Riding at Old Orchard Beach

Today, Susie and I decided to go riding at Old Orchard Beach. I haven't been there in a few years so it would be a nice change. I had to work Sunday night, so when I got home at 5:30am, I quickly fed the horse and mules and went to bed to get as much sleep as I could. I was up at 10:45, had a quick breakfast then went out to get Louie. He was easily caught and didn't fuss much about being led away from the others. Locked up a few time for a few seconds but that's it. He loaded into the trailer pretty well also. So, I managed to get to Susie's house right on time at noon. I transfered my tack into Susie's trailer and then we loaded Louie. He had to think about it for just a moment, but then got on. We had to stop by the Scarborough town office on the way so I could pick up a beach riding permit. We got to the beach about 1:15. Just at low tide. Louie was unwilling to back off Susie's trailer. So we unloaded Cody first and then Louie finally backed off. There was only one other trailer in the parking lot. And the trailer owner was just coming in off the beach when we arrived. And, of course, it was someone Susie knew. I had never met him so Susie introduced us. When he heard my name he said, "Is this the same Cindy that I heard the story about of being bucked off in a river at an endurance ride". I am never going to live that down......
Anyway, with the permits, we now get assigned a number on a paper we have to put on and wear. So, I pinned this to the back of my jacket. We got tacked up, mounted up and Louie led the way down to the beach. He was a little bug eyed but did not stop when I put a little bit of leg on him. Good boy! It was a fabulous day. Sunny with just a light breeze. It was much warmer then we expected, we were actually a bit overdressed. We walked for a little bit. My paper number tag only had 1 pin with it and was flapping noisly in the light breeze. The sound was spooking Louie. I ended up having to take the tag off before he had a mental overload. Note to self: bring more pins next time. Second note to self: desensitize mule to sound of flapping paper. The beach is 7 miles long. Louie was not bothered by riding under the pier as I though he might. But, he was keeping a very hard eye on all the sea gulls that were running around on the beach. We hadn't seen any at Popham beach so this was new. And Louie felt sure that birds are supposed to FLY, not run around in big groups on the ground. We did some nice long trots. Louie has his first set of shoes and is getting used to them. We were doing some circles and serpentines and Louie was stiff and not bending well. Then I realized that I was leaning in on the circles and putting a lot of weight on the inside stirrup. I straightened up and got centered on his back and suddenly I had a soft and bending mule! We also did one nice long slow canter. Louie was great today. He kept a very steady pace and was out walking Cody who occasinally had to trot to keep up. And for anyone that knows Cody, that is saying something. Back at the trailer, we gave Cody and Louie a treat of soaked beet pulp and put fleece coolers on them. Louie loaded into the trailer pretty well. But, when we got to Susie's house, he decided he had loaded all he was going to load for one day and was pretty determined not to get into my trialer. I think he'd just had all he could handle for one day for a young mule. It took about 20 min. and lots of patience, but we got him loaded. Got home just in time to shower, have a quick supper and head back to work. It was such a fun ride and Louie did real good today.