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!!!