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.
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.
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