Cierra's First Ride at the Beach

It's been a very, very cold week. On Friday I watched the weather report and the forecast was for another cold and windy day. Not as cold as it has been but low 20's. But, the tide was right for riding at the beach, I had Saturday off from work, the roads were clear and safe for traveling and my trailer was all plowed out and ready to go. I decided I was going to just bundle up and go to the beach anyway. I wanted  to invite my friend Cierra. I figured she had never ridden at the beach and she could ride my mare Marie who has been to the beach many times. Cierra is a lovely young lady I met last year at Upper Pond Stable when I was boarding Louie and Marie there last winter. I did hesitate to call her as with such cold weather, I didn't want to have to explain to her mother that I froze her daughter at the beach. But, in the end I did call her mom to see if she was available to go. Pam told me that Cierra was working at Upper Pond Stable in the morning but would likely be ready to go by 10:00 am. Low tide was at 10:30 am but as I had an appointment to take the dogs to the vet for vaccines Saturday morning, 10:00 am would work out fine so I said I would pick Cierra up at the stable and we would head out from there. I did invite other to go but didn't get many takers on the offer. I was however, able to badger Amy Beem into agreeing to join Cierra and I. 

It was actually much warmer then the forecast said it would be. It was in the 30's when I went out at 7:30 am. After getting home from the vet, I had to hustle to get ready for the beach. As the wind was picking up, I feared it might still be quite cold down on the beach. So, I put on many layers of warm clothing, filled hay bags, put shavings in the trailer, then caught and loaded up Luke and Marie. I picked up Cierra and we headed to the beach. Cierra was very excited about this new experience and her excitement made this even more fun for me. We got to Popham Beach around 11:15 am. There was a horse trailer in the parking lot that looked familiar to me. A second look and I recognized it as Tracy and Eric Bradford's trailer. It would be nice to see them. Not long after we  arrived, Amy pulled in and she had found 2 other friends to come with her. We were all pleased and surprised and how nice it was at Popham as we were tacking up and getting ready to ride. Not even close to as cold as we thought it would be. 

Cierra on Marie in the parking lot of Popham Beach State Park

We had to negotiate the parking lot carefully to the beach access path due to some ice. We all managed to get down to the beach safely. I spotted Tracy and Eric right away. We saw some small white..... things, rolling around their horse and mule's legs and at first thought there was some trash blowing around the beach. We then realized it was two very small white dogs pestering their horse and mule. We rode out to where they were and chatted to them for a while. They had already been down towards the fort and were heading off in the other direction so we parted and rode out towards the rocks. Cierra wanted to ride into the ocean and I told her to go ahead and give it a try. I've done it many times with Marie but she won't go unless you are firm about asking her. Cierra did wonderful with Marie and got her to go in. Luke did not want to go in either but finally decided to follow Marie. He was a good boy but not particularly impressed. And he kept pretty glued to Marie for security. The waves look oh so scary and surely feed on mules. But, he was willing to lay down his life to be with his girlfriend Marie. Silly mule.

Eric on Coal and Tracy on Ellie Mae at Popham

Tracy on Ellie Mae

Cierra on Marie

Cierra on Marie in the Atlantic Ocean at Popham Beach

Cindy on Luke and Cierra on Marie in the Atlantic Ocean at Popham Beach

Amy Beem on Washburn

Judy Macpheters on Lilly, Amy Beem on Washburn, Carole Norton on Moxie, Cierra on Marie and Cindy Ross on Luke

I enjoy riding at Popham Beach because it's such a pretty beach and it changes all the time. Occasionally, storm tides will make the footing at the beach not that great for riding but usually, it's fine. Today the footing was wonderful and the beach was wider then I've ever seen it. We rode towards the rocks then headed down the beach towards the fort. The beach is on a peninsula and when we rounded the corner and headed for the fort, the wind hit us hard and it was right into our faces. The sand looked so neat here because the hard wind was making a thin layer of the dry sand blow along, low to the ground, over the packed wet sand. It made a strange visual effect that even had the horses and Luke watching with interest. We rode most of the way to the fort but did turn around before quite getting there as we were suffering brain freeze from the strong wind on this side of the beach. Once we had the wind to our back, we were fine. And then once back around the peninsula, we were once again protected from the strong winds and it was very nice. We had done a little bit of trotting on the way down toward the fort but nothing too fast. Cierra asked me if we could possible canter here. I checked with the other riders and every one was fine with us going ahead. So, Cierra led the way and we did a lovely long canter down the beach. Cierra then said it would be so cool to canter in the waves. I told her if she could get Marie to do it, to go ahead. She did a great job with Marie and she was soon cantering in and out of the waves. I tried to get Luke to canter in the waves with her but he was having no part of it. He did however, show off some great skills at trotting and cantering sideways, backwards and forward keeping just out of reach of each wave that came and went. We passed Eric and Tracy along this stretch. They had put their horse and mule in their trailer were walking their dog. We then did a fun canter up the center of a stream of water in the middle of the beach. Luke did agree to follow Marie here as there was no real wave action. We then rode back toward the others and did one more short canter. Cierra was in the lead and cantering straight for one of the streams. It was shallow so of no concern but the sand in front of the stream looked odd with some heavily rippled sand and different spots of sand colors. Marie cantered up to the spot and then suddenly decided that this looked too odd even for a steady and experienced girl like her. Marie put the breaks on hard. She tucked her butt and actually did a sliding stop. I thought Cierra might get the chance here to go for a swim. But, she rode it out perfectly and quickly pushed Marie right on through the water. I was impressed. The others were not far behind us and quickly caught us and we rode back out towards the rocks but decided to continued along the beach to the right of the parking lot access path. This end of the beach can be very iffy on the footing but today this part of the beach was wonderful also and we were able to ride a long way down this side of the beach.

Cierra on Marie, Cindy on Luke, Carole on Moxie and Judy on Lilly.  Sequin Island lighthouse in the background

We all then headed back out to the rocks for one last circle of that section of the beach. We rode all the way out to the rocks this time and had fun playing around on the rocks and riding in the seaweed on the beach. I asked Luke to hop up over a small rocky ledge and at first he didn't really think it was a good idea. But, with just a little bit of persistence on my part, he finally agreed to humor me and he quite gently, using a slanted rock near him, stepped up onto the ledge. Amy told me to do it again so she could get a picture. I lined him back up and asked him to go up again. He had apparently decided that this was actually kind of fun and with much more enthusiasm then I was expecting, launched up onto the rocks. Poor Luke, I lurched backwards and only kept from going off the back of him by balancing on the reins. Amy then informed me she had not gotten the picture, of which I was glad, and I had to do it again. Luke forgave me for the hard hank on his mouth apparently because he happily hopped up yet again. And yet again when Amy informed me she got the shot she was trying to get. Good Luke. Then Amy did it a few times with Washburn while I took her picture. Washburn didn't like the idea at first either but once he did it the first time, he was more than willing to do it again.........as I missed the first shot too. 

Climbing the rocks at Popham Beach

 I am so glad we all ignored the weather forecast and decided to ride at the beach today. It turned out to be a lovely day at the beach and a great ride with wonderful friends. All the horses and mules were very good. It was so much fun seeing Cierra experience her first beach ride as well as Amy's friend, Carole's first beach ride.