I usually ride into 4 Lakes Basin for Labor Day.  But they are forecasting a big snow storm for tonight and tomorrow, and I guess you could say I just wimped out on getting buried in snow this year.  So my daughter and I did a day ride saturday and went part of the way into 4 Lakes Basin and we turned around at Naturalist Basin.

Most of this ride is just below the tree line at 10,000 to 10,5000 foot elevation. It was 100* at home Saturday but a nice 80* up in the mountains.

Here is my daughter at the Uinta Wilderness boundry sign

We rode the highline trail in, This trail takes the HIGHLINE across the Uinta Wilderness for about 70 miles. It's an easy trail to ride because it doesn't do a lot of elevation change once you are on it. Kind of Top of the World stuff.  It passes through a lot of Spruce forest, alpine meadows and rocks

The Forest Service Maintains the trail and has built some Steps

And bridges over boggy areas

This is what we rode in to see.  naturalist Basin

The horses get used to them pretty quick.  Almost all the major trails that the Forest Service maintains have these bridges over boggy areas. The first time or two the horses my balk at getting on the bridge, but after dancing around in a bog, they quickly learn to use the bridges.

There is one bridge on the trail into Red Castle that is probably a 1000 feet long.  It's fun to get the horses up into their foxtrot and listen to the hoof fall.

Your posts always take me home!  I was born in Utah and l Iive for the day when I can live in canyon country again.  Those rocks talk to me!

Marla

Painted horse..

Your pictures make me want to cry.. I LIVE for the day when we can retire, move west and i can work part-time and spend the rest of the time riding/camping the high country.....There's just not much to do or anywhere to go (that's close enough for a 2-3 day trip) in coastal Texas..

I noticed that your daughter's horse is barefoot in the back with boots on in the front... My Rocky mare has been barefoot pretty much since I've owned her.. It is sandy here in coastal TX, but we've ridden in Bandera,TX.  (very rocky) several times and always barefoot.. I've noticed her a little tender on a caliche road going back to camp at the end of the day, but no noticeable sorefootedness either on the trail or later after we return home... Do you people out there who regularly ride the high country ever go barefoot? What's the poll on this? I had a rocky gelding also, who I had ridden both with and without shoes in Bandera,TX.. He did MUCH better on the slick rock barefoot than when he was shod..less slippery.... altho he also was a little tender on the gravel/caliche road going back to camp.. I was just curious as to what most people do.. It seems that once a horse's feet toughen up, they should be able to handle the rough stuff just fine, like the wild ones do (granted they're not carrying 200 plus lbs of people and saddle).. However, I don't want to risk my horse's health and welfare if my thinking is wrong.. What do ya'll think?

Most people shoe their horses. And most people ride quarter horses. The majority doesn't make it right or negate that their are other choices.

My horses have been barefoot for 3 years. It has been an interesting experment.  I'm not sure it's the right thing for the horses.  There are lots of trails I can ride barefoot. Probably 9 out of 10 rides that I do could be barefoot. I ride 20 miles in the slick rock of Southern Utah with no problems. When I go into the mountains I usually put boots on the fronts. This particular ride I should have had boots all around instead of just on the fronts. But I only had four size #1 boots, and both of our horses happen to wear that size. So they got two each. The horses were looking to get off the trail when they could. Notice my daughters horse in the grass of the meadow instead of being on the trail.

I ride with a group of friends who also keep their horses barefoot. We ride a lot in the colder months in the canyons of Southern Utah. Barefoot and no boots.

My horses will gait, trot, canter on smooth trails or softer dirt. When we get on rocky trails (like the photos) they want to only walk. Which is fine, a good fast walk across the mountains is what I wanted. But when the horses are shod they will move much faster down the same trail.

I put boots on when I know the trails will be rocky. The boots provide the protection the horses need. But I've had all kinds of problems with the boots. Buckles and cables breaking, Gaiters tearing. Bungies on the newer BARES breaking. It has cost me much more to buy boots and keep them in good repair than it would have cost to just shoe the horses. Add to that the inconvience of having to put on and take off boots everytime you ride. Not a big deal for one horse, but when I take my daughters and have to put boots on four horses, it takes time and slows us down.

I like my horses being barefoot, I don't mind doing my own triming. But I need to explore some of the other methods of protecting their hooves, The boots I've tried to date just are not holding up.  You will have to look at the terrain you ride on, your horses feet and decide what is right for you.

We used to live in Premont, not to far from Corpus.  We have always kept our horses barefoot.  I never noticed any soreness when we went to Bandara, but there was some when we were riding in Blanco.  We went with the STTR on a ride through Corpus to Driscoll Childrens hospital and lots of the shod horses were slipping on the pavement and one fell and the girl riding it broke her wrist.

       I use boots when we go out unless I know it is going to be sandy.  I have taught my oldest to put her own boots on and after I put on mine and my youngest daughters I double check hers.  Helps me and saves me a few minutes.  I haven't had any problems but, even though I would love to, I don't ride in areas like Painted Horse does. 

Wasn't that benefit ride about 4-5 years back?..

I almost rode that day also, but My husband's gelding was (then) new and I didn't know him well enough to take the risk.. MY mare I had no doubt in my mind that after she killed me, would have either caused a massive wreck or died of a heart attack on the spot!!LOL.. Thank God for time and years!

Vettec makes several products.  ( see www.vettec.com) 

SuperFast sets up in 30 seconds. You can squirt it around the area where the shoe would normally sit.  After it hardens you can rasp it to shape and it will preform somewhat like a horse shoe.

Soleguard is applied to the sole of foot and adds a layer of padding or protection to the sole. It takes several minutes to harden. So you need to hold the hoof up while both of these products cure.

They cost about $30 a tube which does 4 hooves.  The application gun that you use to apply the product cost a one time  $50 to buy.  The Mixing tips that you stick on the end of the tube and where the two compounds mix together as you squirt them out cost about a $1.00.  You will 4 of them per horse.  The product in the tips hardens while you are holding the horses hoof up. I guess if you could find a way to hold ALL 4 hooves up at the same time you could use one tip to do all four feet. But since I have not found a way to do that, I end up throwing a mixing tip away for each hoof I do.

One of the suggestions that a farrier told me, was to put a bead of Super fast on the hoof first, Rasp to shape, then fill it with Solepack.  So in this case you are using 2 tubes of product ( 2 x $30=$60),  8 Mixing Tips ( 8 x $1 = $8)  or $68 in consumables and I still have to do all the work!  ( you have to still trim the hoof to the proper shape, Throughly clean it so the product will stick, heat it with a heat gun to dry any moisture or oils)  They say this will last about 3 weeks. But that will depend on what kind of riding your do. I suspect in the rough stuff I ride, I'd get less.

Now I don't know about you, but my farrier charges $65 a horse for 4 shoes, A set of shoes last 8 weeks. So it would be considerably cheaper for me to just put shoes on the horses. I view the Vettec product as niche product for special needs. Not as a long term solution for everyday use. It seems to be more expensive to me than boots, Which at least are reuseable.