the year, and also we attempted to use the heart rate monitors.  I never got a good signal on Rhio's monitor, but Paco's worked pretty well.  I presume that the still-present winter fuzz was preventing good contact with the electrodes.  I usually just wet my electrodes with water upon application, and rely on my sweaty pony to keep them sensing well.  With all the extra coat, I should have used some electrode gel (which solved the problem perfectly on ride #3).  The Gloves are still working nicely on his hinds, and I used fetlock boots as well to prevent any interference wounds.  The Renegades on his fronts actually seemed a little tight, and I'll have to figure out how to loosen the cables before I use them again, I think.  I did not notice as much forging as he usually does in boots (well, he does it all the time, but the boots seem to make it worse, though it may just be more noticeable).  We had a nice ride, mostly covering the same ground as I had with Jodi on Tuesday, though we also ventured through the softening snow pack on the closed portion of the road.   The boys did wonderfully together, as they always do; we did not have to contend with race-brained, spring-crazy horses and allowed them to set the pace as they chose.  Rhio led 99% of the time, as he prefers, and Paco followed, as he prefers.  The horses clearly have some lines of communication which are a mystery to us, as they nearly always put themselves in the same positions and are completely at ease with one another.  Rhio can be really reactive to other horses (especially mares) when we are riding in groups, and we tend to do a bit of skittering around as he tries to keep a "safe" distance from the other horses' bubbles of personal space (whether they are projecting obvious "get away" body language or not).  With Paco, there is none of that.  Our average pace per my GPS was 5 mph for this ride - not too shabby considering we had to walk the whole snowy section, and found ourselves walking & chatting a bit more than we sometimes do (although we do it, it's not as easy to carry on a shouted conversation at the trot).

Muddy legs, muddy boots, and muddy Kelso in the background 

Just mounted up for ride #3 and they're both smiling :) 

Our third and longest ride of the week was Saturday April 2.  Gesa & Paco again joined us, and we planned to attempt the big loop ride, which is mostly road with about 2 miles of snowmobile trail.  I had Plan B worked out in case we couldn't negotiate the half-melted, slushy/icy snowmobile trail and had to turn back, but luckily we were able to complete the whole loop.  Our plan was to increase distance to at least 12 miles (we did 14), but maintain approximately the same pace as our Thursday ride.  Um, apparently the horses didn't get that memo!  Rhio was fired up and ready to go, setting a nice forward pace and moving along on a loose rein right from the start.  That boy was all business, moving along eating up the miles, and occasionally stopping for a refreshing sip from an icy puddle.  Ahhhhh!  Now this is the kind of ride I've been longing for since the snow first fell 6+ months ago.  We had an absolutely fantastic ride for the first 9.5 miles.  Then I landed abruptly on my backside in the snowbank.  Uh, what?!  Ok, turns out poor Rhio had a fright and just disappeared from beneath me (a.k.a. Arab teleporting) - Jodi and Rana popped up over the crest of a ridge in the gravel pit to our left, which was slightly screened by some trees, and Jodi shouted a greeting.  None of us knew they were there, but I expect they heard our hoofbeats on the road.  Anyway, it wasn't a big deal and it was the softest landing I've had, ever.  The worst of it was hopping around on one foot emptying the snow out of my boots before my socks got too wet.  Successfully remounted, Jodi & Rana joined us for a few miles of road work, and again the horses got racy, competitive, and hard to handle (well, mine did at least - Paco had the sense to stay back out of the fray and I don't think Gesa had as much trouble with him as I did with Rhio).  It's like the energy level just shoots up and Rhio can't emotionally cope with it.  I again had the stiff, fighting, crazy horse beneath me.  Not fun.  Again, he didn't do any of the explosive behaviors that I know he is capable of, and we even started to make a little progress backing off the pace and staying behind and he began to be able to listen to me a little bit.  Hopefully Rhio is learning to listen to me even when he gets emotionally overwrought (for that's what it seems to be to me).  We split off from Jodi and headed home, ultimately finishing our ride with an average pace of 5.6 mph.  Yep, we committed the cardinal sin of conditioning, increasing both pace & distance at the same time, but both horses did extremely well and handled the work load easily.  Rhio's heart rate monitor showed completely normal working heart rates for him, and both horses were still full of zip when we turned in the driveway.  The horses drank 4 or 5 times during the ride, which is something Gesa has been working at with Paco, and we ended the day with cold beer & steak on the grill (thanks to Gesa's husband Mike).

Posing on the still-snowy snowmobile trail

I am amazed (and a little jealous) at how quickly Rhio gets back into shape.  Obviously, he wasn't "off" all winter, but the kind of riding we can do in the winter is very different from endurance and our early rides showed me his reduced condition, especially in the hill work we did on the snowmobile trail.  Already he is feeling nearly as fit as he was at the end of the season last year, and ride #3 last week was his best by far for energy, enthusiasm, and drive.  (It's just not fair!  It's taking me WAY longer to get back into my jogging program.)

Argh!  See that white area up by his shoulder/withers?  It's not sweaty because there's too much pressure there from the saddle, not allowing the sweat glands to activate.  This is NOT GOOD! 

The major issue I see cropping up is saddle fit (yet again).  After all three rides, he had dry spots behind his withers on both sides, with the left side being slightly larger & more obvious than the right.  His back is not sore, he is not moving differently, and he is not exhibiting his averse-to-tacking-up behavior (which has been the major indicator of saddle issues in the past), but I am not happy with the less-than-perfect sweat pattern!  More investigation to come on this matter....

New Ground Beneath Our Hooves

Ah, new trails to explore!

Gesa, Paco, Rhio, and I had a weekend of fun planned, starting with more exploring at the Mother Bear Ski Trail, which we rode once earlier in the year.  Upland bird hunters, and archery deer hunters, are in the woods now, so we adorned ourselves appropriately with some blaze orange bedazzlements, and Rhio wore his rhythm beads (I sure hope most deer don't tinkle with jingle bells - Santa's reindeer excluded, of course).  We began our ride traversing the top of a glacial esker, common in this area and affording us plenty of stunning views of the boreal forest in its fall finery.

Overlooking a spruce bog fringed with aspen, birch, and pines.

Doing our best to NOT look like something to shoot at!

We came upon several interesting discoveries throughout the day, including this cute resting place (tea and crumpets, anyone?) and the Cloquet River with a good spot to ford and miles of trail on the other side! 

the Cloquet River

Gesa & Paco crossing the river

The trails we followed varied from old logging road (well packed, somewhat rocky, a few overhanging branches to dodge or duck) to wide, sandy ATV/snowmobile trail (perfect for cantering) to narrow, winding ski trails and spots where ATVs have just blazed their own routes through clear cuts and dense trees - these have to be travelled with caution on horseback because we are much taller than the ATVers and eyeball-poking branches abound.   The terrain is quite hilly (those glacial eskers) and gave the boys a good mix of technical trail and long trotting.  We eventually met a gravel road and turned around to retrace our steps.  We met a couple of nice fellows on ATVs who were able to tell us which road it was, so we hope to be able to trailer back there for more exploring and hopefully some spring riding when our home trails are all deep muck.  We completed about 16 miles, although the batteries on my GPS went dead about halfway through. 

Trotting down the snowmobile trail

Rhio sporting a festive red maple leaf in his mane (I braided it the wrong direction so it's upside down, showing the pink underside). 

Paco sporting his handsome new cooler

Back at the trailer, we relaxed a little and let the boys cool out a bit before loading.  We were using a 2-horse straight-load trailer, and I believe it was the first time I'd hauled Rhio in such a trailer.  He did not load well, to put it mildly!  It took about 30 minutes to get him in the trailer, and he appeared to be very anxious/afraid.  Paco was awesome, walking right on the trailer and standing there patiently the entire time, contentedly munching his hay.  Rhio would half-load, putting his front feet in, then suddenly panic, fling his head up, and rush back out of the trailer.  He would repeat this over and over again.  Once he did load, he stood quietly, ate his hay, and trailered just fine, so he didn't appear to be anxious of the trailer itself, just loading onto it.  I really couldn't figure it out, except that the following day I tried loading him on the left side instead of the right side, and it went much better (after trying for 30 minutes on the right side) and the second loading of the day he went in the left side after only 8 minutes.  I can't figure this out, and I wish I could practice at home with that trailer.  Was it really the side of the trailer that made a difference?  

We headed up the road to a lake home owned by relations of Gesa's, which is an old Finnish homestead.  What a great old place!  It has been shut up for several months, since the last visitors used it, so we had a little work to do getting the water turned on, etc.  We set the boys up with a pen for daylight hours and a high line for the night, and Gesa got a fire going in the wood stove in the sauna for later.  I threw some venison stew in the crock pot, and we enjoyed some wine, bread, and cheese while waiting for dinner and the sauna to heat up.  We got the boys settled on the high line in their winter blankets just after dark, as the forecast was for temps well below freezing overnight.  Rhio was acting much more stressed than is his normal, eating and drinking but less than normal.  He also stocked up severely in all four legs.  The sauna was lovely and relaxing after our day of riding, and we crawled into our comfortable beds ready for sleep.  

I slept on the second floor, beneath a beautiful quilt and with a window overlooking the high line and another overlooking the lake with a small deck.  

The view from my window of the boys. Paco is quite the macho gelding, sporting a pink blanket and hay bay! Gesa reported she peeked at them during the night and Rhio was laying down taking a snooze - that is good, since it is his normal routine.

The house is a lovely mix of modern conveniences (central heating, shower, laundry) and family heirlooms, including several photo albums full of old photographs and paintings on the walls done by one of the original owners.  The original part of the house is hand-hewn square logs and hardwood floors; you can tell it did not originally have central heating because every room has a door.  The kitchen is dominated by a combination wood-electric cook stove, which is fully functional.

The wood-burning side is on the left; the electric range is on the right.

The lake side of the house.

There are several original wood outbuildings, including a barn and a wood shed, which are filled with the various accumulated items typical of a family homestead passed down through the generations.  It is a beautiful, secluded spot and rich in so much family history.

One of the barn doors

Barn walls

Wood shed

Old rotten wooden rowboat

The lake

The boys seemed quite happy in the pen after a handwalk down to the public access picnic area/boat ramp where Rhio took a big drink out of the lake and both of them walked out onto the pier.  I figure, why not use every opportunity for training?  The pier was wide, wooden, and very sturdy - so count it as bridge-training and trust-building.  (Yes, I want you to follow me out onto this bridge that clearly goes nowhere.)  Rhio layed down to munch his hay and seemed totally at ease, despite his mild stress indicators from the day before.  

Ah, this is the life!

Waiting for us to finish packing up.

We took our time making breakfast, cleaning everything up, shutting the house back down, and heading out to another trail for an afternoon ride before heading home.  We tried the North Shore State Trail (snowmobile trail, so no guarantee that it's passable during non-frozen months due to frequent crossing of swampy areas) north of Two Harbors, and had a very successful 8 miles.  Our boys handled the terrain well, flying along at a pretty quick clip for the most part, feeling fired up and coping with the uneven ground and squishy areas with no complaints.  We crossed a couple of challenging bridges that looked scary due to extra boards running length-wise in addition to the cross boards and some with steep approach ramps.  We flushed up about a dozen grouse over the course of the ride.  

State Trail

I did land unexpectedly on the ground once, and have the bruises to show for it.  We were taking a break, I had dropped my reins on his neck and was drinking out of my water bottle when something behind us in the woods startled both of them, and Rhio just scooted out from under me.  I was so hoping to have an entire season without an unplanned dismount!  Alas, it was not meant to be :(  We found more trail in the area to explore, but had to cut our ride short in the hopes that Rhio would load and we could get home before dark. 

I rode most of the weekend in 4 boots - our usual setup of Renegades on the fronts and Gloves on the hinds.  We covered various terrain, including some mud and a river crossing, and the boots stayed in place and he didn't seem to have any trouble on the rough ground with tripping or otherwise having boot interference.  He does wear hind fetlock boots when booted, as he will knock himself.  Also, I discovered on Monday a small rub on his left hind from the gaiter, so I will have to try something to alleviate that.  I am hoping to ride a 50 miler on Friday and a 30 miler on Sunday in 3 weeks, our last ride of the year in Minnesota, and know I will have to use boots for some or all of that, just due to the distance.  I want to make sure I have any rubbing issues (or other issues!) dealt with before that. 

The end of a beautiful weekend

Moose Mountain

Rhio looking ahead to trail he's never seen before

Disclaimer:  In case you are excited to read about our encounter with a moose, I want to dash your hopes right now.  This ride has absolutely nothing to do with a moose encounter.  I have not yet had the "pleasure" of encountering a moose while horseback.  

Thursday morning I had the great good fortune to be able to borrow Christine's truck and trailer, and take Rhio to Gesa's house to do some hill work.  We have about 1.5 miles of road riding to get to Moose Mountain, a grassy two-track trail going up to the power line through the Moose Mountain Scientific & Natural Area (state land).  The road to get there is particularly unpleasant, with narrow shoulders and many uneducated/inconsiderate drivers plus a small bridge to cross (no shoulder here at all) that has a hill on both sides (so it's hard to see traffic before you cross).  But the half mile of hill up to the power line is golden!  What a great training hill!  I'm sure there is a way to figure out the slope with my GPS, but I don't know what it is.  I do know the hill starts gradual, gets very steep, and levels out at the top.  We did it a total of 4 times, 3 at a trot all the way and 1 cantering most of it.  Both Paco & Rhio had heart rate monitors on, though we had some technical difficulties with Paco's.  Rhio's heart rate went to about 175 when trotting up the hill and just topped 200 at a canter.  

Our first trip up the hill

We also did a little exploring to augment our hill work, meandering along the power line to get a nice panoramic view.  

Me & Rhio posing by the power line - the view is much more magnificent in real life than this photo can show!

Gesa & Paco enjoying the view as well

And to cool down, we explored a 4 wheeler trail which lead, via some deep sticky mud, to a deer stand and then out into somebody's field.  The mud got the best of the Renegade boots, sucking them off Rhio's front hooves, but luckily I happened to glance down & spot them so was able to retrieve them.  I attached them to his breastcollar for the rest of the ride, which made for a funny view from the saddle and made my white horse absolutely filthy where the mud & sweat mingled & slid down his shoulders!

4-wheeler trail

View from the saddle - just above the lime green saddle pack you can see the Renegades hanging off either side of Rhio above his shoulders.  Unfortunately they are dark green, so they kind of blend into the grass background. 

We made it home without incident, after a very enjoyable two hours and about 8 miles total (it wasn't a fast ride, that's for sure!).  I loved doing this hill work, as I felt my horse got a good strength & cardio workout without it being too stressing on his legs.  The footing is good (I wouldn't have needed the boots at all) and there was plenty of green grass to munch & puddles to drink out of.  I think the horses enjoyed it, too.  

our happy companions

Rhio post-ride and pre-hosing, hanging in Gesa's barn (and I forgot to take the "after" pic to show how pretty he looks actually clean!)

Dragonfly Delight

Boy do I love a long, fast ride on my boy Red.

Beth is here to visit for the weekend, so we got up this morning after a lovely evening spent catching up & enjoying great burgers and awesome microbrews at Fitger's Brewhouse (http://www.brewhouse.net/2005/), and headed out to saddle up.  I had ridden Red over to Meadowbrook last night and he hung out in the round pen overnight.  He also managed to rearrange some of the round pen panels overnight...silly boy.  Thankfully no injuries from that little episode! We tried Beth's saddle on both horses to decide who she would ride - it fit Rhio better, so she rode him.  I was happy to ride Red, as I don't ride him as much as I do Rhio, since Red is not being conditioned for competition this year.  I booted Red's fronts (1 Epic & 1 Bare, as that's what I have) and Rhio all the way around (Renegades in front, Gloves behind plus fetlock boots because he interferes behind when in hoof boots).  

Red hanging in the round pen Friday night (and worried about the alpacas all the way across the farm!).

We set off down the road to Jodi's house and ran into a lot of traffic on Emerson Rd, which is a paved road with a very narrow shoulder and one of my least favorite places to ride.  It's the easiest/shortest route from my house to Jodi's, however, so we endured it.  The horses were behaving well and Beth was getting to know Rhio a little bit.  Jodi & Rhonda tacked up quickly when we got there, and all four of us set off for a fast loop through the gravel pits, ski trail, & snowmobile trail near where Jodi's in-laws live.  

I was very happy to have Red's running martingale tucked in my saddle bag, because I sure needed it today!  It's been a long time since he got to go for a zippy ride in a group, and he was pretty excited.  The running martingale reminds him to stay in my zone!  We stopped for a quick tack adjustment before crossing Rice Lake Rd, about a mile from Jodi's, and I quickly added his running martingale and had a great ride from then on.  That first mile he wanted to run, and wanted to lead, and wanted to ignore me! As soon as the martingale is on, he listens and still moves out strongly but doesn't try to rush.  

We had a fast ride through the trails, which is a balance challenge when you're not used to it (for horses & riders alike!) and Beth was a champ keeping up with an unfamiliar horse and not being used to that kind of speed when riding.  All the horses behaved very well, and we did a total of about 16 miles in a little over 2 hours.  

Beth & Rhio as we set off from Meadowbrook.

Jodi & Rana on the left, Beth & Rhio on the right, and Rhonda & Snickers in the distance on the right.

It was interesting & informative to watch Rhio move with the boots on.  I haven't been able to see him move booted before.  I thought he looked good in the back end, and actually didn't seem to be forging all that much, but I wasn't too pleased with his movement in the front end.  With the boots, he has a lot of extra knee action (from the weight? or just the feel of boots?) and really seems to slap his heels down.  He also didn't seem to extend into his floaty trot.  When Beth & I arrived at Jodi's, he had managed to twist his left front boot on his hoof, so it was all caddy-wampus.  That was a first.  I fixed it, and he didn't seem to have any other boot issues.  After the ride, he had no rubs anywhere.  But, watching him go did confirm that I would prefer to have him in shoes.  I hope this hoof crack from his coronary band injury this winter grows out soon!  

We noticed on our way home past the little lakes in the area that the dragonflies are out en masse!  That must mean the nasty biting insects are out too, and I did notice a surge in the mosquito population when I was working in the garden last night.  Red is especially bothered by the bugs, even ones that don't bite, because he hates having anything bonking him in the head.  I had a lot of head tossing while we trotted through the swarms of darting dragonflies!  He is famous for tucking his chin to his chest anytime he has to move into the rain, as he hates having raindrops hit him in the face as well.  Silly boy!  

On the way home - both of us are sweaty, tired, and happy! 

Are You My Mommy?

Rhio & Tomas enjoying the sun before I rudely made them get up to go for a ride.

I've had a horrible case of poison ivy on my thigh since our first endurance ride of the season last weekend, and was finally able to ride on Sunday.  I have a new pair of hoof boots to try - Renegade boots. (http://www.renegadehoofboots.com/ ) They were simple to put on, Rhio didn't object at all, and they looked pretty good. They are rounder than the Easy Boots and seem to fit his hoof better.

My pair of used Renegades from eBay are sparkly green!  

  We headed off for a Mother's Day trail ride with Kathy, Kristi, & Christine.  I left his hinds bare, and didn't feel any issues with the Renegades on the grassy trails out back.  We cantered a little in the hayfield and that seemed fine, too.  Yay!

Enjoying our sunny, beautiful Mother's Day ride.

A mushroom I found on our ride in the woods - and brought home much worse for the wear from being stepped on by the dog & stuffed into my saddle bag.  Oops! 

Although my thigh was killing me, Christine & I headed down the road so I could do a little sustained trotting for more boot assessment.  We headed to the sheep hill and did a couple repetitions up the hill, then headed home.  Both horses were very lazy on the way out, but the lambs caused some undue excitement when one in particular came running to the fence, "Baaaaaaing" desperately all the way.  I think he saw Rhio and thought we might be his mommy :)   He seemed so disappointed when he got close and realized we were not a sheep.  The horses were both standing stock still watching this small & loud creature barreling towards us - contemplating whether or not our lives were in danger.  We had a lively canter/hand-gallop up the hill and then headed home with much perkier horses.

The view across the hay fields at the top of the sheep hill.

I was pleased when we got home to discover no interference marks on Rhio's front limbs, the boots were securely in place, and did not have any debris in them.  He did not have any rubs from the boots, either, but clearly areas of disrupted/ smashed down hair on his heel bulbs.  This will be something I will watch to see if it develops into a rub.  Overall, I was very pleased with the new boots and have hopes they will work better for us than the Easy Boots.  I am still using Easy Boots on the hinds, but also have to use splint boots to prevent interference marks.

My poison ivy wasn't in such good shape by the end of the ride, however, and I was grateful to sit down with an ice pack and some more thickly applied cream.