Mt. Pisgah Ride

Today a friend and I decided to ride in Monmouth/Winthrop around Mt. Pisgah. My friend has never been there before so it would be a treat for her to ride some new trails. My friend picked Luke and I up around 8:15 am. Luke loaded into the trailer like a good boy and was happy to make yet another new friend. My friend had a lovely Morgan mare. We parked at the North Monmouth fire station. We were soon tacked up and ready to go. And that was about the time my friend realized she had locked her keys in her truck. Ooops! We headed out anyway and she would just call AAA when were were nearing the end of our ride. 

I got a little confused on the trail for just a moment when I entered through the sand pit but figured it out fairly soon. When we got to the stream crossing at the south end of Nancy Bog, there are large rocks to cross and a little drop off and the end of the rocks. Neither Luke or my friends horse had been here before but Luke crossed with no fuss. He took his time and looked it over and got over nicely. It made my friends mare nervous. She was good and went but scrambled a little. She was wearing Renegade boots on her hind feet and slipped a little and scraped her left hind pastern a little. Nothing serious though, just a little missing hair. As we were coming to the end of the Bog Pond trail to the Soper Rd., I was in the lead and something in the long grass and brush along the side of the trail had Luke worried. I have no idea what it was but he slowed down and finally just kind of froze. My friend went by with her mare and Luke was happy to follow her. The loop we rode today is a mix of terrain. A little dirt road, a small portion of tar, and single track. Some portions are quite rocky and one portion has a lot of mud spots. Luke and my friend mare were great and handled all with ease. When we were only about a mile from being back to the trailer, my friend realized that her mare was missing both her boots! ACK! Renegade boots are expensive and not something you want to just leave on the trail. We figured she must have lost the boots through the muddy section so we turned around to see if we could find them. We rode back through the muddy section and nearly all the way back to the chicken farm. We did not see the boots. My friend needed to get home before it got too late so she decided she'd come back tomorrow to see if she could find them. So, we turned around again and went back though the muddy section of trail. Bless both Luke and my friend mare they made no fuss about trudging back and forth through all the mud. 

My friend did call AAA and they were waiting for us when we got back to the truck. So, we had a really fun ride but I sure hope my friend finds her boots!