Louie's first beach ride

12/26/2009
The day after Christmas and the weather was looking to be ok and the tide was right so Bonnie and I took the opportunity to take Louie for his first ride at the beach. Bonnie rode my horse Marie. Low tide was at noon so we headed out around 10:30. I pulled the trailer down to the end of the drive way before loading. I was afraid of slipping on ice with the trailer, which in fact I did!!! Louie loaded right up like a pro and off we went. When we got there, the park gates were closed so we ended up parking on the side of the road. We tacked up as quickly as possible and lead Louie and Marie into the park. We mounted up at the access aisle. Louie took the lead at first but when he got his first sight of the ocean, he hesitated. Marie took the lead and Louie was happy to follow her. A previous storm had caused a lot of beach erosion and damage. So, the end of the access aisle was washed out and it was a bit off a drop off onto the beach. Louie followed Marie but when he hit the sand and started sinking in a little, that made him nervous. But, good boy that he is, he really didn’t do anything but shift he feet around a bit. Before long he decided the soft sand was safe enough. And once below the tide line where we ride, the sand is much firmer. What surprised me was that Louie really did not pay much attention to the water and waves. He was much more concerned about the changing color of the sand. We rode straight out to the rocks. I had him walk over some small ones. He wasn’t thrilled about this but did it when I pushed him to. We walked into some of the calmer water and he was great about this. He didn’t want to lead in, but didn’t hesitate to follow Marie in. While we were there, it started snowing and snowed quite hard. We rode down a long the beach almost to the corner to the fort. Louie was starting to relax and we had a nice long trot. We headed back and went out to the rocks again. Bonnie and I took turns leading. By now, Louie was really relaxing and there was even some ear flopping going on. We decided to cut our ride a bit short and head home. It was snowing quite hard and I was worried about a bad drive home. Louie once again loaded right into the trailer perfectly. Turned out that just a few miles from the beach, it wasn’t snowing at all so the drive home was fine. I was so proud of Louie and how well he handled his first ride at the beach.

Christmas ride

12/13/2009
Well, winter has finally arrived. Cold and snow and long hours at work so there won’t be so much riding for a while. I have been feeding Louie in the trailer most mornings. He is now loading up wonderfully since he knows that is where his breakfast is. Today was the annual Christmas ride & toy give away in Bowdoinham. I spent all of Saturday snowblowing the driveways and getting my trailer clear and the snow off the roof so I could do. Sunday morning I had to decide who to take. Marie, my steady, quiet “been there, done that” QH mare, or Louie the unknown. I decided to go ahead and take Louie. He loaded right up perfect. I parked at my friend Susie’s house as she is right on the edge of town. Louie unloaded quietly and was very good being saddled. I then took him out back where my friends were getting their horses ready. Susie had some felt antlers for the equines to wear. I had put some sleigh bells on Louie and he was good about them. I then put the antlers on him and he didn’t seem to care about that either. We were a bit early so I tied Louie up in one of her stalls and we went into her house for a few minutes. When I came back out, Louie had managed to knock his antlers off and had peed on them! Yuck. They were undamaged so we cleaned them up and taped them to his bridle. We mounted up and rode down through town to the waterfront where we met a few more friends that were also riding. Louie was a little tense when we started down the street as we had a car ahead of us and one behind us for safety. But, it only took a moment for him to relax. Once down to the waterfront, it wasn’t long before the children started showing up. Pretty soon we were surrounded. Everyone was making a big fuss over the horses (and mule) and Louie was absolutely loving it. The kids were all around him. He would lay his head right in their arms. And he was checking everyone pockets for treats. Unfortunately, he didn’t find any but he checked them all anyway. The owner of the local restaurant came out to judge our costumes. I knew we wouldn’t win as I had little to dress Louie up with other then the antlers and a silly hat Susie gave me to wear. Though a few of the horses were decked out in garland and Christmas ornaments and two even had flashing red noses! Louie was fabulous about all the commotion, the people, children, traffic, bells, lights, cameras, and dogs. He could not have been better. We then left the waterfront and rode to the local general store were there were some more children. Once again, people, traffic, noise….no problem. We brought toys for 50 children and nearly ran out so it was quite a success. We then rode back up through town back to Susie’s house singing carols all the way. I unsaddled Louie and put him in one of Susie’s stalls as we were also having our annual Christmas party. He was such a good boy and settled right in. When it was time to go home, he only hesitated for a moment about loading. It was raining when I left Susie’s but less then half way home, it was all snow and the roads were slick. So, it was a bit of a tense drive but I got Louie and myself home safe and sound. It as a really fun day.

First road ride

12/4/2009
It is hard to believe, but it was yet another wonderful warm sunny day. So, I called Linda to see if she was riding. She said she was riding from home. She wanted to get Gus out on the roads to see how he handled traffic. Her friend Diane was coming over and would be riding Linda’s “been there, done that” older horse Mac. I decided to join them. Louie was pretty good about loading. Once there, we tacked up and headed out. Louie was in the lead to start. About ½ mile down the road, he started to get nervous. Not at the traffic, that didn’t seem to bother him at all. But, the silly stuff (not silly to him of course!) such as large rocks, and water in the ditches and such. He didn’t do anything bad, just slowed down and eventually just froze. Good old Mac went ahead and Louie breathed a big sigh of relief and happily followed. But, Mac walks SOOOOOOOOOO slow that in a short time Louie couldn’t stand it and took the lead again. Once again, Linda and I took turns leading with our young green boys. Mac fell so far behind us he was pretty much useless as comfort for our greenies. But, that was ok as Louie and Gus did great. Louie eyeballed the big rocks pretty hard but didn’t do anything wrong. He was completely unconcerned about the traffic. We didn’t have anything really big go by but did have a truck towing a trailer, a motorcycle and a bicycle go by. Neither of the youngsters cared. We all got back safe and sound and I was very proud of Louie.

Riding with Linda in Pittston

12/2/2009

The weather is still holding out and it was beautiful today. Linda and I decided to go riding today in Pittston. Not much water on the trails there and where there is, it is in the open so ice would not be a concern. Nor would I need to put boots on Louie to ride there. I was a bit apprehensive about how he would load all alone. And much to my delight, he loaded up very well. He locked up a few times long before getting to the trailer but that was easily worked through. Then once there, he sniffed the floor for a second, then jumped right in. He did paw a lot but I’m not too worried about that right now. I arrived at Linda’s house and she’d had both of her geldings down in a lower pasture and handed off Gus to me and went to put Mac in the pasture by the barn. Gus stuck his head right in the trailer to see who was in there, so I asked him to load up. After a few tries he did. Two feet, then back out a couple time. Then he hopped on……and immediately tried to turn around to come out. Linda was back by then and it was a bit of a scramble to get Gus secured in and tied so he couldn’t try to turn. He was fine once he was tied. Though we left him tied with his lead rope just long enough so that he got his head over the divider and slobbered all over Louie’s back. Poor Louie. They both unloaded quite well. We got tacked up and headed out with Louie in the lead. He did great. We came to one long puddle and he walked right in with no hesitation. Half way though there was some thin shelly ice and when he started crunching through that, he froze for just a second, then went on through like a good boy. Linda and I took turns leading. Both boys did well. They both eyeballed a few things such as rocks and cut wood. But neither fussed about anything. Gus did spook at some blue barrels on the side of the trail. Louie wasn’t bothered by them. We did a wonderful canter up a long hill. Louie was great and such a wonderful smooth canter. Today I used Ruby’s bit on Louie and he rode just as well in that as the Mikmar bit. Louie loaded pretty well for the ride home. And it didn’t take too long to get Gus on the trailer either. Dropped Linda and Gus off and got Louie home safe and sound. Another great ride on the little brown mule!