I didn't really have any particular riding plans for today. I had talked with Mindy earlier in the week and wanted to go ride with her but then Old Man Winter reared his head on Friday blessing us with a bit of snow and ice and in the end I decided I might not want to haul to Dixfield. We got mostly rain here on the coast so I decided if I was going to ride, it would be around here somewhere. When I checked my email, Susie said she and Linda were going to ride in Phippsburg and Susie was willing to trailer all 3 of us if I didn't have to work. It just so happened I had the day off today. So, I jumped on that opportunity. Susie wanted to do a faster ride with some good cantering. She really wanted to ride with a few others to work on Bayzen and his little bucking problems in a group when the pace is faster. Linda's gelding Gus and Luke are good ones to do this with as neither one feeds off the excitement and behave well when working at a faster pace.
Susie was going to pick up Linda and I would trailer to Susie's house. She was coming back and picking me up there and we'd all go down in one vehicle. When I went out to get Luke, he was beyond filthy! AGH!!!! He was covered head to toe in wet, wet mud! There was no amount of grooming and vacuuming that would clean him up. He needed to be hosed down but it was just too chilly out for that. I groomed and vacuumed as much mud off him and I could, then I did sponge his back and neck off to get the worst off and then just threw a blanket on him for the trailer ride.
We parked on the Basin Rd. at the old shooting range. I groomed Luke again but he was still a mess! I got his back clean enough so had to be happy with that. As we were tacking up, a man came by on a tricycle. I think he was out collecting bottles. Luke was tied on the road side of the trailer and kept his eye on this odd looking "creature" but didn't get boogered. We were soon mounted up and headed off. The boys were all eager and happy to be out. Luke took the lead at the start and just as we'd taken the right fork at the Hatch Rd - Basin Rd. split, I heard Bayzen and Gus making a fuss behind me. I turned to look as saw that the man on the tricycle was coming up behind us and it spooked the heck out of Bayzne and Gus. The man was good and stopped when he saw the horses spook. We rode back to let the boys take a good look at the tricycle and talked with the man for a bit. Luke didn't seem concerned but most likely because he's already seen it when it passed us by the trailer.
We did the Henry Loop first. Then went across the Dance Hall Rd trail and took a right out to Ridley's Landing Rd. and back to the end of the Basin Rd. . We got in some great long stretches of trotting and some nice long canters. Luke decided he could step it up a notch from his western pleasure lope. The nice thing is that all three of the boys can do a nice easy collected canter and they were doing this in spots side by side. It was wonderful! Bayzen threw in one bucking fit right at the start but Susie got after him and just pushed him through it and he settled down very well. In some spots we took turns leading and all the boys were good in the front and also with following when asked. We came back down the basin Rd. and took a trail across to the Blueberry Hill Rd. We had to cross on gully that really required the equines walk straight across a narrow spot so I hopped off Luke and led him over first and the others followed him right over. We then went right back down to the Basin Rd. and took the Mica Mine trail. We didn't know if we'd be able to make it through this trail as they have been logging this area. When we got to where they were logging, it looked to be quite a mess as we went though, it wasn't bad at all. It was a little tricky finding the trail but Susie and Linda did great finding the way. We came out on the road that leads to the summit of Fuller's mountain and rode to the top.
We took the trail off the summit that leads down to the gravel pit and eventually to the Stoneybrook Rd. We usually come up this trail as it's steep in some spot with a lot of flat exposed rock. The boys did great though and handled the descent just fine. Once in the gravel pit, following the trail was quite a challenge as it changes all the time with the pit operation always digging but Susie, being the wonderful trail guide she is, found the way through. From Stoneybrook Rd. we were debating whether to take the Fuller's Mt. Rd. and the Echo Lane cut across to Devil's highway or just ride straight down the Devil's Highway. I was for riding straight down to Devil's highway as I had just come down Fuller's Mt. Rd. a few days ago and it was SOOOO stoney from new gravel being put down. Susie wasn't convinced it was all that bad from looking at the entrance to the road. There happened to be a man right there with a dog and when he saw us stop, he thought his dog was bothering the horses. We told him we just couldn't decide which way we wanted to go. He did warn us that the road was very rocky from the new gravel AND that a group of about 20 ATVs were on the road heading out onto the trails so that convinced Susie to head straight down to Devil's Highway. We talked a while with this man. He was very, very nice and told us we were welcome to park at his place anytime if we needed to. He was enthralled with Luke and thought he was just the most handsome mule he'd ever seen. He said his family had a mule when he was young. He said it wasn't a very big mule but they used the mule to haul wood and said that mule was one tough critter.
We did a bit more trotting along Devil's Highway but there was a dirt bike and some ATVs out here keeping the boys on high alert. They were all good though so we got back to the trailer with no problems. Yet another great ride! A really good conditioning ride. Luke is such a great trail mule and seems to love being out there! A happy mule always makes for a happy rider. For the trip home, we decided to put Luke in the middle stall in the trailer and Gus last so we could drop Linda off first. We loaded the boys up, just started to pull out and suddenly there was a lot of thumping around and the trailer was rocking. We jumped out to see what was wrong. Naughty Gus had gotten his head over the divider AGAIN (he did it the other day when I hauled him) and was bugging Luke who was NOT happy about it was stomping around in protest. Gus was tied but obviously not short enough. We shortened his lead and all was well.
Oh, and today is my wonderful mare Marie's birthday! Happy Birthday Marie!
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