Can We Say Mud....

This is a game that Luke and Louie like to play, who can keep who in the stall. Since each stall has two exits, no one can keep anyone in but they still have fun playing the game. 

Luke is so happy that the crabby old mare will allow him to touch her. 

Obstacle Practice

Today the forecast was for rain. But, by noon time it was still dry if quite cloudy, so I decided not to waste the day.  The Maine MESS is coming up in less then 2 weeks and I am planning to go. I know I want to ride Marie in the versatility events as she did fantastic last year. (high point of the day in the trail trial). And I would of course love to take Luke. But, I have no idea how he will handle obstacles. So, I figured that today was a good day to get a feel for how he handles such things. I would set up some obstacles in my front paddock and ride there. Then, if the weather got bad, I'd be home so no problem.

So, out I went and dragged all sorts of things into the paddock. PVC pipe, tarps, cardboard, ropes, bag of trash and a tire. Louie got all excited at the new "toys" in his paddock and eagerly trotted over to check out each one. Marie was busy scrounging around for any stray scraps of hay and completely ignored me. Luke followed Louie out but was not quite so eager to check out the new things up close and personal. He was eyeing everything with a bit of suspicion.

I decided to ride Marie first and let the boys watch. I have found the mules are very good at learning by watching. Both of Marie's saddles are broken so I had to just jump on her bareback. I'm getting to old for riding bareback.......... Anyway, I went around and sidepassed over a board, backed between poles, picked up the bag of trash and carried it, walked her over the tarp and cardboard and then grabbed the rope and started dragging the tire. Well, to this point the boys were watching with avid interest. But, the tire that was obviously chasing Marie was too much. Both boys quickly vacated the area with no attempt to rescue Marie from the monster. CHICKENS! Luke was the first to come back, he was worried but actually kind of curious. Louie wanted no part of the tire.

I got off Marie and got Luke. I saddled him up and gave him a try. He has very solid and good training. He knows more then me I think. So, that would be a help. We backed through the poles, then sidepassed over the board. He was a bit sticky with the sidepassing. I don't know if he hasn't done much sidepassing or I'm cueing him a bit different then he is used to. But, in a short amount of time, he did do it several times quite nicely. He walked over the tarp without any concern. Walking over the cardboard made him hesitate but only for a moment. I picked up the bag of garbage and though he was wary of it, he made no fuss and let me carry it. Then the tire drag. He was really very, very good about this. He really was not sure he liked it but once again, he did as he was asked and only froze a couple times for a few moments. Soon, he was dragging it all around with really no problem. I was very pleased with how he handled things and think he will do fine if I take him to the show.

At this point, Louie was feeling very neglected and ignored so I played with him for a short time. I didn't ride him but I did go through the obstacles with him in hand. He does NOT like dragging the tire but he did do it eventually. He was fine with the rest. He's so cute! So, good day with all equines.

Mt. Pisgah Ride

Today a friend and I decided to ride in Monmouth/Winthrop around Mt. Pisgah. My friend has never been there before so it would be a treat for her to ride some new trails. My friend picked Luke and I up around 8:15 am. Luke loaded into the trailer like a good boy and was happy to make yet another new friend. My friend had a lovely Morgan mare. We parked at the North Monmouth fire station. We were soon tacked up and ready to go. And that was about the time my friend realized she had locked her keys in her truck. Ooops! We headed out anyway and she would just call AAA when were were nearing the end of our ride. 

I got a little confused on the trail for just a moment when I entered through the sand pit but figured it out fairly soon. When we got to the stream crossing at the south end of Nancy Bog, there are large rocks to cross and a little drop off and the end of the rocks. Neither Luke or my friends horse had been here before but Luke crossed with no fuss. He took his time and looked it over and got over nicely. It made my friends mare nervous. She was good and went but scrambled a little. She was wearing Renegade boots on her hind feet and slipped a little and scraped her left hind pastern a little. Nothing serious though, just a little missing hair. As we were coming to the end of the Bog Pond trail to the Soper Rd., I was in the lead and something in the long grass and brush along the side of the trail had Luke worried. I have no idea what it was but he slowed down and finally just kind of froze. My friend went by with her mare and Luke was happy to follow her. The loop we rode today is a mix of terrain. A little dirt road, a small portion of tar, and single track. Some portions are quite rocky and one portion has a lot of mud spots. Luke and my friend mare were great and handled all with ease. When we were only about a mile from being back to the trailer, my friend realized that her mare was missing both her boots! ACK! Renegade boots are expensive and not something you want to just leave on the trail. We figured she must have lost the boots through the muddy section so we turned around to see if we could find them. We rode back through the muddy section and nearly all the way back to the chicken farm. We did not see the boots. My friend needed to get home before it got too late so she decided she'd come back tomorrow to see if she could find them. So, we turned around again and went back though the muddy section of trail. Bless both Luke and my friend mare they made no fuss about trudging back and forth through all the mud. 

My friend did call AAA and they were waiting for us when we got back to the truck. So, we had a really fun ride but I sure hope my friend finds her boots! 

2nd Load of Hay

My hay guy called and said there was a wagon of hay available to take in the morning if I wanted it. Well, of course I wanted it but Fred had gone up to camp and I would have no help to put it in the barn. In the end, I just could not turn down a load of hay so said I would be there in the morning to pick the wagon up.

I was up early to go get the hay. It was going to be a record hot day and I didn't want this to take any longer then necessary. I also had to have the wagon back by noon as he would need it when he started baling in the afternoon. I picked up the wagon at 7:00 am. I got it home and this would be my first attempt at pushing the wagon through the 12' gate and to the barn with the front hitch on the truck. It took me a few tries but really was not that hard once I got the hang of how to maneuver the wagon. And pushing it off the front of the truck is sooooooooooo much easier then trying to back a hay wagon! Once in place, I got two ladders and a plank and placed them right behind the wagon. I then lowered the hay elevator into place on the plank and was ready to start unloading the wagon. Now the fun would begin. Climb up into the hay wagon, send a few bales up the elevator, average of about 6 before the started jamming on the elevator, climb off the wagon, unplug the elevator, climb up the ladder into the hay loft, stack the hay, climb down the ladder, plug the elevator back in, climb up into the hay wagon, send a few more bales up the elevator ........ and repeat until the wagon is empty. 133 bales of hay equaled a lot of trip up and down the ladder. Great work out! And oh was it ever hot. I did make sure to drink plenty of water and didn't push myself too fast. Just as I got the last bale into the barn Kyle and Katie, Luke's owners, showed up. I was sure happy to see them as the one thing I can't do alone is get the hay elevator back up into the barn.

Kyle and Katie had brought over Luke's good fly mask. The visited with Luke, then Louie performed his trick for their entertainment. He's such a ham! They both just love attention but Luke was not sure what the big deal was about Louie fetching a stupid dog toy and why he was getting treats for such silly behavior.

So, 2 loads in the barn and two more to go.

First Load of Hay and Missed Ride

Today was my day off work. So, Susie, Linda, Barbara Bonnie and I all planned to meet over at Triple J Farm to ride then go out for lunch to celebrate my and Barbara's birthdays. And, as so often happens with well laid plans, this was not to happen for me. I got the call Sunday evening that there was a wagon of hay ready for me to take and I would have to have the wagon back by noon time. I had the crazy hope that I could pick it up early enough and get the hay in the barn and the wagon back in time to still ride. HA! I was apparently a bit delusional when I thought that.......

I did get up early and got to Charlie's by 7:00 am. But, I was not sure what wagon he wanted me to take and no one was around. When Charlie arrived and let me know which wagon to take, I was soon on my way home but Fred wasn't home from work yet when I got home. He got home around 9:00 am or so. I've just had a hitch installed on the front of my truck to make getting a hay wagon to the new barn easier. It would have to be backed in through a gate and straight back about 50 feet to the barn with no room to turn around once in. The hitch on the front of the truck was just the thing to do as now the hay wagons could be pushed in instead of backed in. MUCH easier and Fred got the wagon to the barn like a pro. Then the hay elevator was dropped right into the back of the wagon and soon the first hay was being stacked in the new barn! Yippee! And it was quickly apparent that I'll be able to fit all the hay I'll need in my new barn and won't have to use Fred's garage at all anymore. We are both happy about that as he is now having visions of a "man cave". 

I had called my friends to let them know that I would not be able to ride with them. As I was coming home from returning the hay wagon, Bonnie called while they were still out on the trail. She said she'd call when they got back to the barn to let me know what time to meet them for lunch. So, I went in to the house, got a cup of coffee and sat down to relax for a bit. And relax I did........ Fred woke me up at 3:00 pm when he got up. AGH! Falling asleep would not have been a problem if I had not left my phone in the truck! Sigh. So, I made supper for Fred while he was out doing a little bit of work on the barn before he had to leave for work. 

After Fred left I decided I had enough time before dark to take a ride on Luke. I'd do the loop that comes out below the alpaca farm which is only about 4 miles. Luke came right to me when I came out of the barn with his halter. And he did not hesitate for a second about leaving his buddies. I had parked my trailer out in the front yard out of the way of moving the hay wagons around and Luke stood nice and quiet while I groomed and tacked him up. We rode out the trail from my back yard and Luke headed out eagerly with not so much as a glance back at Louie or Marie. He was wonderful on the trail though he is quite dedicated to his efforts at trail maintenance ........ so I had to discourage this. We trotted along where we could and got a nice canter up one hill. The last 1 1/2 miles is on the road and he was good as gold. No fuss over any of the traffic, dogs, children, bicycles or lawn sprinklers. The lawn sprinkler took us both by surprise as it was right by the road and hidden behind some shrubs. But, Luke just stopped and looked  then moved around it just far enough to stay out of the spray. At one place we had to stop as a couple children wanted to pat Luke. When we were almost home, we stopped at my neighbors house to say hello. Even though we were so close to home, Luke was quiet and well behaved while I gabbed for nearly 1/2 hour. He did get some carrots for his patience. And got lots of attention from several more children. When we left there Luke did not rush or hurry at all. When I got to my first driveway I asked Luke to pass right by. He looked up the driveway but didn't fuss. At my second driveway, I asked him to stop and stand quietly for a moment before crossing the road into the driveway. He was very good and did as asked. So, we had a wonderful ride. 

Ride in Turner and Visit from a Mule Lover

Luke and Louie hanging out at the barn

It was a great mule day today. When I rode Luke last Friday, he was quite tender over the rocks so I knew I was going to have to put shoes on him. Darn!! But, I don't want him to hurt so shoes it is. I called my farrier   Saturday and let him know. Wonderful man that he is, he came over first thing this morning at 7:00 am to put shoes on Luke so I could go riding today. It was my day off and my husband was working so I was free from barn work. And, the weather was lovely so I very much appreciated him coming so I could ride today!

Luke was not overly impressed with the process of being shod. He is a good boy to handle and good with picking up his feet. I'm not sure if he has ever been shod but know he hasn't as long as Kyle has owned him. Luke seemed to think that all the unaccustomed pounding of his feet was quite unnecessary. He was not bad at all but did kick out once in disgust. It was a very slow not aimed at anyone kick. Just an "I don't like this and I want you to know it" thing. Scott was great with Luke and got the job done with little fuss. Luke was to later appreciate Scott's efforts.

My friend Linda picked me up around 9:00 am and we headed over to the Androscoggin Riverlands state park. It is a lovely area to ride with a nice 15 mile loop of multi use trails. I have not been there in a while as there are a LOT of bridges along this trail and some were not really equine friendly. They were sturdy enough but were slatted wood and the slats were spaced just a little too far apart. I had heard that the bridges had been modified to be safe for equines so we decided to check it out to see.

Luke was happy to head out on an adventure with his new friend Gus and happily loaded right up into the trailer. We got slightly lost getting there but didn't get off track too far. We were soon tacked up and ready to ride. The first part of the trail, which is an old dirt road, has some metal grate drainage ditches across it. They are not wide and can easily be stepped over but look strange to the equines. Luke eyeballed the first one pretty hard but only hesitated a moment before going over. And of course there are the multitude of bridges. Much to our delight, the bridges have indeed been made safe for equines to cross. Luke had no issues with any of the bridges. The slatted board bridges have had vertical slats added in the middle for equines. It's not real wide but fine as long as your equine isn't acting foolish and walks straight across. And none of those bridges are long at all, 6 feet or so at most. All the longer bridges have solid decking. Some of the trail here is quite rocky but Luke with his new shoes did great over this. No more ouchie steps. We did quite a lot of trotting anywhere we could. This trail is slightly hilly and Luke did wonderful with both the pace and the distance. I was so happy to see that he seems to have good stamina. I kind of wondered how he would do with his mamma being a Percheron. Not your typical choice of breeding for a distance riding equine. But though he is tall, he's not that heavily built and easily handled what we did today. We met a couple ATV's and that didn't concern Luke at all. We also met a few hikers. The only one that Luke worried about was one hiker that was using two walking stick. Luke was very hesitant to pass him but still didn't make a big fuss, just froze up for a moment, then scurried by. Linda and I just had a real lovely ride. I offered Luke soaked beet pulp when we got back to the trailer. I even put in some hay stretcher pellets to make it more appealing. But, he was not impressed with this offering. He did nibble a bit of it if I held it for him. I told him this was very good food for endurance equines and that Arabs love it. Luke told me that he didn't care what sissy Arab's eat, that mules with real horses as mamma's like his Percheron mom eat REAL food like oats and hay. Gus, on the other hand, was happy to snarf down what Luke didn't want. But then, though we are not sure of Gus's breeding, we highly suspect he has some sissy Arab in him. We sponged Luke and Gus off then loaded up and headed home. We got slightly lost on the way home! 

Not long after I got home, Annie Higbee and her daughter came to my house. Annie had contacted me about Louie as she is interested in buying a mule. Louie was already sold when she contacted me but she had asked if she could come and look at my mules anyway as she is trying to learn as much as she can about them. We had a real nice visit. Louie performed his fetching and bowing much to every one's delight. Then, I let Annie ride Luke around the pasture. He was the best of boys for her and the perfect mule ambassador! Annie's daughter had been thinking she really wanted a horse but I think Luke won her over. All in all a very good mule day today

1st Ride on a Mule

I was excited today, I was getting to go riding for the second day in a row! Susie, Linda and I planned on meeting in West Bowdoin to ride at 9:45 am. I called Cierra the night before and asked if she'd like to join us. She is the young lady that rides Marie when she can. She is 13 years old and a wonderful girl to ride with. Both of my saddles for Marie are broken right now. So, I had called my friend Bonnie the previous night also to see if she still had her treeless saddle and to see if I could borrow it if she did. Bonnie did still have the saddle. It was was at the local feed store as she was trying to sell it. She told me to go over and pick it up and try it out on Marie. That would work out well as the feed store would be right on the way to pick up Cierra.

So, I headed out to pick up Cierra, get abut 3 miles from home, out onto Rt. 197 and find the road it closed!! AGH! The road was still flooded at Pleasant Pond from the recent rains. So, I had to turn around and head back. Now, this is almost a case where "you can't get there from here". Ok, you can but it is the LONG way around. 2.5 miles back to Lewis Hill road. 5.5 miles down Lewis Hill Rd. to Rt. 125. 1/2 mile down Rt. 125 to Rt. 201. Then 5.5 miles up Rt. 205 back to Rt. 197 where I was to begin with, just now on the other side of the flooded spot. And, to add insult to injury, they are paving Rt. 201 so I has to stop and sit twice where it was down to 1 lane traffic. Needless to say, I was a bit late picking up Cierra. Then of course, I had to track all the way back around the long way back to my house to get the horse and mule. Again, needless to say, I was late meeting Susie and Linda. Good critters that Luke and Marie are, they were quickly caught and loaded into the trailer. We got to our meeting spot at 10:15 am. Not bad all things considered.

Linda and Susie were already tacked up and ready to go so they took a little jaunt down the trail and came back while Cierra and I tacked up Luke and Marie. I had Luke groomed and tacked quickly. It took just a bit longer with Marie as we were putting the treeless saddle on her and had to adjust everything. I tightened up the saddle but when Cierra went to mount, it slid around Marie's side. So, I tightened it again as much as I could and it seemed ok then. Soon we were ready and all on our way. We started out on the gas line and right off there is a very steep descent to a stream crossing and a very steep climb out. Cierra has not done all that much trail riding and I knew this might look a bit scary to her. She did great though and just followed us through without a word. She did later tell me that she had never done anything like that but she trusted us and felt we would not ask her to do anything that was not safe. She is right, I would definitely not do that.

I could see fairly quickly that Cierra was struggling with the saddle. She kept losing the stirrups. We stopped once to shorten them and that helped. But, the saddle wanted to keep rolling around on Marie if Cierra put weight on one side more then the other. She never complained but I knew it couldn't be much fun for her. And today Luke was a little tender over the rocks. DARN! So much for being able to keep him barefoot. So, we slowed down to take it easy on him anywhere it was rocky. As we were riding down a section of the West Rd. I spotted a dug well right beside the road that would provide a perfect mounting block. So, I took the opportunity and asked Cierra if she would like to switch mounts. She stared at me uncertainly for a moment then tentatively said sure. Though I've only had Luke a short time, he has already proven to me his steadiness and dependability and I had no worries about Cierra riding him. And she is a good rider. So, we quickly adjusted stirrups and made the switch.

Wow but the treeless saddle did not fit me at all. It was WAY too small for my ample behind. And I too kept loosing my stirrups. And though I tightened the cinch yet again before I mounted, the saddle did want to roll around my barrel shaped horse. Cierra seemed immediately at ease on Luke. Once back on the trail and where the ground was soft, we picked up a trot and Cierra just loved the way Luke moved. She started out trying to post but ended up just doing a sitting trot because his trot is so smooth she said there wasn't enough bounce to post to. Then once out on the gas line, we picked up a canter and Cierra was in heaven. She was grinning from ear to ear and was completely at ease with Luke. And Luke was taking very good care of her. When we did the steep climb up the bank, she just loved how easy and smoothly he handled this. She was disappointed that her ride on Luke came to an end so soon. Once off him she hugged and patted and scratched him and he soaked it up like a sponge. Cierra had definitely fallen in love with Luke. I can understand that as there is simply nothing not to like about Luke. She wanted to try riding him bareback, and sometime maybe try him over some jumps (Luke was formally used for Eventing) and maybe she could take a lesson on him and maybe....... Lets just say she was bubbling over with her excitment over riding him. Cierra said she'd never felt so relaxed on an equine on a first ride as she had on Luke. Once we got back to my house, Luke got more hugs and scratches. When Cierra's mom came to pick her up, Cierra excitedly told her all about her mule ride and then had to take her mom out back to meet Luke and he received even more hugs and scratches and Luke continued to soak it all up with pleasure.

It was so much fun seeing Cierra have such a good first experience with a mule. I just wish I'd thought to take my camera so I could have gotten a picture of her first ride on a mule.