Linda picked me up around 9:30 am. Luke, as usual, seemed eager to be off on an adventure. When we arrived at the park, I asked Luke to get off the trailer first. He is more accustomed to a step up trailer so always come off Linda's ramp load trailer very carefully and on his toes just waiting for a drop. It's kind of funny to watch. And as usual, Luke started backing out slowly and carefully. Half way out, he stops, stands for a moment then walks back into the trailer. He's never done that before so I asked him to back out again. And again he starts backing slowly and carefully on his tip toes, stops, and walks back in. Hummmmm. I decided I'd just have to go up front and back him out so I hopped into the front of the trailer and ......... see that he is still tied..... DUH!!! I rarely ever tie him and only did because he and Gus were messing around with each other. Luke was looking at me like I was an idiot. Mules are smart...........I have him a hug and apologized to him. Mules understand apologies. And I sure do appreciate what a calm easy going boy he is.
It took a little bit of work to get Luke cleaned up. I've never know any equine that so delights in being completely covered in mud all the time. All mules like to roll but Luke takes it to a whole new level. Linda was getting out her helmet and grumbling about wearing it. She doesn't like to wear a helmet but she told her that her husband had made a point of asking her to bring her helmet and wear it today. We hoped he had not had a premonition of something bad that was going to happen to Linda.......! ACK! But after some serious grooming, tacking up and quick trips to the ladies rooms we were ready to head out. Though I was having some trouble with Luke's breast collar. Something was just not right about it and it was bugging me. But, I had it on and we were ready to go. Linda does not have a mounting block so I was looking around for a good place to mount. I found a nice rock and hopped on Luke and we were off. But, something was still not right with Luke's breast collar and it was even more obvious from his back. It was making me nuts as I hadn't done anything with it. I have not made any adjustments to it. I kept looking at it and fooling around with it as we were strolling across the parking lot and finally I came to the conclusion that two of the straps were in the wrong place. I have no idea how they could have gotten swapped but they had. We stopped so I could get off and fix it which didn't take me long once I realized what the problem was. Then, the search for another good mounting spot. I found a little ditch along the driveway that looked like it would do.
The slope of the ditch put me a little further from Luke then is ideal but I figured I could manage it. I grabbed the far side of the breast collar to pull up as I ride in an English saddle so there is no horn to grab and Luke has a roached mane so there is nothing there to grab either. I made a launch for his back giving a good pull on the breast collar. This caused Luke to move a few step towards me to keep his balance. And apparently I was a bit over ambitious in my launch as I suddenly found my self hanging over Luke's back and still going... Luke took a couple more steps up onto the pavement as I did a complete somersault over his back landing on my back under his head. My head snapped back and hit the pavement HARD! Well, to say the least I was mortified as Linda is watching me with grave concern and Luke is again looking at me like I'm an idiot. To his credit though, he just stood there quietly waiting to see what my next stupid move was going to be. I quickly jumped up assuring Linda I was fine. And for the most part I was. Linda's husband was right, one of us DID need a helmet today! It had surely saved me from a trip to the emergency room.
I then found a better place to mount up and finally we were off. We rode first to the top of the mountain. It's not that far or that high at only around 450' but there is a wonderful view. I didn't have my camera so only got one poor picture taken with my phone. We headed down and took the perimeter trail. This trail is pretty rugged. I enjoy this kind of riding and so does Linda. There is one spot we got off to lead Luke and Gus down a steep decline. We had to cross multiple bridges and I got off and checked each one out before taking the equines across. The bridges were all in good shape. Once we did the perimeter trail, we headed back around on the tote rode loop. From this trail there is a new trail called Krista's trail. It is a narrow single track trail that is very windy. It was a a little hard to follow in places but really fun riding. This took us back to the Tote Road trail which we took back to the parking lot. We were back to the trailer a little before 2:00 pm. It was a wonderful ride and we decided that Gus deserved to be made an honorary mule for the day for doing so well on the rough trails.
No comments:
Post a Comment