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.