Beach Ride and Luke Falls in Love

For once, the weather forecasters were right, today was a LOVELY day! It was going to be a perfect beach day! Low tide was 3:00 pm. Barbara was going to meet me at Popham Beach and would ride my mare, Marie. Another friend, Mary Ann, was also meeting us there with her lovely mare, Suri. I worked at Upper Pond Stable this morning, then went home and had time to make lunch and relax for a while. At 1:45 pm. I headed outside, hooked up the trailer, then loaded Marie onto the trailer. I went back to get Luke. He had come up to the upper gate by Fred's work shop. I headed over to get him but as he was not able to see Marie from that gate, had turned around and headed back towards the barn. I called him and he turned back around and came to me. It was just at this moment that I got a phone call. I was holding Luke halter and he kept trying to stick his head in it. If Marie was going somewhere, he wanted to be with her.

I got off the phone and put Luke's halter on him much to his relief, loaded him up and was on my way. Barbara pulled into the parking lot right behind me. Mary Ann was already there. It was and absolutely lovely day. Warm and sunny with no wind at all. It didn't take us long to get ready and we were soon on the beach. We rode just a little way out towards the rocks then headed left towards the fort. The ocean was on our right and a long deep tidal pool was on our left. The ocean and the tidal pool came together a ways down the beach. It looked like we could cross this back to bare sand if we stayed right were the waves were breaking. Luke had been in the lead but when he realized we were surrounded by water, he dropped back and let trusty ole' Marie lead the way. Barbara was able to keep Marie in the waves where it was most shallow. Luke and Suri were a bit more worried and were trying to move away from the waves. At first that was fine as the tidal pool wasn't too deep. As it got deeper though, we pushed Luke and Suri into the waves and they did go. We got to a point where the waves were rougher. Marie headed in but Suri sidestepped into the tidal pool which dropped right off into deeper water. She only got in about belly deep so not a big deal but it was at this point we could no longer see the sand through the serf so were not sure how deep it was even there so we decided to turn around and go back  and circle the tidal pool to the main beach. Suri, Luke and Marie were all very good about the whole thing.

 There is a spot along the main beach that is not very wide and there are a few homes quite close to the water. They have had a big problem with beach erosion the past few years and they are trying to save the homes by stabilizing the bank with large rocks. They were working on this today and there was a huge excavator on the top of the bank moving the boulders around and dropping the boulders down the bank. We had to ride quite close to this. I didn't think it would bother Marie and I was right. I didn't know what Luke would think of it. He didn't  even bat an eye at it. He was more concerned about not getting to close to the waves. He decided he'd rather risk a boulder on his head than the mule eating moving water. Suri was a little worried about the excavator and work going on but tucked up to Luke and Marie and was a good girl and we were able to ride through with no problems.

We circled the tidal pool and rode down to the point doing a nice trot along this stretch of beach. Then went around the point and rode to the fort. Down by the Fort there was a family there with some kids and an exchange student from the Czech Republic. They made a big fuss over the horses and Luke and took lots of pictures.

We then rode back towards the parking lot doing another nice long trot and I got in a lovely cantering stretch with Luke. He was doing his lovely slow lope. As we approached the beach access, we saw another rider there. As we got closer, Barbara and I realized it was a woman we'd met that last time we were at the beach. She was just walking with her husband that time. This time she'd brought her horse. Her husband was with her on foot as well as another friend who was taking pictures. The woman taking picture turned out to be someone that lived near Barbara. Luke fell instantly in love with the riders mare. It was a lovely, pure black Morgan. He wanted to check her out BAD. I didn't let him approach the mare as she was a little bit nervous. We parted ways and rode out to the rocks. We didn't climb on the rocks but did get Barbara to lead us out into the waves again and rode around some big rocks. Luke was not happy about going into the waves but he was so much better than he's previously been. He didn't lock up his jaw and stayed nice and soft and went without too much fuss. When we walked out of the waves though, he power walked away and was very tense. I think he just wanted to put some distance between him and the waves. He'd used up his full dose of mule courage for the day. Silly boy. We rode quite a way down the beach to the right of the parking area and got in another nice trot, then played around doing some circles and figure 8's. Suri stumbled and when down on her knees when we were trotting. Mary Ann was tossed up onto Suri's neck but impressed us with her good riding and she and Suri managed to save it. As we were riding towards the beach access path, Luke could see the other rider on her mare and he was on full alert and walking about 100 mph! He behaved and never broke out of the walk but he was so excited over this mare. And when we came up to them, he wanted to follow her, perfectly willing to leave Marie! It was the funniest thing. Love at first sight for sure! Good thing Marie is not a jealous woman!

We just had the most wonderful ride! No one brought a camera so all I had was my sorry old phone to record the moment.

No Lesson

Today I had a lesson scheduled on Luke at Upper Pond Stable. My friend, Barbara, planned to join me for my lesson. Barbara is a teacher and has the week off work. She was to ride my mare, Marie. I told her to just meet me at the stable at 11:00 am. I had to work at the stable this morning. So, after work, I ran home,  grabbed a quick bite to eat, then loaded up Luke and Marie and headed over to the stable. Barbara was there when I arrived. We unloaded Luke and Marie and were grooming them when my instructor called to tell me she was broke down on the side of the road and would not make it for our lesson. It was really cold today. And felt much colder then the temperatures said it was. There was a strong, biting wind. We were glad to get inside the arena. Kyle, Luke's owner, showed up just as we got in the arena. He had come to watch the lesson. So, we didn't provide him much entertainment unfortunately. I ended up doing much more chatting than riding.

Kyle didn't stay all that long and after he left I did work Luke a bit. Nothing fancy, just some walk, trot, canter transitions, a few leg yields and a little work on side passing. I have a hard time keeping at it if I don't have some one telling me what to do. And if I lose focus, you can be my equine does too. But, Luke was being a good boy and it was nice to just be on him hanging out with a friend. After a while, I asked if Barbara wanted to ride Luke and she was happy to try him out. At this point there was a woman lunging a horse in the arena and another rider coming in. Luke spooked at the gate when the rider came in and after that would not go near the gate. Not like him at all and I have to say he didn't look in the least but scared, he was testing Barbara out. Naughty Luke! Barbara didn't ride him long as she didn't want to push things with Luke while other people were in the arena. We had briefly considered riding on the trails behind the stable but it was just SO cold out that we quickly decided against it.

We left the arena, quickly untacked before we froze and made plans to meet tomorrow at the beach. The forecast was for a much nicer day.

Winter Trail Ride and Giant Snowballs

I had a fantastic ride today. 3 days in a row of riding! Woooohoooo! But today I got out of the arena and my friend Susie and I went to Phippsburg. It was such a lovely day Sunny, warm and the footing was perfect for Luke and Bayzen. The snow was not too deep which is amazing considering that just one week ago today we had a blizzard that dumped 2 feet of snow on us. And it was warm enough that the plowed dirt roads had no ice on them. I trailered Luke over to Susie's house and there loaded him onto Susie's trailer so we could drive down together. Luke is such a good sport about playing musical trailer when we trailer pool. He just hops in and out of each trailer seeming to just be delighted to get a taste of every one's hay.

We parked by Devil's Highway which was as far as the road was plowed. We headed out along the Basin Rd. We stayed to the left at the fork onto the Hatch Rd. which meet back with the Basin Rd. At the end of the Basin Rd. where it come out on Riply's Landing by the church, I got the chance to demonstrate a bit of fancy stunt riding! Where is a video camera when you need it..........

At the end of the basin Rd.there was a HUGE and solid snowbank from plowing with no real easy go around. So, Susie pointed Bayzen at the shortest end of the snowbank. At that end, there was on boulder sized packed snowball blocking the way. Bayzen is a small horse at 14.2 H or so but he's game for most anything and he walked up, looked things over and then just quietly put his front feet over this huge snowball and literally rolled himself over the snowball on his belly as it was taller then his legs were long. Well, I though, if that short little horse can get over it, I figured it would be easy for tall, long legged Luke. So, I ask Luke to step over it. Luke looks thing over, and then he too quietly put on front leg over the top.......... it was at this point he decided it was too wide to just step over and he LAUNCHED himself over in a single bound. It was a BIG TIME leap! He caught me by surprise as I never felt him gather to jump and I popped clear out of the saddle, losing both stirrups, reins and all. when Luke landed on the other side, he just stood quietly and I landed in front of the saddle, on his neck with my arms wrapped around his throat latch area. Bless his heart, he just stood there quietly as I shimmied down his neck and levered myself back into the saddle. A feat made much harder by the fact that Susie and I were laughing so hard. Hey, I'm always happy to entertain my fellow riders.........

I can just imagine what Luke was thinking. "Hey lady, you ASKED me to go over it, the least you could do was stay in the saddle!". But, he acted like having several hundred pounds of human land on his neck was a normal thing. I WAS glad I was in an English saddle as I would have popped out even in a western saddle. But the landing would likely not have been very pleasant and I might not have been able to lever myself over the pommel and horn on a western saddle. 

Anyway, from Ripley's Landing Rd., we looped around by way of the Stonewall Rd. back to the little cemetery by the pond. We decided to try the Henry loop that takes you down by the water. There were no snowmobile or other tracks on this road but the footing was perfect here also. We took the Deck Hill Rd. back to the Basin Rd. and then on back to the trailer. It was one of those lovely rides that gives you a "riders high" that lasts for days. I'm so glad we decided to ride here today!

Neither one of us brought a camera today so all we had to capture proof we were here was my crappy old phone so the photos aren't very good. And Luke does not cooperate with posing for pictures at all. He is quite a dedicated botanist. His opinion is that if we aren't moving down the trail, then he needs to identify and sample (mostly just sample) any and all plants in the area and he's quite determined in his efforts to do so. So people keep snapping picture of me tugging on his reins and him with his mouth gaping open! Really, this is not how we spend all our time riding! 

Dressage Lesson

Today I had a lesson scheduled with Mary O'Rourke. We've missed a lot of lessons due to weather and then poor Mary getting sick. Mary knows I'd like to go to the dressage show at the Kennebec Horse Farm in April. And I know next to nothing about riding dressage. So, Mary has he work cut out for her trying to whip me into shape. We got down to serious work today. Thankfully, Luke has dressage training as he was formally used as for eventing. I just have to learn what I need to do.

I lunged Luke before Mary arrived. Luke is getting very good at it and today he picked up the canter very nicely which I've just started asking him for. He was a bit fresh though! Once Mary arrived we started today with learning some of the basic steps for the pattern of a dressage test. Mary would like me to enter the show with a test that will include walk, trot and canter as Luke has such a fabulous canter. But, we'll see how I come along and decide this later one. I really want to show Luke off as he is such a lovely mover. I have to say though that I got really tried in the lesson. I think it's easier to ride a 1 day 100 mile endurance ride then do 1 hr. of a dressage lesson! It was a great lesson though and I felt like I really made some improvements. Though I'm not sure just how round I was getting my 20 meter circles.......... And what's this rule that you can't cluck to your equine to get it to move out? I think Mary was ready to put duct tape on my mouth, I just couldn't stop doing it!

Mule Eating Wheelchair!

Wednesday was such a lovely day that I decided to sneak in a ride with Luke over at Upper Pond Stable

And he took off on me today.........well, he did a Luke version of taking off anyway! When I entered the arena, Meghan, another Upper Pond employee, was walking one of the horses in the arena. I had not met her before as we don't work the same days. After introductions, she asked me what kind of horse Luke was!!!! ACK! HORSE! After I told her he was a mule, she grinned and admitted that she had noticed the large ears but just hadn't thought about a mule being as large or as nice looking as Luke was. And she was afraid that if by some chance it was a horse, I would be insulted if she called him a mule.  I understood her point.  

I was still walking Luke in hand when a woman in a wheelchair came into the arena. Luke viewed the wheelchair with much concern. When the woman got out of the wheelchair at the mounting platform, I led Luke over to look a the wheelchair. He really wasn't too concerned about it while it wasn't moving and was quickly convinced to approach it and sniff it over. At this point he was more curious about the woman pulling herself up the platform stairs. I mounted Luke and he didn't give the wheelchair any more notice. The woman's horse was a nice Icelandic and though the horse had never met Luke, she didn't pay any attention to him at all for which I was grateful. 

I worked on leg yielding a little bit, then worked with getting Luke to steer off just leg cues and keeping my hands just as quiet as I possibly could. And all the usual stuff such as transitions, side passing, turns on the forehand and hindquarters. blah, blah, blah.......Luke was a very good boy. 

The woman with the wheelchair finished riding before I did so when I saw her getting back into her wheelchair, I rode Luke down to the other end of the arena so he could watch from a safe distance. When the woman started wheeling across the arena, Luke was once again quite concerned about it but he stood his ground though he felt like a wound up spring under me. We had our back to the viewing room window, perhaps not the best place to be for a worried equines. Because as Luke was worriedly watching the wheelchair cross the arena, someone in the viewing room walked up to the window while putting on their coat. Luke caught that out of the corner of his eye (something that would not normally bother him) and it was just too much all at once and he decided to leave the vicinity. He turned and very determinedly marched off to the arena gate, the one opposite where the wheelchair was going. There was no stopping him. He is extremely well trained, very light in the mouth, very practiced in one rein stops but he set his neck and there was no budging it. Now, he never went faster then a walk and stopped and stood quietly at the gate when he got there. I didn't even provide any entertainment for the other riders because though he was very deliberate and determined in what he did, he was also very quiet and careful in how he did it. I could tell that he never forgot I was on board. This is what I love about Luke, even when he's scared (and that's not often) he still takes care of me. I told Luke we weren't done riding, the wheelchair was out of the arena so we just continued on with our riding. Luke was just fine. later I did have the woman in the wheelchair come over to the arena gate and wheel around a bit then come right up to the gate and pat Luke. He was a bit bug eyed for a moment but didn't try to get away and soon was letting the woman pat him. If it wasn't so hard for her to move around in the sand of the arena in the wheelchair, I'd have asked her to come into the arena.

Beach Ride and Sand Dollars

Today a group of us decided to go riding at Popham Beach in Phippsburg. There was a bit of discussion in the morning as it was quite cold but in the end, we decided to just bundle up and go. I picked up Linda and we were going to meet Susie, Barbra, Tracy and Eric there. We got a little surprise when we got to Phippsburg and found it had been snowing there and the roads had a thin covering. The roads were sanded though so I had no trouble driving. We passed Tracy and Eric on the way down. They were sitting in the parking lot of the post office. Hummmmmmm. I figured if there was any problem, they would call me. Susie and Barbara were already there when we arrived but just starting to get tacked up. It didn't take long and we were all ready to hit the beach. Barbara was riding Susie's horse Dixie. I think it was the first time for her to ride this horse.

Once on the beach, Luke was again in power walking mode and I was soon out in front of the others. Unfortunately, this was getting Susie's horse kind of excited as he wanted to be up front. We decided to split up for a while as I didn't want to discourage Luke's good walk and have to keep riding the breaks on him. But, non of us wanted to create an unsafe situation for the others. So, Linda and I headed towards the fort and Susie and Barbara went out toward the rocks. Luke didn't care about splitting up and kept up his power walk. When we got to the point where you go around the corner to the fort, the wind was strong and cold and we decided to head back rather then ride to the fort. We met Susie and Barbara about half way back. They were doing fine. We kept going our separate ways with them now going towards the fort. This time when we separated, Luke had a little attitude. It only consisted of tossing his head a few times and looking back though. Linda and I tried to get Luke and Gus to walk into the waves. The water was pretty rough so the waves were all frothy and foamy. Neither one of them were going to have anything to do with walking into that water. I did get Luke to do it the last time we were there but the water was calmer and he only went in following his love, my mare Marie. He was willing to lay down his life for her but was not willing to do it just for my amusement. I even had my mule persuader stick with me but it didn't matter. He'd walk right up to the edge and then turn and walk away and there was no stopping him. Oh, he didn't go anywhere, just kept out of reach of the water. Oh well, that's life. At this point Susie and Barbara caught up to us and all the equines were settled down enough to ride together. We rode a ways up toward and along the river. I noticed there were a lot of shells on the beach today. As well as other stuff such as glass and quite a few lobster traps washed up. When we first started out I was mentioning to Linda that I've never seen any sand dollars at Popham like we always see at Old Orchard Beach. Well, not far from being back to the parking lot, Susie spotted a small sand dollar. She collects them and wanted it. But, I hopped off Luke and snatched it first. Kind of mean since she was the one that spotted it. But, she decided that since she has a lot of them at home, she wouldn't fight me for it. From there I walked Luke back to the parking lot as it wasn't worth the effort to get back on him. Just at the access patch we had a couple stop us and ask us a few question about our horses, Luke and riding at the beach. They had horses and had just come down to check it out to see if it would be good for riding.

We had a wonderful ride as usual. Susie and Barbara were going to stop for coffee on the way home. But, I had to work this afternoon so had to go straight home. We later found out that Tracy and Eric's van had broken down and that is why there were sitting in the parking lot of the post office.

Riding in Richmond

I was looking forward to my Friday and just praying for bearable weather to ride. Susie, Linda and I originally planned to ride. I was cold today and Susie decided not to go. Linda and I decided to go for it. I had to work at Upper Pond Stable until 10:00 am and Linda had to be home by 3:00 pm so we decided to stick close to home. Linda picked me up and we rode on the dirt roads by the dump in Richmond. The road was very good. No ice and not rutted up at all. It was cold when we had the wind in our face. But for the most part we were either in a protected area or with the wind at our back so it turned out to be a good ride. I'm glad we decided to go. We ALL needed it. When Luke saw me with his halter this morning, he came right into the barn, ready to head out on an adventure.

When we started out, Luke was doing his power walk and Linda's horse had to trot to keep up with him. I love that walk! Though we did come across some mule eating wagon wheels that were disguising themselves as lawn ornaments. Luke was not fooled and did his best to protect both of us from certain death. I'm just glad that Luke's most common reaction to fear is to freeze and refuse to budge. While this can be slightly annoying, it is not scary. And he doesn't do it often either. After some discussion, I did convince Luke that he could safely get by the mule eaters and he did go. We had one other spot when we asked them to trot up a hill that neither one wanted to go. Something in the woods perhaps. Silly boys! It didn't take long to get them going though. On the way back, Luke still thought those wagon wheels looked hungry but he didn't make much fuss, just gave them the hairy eyeball. It was just so nice to get out!