Saturday I picked up Cierra and Brooke at Upper Pond at 9:00 AM. I trailerd Cierra's horse, Tinkerbell to my house to ride from there. Cierra put Tink's boots on at the stable while we waited for Brooke to finish up taking care of her horses. Tink loaded right in my trailer like a good girl. Once at my house, we got Marie and Luke and tied them all to the trailer to groom and tack up. I decided to take the loop that would go though the very pretty crossing of the East Cathance Stream and we'd go the longer way via the Starbird Corner Rd. We headed out down Dead River Rd. Luke was leading and walking out fast. Marie and Tink were lagging behind a bit. When we got to the 4 corner, a truck and stock trailer came around the corner from the Academy Rd. The trailer had cows in it. Behind it was a school bus. I was watching Cierra and Tink to see how Tink reacted to truck and trailer. She didn't react to it at all. When the school but when by me I was startled to see it was full of cows! We got quite a laugh out of that. We picked up the pace a bit and trotted down the dirt porting of the Starbird Corner Rd. and trotted quite a bit even on the pavement section down to the trail that cuts over to the Lewis Hill Rd. This trail, like so many around my house, is rocky in spots so we trotted where we could and walked where we had to. With all the rain we had on Friday, there was a lot of water on the trail. We went into one big puddle and it was DEEP! We were glad we had not asked them to trot into it like I sometimes do with the water spots I'm very familiar with. We were near the end of the trail when I head some noise behind me, I turn and look just in time to see my horse down on her knees scrambling to get up and Brooke do a fancy emergency dismount. Marie had been doing her usual thing of trying to get eat everything green in sight and was not paying attention to where her feet were and she tripped over a rock. We were just coming up on a little stream so Brooke rinsed Marie's knee off so we could get a good look at it. She scuffed some hair off and had a small cut but nothing serious. She was a bit off though so Brooke Walked her for a bit, then mounted back up but we decided to cut the ride short and head the shortest way back home. This would be to ride back on the Lewis Hill Rd. This is not a very busy road so I felt it would be safe even with Cierra and Tinkerbell. Not that Tink has shown any signs of having any issues with ..... anything! Even though our ride was mostly tar road, it was such a beautiful day that it was nice to be out riding anyway. Once back to my house, we put Marie and Luke in their paddocks and I took the girls and Tink back to Upper Pond.
Sunday, Amy Beem and Carole Norton came to ride with me. I decided to take them over to ride in West Bowdoin as much of the footing over there is very nice. Luke's feet have finally worn down enough that he's being a bit careful over rocks now. I'm having shoes put on him this week for for our ride Sunday, riding where there weren't so many rocks was the best option and we could move along at a good pace.
We parked at the usual place on the gas line. We quickly tacked up and were on our way. We did several loops on the left side of the gas line and did quite a bit of trotting. We then did the loop on the right side of the gas line that goes out near the beaver pond behind the day care. Then we went down the gas line and out through the gravel put to the Witch's House trail. We went right on that trail out to the West Rd. Then we went straight across and took the Wheel Hill Trail out to the Litchfield Rd. We rode the 1/4 mile down the Litchfield Rd. and took the Wagg Rd. and trail back to the West Rd. Carole and I both dismounted and led Luke and Cricket across the metal bridge at the end of the Wagg Rd. trail. Amy rode Washburn across and he was a good boy. It's a good solid bridge. Just kind of high and just narrow enough that I worry if they don't walk straight across, they could put a foot over the edge. We rode for about 3 hrs. and had a wonderful ride. Luke, Cricket and Washburn were very good and got along nicely.
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