To Bee or not to Bee...

Today I headed over to High Knob to ride with Anthony. It was warm today but overcast and sprinkled a little but nothing to discourage riding. It rained yesterday so Lily was one very dirty mule. It took a bit of grooming to get her to sort of off white. I decided that any real white was not not a realistic goal for today. Lily was good about loading into the trailer and we got to camp around 9:45am. Lily was quiet when I saddled her up, no fussing at all. I went down to Anthony's camp and tied Lily to his trailer to wait for the group to get ready to ride. It was a while and Lily stood quietly the whole time. I was impressed with how patient she was.

There were 5 of us riding. When we headed out Lily was excited to get going but settled in easily in the 4th position. Lily has gotten very good about adjusting her pace to the equine in front of her. I only have to give her occasionally reminders to not crowd them. We here headed to Rice Hollow and rode by the spring and Cowboy Hideout.

We crossed High Knob Rd and I asked Lily to take the lead there. She gave a little protest but it was over the direction of travel, not over taking the lead. But it was just a head shake and hesitation. A bump with my heals and verbal correction and we headed off up the trail. We got up to a spot where there is a big rock the mule riders like to play around on. The more brave mule riders that is. It's quite a big jump up onto the rock. Anthony was riding Inca, a smaller mule and didn't want to ask her to jump up on the rock with him on her but asked me, as Lily is a big girl, if she would jump up there with me on. I knew Lily would not be all that excited about jumping up there with or without me and I was not inclined to try. Anthony got off Inca and climbed up on the rock and she jumped up after him. He got back down and asked again if I wanted to try Lily out on the rock even just leading her up there. He said he would help me get her up. I hesitated because I knew it would probably take a while to get Lily up on that rock and I didn't want to hold up the people I was riding with. But as usual, I did not listen to the voice of reason in my head and hopped off Lily. Anthony climbed back up on the rock and took Inca up with him knowing Lily would be more willing if another mule was up there. I handed him her lead rope and he asked her to hop up. She was much more willing to try than I expected but really wasn't sure how to handle it. She kept rearing up trying to figure out where to put her feet but just couldn't decide. She'd get back on all four feet and swing her hind end around trying to find another way to get up or just get around. She did this maneuver 8 or 9 times when suddenly she pinned her ears back flat and started shaking her head. She didn't pull past the end of the lead rope though. I though, "wow, she's really getting mad about this," when she then started kicking up at her belly when someone yelled it was bees. Sure enough, I saw Lily was being swarmed by bees and amazingly she did not panic or blow up or even pull away from Anthony. Anthony tossed the lead rope to me and I caught it and I turned to run with Lily. Unfortunately Lily and I went in opposite directions around a tree. The only way to keep hold of her was to pull her around the tree back into the bees or for me to run into the bees to get around the tree so I chose to let go of the lead rope and hope to catch it on the other side. I didn't catch it and off Lily went down the trail back in the direction of camp.

Anthony jumped on Inca and went in pursuit of Lily. That got the rest of the mules excited as they all wanted to follow Lily and Inca. There was a brief scramble to get mules secured and settled down. Once that was done, I headed down the trail on foot after Anthony. I figured if he got Lily, I would save him having to lead her all the way back. If he did not get her, I'd have to walk out that way anyway. I hadn't gone far when here comes Anthony down the trail with Lily in tow. I sure was relieved to them!! He told me Lily had gotten out to the road and some people hauling a horse trailer saw her and stopped to catch her. By the time Anthony got there, he said there was 4 or 5 trailers backed up down the road as they tried to figure out what to do with Lily. They were of course worried someone had been thrown and hurt. Anthony assured them that was not the case. He told them that a bear had jumped us and Lily had attacked the bear to save our lives and chased it off. Leave it to Anthony to come up with something like that. In any case, Though my brand new lead rope was a bit scuffed up, Lily was none the worse for the wear so I mounted up and we continued on with our ride. The rest of the ride went without incident and we had a great time. From Rice Hollow we rode up to the Tee Pee and then by Whiskey cave. It was the first time in the Shawnee for this group of riders and I still remember how I felt the first time I saw this incredibly beautiful place.

Fall Vistas

Let the Conditioning Begin!

I've been wanting to ride with Keith Kibler and his wife since I've been down here. They are endurance riders so they do long fast miles. I just have not been riding consistently or at any speed to have Lily in any kind of shape to keep up with them. And I didn't want to hold them back. But, as luck would have it, they were riding out of High Knob today going to Double M and back. The perfect opportunity to join them for as long as I felt Lily could handle. Being home territory, I would split off from then when I needed to and head home. They were planning to do 20 to 25 miles I was pretty sure that Lily was good for at least 1/2 of the if not a bit more. And the pressure was on Lily to set a good example for mules. Keith's one experience with a mule was a bit of a bad tempered one.

Lily was in a suspiciously good mood this morning. Came right to me and was very quiet when I groomed her. She actually barged onto the trailer to my surprise. Wooohooo. Keith was planning to get to High Knob around 10:15 to 10:30. I was there about 9:45. The day parking spot was full so JoJo sent me to the back of the camp to park in the hay field. Lily was excited yet calm when I unloaded her and made no fuss at all about being tacked up. I walked her up to Anthony's camp to say hello to them while waiting for Keith to arrive. I was so busy gabbing I didn't even see him drive by me but he sent me a message and I went back to meet up with him. Lily was a little jazzed up when we started out and wanted to play a little. But, I just spoke to her and quickly checked her back each time she started messing around she she stopped immediately. This speed work is new to her and she seems to be enjoying it but so far is behaving well. Lily did quite well keeping up with the group though I think they would have gone a little faster had I not been with them. We made good time to Double M. Lily was ready for a break when we got there. We too our time having lunch. I decided I would ride with them back towards my house and leave them at that point. Lily got out in the lead for a while on 184. She moved out good and set a real steady pace. I was surprised and very pleased. We stopped at Black's Cabin while Keith did a video blog there. Then I took them to a trail I thought they might not have been on and would enjoy. Lily put up a little stink about turning away from home but gave up pretty fast. Once they were on the trail, I headed home. Lily made no fuss at all about separating from the other but neither did she rush going home. She just walked along at her normal pace. Even when I took a wrong turn, she made no fuss and went where I asked her to go. I was so pleased with her today. She set a great example for mules with the group today and I had such a good time riding her.

Riding a Short Ear

Sally invited me to ride with her and her friends again. I couldn't take Lily as she had the sore foot. But, Sally offered to let me ride one of her horses and I happily accepted. Rain was forecast for the start of the day but was supposed to clear up around 11:00. I headed over to Sally's at 10:30 or so and we headed out in the ATV to round up the horses and it started raining quite hard. So, we aborted the round up mission and retreated back to the barn. It was still raining at noon time but has let off a bit so we headed out and rounded up the horses. By the time we had them tacked up and everyone had arrived and was ready to ride, the rain had stopped. We rode out to Dead Horse Canyon. I started out on Dancer. But, she is not happy following another horse, she likes to lead and I didn't know how to get where we were going. So, Sally and I traded when we got up on Blackridge Rd. and I rode her little Paso Fino gelding Zak. He was a lot of fun to ride. As close to riding a mule as any horse I've been on in how sure footed he is. We had a wonderful ride

Sore Foot

Today Sally and I rode out together. But, it was quickly apparent that Lily had a sore foot. I hopped off to see if she had a rock stuck in her hoof but instead found she had broken off a large piece off hoof and hoof wall. Poor girl. We did do a bit over 5 mile but only because by the time I realized we had a real problem, we had to go out a bit further to catch a trail back home.

Blue Hole

Sally invited me to go riding today with her family and friends and I was more than happy to go! We rode to Blue Hole today. Another new destination for me. Lily was such a good girl again today. Sally's family and friends were wonderful to ride with. We had lunch at Blue Hole. A very pretty spot. Carley had the greatest time in the water there fetching logs and diving for rocks. We all got a few wet dog showers.  We were late heading back so when we got to Double M. Campground, we decided to ride home on the road rather than through the trails. Lily got a bit jazzed up about that. They horses were all excited about heading home, we had a car following us and traffic passing. But, she didn't do anything bad, she kept her head together though she was a bit concerned.We did 14.5 miles today

Lily's First Speed Ride

I rode with my neighbor Sally today. I've been wanting to get out and start working Lily at a faster pace. I had no idea how she would handle it. She has a lot of "go" and I was worried she would get a bit too excited and competitive with whoever I might be riding with. Sally rode her older mare, Dancer. Older does not mean slower that is for sure! That mare can fly! We headed to Double M and stopped there for a quick restroom break. Lily was handling the speed extremely well. She did not get overexcited. She could not quite keep up with Dancer but did very well and moved along nice and steady. From Double M. we went a short distance down Thacker Hollow Rd. to the tote road that goes to Pounds Hollow. The road was busy with Trailers leaving the campground. Sally got ahead of me as Lily slowed down being a bit concerned about the traffic. She was a good girl though and didn't make any unwanted moves, just hesitated a bit. Once the trailers got by, she realized her "buddy" had already turned the corner onto the tote road and she surged forward in a big trot. Then we came to the bridge. It's wide and looks the same as the road but when her feet hit that bridge she put on the brakes big time! She locked right up and nearly sat down and slid almost into the middle of the bridge. She thought for a second and decided since she was that far across, she might as well finish crossing and off we went.

From the Pounds Hollow tote road, we took a trail to the left up a steep hill with a switchback. We got caught behind a group of slow riders. We wouldn't have cared but Sally's horse and two dogs got into some bees. So, we took off through the woods to get out of there and around the slow group. I was lucky that lily did not get stung. Though Lily did run Sally's poor dog Carley down when she stopped right in front of us to bite at the bees. Thankfully, horse and dogs were all fine. We headed south and crossed Karber's ridge and rode down to the stone cabin. New trails to me. Lily was doing great and keeping up the pace far better than I expected. She was calm and steady. We stopped at the high line areas above Pounds Hollow to let Lily and Dancer take a breather. By the time we were coming back by Double M Campground again on the way back, Lily was starting to get tired. And with good reason. I have never ridden her past a walk for more than a minute or so at a time and that rarely. I was impressed with how long and willingly she kept up the fast pace. We took it a bit easier the last few miles though we did have a nice gallop up the Black's Cabin road. It was a wonderful ride and I was so impressed with how well Lily handled it.