Winter ride

1/30/10
I finally got out for a ride today. It was cold, only in the 20's. But, the sun was out and there was no wind. And since I just recently spent a ridiculous amount of money for winter shoes, I am determined to get my money's worth out of them! When I went out to the barn, both Louie and Marie were down in the bottom of the pasture. I shook a grain can to lure them up to the barn. Louie came up but not Marie. So, I let him have a little grain then tied him him. By then, Marie was finlly curoius about what was going on and had come up to the barn. So, I put her halter on and then led them both out to the front yard and tied them to my trailer. I brushed them both then saddled up Marie. When I went to mount up, I realized that I could not ride in my regular winter boots. They are too big to fit in the stirrups so I had to run into the house and put on my winter riding boots. Ok, ready to go again. I led Marie back to the mounting block. I looked back at Louie and he was having a fit at the trailer. Rearing and pulling back! He was afraid he was being left behind. I ignored him for the moment becuase he wasn't really putting that much effort into his antics so I didn't feel he would hurt himself. I mounted up then rode over and got him. We only went 4 miles down the road. I don't know if Louie has ever been ponied before but my guess would be that he has. He was a GOOD boy. Stayed right in place the whole time and didn't play around. We rode up by the alpaca farm. Louie hasn't been by there before. The alpaca's are on both sides of the road and the fence is close to the road on both sides. It scares a lot of the equines the first time by. Louie was very good. He took a good long look but didn't make any fuss. I had a real nice ride and I think both Marie and Louie were glad to get out too.

Winter photos, the moose trot

Just some photos I took today of Marie and Louie. I caught Louie doing the "moose trot". It's a thing all mules seem to do. So called because it reminds us (mule folks) of how a startled or alert moose trots.

Louie's first set of shoes

1/26/2010
Louie got his first set of shoes today. When the farrier came, I had him do my horse first. It was winter shoes with snowball pads so took a bit of time. After my horse was done, I caught Louie, (more like he caught me…) put a nylon halter on him and led him into the barn. Louie promptly whirled around and dragged me out of the barn, my farrier jumping out of the way all wide eyed. ACK. I put a rope halter on Louie and led him back into the barn and once again he whirled around and dragged me out!! My farrier is getting a bit worried now and I am a little surprised as Louie has never done this to me before. I know I can’t have him learning he can drag me around so I put the nylon halter back on him and put a stud chain over his nose. I lead him back into the barn and he again starts to whirl around. I give one quick hard yank on that chain and he stopped dead in his tracks. After a second, he made one more feeble attempt resulting in one more quick yank on the chain and that was the end of that. Another second of thinking about it and his head came right down, he let out a big sigh and relaxed. His ears were at half mast so you could tell he was thinking about it all but he stood quiet and relaxed. He was perfect for the farrier. Stood quiet and nice never pulling his feet and picking them all up like a gentlemen. So, despite the slightly rough start, I was very proud of my boy and the farrier was more then pleased with him. Once again, good mule!!!

Louie's 2nd ride at the beach

1/24/2010
Well, this was Louis’s 2nd trip to the beach. I was meeting Susie there as well as Barbara who would be riding my horse Marie. I loaded up Marie first, then asked Louie to load. He hesitated. I got out the whip and just had to show it to him and he decided to jump in. Good boy! I then called the park to tell them we were coming. The park ranger wasn’t sure it was a good idea for us to come. He said the access path to the beach had been eroded do bad by storm surges that he didn’t know if we could get down to the beach. He asked me to call back in ½ hr. and he would go check. Well, I was already loaded up so headed out anyway. It is nearly a 1 hr. drive to get there so I did call back in ½ hr. He told me there was about a 4’ drop down from the path to the beach. He didn’t know if the horses/mule could handle it but we were welcome to come look. It was a beautiful day though it was cold and cloudy in the morning. We got to the beach at 10:00 and it was getting nice and warm with the sun coming out. We saddled up and waded through the snow to the access path. There was indeed about a 4’ drop onto the beach but all the equines handled it just fine. Louie was wonderful. He was relaxed as he’d already been here once before. We rode for about 2 ½ hrs. We were able to access a section of the beach we haven’t ridden on in years. Louie kept right up with Susie’s Arab and often was out walking. We did one nice long steady stretch of trotting and cantering. Louie was very good and kept right up without being pushed. But when we stopped, he was puffing like a freight train. I have to remember he is not in shape like mine and Susie’s horse who have been doing endurance riding for years. Louie went into the surf today without much fuss. When we went back to the trailers and got to the access path, it looked much scarier from the beach. But, once again, all equines managed the jump/climb up with no trouble. Wonderful day!!!

First time ground driving Louie

1/23/2010
I had planned to ride with Bonnie today but there was just too much ice on the roads and we didn’t have winter shoes on. And the snow was too deep in the woods to be good riding. So, I thought it would be a good time for Louie’s first driving lesson. I had no idea if he’s ever been ground driven or not (turns out he had been) but good time to fine out. I first put my horse in harness and hooked her to a tire and dragged that around and let Louie watch. Then, I got Louie and put the harness on him. He didn’t mind that at all. He did great with the driving. So, I dragged the tire behind me to get him used to the sound. He was not really too concerned with that either. Good Boy!!