But, things finally aligned to let it happen. My truck was back from the garage, enough snow had melted so my trailer was clear, the temps climbed up into the low 40's and the tide was right. Yeeeehaaa, to the beach we would go! I called Cierra to see if she could go and sent a message to Amy and she was able to join us!
It was an early morning for me. I was going to kill two birds with one stone today. I needed to get a health certificate for Marie. Low tide for the beach was noon time. So, I called the vet and set an appointment to swing by there for 8:30 am. Picking my horse up is quite an ordeal. My trailer is not in the same place my horse is. And I can't get my trailer to where my horse is or even safely pull over along the road by the house as the driveway is on an "S" curve in the road that makes it unsafe. So, I drove over and hooked up the trailer, then called my dad that I was headed back to the house. He then got Marie and led her down to a safe spot in the road and waited for me. I pulled over and quickly loaded her up and off I went. At the end of the ride, we had to repeat this process.
Marie was more than happy to load up and head out on an adventure. We arrived at the vet right on time and the vet declared Marie to be in excellent health and gave us our certificate and copy of our coggins. I loaded Marie back up and headed to Bowdoinham to picked up Cierra and Tinkerbell. Marie and Tinkerbell were super excited to see each other.
We arrived at Popham before Amy. She was about 1/2 hr. behind us so we saddled up and rode down to the beach to wait for them there. We rode out to Fox Island and climbed up on the rocks. We then rode a little way down the beach in the opposite direction of the fort. We were riding along very nicely, nearly side by side, when suddenly Tinkerbell dropped down on her belly in preparation for a good roll in the lovely beach sand. Cierra took quick action and managed to get Tinkerbell back on her feet before she actually rolled over on her side. Sadly, I did not have my camera in hand to catch the moment. We rode back to the parking area. I didn't want to ride too much before Amy arrived as Marie is only a few weeks away from being 26 years old and I have not been able to ride her enough this winter to keep her in shape. I didn't want to overdo it. Amy and her friend Lisa were just about ready when we rode up to the parking lot. Back out to the beach we went. We rode back out to Fox Island then down to the river. We didn't see a spot that looked safe to cross so we turned and rode the length of the beach to Fort Popham. There were a couple hardy souls out surfing today. There were also some other riders on the beach and that got Tinkerbell pretty spazzed out at one point. Cierra kept her under control but a few times I thought we might have a rodeo moment.I had the camera ready......
I missed another good photo opportunity when Amy entered the access path to the parking area at the Fort. Washburn did not like the looks of it as it was kind of narrow with some rocks to get over at the start of it. Amy finally persuaded him to climb over the rock and hop up onto the path but them he changed his mind and did the most impressively athletic about face in that tricky spot and scrambled back down onto the beach. Amy stuck with him and turned him right back around and got him to go through on the second try. Note to self; NEVER put the camera away! On the way back to the parking area, Cierra and I got in a couple nice trots and canters in the serf. After we untacked the horses and mule, we led them back down to the beach to let them roll. Annabelle thought she was in mule heaven and rolled multiple times.
It was a wonderful ride and I'm so happy everything worked out so we were able to go.
