Liberty Training With Luke

I recently realized that I’ve been missing working with my animals at liberty. I had so much fun with Louie mule the winter I taught him how to bow and to fetch. I have not done much liberty work since. Now, working with Louie was easy and the quick success I had with teaching him to fetch had a lot more to do with his natural eagerness to play and to put his mouth on things then with my talent as a trainer. Working with Louie was like working with an over eager Lab puppy! He made things easy but I did learn a lot working with him.

My mare Marie thinks playing is stupid and only engages in liberty work to get a treat but with no real enjoyment of having to “jump through hoops” to get the treat. I’ve never really done any work with Luke at liberty or my boarders mule, Dolly. I think Dolly will be easy to work with, she is very friendly and likes to mess with things. She plays with anything she can get her lips on. I've renamed her "limber lips" as she is a wizard at working gate latches and snaps. She can even undo cable ties without breaking them!

Luke will be interesting to work with. I have noticed that Luke is very suspicious of anything that you do when he is at liberty and will usually not hang around. But, put a halter on him and he quiets down and seems very happy and secure. I don’t think he’s ever been worked with at liberty so does not know what to do when he has choices to make. Louie was the opposite, when at liberty, he was secure and happy. Once haltered or restrained in any way, that is when he would get worried.

Today I decided to see what Luke does with working at liberty. I figured I’d just start in a smaller area where he could not take off too far. He takes great delight in walking out into the barn aisle when I’m working out there. Not sure why he enjoys this so much but he does. So, today I let him come out in the aisle and closed the barn doors. I figured I’d start with the most simple thing, targeting. I had cut up carrots all ready for rewards. I recently purchased a hula hoop that has beads in it so makes noise when it moves. I got the hula hoop, he saw it and immediately turned away from me and decided to vacate the area, realized he had nowhere to go and stood in the corner blowing with bugged out eyes. I clucked to him to encourage him to turn around and when he did, I released pressure on him by backing up. He came towards me. I had to do a little bit of approach and retreat before he finally worked up the nerve to sniff and touch the hula hoop, but he eventually did. He got a big “good boy” and a treat. It took quite a few times of this before I could see him start to associate his touching the hula hoop with getting treats. But, he was soon quite relaxed and even let me put the hoop around his neck and spin it, letting it make noise. That’s all I did for today as a first session and I was pleased with how he did. It will be fun to see how he responds to this kind of training once he gets the hang of it. He does like to play. But, he so much more reserved then Louie, at least with people. He’s a very polite and gentle mule so will be nice to work with in that way. I just hope I can get him engaged and enjoying the work. I already can't wait for tomorrow as the mule, and even horses, surprise me in how they process a lesson from one session to the next.

Winter Ride in Pittston

We had a wonderful winter ride today! Susie, Linda and I went to Pittston to ride on the Lorax trails. The snow is just perfect for riding right now but we wanted to avoid riding where there would be water spots. The Lorax trail were the perfect choice. We didn't know how much room there would be for turning around and parking there so I met Susie and Linda at the Exit 46 Quick stop in Richmond and we trailer pooled from there. Luke is such a good sport loading in and out when we trailer pool. As soon as Luke got off the trailer he spotted some grass in the plowed area where we were parked and was quite determined to get every blade to be found. Once there we tacked up and were soon on the trail. As we hoped, the trails were perfect. They are logging at the Lorax property right now but no one was working while we were there. Gus, Bayzen and Luke were wonderful and we had a great ride! Luke was acting like he was starving today! As if he doesn't have a round bale in his stall so he can eat 24/7! Every time we stopped to take pictures, he was trying very hard to wander off the trail to eat every piece of plant life he could find! Poor starving Luke.......

To be able to go trail riding in January with such nice conditions is something you have to take advantage of any chance you get. I'm so glad we got to go today.

Susie on Bayzen

Handsome Luke

Cindy on Luke and Linda on Gus

Luke making sure no one is sneaking up behind us......

Bayzen, Gus, and Luke. Such handsome boys! 

The shadow on the trailer looks neat! 

When I went out to the barn tonight to feed, I still needed to clean stalls so I threw a couple flake out into the paddock for Dolly and Marie to take their mind off coming into the barn. Luke came into his stall to see what I was up to.  I had to go out through his stall with the wheelbarrow to the manure pile so I just opened his stall door as I know how he can't resist an open door. But, because I was standing right there inviting him out into the barn aisle, the offer was not nearly so attractive and he stood in his stall looking all innocent. I went through with the wheelbarrow and outside. As soon as I was outside, Luke then felt like if he went into the barn aisle, he was getting away with something which now made it something exciting to do and he quietly crept out into the aisle. It was so funny watching him. He made a thorough inspection of the aisle. When I came back in, he turned and looked at me with that "uh oh!". look. But, because I was coming in through his stall, he couldn't scurry back into into in an attempt to look innocent. His expression was priceless! I quietly came through and gave him a pat and told him he was fine. He let out a big sigh and then happily went about cleaning up all scraps of hay in the aisle looking quite pleased with this little late night diversion.

Cierra's First Ride at the Beach

It's been a very, very cold week. On Friday I watched the weather report and the forecast was for another cold and windy day. Not as cold as it has been but low 20's. But, the tide was right for riding at the beach, I had Saturday off from work, the roads were clear and safe for traveling and my trailer was all plowed out and ready to go. I decided I was going to just bundle up and go to the beach anyway. I wanted  to invite my friend Cierra. I figured she had never ridden at the beach and she could ride my mare Marie who has been to the beach many times. Cierra is a lovely young lady I met last year at Upper Pond Stable when I was boarding Louie and Marie there last winter. I did hesitate to call her as with such cold weather, I didn't want to have to explain to her mother that I froze her daughter at the beach. But, in the end I did call her mom to see if she was available to go. Pam told me that Cierra was working at Upper Pond Stable in the morning but would likely be ready to go by 10:00 am. Low tide was at 10:30 am but as I had an appointment to take the dogs to the vet for vaccines Saturday morning, 10:00 am would work out fine so I said I would pick Cierra up at the stable and we would head out from there. I did invite other to go but didn't get many takers on the offer. I was however, able to badger Amy Beem into agreeing to join Cierra and I. 

It was actually much warmer then the forecast said it would be. It was in the 30's when I went out at 7:30 am. After getting home from the vet, I had to hustle to get ready for the beach. As the wind was picking up, I feared it might still be quite cold down on the beach. So, I put on many layers of warm clothing, filled hay bags, put shavings in the trailer, then caught and loaded up Luke and Marie. I picked up Cierra and we headed to the beach. Cierra was very excited about this new experience and her excitement made this even more fun for me. We got to Popham Beach around 11:15 am. There was a horse trailer in the parking lot that looked familiar to me. A second look and I recognized it as Tracy and Eric Bradford's trailer. It would be nice to see them. Not long after we  arrived, Amy pulled in and she had found 2 other friends to come with her. We were all pleased and surprised and how nice it was at Popham as we were tacking up and getting ready to ride. Not even close to as cold as we thought it would be. 

Cierra on Marie in the parking lot of Popham Beach State Park

We had to negotiate the parking lot carefully to the beach access path due to some ice. We all managed to get down to the beach safely. I spotted Tracy and Eric right away. We saw some small white..... things, rolling around their horse and mule's legs and at first thought there was some trash blowing around the beach. We then realized it was two very small white dogs pestering their horse and mule. We rode out to where they were and chatted to them for a while. They had already been down towards the fort and were heading off in the other direction so we parted and rode out towards the rocks. Cierra wanted to ride into the ocean and I told her to go ahead and give it a try. I've done it many times with Marie but she won't go unless you are firm about asking her. Cierra did wonderful with Marie and got her to go in. Luke did not want to go in either but finally decided to follow Marie. He was a good boy but not particularly impressed. And he kept pretty glued to Marie for security. The waves look oh so scary and surely feed on mules. But, he was willing to lay down his life to be with his girlfriend Marie. Silly mule.

Eric on Coal and Tracy on Ellie Mae at Popham

Tracy on Ellie Mae

Cierra on Marie

Cierra on Marie in the Atlantic Ocean at Popham Beach

Cindy on Luke and Cierra on Marie in the Atlantic Ocean at Popham Beach

Amy Beem on Washburn

Judy Macpheters on Lilly, Amy Beem on Washburn, Carole Norton on Moxie, Cierra on Marie and Cindy Ross on Luke

I enjoy riding at Popham Beach because it's such a pretty beach and it changes all the time. Occasionally, storm tides will make the footing at the beach not that great for riding but usually, it's fine. Today the footing was wonderful and the beach was wider then I've ever seen it. We rode towards the rocks then headed down the beach towards the fort. The beach is on a peninsula and when we rounded the corner and headed for the fort, the wind hit us hard and it was right into our faces. The sand looked so neat here because the hard wind was making a thin layer of the dry sand blow along, low to the ground, over the packed wet sand. It made a strange visual effect that even had the horses and Luke watching with interest. We rode most of the way to the fort but did turn around before quite getting there as we were suffering brain freeze from the strong wind on this side of the beach. Once we had the wind to our back, we were fine. And then once back around the peninsula, we were once again protected from the strong winds and it was very nice. We had done a little bit of trotting on the way down toward the fort but nothing too fast. Cierra asked me if we could possible canter here. I checked with the other riders and every one was fine with us going ahead. So, Cierra led the way and we did a lovely long canter down the beach. Cierra then said it would be so cool to canter in the waves. I told her if she could get Marie to do it, to go ahead. She did a great job with Marie and she was soon cantering in and out of the waves. I tried to get Luke to canter in the waves with her but he was having no part of it. He did however, show off some great skills at trotting and cantering sideways, backwards and forward keeping just out of reach of each wave that came and went. We passed Eric and Tracy along this stretch. They had put their horse and mule in their trailer were walking their dog. We then did a fun canter up the center of a stream of water in the middle of the beach. Luke did agree to follow Marie here as there was no real wave action. We then rode back toward the others and did one more short canter. Cierra was in the lead and cantering straight for one of the streams. It was shallow so of no concern but the sand in front of the stream looked odd with some heavily rippled sand and different spots of sand colors. Marie cantered up to the spot and then suddenly decided that this looked too odd even for a steady and experienced girl like her. Marie put the breaks on hard. She tucked her butt and actually did a sliding stop. I thought Cierra might get the chance here to go for a swim. But, she rode it out perfectly and quickly pushed Marie right on through the water. I was impressed. The others were not far behind us and quickly caught us and we rode back out towards the rocks but decided to continued along the beach to the right of the parking lot access path. This end of the beach can be very iffy on the footing but today this part of the beach was wonderful also and we were able to ride a long way down this side of the beach.

Cierra on Marie, Cindy on Luke, Carole on Moxie and Judy on Lilly.  Sequin Island lighthouse in the background

We all then headed back out to the rocks for one last circle of that section of the beach. We rode all the way out to the rocks this time and had fun playing around on the rocks and riding in the seaweed on the beach. I asked Luke to hop up over a small rocky ledge and at first he didn't really think it was a good idea. But, with just a little bit of persistence on my part, he finally agreed to humor me and he quite gently, using a slanted rock near him, stepped up onto the ledge. Amy told me to do it again so she could get a picture. I lined him back up and asked him to go up again. He had apparently decided that this was actually kind of fun and with much more enthusiasm then I was expecting, launched up onto the rocks. Poor Luke, I lurched backwards and only kept from going off the back of him by balancing on the reins. Amy then informed me she had not gotten the picture, of which I was glad, and I had to do it again. Luke forgave me for the hard hank on his mouth apparently because he happily hopped up yet again. And yet again when Amy informed me she got the shot she was trying to get. Good Luke. Then Amy did it a few times with Washburn while I took her picture. Washburn didn't like the idea at first either but once he did it the first time, he was more than willing to do it again.........as I missed the first shot too. 

Climbing the rocks at Popham Beach

 I am so glad we all ignored the weather forecast and decided to ride at the beach today. It turned out to be a lovely day at the beach and a great ride with wonderful friends. All the horses and mules were very good. It was so much fun seeing Cierra experience her first beach ride as well as Amy's friend, Carole's first beach ride.

Short Ride on a Cold Day

It's been SOOOOOOO cold this week! I had ridden earlier in the week. I'd gone out on the trails from my house on my horse. It was the first time I've been on the trails since the snow storms. The snow is nice and not too deep though the waters spots are tricky as they are not frozen yet despite the cold weather. So, Luke has been lazing around for about a week. My riding instructor called me yesterday and decided if I was willing to brave the cold, she would came to give me a lesson today. I figured as long as we were inside out of the wind, I could stand it. And we would just be careful not to work Luke hard enough to get him sweaty. This morning was a bit of scramble to get the puppy out to pee, feed the dogs, get the puppy out again, hook up the trailer, start the truck to let it warm up (and it was quite reluctant to start....) have a quick  breakfast, get all my gear and dog "stuff" in the trailer and get to work in the 1 hr. I had. I'm sure glad Upper Pond Stable is only 4 miles from my house! 

When I got to Upper Pond Stable, Brooke told me the horses were staying in because of the cold weather. That meant we'd be using the indoor arena to turn the horses out as we cleaned their stalls. So, I turned Luke out in one of the paddocks. Luke was happy when we arrived as he likes going to Upper Pond and visiting with all the horses. But, he soon realized that none of the horses were coming out and he was alone outside. Well, he commenced to bellowing and bawling his displeasure. He went up to the far end of the paddock and called to the horses he could see at the neighbors farm but they were just too far away and ignoring him so did not abate his loneliness. I kept an eye on him to make sure he was not getting worked up enough to get sweaty. He was fine though kept up a pretty constant stream of protest at what he felt was very unfair treatment, while huffing down all the hay I'd put out for him. My lesson ended up being cancelled as the instructor could not get her car started. But, since I'd brought Luke, I figured I might as well ride.

When I arrived I had put all my riding clothes and Luke's tack in the heated viewing room. When I was done work, I brought Luke in and put him on the cross ties in the barn. He was SO happy to be in with the horses.     

And as usual, Luke was as perfect as always when riding in the arena. I didn't ride him long due to the cold weather though it was not bad at all inside. 

This evening when I fed, Luke was standing at the fence line right by the door to Marie's stall. When she walked into her stall, he popped his head over the fence, shook his head and glared hard at her! Oh, such a brave boy when there is a fence between. I'm quite sure he would NEVER have the nerve to challenge the crabby old mare like this. It was funny though because Marie, being intent on going in for her food, only quickly glared back at him and went into her stall. Then, she came right back out and went at Luke, rushing at the fence and then spinning and threatening to kick and he backed right off.  It was funny because it was as if after she got in her stall, she suddenly decided she could not let him get away daring to challenge her like he had. Things are never dull with mules around.