Snowy Morning Ride

I had the morning shift at the barn today. We had a snowstorm yesterday though the evening and there was 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I was no hurry to get to the barn planning to arrive around 7:30 am. I was just a few minutes later then that by the time I cleaned the snow off my truck. I was doing chores for MaryJo this morning but of course she came to the barn anyway and was there before me. She had already fed everyone, put her horses out and was watering everyone as I arrived. I put Ellie Mae out and right away she started running around. When I put Marie and Louie out, Ellie Mae got them all stirred up and the three of them ran around like crazy things. Marie was bucking her head off! It was so funny watching my old girl run and buck like that. MaryJo and I just had to stop and watch. So did her horses. We were surprised that they didn't get all stirred up also but they just watched for a bit then went to munching on their hay.

Walking back up to the barn, I realized what a lovely morning it was. The forecast was for strong winds but that wasn't supposed to start until the afternoon. It was sunny, fairly warm and with the new snow, the footing was very good. What a perfect day for a trail ride! I mentioned this to MaryJo and she said how much she would just love to ride too but she had to go to work. Before long, I had talked her into calling work and switching her work days so she could go riding with me. Yippee! I am such a bad influence on her. So, we worked together to get the stalls cleaned. I had decided to ride Marie and MaryJo was riding Tanguary. I had brought Zephyr with me as I had not thought of riding when I headed out this morning. MaryJo also had her dog Maggie with her. Zephyr and Maggie get along well so we put them both in her car while we went riding. We tacked up and headed out on the trails behind the barn. The trails were overall pretty good. Though we didn't go all the way around the perimiter of the property as we got to a spot where we were punching through where frost was coming out of the ground. that was about 3/4 of the way around so we turned and went back, then made a loop around the pond. We had so much fun that we did this a second time. Marie was very forward and happy to be out. Tanguary was happy to be out also. She was very happy to follow Marie. When she got in front of us, she would get a little too excited so MaryJo kept her tucked in behind Marie for most of the ride. As we were about 1/2 around the pond on our second trip, we saw another rider coming towards us. Her horses was jigging and prancing but she seemed to have him under control. MaryJo jumped off Tanguary as she has not ridden her in any groups yet and was not sure how she would react. MaryJo was also starting to get a little chilled so she decided to go back to the barn and I did one more loop with the other woman. Her horse was VERY excited about being out but we had a nice ride. When we got back, I went in the arena and rode Marie a bit longer in there. MaryJo was still at the barn and she rode Marie also. After I put Marie away, MaryJo and I hung out for a while in the viewing room and chatted for quite a while. Just a very nice day at the barn. Louie was NOT a happy camper about me taking Marie away from him and he got his exercise running the fence line. By the sweat on Ellie Mae, it looked like she had done some running also.

Outside at last

Today my friend Susie wanted to come over to ride Marie again. She is now 9 weeks post hip replacement surgery and this would be her second time riding. After some calls back and forth between Susie, Tracy and myself, it was decided to meet at the barn at 4:00 pm so that Tracy could ride with us. I had worked all night and decided I had time for a short nap. I ended up slept a bit longer then planned. I worked up at 3:30 pm and had to make a quick run to the feed store for shavings before the store closed. I did get to the barn just at 4:00 pm. Susie and Tracy were already there and had everyone up on the cross ties and ready to be saddled. We led the mules and horse out to my trailer and used my mounting block. Susie was able to mount this time with just my 2 step block!!! Yeah! We decided to ride to the end of the road to the Plains Rd. Ellie Mae and Louie were both quite excited and walking out very fast. Louie was a bit jumpy right at first, worrying about me but that didn't last too long. Ellie Mae took the lead and off we went. We were on our way back, approaching a corner when we heard something "big" coming. ACK! Upper Pond Rd. is a fairly narrow back road and if we couldn't see the vehicle coming, of course he couldn't see us. And it sounded like he was traveling too fast. And we were right. Around the corner comes a tanker truck. You could tell he was surprised to see us but it was too late to do anything but just whiz on by, and he did. Thankfully, none of the equines reacted at all. GOOD PONIES!

When we got back to the stable, we decided to ride out on the trails. For the most part, this was fine. But, we did get into one section where the frost was apparently coming out and we started punching through the snow quite deeply. So, we turned around and went back. All in all, it was a very good ride. Susie was also able to dismount on her own so a great success for her!

Stalled mules

Louie, like all respectable mules, is not fond of being stalled. But, since being at Upper Pond Stable , he has learned to deal with it. He has though lately taken to chewing wood where he can in his stall. Something he has never previously done. Tracy had noticed this when cleaning stalls and offed the use of her slow feeder hay net that fits a whole bale to put into Louie's stall thinking if he had hay in front of him all night, he'd leave the stall walls alone. I decided to take her up on that offer.

So, when I got to the barn this evening, I unloaded the hay I'd brought over and put it away. Then I put a bale into the hay net and hung it in Louie's stall. I hung it on the front wall from one of the eye screws for his corner feeder and one of the two eye screws for hanging water buckets. I also had a new bale bag for Marie that Amy Beem made. It also has smaller openings to slow down hay consumption. I filled this and hung it in Marie's stall.

When I went down to the paddock to bring them in, Marie and Louie were at the gate. Ellie Mae was hanging out along the fence line with MaryJo's horses. So, I took Marie and Louie up first. I led them into the barn and sent Louie into his stall. He walked right in and just as he got all the way through the stall door, he spotted that hay bale in the net hanging on the wall. To say he spooked would be an understatement. I think he about had a heart attack. He jumped straight up in the air and I though I might have to scrape him off the ceiling! He then bolted forward and plastered himself against the back wall and stood there staring and snorting at this potential mule eating monster that was silently lurking in his stall. And while I felt bad he'd been frightened, his expression was so funny I couldn't help but laugh...... and be thankful that he hadn't done an about face and exited the stall turning me into a door matt.

I went back out and got Ellie Mae and put her in her stall. I then checked on Louie and he was now slowly creeping up on the hay net, all snorty and twitchy because he wanted his grain that was in the feeder by the net. Marie had only given her new hay bag a brief glance, looking annoyed at being presented with yet another way to inhibit her joy in wolfing down her hay. Because it was getting dark out and MaryJo hadn't come yet, I decided to bring her horses in for her. When I went out to get them, I heard a dog bark and saw some movement behind the outdoor riding arena. At least I thought it was a dog until they started yipping and howling. It was the resident coyotes. MaryJo's horses were alert and watching them but didn't seem at all worried. I got the three horses in and watered when MaryJo showed up. We chatted for a while and then I headed home. I checked Louie one last time before leaving and he was happily munching hay from the hay net.

Working on Flexing

I was lazy today and slept late. So, I didn't get to the barn until 5:00 pm. Too late for me to ride. When I brought the equines in tonight, I was careful not to offend Louie. Ellie Mae was first to the gate again. Louie wanted to come up to me to but Ellie would not allow it. She made an attempt to kick at Louie to keep him away and I did correct her for this. No fighting allowed when I'm with them! So, out of respect to Louie, I kept my attentions to Ellie Mae just to what was necessary, then, once I had her up in the barn and in her stall, I made a fuss over her and loved on her where Louie could not see me. HA!  Louie was much happier that he had not seen me make a fuss over her and was eager to be with me tonight.

Though I didn't have time to ride this evening, I figured I could spend a few minutes working on flexing with Louie. I decided I could do this right in his stall. He was happy for the company. I put his bridle on and attached the reins to the snaffle rings on his bit. He did VERY well flexing tonight. In both directions. He's been really stiff flexing to the right but today he easily brought his head right around to his side. A few times he stiffened up tying to decided just what I wanted but then did great. Best flexing he's done so far. GOOD MULE!

MaryJo and I discussed sharing chores at the barn to make things easier for both of us. I can take a couple mornings for her when I am there already in trade for her bringing mine and Tracy's critters in on a couple evenings. That will make it easier for MaryJo to get to work in the morning on time and save me a few trips a week.

Ellie Mae at Upper Pond!

Yesterday was mule moving day. I hauled Tracy's mule Prize back to her house and brought her other mule, Ellie Mae to Upper Pond Stable. The haul went with no problem. Both mules loaded and trailered well. When we got to Upper Pond, we put Ellie Mae in the paddock between my two and MaryJo's horses. When Tracy led Ellie Mae into her paddock, there was Easter goat laying on the hay pile happily munching away. When Ellie Mae spotted Easter, it gave her quite the scare so I chased Easter out into her own paddock. Ellie Mae was fine then and didn't seem to have any further concern about the goat. She settled right in and quietly started munching hay. All the other equines were very interested in her but there was no big fuss from anyone.

What a sweet mule Ellie Mae is. She is a love bug just like Louie. She has been the first at the gate to greet me each night. I thoughts he might not like being stalled at night but so far she has made no fuss about this at all. She is a very pretty mule. Here is a picture of here from last summer. Doesn't show much of her but it's the only picture I have handy at the moment. Ellie Mae did belong to a woman that I know through the MulesOnly  Internet list I belong. This woman lived in Sedgewick, ME. A little over a year ago, I was contacted by this mule's owner, Pam and asked if I would be interested in taking Ellie Mae. Pam had been battling cancer for years and felt she didn't have much time left and she was very anxious to find a good home for Ellie Mae.  I simply could not take on another equine as much as I wanted to but a friend of mine decided to take her. Within a week of picking up Ellie Mae, Pam passed away. It didn't quite work out with my friend and Ellie Mae so this past spring Tracy took her. Ellie Mae and Tracy bonded quickly and Ellie Mae settled in with her and her herd very well.

Almost Ate Some Arena Dirt ....

I had a quiet day at home today. I had morning chores at the barn but had a few errands to run so didn't ride. But, this evening, Fred headed out with his brother to do..... guy things.....looking at guns and such. They did invite me to go along with them. I almost did as I knew they would be going out to eat somewhere and I LOVE going out to eat. It was a hard choice, food, ride my mule, food, ride my mule....In the end I decided to go to the barn and ride Louie. I arrived at the barn around 6:00 pm. MaryJo was there and was getting ready to ride Tanguary. I went into the arena and set up some ground poles and a cross rail jump. MaryJo got out a big tarp and spread that out. I groomed and tacked up and took Louie into the arena to lunge him first. He spotted the tarp the minute he went through the gate and gave it the hairy eyeball. But, he's seen plenty of tarps before. The only difference is this one is black and the ones I have are blue.

Louie was very quiet on the lunge line. He did the cross rail jump in a big way making me think maybe we would leave that for another day after more practicing on the lunge line. When I got on him, he stood like a very good boy. But, once we got riding he was a bit silly. But then it was about this time that the horse that is afraid of the mules started doing deep belly snorts from his stall. Louie was not bad, but not focused and not keeping a steady pace. His steering was ok. He did very well over the ground poles and was good about walking over the tarp. Though, every time MaryJo rode over it, the sound would startle him a little. But, he didn't do anything but flinch. At one point Marie started pitching such a huge fit in her stall about Louie being out of sight that I started to worry about her. She carried on LOUDLY for quite a while, even kicking the stall walls. Then she suddenly got so quiet that I was worried she had coliced and died! Stupid horse.

At one point as Louie and I were trotting along the arena wall, we got down to the corner by where the storage closet is and suddenly Louie did a BIG spook. No, I can't call it a spook, what he did was way to fast for the average spook. What he did was suddenly teleport about 30 feet to the side. He dropped his shoulder a little when he did this and suddenly I found myself hanging off the side of my mule. I had that moment when I just knew for sure that I was going to do a face plant on the ground, then suddenly realized that I was hanging off but not sliding any further and Louie was not moving, THANKFULLY! I then realized that the back of my foot had hooked onto the cantle of my saddle. So, I threw my arm up over Louie's neck, managed to get a grip on his breast collar and pull myself back into the saddle. Phew!!! So, while I was not pleased that Louie decided to try out his teleportation skills, I was very pleased that he stopped and stood quietly after and did not freak out over my ..... fancy trick riding. Silly mule!!! Once I sorted myself out and was all back in place, we proceeded with our ride. He did keep snorting when we approached this corner for some unknown reason and I had to use a lot of leg pressure to keep him moving here,  but he behaved himself.

So, it was a good ride in that he is no longer focusing on me so hard with worry. He is much more relaxed about me. But, not that he's not so worried about me, he's starting to goof off and be silly. That's ok though, gives us something to work on. All in all it was another good ride. We MaryJo and I were done riding, we turned Louie and her gelding, Arthur out in the arena together while we picked up and put away all our props. Louie and Arthur have never been together before. It was fun watching them. They were very good with each other. Arthur pushed Louie around a little then Louie finally stood his ground. Then Arthur didn't know quite what to do with Louie. They did play and run and so a lot of sniffing at each other. Arthur would squeal and paw the air with a front leg. Watching them together made me notice how much Louie has filled out since I got him. Louie and Arthur are about the same height. But, Arthur is a Mustang and only 4, Louie is 7. Louie looked pretty beefy beside Arthur. Louie is not at all "drafty" but he has matured into a pretty solid little guy.

2nd Lesson with Mary

Tonight I had my second lesson with Mary O'Rourke. I was really looking forward to this lesson as Louie and I have worked hard to make improvements from our last lesson. I got to the barn about 4:00 pm. MaryJo was in the arena taking a lesson riding Arthur. Apparently there had been a bit of an upset with the lesson due to the people that are moving into the apartment. The were making a lot of noise and had doors and windows open that could be seen from the arena that give Arthur quite a fright and Mary almost decided to cancel all lessons for the night for fear someone would get hurt. But, by the time I arrived, things had quieted down. MaryJo was just mounting up on Arthur and ended up having a good lesson from what I could see.

Louie was quite interested in who was in the arena while on the cross ties but was otherwise quiet and good while I groomed and tacked him up. I took him into the arena as soon as MaryJo was done and lunged him a bit. He behaved well but his head was up and he was looking like he was feeling his oats. ACK! He didn't look worried or spooked, just ...... energetic. Mary took his bit down to the bathroom to run it under some warm water so it wouldn't be so cold to put in his mouth. Louie approved! Louie was very quiet and stood nicely when I mounted. And though he was feeling a bit "fresh" and was a little silly, he was a very good boy tonight overall. He did remember the strange drilling noises from last night and didn't want to walk along that wall. The first time he went by it sidepassing so he could keep his face to the wall. The next couple times around Mary walked in front of him and that made him feel much better. After that he was pretty good. There were a bunch of people in the viewing room tonight and Louie kept wanting to stop and watch them. Kind of like watching TV! His steering was pretty good tonight. A couple time he got a little stiff but mostly he was very nice. And we did quite a bit of work at the trot tonight and he kept up a nice, fairly steady trot. We were MUCH improved from last week. Mary was much happier to see Louie in his new bit. Louie has been much happier with the bit so, of course, I am much happier. I still need to do a lot of work with Louie on flexing and bending. After the lesson, I just let Louie stand in the middle of the arena while Mary made much of him and boy oh boy did he soak up all the loving. I've never known an equine that loves to be loved on as much as Louie does.

When I brought him out of the arena, Cierra was tacking up Marie for her lesson. I offered to bridle Marie for her so handed Louie over to her to hold. And she loved all over him and he was just in mule heaven. Cierra has nicknamed Louie "Cuddlebug". It's a very fitting nickname. I watched just a little bit of Cierra's lesson before I left and she and Marie were looking great.

Horse Still Scared

I headed over to the barn to feed and ride this afternoon about 4:00 pm. I brought everyone in and got them fed but just as I was getting ready to get Louie out to saddle him up, the horse that is scared of Louie was brought into the arena. This horse had been doing a little better about the whole mule thing the past few weeks. Still not calm enough to ride but his owner was at least able to lead him near and by the gate to our side of the barn. Today the horse was right back to square one and having a complete meltdown. Snorting, blowing, spinning and bolting around. I feel bad for this woman and understand her frustrations. I wish there was something I could do to help with this situation.

It was close to 5:00 pm when she left the arena. I then quickly tacked Louie up and brought him into the arena to do a little bit of lunging first. There was someone in the arena taking a lesson. So, I stayed out of the way and lunged as quietly as I could. That brought about a kind of neat revelation though as I was giving my voice commands barely above a whisper and Louie was right in tune to me responding quickly and correctly every time. I didn't lunge long as he was so nice and quite.

I took Louie out of the arena so I could put his lunge line away and put his bridle on. There was a lot of activity at the barn tonight. There are some people moving into the apartment and getting ready to move  some horses in this coming weekend. Just as I was leading Louie through the gate back into the arena, someone fired up a power tool in a stall that is on the arena side wall. This spooked Louie and he squirted through the gate. I was not happy Louie spooked but I was pleased that he kept his eye on me and didn't get into my space, nor did he pull me. He just quickly turned around when he came to the end of the reins. The woman that had been riding in the arena was just leaving with her horse out the gate on the other side of the arena and Louie and I now had the arena to ourselves. But there were still a lot of distractions with people moving around up in the hayloft over our side of the barn and a couple vehicles went by the barn, tires crunching loudly on the icy snow along with the power tool still being used intermittantly. All this got Louie a bit nervous. I decided to ride anyway as he did seem to be paying attention to me despite all the worrisome distractions. Before getting on I did some lateral flexing with the bit from the ground. I was very surprised, and pleased to see he flexed quickly and easily. So, I climbed aboard. Louie stood very quiet and didn't move at all until I asked him to. Louie stayed worried throughout our ride but it was really a very good ride. He payed attention to me the whole time and did all that I asked of him. He was light to both leg and rein pressure and the one time that he did do a spook, he only scooted off a short way and stopped quickly when I asked him to. We kept it to a walk and trot. And worked on yeilding to leg pressure with some turns on the forehand in each direction. I was just so pleased that he didn't tune me out and that he kept trying so hard to do what I asked of him even though he was worried. So, I can chalk this up to another good mule day!