Forest Wildflowers

Today I went riding with Delbert and Ruth for the first time. We also started out with my neighbor Sally and her boyfriend. I decided to take Lily. I'd ridden Marie the previous day and Marie was HORRIBLE. But that's another story.

It was a lovely day though a bit blustery. Delbert started out on Sally's buckskin horse and Sally was riding Delbert's mare. We were ready before Sally and rode over to her barn to wait. We rode through the field up to Black's Cabin. I thought Lily would spazz out going across that big open field, wind blowing and 2 rides moving out up ahead of us. But, she walked though the field very quietly much to my delight. When we got to the cabin, Delbert decided to switch with Sally and ride his own horse. Something spooked his horse while he was mounting and she bolted off. Delbert was ok and his mare quickly caught and he got back on. We decided to split up at that point. Sally and her boyfriend would be riding faster and longer so I decided to stay with Delbert and Ruth as I am still not feeling very well from whatever it is I came down with just before I left Maine.

We took trail 184 to trail 185. We crossed the creek and went north back to the farm. It is so beautiful out in the wood right now. The wildflowers are in bloom and the forest floor is carpeted in blues and purples from the bluebells and sweet williams, as well as yellow and white from flowers I could not identify. We only did about 3.5 miles but that was enough for how I was feeling Lily was a very good girl. She led part of the way and it was a very nice ride.

Garden of the Gods

Today was a perfect riding day. Sunshine and cool enough to keep the mule comfortable. We joined Anthony's group today riding to Garden of the Gods. We got to camp in plenty of time to get ready. JoJo parked us in the back field today. I was using a different crupper today as well as a different pad to see if that made any difference with Lily. Nancy was riding Moonshine, Kate Eastin's mule. Lily was good being tacked up and stood nice to let me mount and was very good on the ride through camp. We had a bit of a wait in front of Anthony's for everyone to get ready. We had a big group today of about 31 riders. We went up to Wobble rock and then down through Rice Hollow on the way to Garden of the Gods. Lily was an absolute angel the whole way. We had lunch at Garden of the Gods. On the way back the group split up. Some headed right back to camp. The rest of us went with Anthony for the longer ride out by H rock and the observatory. Lily got all jazzed up as we were leaving Garden of the Gods. She was insistent on being glued right to Annabelle. Annoying to me but she was not bad enough to draw much attention either. She settled down after a few miles and was wonderful the rest of the ride.

Initial Tree

Due to not feeling well and some sketchy weather, This was the first day I was riding. Amy had taken Lily out a few days earlier and much to my surprise, Lily had behaved horribly and Amy cut her ride short and came back. ACK!

Amy at Wobble Rock on Lily

So, it would be interesting to see how Lily behaved with me on board. We decided to join Kathy Lawless on her ride as she heads out around 11:30 am or so and that would mean we would not have to rush around in the morning to get ready. Lily was good being saddled and stood nicely for me to mount. She rode quietly through camp out to the meeting spot at Kathy's camp site. There we had quite a long wait for everyone to get ready. Lily was not too bad about that. Nancy was using Wayne and Anna Moore's mule Patch. When we headed down the camp road towards the trail, Lily had a bit of a "spell".  Nothing top serious, I just had to spin her in a few circles and she settled down though was pretty light on her feet.

Amy had brought her dog not knowing that Kathy had a no dog policy for her rides. We were heading out when we discovered this so Amy took Riata back and put her in her trailer than caught up to us as quickly as she could. We rode out up to Wobble Rock first, then out to Initial Tree. Lily was not relaxed but behaved for the most part. She did have a few spazz attacks and it always seemed to be when we were heading down a hill. So, I would need to reevaluate my tack to make sure there was nothing there causing the problem. It was a good ride, if not the most relaxing.

Home!

Home at last! I can't believe the long wait is over and that I don't have to go back to Maine this time. It worked out that the time for my final move came at the same time as the McAllister and Friends Shawnee Mule Ride. I knew Amy would like to go to the ride and offered to pay her way down and I would haul her mule along with my horse if she would haul the rest of my "stuff" here in her larger trailer. She agreed to this plan though she might have reconsidered if she knew how much work it would involve.

Tuesday, two days before we were to leave Maine, Amy brought her trailer to my parents house and did her usual expert job of backing it into the driveway. We first loaded my stall matts. Or at least as many as we could get to. We got the pile by my dads garage. Eight matts were being used in my horses instant garage shelter. We tried to get those but only managed to get one due to the snow and ice all around the shelter freezing the edges down. We then proceeded to load up my round pen panels that I was using to make a turnout for my horse in my parents back yard. It was so much fun trudging though the deep snow and having to get the panels apart and loose of the snow and ice. I don't know what I would have done without Amy's help. We got most of the panels into Amy's trailer. My 6' gate panel and one 10' panel with a 4' gate in it  would not fit in. Nor would one of my four 4' panels. And I had to leave behind 4 aluminum gates. I hated to leave any behind but it is what it is. Amy took my truck and trailer to her house. I had quite a bit more stuff to pack and get loaded before we headed out on Thursday. Tuesday night I came down sick. Wednesday morning I was down for the count and wondering if I would even be able to travel on Thursday. By Wednesday night I had rallied just enough to pack up the rest of my stuff though I didn't get it loaded into the trailer. There was another significant snow storm coming for Friday so sick or not, I was determined to leave on Thursday as planned. By Thursday morning I was well enough to function and had everything out on the walk ready to load when Amy arrived. She had found a friend to go with us so she would not have to drive home alone. Marie was more than happy to get on the trailer with Amy's mule Annabelle. We got everything loaded up and pulled out at about 9:45 AM. It was hard saying good-bye to mom and dad. I will miss them.

Overall, the trip was uneventful and that is a GOOD thing. My truck gave me no troubles. OH. I had found a place for the horses to stay the night. Shillelagh Farm in Madison, OH. We didn't pull in there until about 12:30 AM. We knew we'd be arriving late but were hoping not that late. We'd run into a but of rain and that had slowed us down. The farm owner was gracious about our late arrival and got Marie and Annabelle settled into stalls quickly. We then drove to a nearby hotel and crashed for what was left of our night. In the morning, we had a quick breakfast at McDonalds, picked up Marie and Annabelle and headed out. We drove though a little bit more rain. Then hit stopped traffic before Cincinnati that held us up for a while. Then we inched our way though Cincinnati due to construction. So, we arrived home later than planned but without any incidents. We went right to Delbert and Ruth's, my neighbor where I am keeping Lily first. Marie handled the long trip well and we got her and Annabelle settled in there and then went to my house and pretty much went straight to bed. I'd made it! I was home.

One Last Beach Ride

I really very much wanted to ride at the beach one more time before heading to Illinois. We talked about it, made plans, cancelled plans due to frigid temperatures thanks to living in the land of perpetual winter. This coupled with being plagued by troubles with my truck I had all but given up hopes of making it for one last ride before leaving.

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.

One Horse Gap

Amy had been hoping to get to One Horse Gap to ride at the upcoming mule gathering in April. It is not all that far from High Knob Campground but further than you'd want to ride so we'd have to trailer over to ride it. We decided to hike it today to get a look at the area.

Finding the road in and where to park was a bit of a challenge. The GPS didn't recognize many of the roads around One Horse Gap. The first one we tried to drive down kind of petered out and we ended up turning around. Strangely, when I put my phone on Google Maps, it was able to locate One Horse Gap and we followed that and found it. We did have a map of the trails and headed out not knowing what to expect of it for a hiking trail. It turned out to be a lovely hike. We found our way around with only one short unplanned side trip. The rock formations were a bit different here than what we'd seen elsewhere on our hikes and rides. More rounded and smoother, and very interesting. On the way back we drove down to One Horse Gap Lake just to see it. It is a very pretty spot.

Another lovey day and great hike. I really hate to have to leave. But, I'll be back soon!