Finally, we had absolutely lovely weather today. It was sunny and warm but not too warm for our still winter fuzzy equines. A friend, Trish, was riding Marie today. She has never ridden Marie before. She has two nice horses of her own but neither has been ridden much this year and today was going to be a faster conditioning ride for us distance riders. So, Trish agreed to ride Marie for me. I was thrilled to have Trish along. Louie loaded into the trailer good this morning. He was quiet and relaxed. Marie was delighted to not be left behind.
I picked up Trish at the Bowdoin Central School and we then met Susie, who was riding Spark, and Joanie with her wonderful mare Frannie. We parked by Devil's highway and were in the saddle by 10:15. Louie was just fabulous today. It's like some switch has gone off in his head and he seems to understand what his job is. We rode quite fast today. We did a lot of trotting and cantering. Louie did great today keeping up. He is not strong on hills yet with trotting. He will power walk up or is happy to canter up the hills. Because of the soft tissue injury to his hip last year, I'm not pushing the trotting right now. I let him do what he feels is easiest for now. And Louie was very good about the speed. He seemed to be really enjoying moving along like we were today but he didn't get silly about it. And he did not eyeball any mule eating rocks today. Nor did he hesitate any any ditch, water or mud hole. We were able to get out on the trails today too. That sure was nice. We went to the top of Fuller's Mountain. It's kind of a stretch naming it a mountain but it is high enough to get a fabulous view of the tidal basin. And it was so clear today we could see Mt. Washington in NH.
On the way down Fuller's Mountain, we were crossing a swampy spot and Marie's saddle slid around. Trish was able to get off and land on both feet before the saddle went completely around. We quickly got Marie's saddle back on properly and were on our way. I think Trish had a good time riding Marie and it sure was fun having her along. All four of the equines were good today and made a nice group.
I am just amazed and delighted in the transformation I am seeing in Louie. He's proving to be tougher then I expected. He doesn't have the speed of my last mule Ruby but he he's forward and willing and shows no signs of being at all lazy. His confidence is growing in leaps and bounds right now. I'm going to be grinning from ear to ear for days now!
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