Learning to be a mule

I went for a nice ride with my friend Susie who was riding her horse Spark and Barbara riding my horse Marie. Susie and Barbara were both busy in the morning so we decided to ride at 1:30 pm. The weather forecast was for a hot day but we decided to give it a go anyway. Well, it was quite warm but not at all humid so quite nice for riding. And surprisingly, the bugs were't bad at all on the trail. We headed out from my house. We headed out on the trail that goes up to the Litchfield fairgrounds. The last time Barbara and I rode the trail, we had trouble with a bridge crossing. My farrier owns property near the bridge and said he know of a way to get around the bridge. He had emailed me to tell me he had marked the bypass trail for us. So, we were anxious to try it out.

We had to go over the highway overpass on Rt. 197 which is a busy road. We usually go over the one on the Acadamy Rd. as it's a quite road but it is closed right now and under construction. Louie has never minded the overpass itself but has had grave concerns about the metal expansion strips on each side. Susie was in the lead as we approached the overpass. But, Spark balked when he saw the expansion strip. I cued Louie to pass Spark and go first. I was so proud that he did it with little fuss at all. He certainly eyeballed the expansion strip and did not let a hoof touch it but he went and led the way over the overpass. GOOD MULE! Once back in the woods, we easily found the trail my farrier had marked for us. Good thing he marked it as we'd never had found the way just by description. We came to a spot were the trail was in a low marshy area and there was a little stream crossing. The stream was no more then.........2' wide but it was muddy on the approach, the steam was in a bit of a ditch with lots of brush around it so it was hard to see the ground. And of course no idea what the footing was like on the other side. Susie was again in the lead and Spark absolutely refused to cross. He fussed around churning up mud until Barbara offered to try to get Marie to cross. Marie to absolutely refused to cross. And she's usually pretty willing to do what ever you ask. So, I figured I might as well see if Louie would go. I was sure he wouldn't as he's not fond of water crossings in general and he's just watched both horses refuse to go. After a bit of difficult maneuvering in the mud to get in front, I pointed Louie at the stream and cued him to go forward. He put his head down, assessed the situation and much to my surprise, he crossed the stream beautifully with no leaping or thrashing. He did it in the way that make riding mules so great. Mule 4 wheel drive as we call it and it is something he is just learning to do. Louie is learning to be a real trail MULE! The horses then decided they would cross following Louie. Unfortunately, the crossing was much worse them Louie made it look. Both horses sunk in the mud. Susie was last and Spark really sunk and struggled to get through nearly losing Susie. After, when we know all was well we laughed saying if any shoes had been sucked off our equines feet, our farrier couldn't complain as HE was the one that marked the trail!

We had an uneventful and lovely ride the rest of the way. We took some trails off the Plains Rd. that Susie and I have only done once and that was years ago. LOVELY trail but it is a snowmobile trail and in the winter continues across a cow pasture that is fenced and closed the rest of the year. So, to get off the trail you have to come out across someones lawn and down their driveway.When we got to this place, I went to the house to see if we could get permission to do this. The most lovely older woman lives at the home and she said she didn't mind us riding out of the trail across her place at all and she chatted with us for a while. Some people are just so nice. As usual, a fun ride and what a great trail mule Louie is turning out to be. He gets more confidence with every ride.