The weather forecast was for absolutely perfect weather. It was going to be cold at night but in the 60's during the day. I left my house around 8:30 am on Tuesday. When I got to the end of Dead River Rd. (The road I live on) I turned the wrong way. DUH! I turned around and headed in the right direction. I got off I-95 in Gray onto Rt. 202 and turned the wrong way off the exit. WHAT THE HECK! I realized right away and again turned around. Then after a while, when I passed Sebago Lake, I realized I was no longer on Rt. 202. Oh, for crying out loud!!! I was on Rt. 35. I stopped and looked at the map and realized that this was fine as Rt. 35 when right where I wanted to go anyway. It actually turned out to be a better route as I didn't have to go through Windam and Gorham and the 4 stupid rotaries. It was less then a mile longer and a pretty drive. Then I drove past Margaret's road but I wasn't surprised at that as I have not been to her house in a few years and was not sure I remembered the way. I didn't go far past before calling her and was soon at her house. I even managed to arrive on time!
When I got to Margaret's house, she loaded up her Morgan gelding, Promise, and we headed off to ride at the old Hollis Armory. I've never ridden here before and was looking forward to it. Margaret's Promise is 31 years old and still going strong. He is awesome and is a real testament to the good care he gets. Margaret has had him since birth. We saddled up and were soon on the trail. We took a few wrong turns, seemed to be the theme of the day, but soon were on the right trail. I had decided not to bring my camera because I didn't have my saddle bags on my saddle. I was soon to regret this as the landscape here was absolutely lovely. I did take a few pictures with my phone. We've always joked that Promise loves the look of Marie's butt as he has always liked to follow her. And he not a horse that normally likes to follow. And apparently Promise remembered how much he admired Marie's derriere as he was quite determined to keep his eye on it. We had a great ride.
Once back to Margaret's house, we settled Marie into a paddock and Margaret turned Promise out in a separate pasture. Marie was very happy to find some hay in a stall she had access to. Promise stayed near the fence line of the paddock she was in. Marie would come out of the stall and they would sniff over the fence line then she'd go back in to eat more hay, then come out to see Promise and go in again. It was funny watching them. Margaret had made a nice soup for our lunch. We relaxed a while then before it got dark, poured a couple glasses of wine and took a walk through Margaret's apple orchards. I was pretty with the fall colors. A lot of leaves are already off the trees but there are still enough to look nice. We then brought Promise and Marie into the barn and fed them.
For dinner Margaret made an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms as well as veggies and dip and crackers and cheese. The main course was chicken pumpkin stew. It was absolutely delicious! Much of the ingredients came right from Margaret's garden. And this was followed up with some dark chocolate candy. I was in heaven! We watched a bit of TV (and munched chocolate) and then we checked on the horses one last time. I brought in my air mattress from the trailer and set up my bed in Margaret's living room. Margaret's cat, Curio was sure it was a new bed just for him and immediately made himself comfortable on it. He was very insulted when I moved him when I went to bed and stalked off to Margaret's room. Sorry Curio.
I woke up around 8:00 am I think. Margaret was already up. I had slept like a log! We went out and fed the horses. Then Margaret made a lovely breakfast starting with cantaloupe grown in her garden, scrambled eggs with sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms, bacon and hash browns and herbal tea. This was already starting out to be a great day! We went out to get the horses ready to ride. While Margaret tacked up Promise, I cleaned out Marie's stall. She had done her usual job of blending the entire stall like a big mixing bowl so it was a bit of work to get the stall clean. PIG! When Margaret was ready, we took both horses out to my trailer, I tacked up Marie and soon we were on our way. We had a second great ride from Margaret's house. She has some really nice trails around her house. And again Promise was quite determined to keep his eye on Marie's backside. When we got back from our ride, we turned Marie and Promise out together. They both got down and rolled several times. It's amazing to watch Promise. You would never know he was 31 watching how he moves. He gets up and down as well as any horse 1/4 his age. We watched the two of them for a while to make sure they'd be ok with each other. Marie was in heat and this got Promise a little excited. Again, I was pretty impressed considering Promise's age. They were both fine though after a little bit of squealing and settled down to munch on hay. We went in the house and had lunch from the previous day's leftovers. And I confess I huffed down two bowls of the chicken pumpkin stew. Promise was not happy when I took Marie away from him. We felt bad for him. I had an uneventful drive home managing to not make a single wrong turn. Luke was VERY happy to see Marie when I got home. This has been such a nice vacation being able to ride with such good friends in so many wonderful places here in Maine.
Aw, what a sweet little post about Marie. She deserves a little "late in life" romance.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you didn't take your camera, too, but your phone did a good job! Beautiful scenery!!