Lily, The Lovely Bright Molly: Marking Trails for Stetson TROT Ride

Cindy on Luke and Cierra on Tinkerbell

Another great adventure with Cierra and the super horse, Tinkerbell! There was a TROT (Trail Riders of Today) ride this Saturday in Stetson, ME. Most of the TROT riders are on a Sunday so I am never able to go to them. But this one was on a Saturday and I wanted to go and take Cierra. But my granddaughter Madison was coming to spend the weekend and I wanted to spend Saturday with her too. She is learning to ride but not ready yet for a long group trail ride. My friend Amy was the one sponsoring the ride and she invited me to come up on Friday to ride the trails when she went out to mark them. I jumped on that opportunity and was even happier when I asked Cierra to join me and she was able to go also.

The plan was to meet at Amy's house at 1:00 pm. This would be good as Cierra and I both had to work at Upper Pond Stable in the morning. Cierra's mom was busy Friday morning so I was able to kidnap Cierra for the entire day. When we were done work, I had to make a quick run to the feed store, then went home, fed Luke and Marie and quickly cleaned the barn. We had time to spare so we went in the house and had lunch. Then I did a few quick house chores and got a little behind on time. So, we went out and quickly loaded up Luke and headed back to Upper Pond to pick up Tinkerbell. I put Tink's boots on while Cierra put her things in my trailer. We loaded Tink in the front stall so Luke could have the larger back stall for the ride to Stetson. I had to make a quick stop for gas and then the Dunkin Donut across the road was calling to me and though I was running a little late, I just HAD to have an ice coffee and picked up a box of Munchkins to share with everyone after the ride. We then hit the road and I had Cierra text Amy to let her know we were running a bit late. Amy sent a message back to meet her in Newport instead of her house as she was going to pick up her friend Michele first since I was running late anyway. This worked out fine and from Newport, I followed Amy to Stetson. We had a nice big field to park in. Judy and Betsy were already there. We quickly groomed, tacked up and were soon ready to ride. The trails were really nice. A mix of dirt road, tote road and corn fields. The pace was slow and relaxed as Amy was busy marking the trail. There were a lot of apple trees along the ride and Luke thought that was the best thing ever. He quickly figured out he could sniff them out on the ground if I didn't pull them off the trees to offer to him quickly enough. Going through the cornfields I did my best to keep him from eating any corn stalks as I'm sure they are sprayed with pesticides. We passed one farm with some very large pigs in a pen near the road. I have never been by pigs with Luke before. He watched them with curiousity but was not too concerned about them. Cierra's horse Tinkerbell really gave them the hairy eyeball. She has seen pigs many times as when she was in NC, they would come into her pasture. Cierra said she would go after them with the intent to kill! We went by a logging operation and none of the horses seemed bothered by that. All the horses were very good the whole ride and got along very well for the most part. There was just one little tiff between Tink and Moxie but it was very minor. The last part of the trail was a dirt road we'd started out on and was already marked. So, Cierra, Amy and I took the opportunity to move out and do some trotting and we got in one nice canter up a gradual hill. Cierra and Tink quickly took the lead but Tink stayed nice a quiet and it was a lovely canter.

When we got back to the trailer, we offered Luke and Tink water. Luke drank but Tink had taken a good drink out on trail and was not interested. We untacked them and sponged them both off. When everyone was back, I brought out the Munchkins and they quickly disappeared. We fed Luke and Tink their supper's that we'd brought with us knowing it would be a late day. I planned to stop for supper on the way home so Cierra and I both changed into cleaner clothes and made ourselves as presentable as possible. We stopped to eat at the Irving station in Newport. They have a nice restaurant there. Cierra was a bit nervous about leaving Luke and Tink alone in the trailer to go into the restaurant. Luke is used to this and Tink has gotten to be very relaxed in my trailer so I knew they would be fine. We dropped the windows so they could hang their heads out and watch. They love to do this. We had a very nice supper and when we got back out to the trailer, Tink and Luke were happily munching may and watching out their windows. We had an uneventful but pleasant drive home, chatting and singing along with the radio. It was nearly 9:00 pm when I dropped Cierra and Tinkerbell off at Upper Pond. Pam was there to meet us and helped unload Cierra's things. Then I took Luke home and tucked him in for the night with a big hug and thanked him for yet another great ride. It was a fun day!