Annual Bowdoinham Christmas Parade

Well, today was an interesting day for sure. Today was the annual Bowdoinham Christmas Festival and Pony Parade. And, I had to bug bomb the house first thing this morning (due to some... or rather many ants taking up residence with me) I had already purchased a kit but this morning realized I needed a second one as I was going to do both the basement and the house. I didn't get up quite as early as planned having worked that night and not getting to bed until about 3 am. I lugged a bunch of stuff out of the house and put it in my little shed on the deck. Then I covered the counter tops, some of the furniture and a few other things with towels and blankets. Then a quick dash to the store and to get a 2nd kit. I put the things I'd need for the Christmas parade in my truck and set off the foggers in the basement and house. Now, I had to take the dogs with me for the day. This would complicate things but I figured I'd manage somehow. I had originally thought to skip riding in the parade.  I questioned the sanity of taking to a public event a young green mule that's been doing nothing for several months. But at the last minute decided to go for it. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and in the 50's. And I would not have many more opportunities to participate in this event. So I headed to Joanie's to hook up my trailer and get Lily. We were all meeting at Susie's house and I needed to be there by noon time. Just when I got to Joanie's, Linda called me to see if I wanted her to pick me and Lily up to reduce the number of trailers in Susie's yard. I jumped at the opportunity. Linda picking me up gave me a few minutes to lunge Lily to get the "kinks" out before making our public appearance. I didn't want to go out to the round pen so figured I'd just lunge her in her pasture.

And that is when the fun began. Lily spazzed right out. She tried to run off, she leaped and bucked and spun and pulled and bucked and reared. I could NOT lunge her out in the open on a line. So, off to the round pen we went. A couple of my friends told me that a large round pen is not really a good thing. They were so right! While it is effective, my round pen is big enough that you have to do too much chasing to keep the horse or mule moving as you want them to. So, Lily was not the only one that got a good workout. I worked her until she started to settle and I was about to pass out from exertion which was about the time Linda arrived to pick us up. I had planned to have all my stuff ready by the time Linda arrived but that plan had gone down the tubes. And I was questioning the sanity of this decision even harder. Though Lily had settling a bit in the round pen, I did not have her complete attention yet. I didn't want Lily to think that acting like a crazy thing would get her put back in her pasture and left alone either. I don't think that was her goal in acting crazy, I think she was just blowing off steam. Still...... As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I decided to go. If Lily was was still acting up when we got to the parade, I could always just lead her, though I sure hoped it would not come to that.

As I was coming across the field from the round pen to the barn, Joanie's husband, not seeing me out there, let Franny and Talulla Belle, the two horses, out into the field. The three are not ever turned out together and they got all excited when they saw me and Lily in their field and came galloping up. I thought I might be in a bit of trouble but got close to the gate before they were to us. Talulla Belle did managed to get thought the gate with me into Lily's pasture. I scooted Lily through the barn gate and got it shut before Talulla come get though that one too. We didn't have a lot of time at this point so I just loaded Lily onto Linda's trailer, which Lily was more than happy to do thankfully, grabbed what I absolutely needed and we headed out. I had no time to dig out my Christmas decorations. I followed Linda over to Susie's with my truck since I had the dogs with me. When we got to Susie's, I put the dogs in one of her stalls. They were not impressed but there wasn't a better option. I groomed my dirty sweaty mule the best I could and quickly saddled up. Lily was quiet now and behaving fairly well. It took a few tries before she stood quietly at the mounting block. Once I was mounted I just walked her a round and she was quite good. Curious about all the strange things hanging, floating, blinking and jingling on all the other horses but she was not worried about any of it. Nor was she concerned about the two goats in the parade. So, things were looking up and I might survive this after all!

Cindy Ross on Lily (the dirty white snowflake...)

Tara Labbe on Winnie with Andrea Labbe

Two of the Labbe's goats

Janice Hill on Little Black Feather

Linda Temple on Gus

Mary Ann Wilson on Suri

Jim and Nancy Carville

Sarah-Taylor Wieluns on Dixie

Cindy on Lily, Linda on Gus

Susie Knowles on Spark

Lily redeemed herself by being absolutely wonderful for the entire ride. There were just a couple things we passed that concerned her a bit but there were no theatrics about it. She did get a bit wound up when the two mini donkeys joined the parade for a short spell. In the end I was so glad I did bring her though I was a bit embarrassed by our lack of costume and cleanliness. When we rode by the judge for the costume contest, I told her we were indeed in costume, I told her we were dressed up as a dirty snowflake! After the parade, I got the dogs out of the stall and back into my truck. We loaded up and Linda took Lily back to Joanie's. I had a bit of time yet to kill before I could go back to the house to open it up and air it up. No one was home at Joanie's so I let the dogs out and I played with Bubba on her agility course. He had a lot of fun with that. Once back to the house, I left the dogs in the car while I went in and opened all the windows and door. Now I had two more hours to wait for the house to air out and was thankful to get such a warm day in December. So, I took the dogs for a walk out on the power line and sat for a while at the top of the hill enjoying the view and giving Zephyr a chance to rest.

Then, when it was time, I went in, shut things up, turned the power back on and started to clean up and put a load in the wash. Then, it was back to Susie's house for our annual Christmas party. It was a fun night with so much food, wine, and even a game of Jeopardy with our group slit into two teams, Team Outlaws (my team) with Barbara McGovern, Joanie Mitchell, Katie Smith, Luann Smith, Dan, Scott Labbe, Mary Ann Wilson, and Linda Temple, and Team Lawless consisting of Susie Knowles, Heather Nickerson, Kyle Smith, Mary Batt, Henry Mitchell, Nancy Hunsburger, Brian Smith, and two more whose names I'm not sure of. Jim and Nancy Carville were there too... can't remember what teams they were on....  Anyway, our team won....of course. :-D