First Trail Ride in a LONG Time!

Shorty and I were invited on a trail ride yesterday. We had a blast! First trail ride out like that in at least a couple years. It was pretty rough because we went to somebody's land so it wasn't nice cut out trail paths. We went up and down hills and over and through ditches, through thick brush and ducking and pushing tree limbs out of the way. He even cantered up a hill and jumped a small fallen tree. That was awesome! He spooked pretty good at a deer lookout building, but other than that he was solid. He wanted to GO and I mean when he trotted forward, I haven't felt that kind of trot in a long time. So much ENERGY and interest. Unfortunately we had many moments when he wanted to trot forward and then he would NOT stop and completely ignore my bit. In circles we went...

At the end of the ride on the gravel path to the trailers, I noticed he was really tip toeing it :( I thought his back feet were sore, but I thought it odd that he would be THAT ouchy with his back feet. I got off as soon as we got close and I looked down to find out that BOTH front bar shoes were gone! Ugh! My poor boy. I am pretty sure it happened towards the end of the ride, but it's hard to tell because we were on soft ground most of the time. He is a trooper! He did have bell boots on, but I'm not surprised with all the stuff we did that he somehow managed to still get under them and pull the shoes. We borrowed a pair of hoof boots for the ride back home (they were a tad big but they served their purpose), and now he is turned out in a pair of soft ride boots that he seems to be very comfy in (also borrowed). I have already been wanting to buy a pair of boots for his back feet for trail rides instead of putting shoes in the back, so now I'm just going to get boots for the front, too.

I feel so bad because some of his hoof wall got messed up when the shoe came off his left hoof. He JUST got trimmed and those shoes put on a little over a week ago. He's going to go with boots only for now so we get more growth and make sure his feet will be in good condition before putting another pair of shoes on. This week will be dedicated to finding a pair of boots that will fit and be suitable for what we need.