Vet Appointment and Mt. Pisgah Ride

I had to take Luke up to the vet today to get a coggins draw and his Rhino vaccine as I'm going to Wildwood Stable , that requires the vaccine (I won't go into my opinion on that....) at the end of the month. My appointment was for 8:30 am. I decided I might as well go for a ride since I would already be out and about. I'd been wanting to explore some trails there and it was in the same direction as the vet. So, I loaded up Luke at 8:00 am and headed to the vet clinic. At the clinic I unloaded Luke and as soon as he got off the trailer, someone in the parking lot yells over to me, "what a beautiful animal!". I'd have to agree with that. The vet came out and drew blood for coggins and give the vaccine in the parking lot. Luke was a perfect gentleman. I soon had Luke loaded back up and we were on our way to Mt. Pisgah and the Kennebec Land Trust trails. I parked at the fire station as I usually do. From there it is just a short ride up Mt. Pisgah Rd. to the trails.

Luke headed down the trail eager. It was hot and going to get into the 90's. And the deer fly were out in full force as well as mosquitoes and big horse flies in some spots. I'd purchased Luke a Cashel quiet ride mask . The local tack shop didn't have one in stock with mule ears and I didn't want to wait to order one so I bought a regular one and just unstitched the top of the ears. I'm glad I had the mask for Luke, it helped a lot to protect him from the flies. The first trail I checked out went up a steep hill. It looked quite promising at first but petered out within 1/4 mile. So, back down the hill we went. The 2nd trail we explored was much the same but went closer to 1/2 mile before ending. So, up hill and down hill Luke went. We had to do a little bit of bush whacking but Luke doesn't mind doing this at all. More green stuff to eat off trail. Luke is quite bold about going though anything you point him at. At least as long as there are no pool noodles involved. The 3rd trail I tried did go somewhere, but it just looped back to the main trail. Luke was just fine with all the back and forth riding. And he never fussed a bit each time we came back to the main trail and then headed away from the trailer. At this point I decided to just take a ride to the top of Mt. Pisgah to the fire tower. It's a steep climb to the top. I was impressed with how easily Luke handled it, especially with the heat. He set a steady pace and just chugged along up the the hill without stopping. I stopped him at the little meadow about 3/4 of the way to the top and let him graze for a few minutes. He was not really breathing very hard and enjoyed the snack. There used to be a really pretty view from the meadow but the trees have grown up too much around the edges and now block the view.

Just so I wouldn't have to go back the same way, I decided to ride down the gravel road from the fire tower to the paved road and ride that back to where I parked. The gravel road is nearly as steep as the trail so I decided to give Luke a break and I got off and lead him down to the paved road. I did have some nice views going down. I mounted up in the parking lot and headed down the paved road. This turned out to be a good choice as it is a lovely area. Many very pretty small farms. Every one's gardens are now in full bloom as are many wildflowers along the side of the road. And Luke is as steady as they come on the road and he is as good riding back as heading out. No rushing or getting anxious so it was just a nice relaxing ride back to the trailer. I sponged Luke off back at the trailer, then I loaded him up and headed home. Luke was funny when I got him home. As I was leading him back to the paddock, he had all he could do to stay on his feet. As soon as he came off the trailer his knees kept buckling as he was SOOOOOOO anxious to roll. I had all I could do to get him to wait until he was back in his own paddock and I had his halter off. He just had to replace all the dirt that I had so rudely sponged off him!Luke is just the most wonderful trail partner.