After months of preparation and conditioning, Luke was now ready for his first competitive trail ride. So, I entered the Maine 25 CTR in Waterford, ME. I was so excited about going to this ride as I have not done any competitions this year. I have missed competing and missed seeing all my competition friends. Four of us were going together. Susie, Nancy, Joanie and I. Joanie and Nancy had to work on Friday so we decided that Susie and I would take both of our trailers up and all four equines. Joanie and Nancy would drive up when they got out of work. Joanie and Nancy were worried about leaving all the work of camp set up to Susie and I but we didn't mind at all as all 4 equines are so good and easy to handle. Susie got to my house at around 9:00 am. Susie helped me load up Luke and Marie and we headed out. It was over cast and a little foggy in the morning but warm and was going to be a nice day. We got to the Waterford fairground at around 10:30 am. We parked the trailers nose to tail so our LQ doors were facing each other and set up our camp between the trailers. It was good we went up early as we got the last stalls that were 4 stalls together in one barn. There were stalls in the next barn but those stalls are small and Luke would not have been comfortable in one of those. The stalls we had were nice and big. But, they are actually cattle stalls so the stall walls are so short that Luke looked like he could step right over! I did run a rope around over the top of the walls just to discourage any such thoughts. 2 x 4's were set up for the stall "gates". Luke was very good but he he was in an end stall and could lean over and reach grass and leaned on the 2x4's a bit. I worried he would bust them but he didn't persist and settled down nicely. We groomed all the equines as Luke was absolutely covered in mud! And I gave Marie a quick bath as she had slept in urine soaked bedding the previous night and smelled horrible. Why she lays in her pee I'll never know. Yuck! Amanda and Rhiana Stygles had the other two stalls in our barn. They are both so nice and it was fun sharing a barn with them. It was Rhiana's 10th birthday and her first competitive trail ride. Very exciting! And she had cupcakes she made and shared with us to celebrate her birthday. After we had camp set up and the equines all settled in, we relaxed for a bit with a glass of wine.
At 1:30 pm I went down to the office and picked up all of our riders packets. We put our ride numbers on Luke and Marie's butts with livestock marker. Luke thought that drawing on his butt was a slightly weird thing for me to do but didn't make much protest about it. I saw that the vet had arrived so we decided to get all 4 vetted in as there were no lines yet. We took Marie and Luke up first. They were vetting 2 equines at a time so we took them both in. The vet judge checks the legs and muscle tone and metabolics. And the lay judge checks the entire body for any injuries, rubs, bumps and such. Luke was a good boy. The vet judge was Larry Buggia and Luke was a good boy for him but was a bit suspicious of having his legs checked. He kept picking up his feet when Larry touched them because he thought that was what Larry wanted. The lay judge was Sondra Day and she is a wonderful. All my mules have liked her, even shy Emma Jane. Luke was no exception, he acted like Sondra's exam as she ran her hands all over him was like a personal massage. Sondra is not very tall and when she came around to the front to examine Luke's head, he dropped his head right into her arms and just closed his eyes with such a happy look on his face. It was really funny. Then both judges watch the trot out. Luke trotted off with me like a pro. I lunged him and he did ok but was he was quite calm and relaxed but very curious about his surroundings. So, after one circle, I asked him to whoa, he kept right on trotting around gazing out across the fairground, then gawking up into the grand stand, then sniffing the ground....Luke whoa.....lalalalalala, look at the other horses, is that a dog over there lalalalala. I ended up just reeling him in. Silly boy! He paid a bit more attention when we did the other direction and he trotted back nicely. The judges both commented what a lovely mover he is. He got B's (Average +) on length of stride, willingness and body carriage and a C (Average) on height of stride. No toe dragging, good coordination, no muscle soreness and good muscle tone. I then traded equines with Susie and I trotted Marie out. I didn't do my best job of trotting her out. I lunged her as usual but she cut in on one side and just didn't look great. I should have walked her around before the trot out because at her age, she needs time to loosen up. So, the vet asked to see her again in the morning.
Susie and I put Luke and Marie back in their stalls and brought up Bayzen and Frannie to be vetted in. All went well with both of them so we settled them back into their stalls. I then walked down to Melby's to get a sandwich. Sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 Nancy and Joanie arrived. We walked and grazed all our equines for a while then put them back in their stalls, fed them and headed down to Melby's for supper. When we got back, we checked the equines, filled water and hay bags then went to our camp to relax. Sondra Day came over to visit as well as Amy Beem and Rhonda Bachelder. We had a nice evening visiting. Before bed, we checked the equines one last time. Everyone was quiet so we headed for bed.
I woke up around 5:30 am. Nancy and I both got up and fed Marie and Luke. I quickly packed up the tote of things we would need at the hold. We put in our rain gear as rain was in the forecast. We went down to the food shack and had breakfast. They had breakfast sandwiches and a nice selection of pastry. After eating, Nancy and I got Marie and Luke out to walk around to make sure Marie got a chance to stretch her legs before trotting out for the vet this morning. We went into the arena by our campsite and Luke immediately wanted to roll. I didn't let him as it was damp and I didn't want to have to try to groom wet sand off him before putting his saddle on. Luke was not pleased with this. We left the arena and just walked them around and each time we passed the arena gate, Luke tried to go towards it and when I said no, he shook his head at me giving me a very disgusted look. He really wanted to roll and was NOT going to hide his feelings about it. One of the things I love so much about mules is how expressive they are. Marie went up for her trot out and she looked very good and was passed to do the ride. YEAH!!!! We brought them over to the trailer and tacked up. Luke was picking up on the excited atmosphere and was very curious but he was quiet and well behaved as I tacked him up. Susie and Joanie went down to the riders meeting to get any details or instructions we might need. We mounted up and rode around the fairground to warm the equines up and wait for our turn to start. All four of us were riding out together. As we walked around, Luke picked up even more on the excitement in the air. He knew this was not the average trail ride. He behaved fine though and stayed light and responsive. Then, our numbers were called and we were off. Marie and Frannie are both experienced CTR horses and were well behaved as we started out. Luke and Bayzen are nubies. Bayzen was VERY excited and was quite strong and bouncy and he cantered the first mile. Luke too was excited and he did a bit of prancing at the start for about 1/4 mile but again he stayed light and responsive so was no trouble and soon he settled into a wonderful trot. It was quite warm and humid and all our equines are getting their winter coats so they all got sweaty fairly quick. But, all were eager and very forward and seeming to have a wonderful time. The trail was well marked and everything went very well to the hold. The only naughty thing Luke did was kick out at Bayzen once. I've never had Luke kick at anyone before so it surprised me. He didn't make contact but it was a full out kick. The sky had cleared off and the sun had come out so we didn't have any need of our rain gear.
The hold wasn't too crowded so I asked Margaret Farnum, who was doing P&R's if she could give Luke a courtesy check after only 5 minutes. You are allowed 10 minutes. But, Luke was under the required 60 bpm so I took that as the official P&R. Marie just squeaked in at 60 bpm. We hit it lucky with no line for the vetting. When we were asked to do our trot out, which is just a straight line away from, then back to the vet, Luke spotted something of concern in the direction we had to trot and was reluctant to go and was blowing at "it". So, the lay judge clapped her hands and gave a "ha" from behind him and he did reluctantly go. On the way back though, yeeeehaaaa, he looked plenty lively as he was sure "it" might be chasing him! Marie and Luke passed vetting and we gave them a quick snack of hay stretcher, dengie and some carrots.There is a lot of sand in the hold area and Luke wanted to roll very badly. So, I had to really keep an eye on him to keep him on his feet. We were about 10 minutes late getting out of the hold but we weren't worried abou it. There is no penalty for staying longer in the hold and we felt sure we would still finish on time. I really thought Luke would poop out on the 2nd half of the ride but was I ever wrong. He was still full of energy and I had to check him back occasionally. We did a loop and came back though the hold area. We stopped to offer the equines water but Luke was again eagerly surveying the sand and wanting to roll. He just could not understand why I was being so mean to him and not letting him do what all mules need to do as often as possible. In the last few miles of the ride Luke got right out in the lead and he led our group to the finish. I was amazed at how easily he handled the ride. And what a pleasure he was to ride. For about 60% of the ride it was like sitting on a Cadillac on cruise control. About 40% of the ride I was actually checking back his speed but he was very responsive and easy to rate. He seemed to really enjoy himself.
From the finish line, we went right to my trailer and quickly removed our saddles then took Luke and Marie over in front of our barn where we had water ready for sponging. We sponged them as much as we could, it was starting to cool off but they had worked hard with their fuzzy coats. When their P&R's were done, both Luke and Marie were a bit higher then expected but well within a safe range. Luke was 48 and Marie was 52. Franny and Bayzen were both higher then expected also so I think it was just the warm day with fuzzy coats. After P&R's were taken, we walked Luke and Marie around to keep them limbered up before doing our trot out for the vet. I did a practice trot out by our camp and lucky I did as Luke thought he'd worked enough for the day and didn't see the need to trot for me again. We had to have a bit of a discussion about this but one he decided I was serious about it, he was fine. He did a very nice trot out for the vet. He did not go along with the idea of lunging this time though so I just did the circles in hand with him. I think he was thinking, "if you are going to make me trot, I'm going to make YOU do it to!" Marie's trot out looked very good. Nancy did a very nice job of trotting her out. We had some time between the trot out and hands on part of the final judging so we put Luke and Marie in their stalls with lots of hay and then changed our clothes and packed up camp as much as we could. We then got Marie and Luke back out and were leading them to the trailer so we could brush them off and for one moment I took my eyes off Luke and he dropped and had a good roll! Booger! But, at least we were on grass so I only had to give him a quick brushing before presenting him to the judges. The hands on went fine, Luke was a good boy. We were now done and knew that we at least had a completion. Yippeee! We settled Luke and Marie back in their stalls again and fed them. Then, we went down to the food shack and had supper. It was now starting to cloud over. At 3:30 it started to rain lightly. They had the award ceremony about 4:00 pm Marie and Frannie got completions. Luke placed 6th and Susie placed 4th. Luke had a score of 97 so there was only 3 points separating the top 6 equines. I was thrilled with how well Luke did.
On Luke's score card he had no changes for tack area. I am so pleased that my English saddle is working so well on him. He had no changes on his leg either. He started 100% sound and ended 100% sound! And he had no changes for the mechanical fatigue category. He did get 2 points off for metabolic fatigue and 1 point off for his ending pulse being over 44. We all had such a great ride and after a saying goodbyes to everyone, we headed home. When I turned Luke out in his paddock at home, he did some serious rolling!
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