My First Real Trail Ride on Buckshot

It was another absolutely lovely day today. My friend Linda came over to ride with me. I'm giving Luke some time off right now as he's quite sore from his pulled groin muscle. So, today I rode the new mule Buckshot. It was my first real ride on him. He was a good boy for me when I put his boots on today. And he stood quietly for me as I tacked him up. Even though there was a new horse in the front yard that he had not met before, he didn't get excited about it. He even stood good for me to mount. So, we got off to a very good start. Shots took the lead right from the start and was walked out very fast. Linda and I did the John Tarr Rd. loop. Shots hardly gave the big cow on Ledge Hill Rd. a glance. And when we got to the big hill, he wanted to trot up it so I let him. He trotted the whole way up willingly. So, I was hopeful of a very good ride. A few miles out though, he started showing signs of being uncomfortable over rocky sections of the trail, even with the boots on. And by the time we got out to John Tarr Rd, he was taking a lot of ouchie steps. I felt bad but now we were more than half way around the loop so there was nothing to do but keep going. I got off Shots and led him up over the big hill and once down on the other side, mounted back up again. He was actually doing much better at this point though he was certainly not 100%. Still, he did well the rest of the way home keeping up a good fast walk and he seemed happy to be out. Poor mule, his feet are such a mess right now. I think it's going to be a long time before he is really sound. He needs to grow a whole new foot.