Riding in West Bowdoin with the Upper Pond Ladies

Today I took a few of my friends from Upper Pond riding over in West Bowdoin. It was quite a dreary day and sprinkling in the morning. But, we planned for an afternoon ride when the weather was supposed to be the best for riding. Mary-Jo, Cierra, and Brooke came to ride with me. Mary-Jo hauled Cierra's horse, Tinkerbell over with her own horse Arthur. Brooke was riding my horse Marie. Mary-Jo met me at my house and then followed me over to where we park in West Bowdoin. They told me they'd had a bit of trouble loading Tinkerbell but nothing too serious. As I was unloading Luke and Marie, I hear some commotion at Mary-Jo's trailer. They were having a bit of trouble unloading Tinkerbell. She had come almost all the way out of the trailer and then suddenly bolted back in and Cierra got her arm caught between Tinkerbell and the chest bar. After a few minutes and a bit of wiggling her wrist around, she declared she was ok to ride. Though you could immediately see the start of a bruise. Brooke and Mary-Jo pulled the divider aside to let Tinkerbell turn around and walk out of the trailer. Once off the trailer Tinkerbell settled right down. Arthur was tied on the far side of Mary-Jo's trailer and couldn't see the other horses or Luke very well and this concerned him but he didn't do anything bad. Marie spotted Arthur and instantly went into heat! Hussy!

Once we were saddled up, we headed out down the pipe line. Just a short distance down the pipe line there are several ways to go to get over a stream crossing. If you stay on the pipe line, you do a very steep descent to the stream, and a very steep climb back out. It's kind of fun but I decided it would't be the best idea since we had two horses that were fairly green to trail riding. I took the trail to the left that still goes down a good hill but not super steep. It still got Arthur and Tinkerbell excited and they both wanted to rush down it but Cierra and Mary-Jo handled their horses well. Then we quickly came to the stream crossing. It is quite wide but not deep. Mary-Jo was concerned that Arthur would not cross as it is running water. Cierra had no doubt at all that Tinkerbell would do it. I told Mary-Jo to just tuck Arthur behind Luke and follow me right in. Arthur barely hesitated and went in with no trouble at all. Tinkerbell was just fine also.

The rest of the ride was fairly easy trail. Luke and I started out in the lead but then Arthur wanted to be up front. He did very well leading. He stayed in the front for quite a while and was very steady. Marie was walking very fast for her as she was trying to stay near her new found love. Tinkerbell was ambling along quietly behind us all really not too concerned about anything. We did a little bit of trotting in a few spots and let Mary-Jo take the lead. Arthur did spook at something on one of the trots and bucked up a few times throwing Mary-Jo off balance. Arthur was definitely not trying to buck her off and after the initial startle of having Mary-Jo suddenly hanging off the side of him, he stopped and stood still. Mary-Jo was just far enough off to the side that she couldn't quite pull herself back up and had to drop to the ground. I have to say it was some impressive riding. I don't think I could have held on as long as she did. Mary-Jo was not hurt and she was soon back in the saddle and leading the way again. We heard ATV's a number of times going up and down the pipe line but managed to miss them every time we were riding along it. I was happy about that. I know Luke and Marie are fine with ATV's but didn't know how Arthur and Tinkerbell would react to them though most likely they would be just fine.

As we were coming back to the trailer, every one felt up to doing the steep climb up the sand back from the gravel pit up to the pipe line. So, up we went and all the equines did great. Luke and Marie have done it many times. Arthur and Tinkerbell didn't know quite what to think about it but did a great job . It was a fun ride!