Ride in St. Albans with the Posse

Yet another wonderful ride today. The "Posse" gathered today at the home of Kim LaRochelle in St. Albans. Missy went with me and rode my mare, Marie. It was a chilly this morning and overcast but no  bad weather was expected. I put Buckshot's boots on before loading up. Missy and I headed out by 9:30 am and got to Kim's house a little after 10:30. We were the first to arrive. We unloaded buckshot and Marie and gave them a good grooming. I put Marie's boots on and we relaxed and waited for all the others to arrive. Today the group consisted of Missy, me, Kim, Amy, Sierra, Judy M., Carole, Michele, Caleigh and Bridget. I used my mule saddle on Buckshot today for the first time on a trail ride. And put a crupper on him. I don't know if he'd ever worn a crupper and hoped I would not have a rodeo. I had nothing to worry about, he made no fuss about it and he seemed much happier in this saddle then the one I bought when I got him.

Quite a bit of today's ride was on dirt road and tote roads. We moved along at a good trot on quite the ride. and even got in a few canters. There was surprising amount of traffic on the dirt roads. Being a holiday weekend, I guess there were a lot of people at their camps along the lake. We also met quite a few ATV and several dirt bikes. Going down a hill, one ATV, in an effort to not spook the horses, turned off his motor and coasted by us. None of the horses or my mule were bad about it but it startled them more than if it had been running. It was a bad day for hoof boots though. As soon as we picked up the pace, I lost a back boot. I hopped off and just took off Buckshot's other back boot and Kim was nice enough stuff them into her cantle pack. I think both of Amy's horses lost boots. I lost a front boot twice. They didn't fly off but came off Buckshot's foot and just dangled around his ankle. But, he can't go without something on his front feet so I had to keep putting the boot back on. Then  Bridget's horse got a huge rock wedged into her shoe an that took some work to get out.

As we were going down one road, we passed a house with a bunch of barking dogs. Buckshot was busy looking for the dogs and did not notice there was a calf tethered in some long grass on the other side of the road. As we passed the calf, it bounced up out of the grass and ran towards us dragging the rope behind him. That gave Buckshot quite a scare. All he did though was a nice little dance in place for a second and then he jigged on by. Again, I was so pleased with how he didn't totally lose his head and do anything dangerous even though he got scared.

Today was the fastest group I've ridden Buckshot in. He got a little excited but he was a very good boy. He never pulled on me and listened to what I asked of him. I was very pleased with how he went. And he has a great ground covering trot. A very pleasant surprise. And he has lots of get up and go. I am really having to reevaluate my thoughts that he is too big bodied to do CTRs.

Once back to Kim's house, we took care of the horses and mule and then settled in on Kim's porch to have lunch and visit. It was a really nice time.