Getting Lost Can Still Be Fun!

A 5:45 am text to my neighbor Kate led to a trail ride in the Marshall Pond area on Ah-D and Jax. 

Ah-D spying Jax arriving at our house

Yes, we did get lost, but wow, what a beautiful area in which to get lost! And, I finally found the way to get from one side of Marshall Pond to the other side by trail.  I did that, 15+years ago with other friends and horses, so I knew it could be done, but this was the first time I was able to replicate it.  PERHAPS I will be able to repeat some of this trail ride and exclude the "lost" part...but no guarantees.

 

We armed ourselves and our horses with bug juice, and the deerflies were really only bad near the pond.  Wow, did we see some beautiful country. Ah-D was feeling really laid back and behaving like a peach, other than dwadling a bit too much and trying to get away with munching on an occasional leaf.

 

At about the halfway mark (hmmm....or what should have been the halfway mark), Kate and I switched horses.  Jax (Saddlebred cross?) has an issue with pitching a fit sometimes during the trot transitions, and I was hoping to help out Kate by working with him on that.  I did, and it was fun and challenging.  I think he has just learned he can scare his rider by doing that, and once the rider makes him knock it off and keep going, he is generally good.  He also has trouble with the trot/canter transition, and I think that maybe what has led to his gyrations when you make him trot when he doesn't feel like it.

Kate on Ah-D in Marshall Pond

 

Meanwhile, Kate was enjoying Ah-D, especially since he's so willing to canter to catch up with Jax.  We talked back and forth about the difference between our two guys.

  

a beaver dam we found along the way

Kate on Jax, pine needle trails - love those!

A view of the pond over Jax's ears for a change!

 

 

Kate on Ah-D  talking with someone she knew

We met a lot of nice people once we exited the woods on the other side of Marshall Pond.  We stopped several times to let kids pet our ponies. I felt like we were playing Seven Degrees from Kevin Bacon, because she met someone she knew and I met someone who knows a good friend of mine from work.  My work friend John used to live on Merrill Hill Road, and he told me a couple of times about a trail that met the Hebron Academy trails, and Frank, the guy I was jawing with, told me about the very same trail.  Kate and I tried to follow his directions...and that is where the lost part of this tale rears it's head.  We finally decided to back track and try to go home the way which we came in by following horse tracks backwards, and that put us on an Old County Road that leads right up to Hebron Academy.

check out the sculpture on this guy's lawn..pretty sure this is where my friend John used to live!

 We sure visited some beautiful country!  I wonder if I will be able to find my way back here by trail again?  ;)  ~Susan and Ah-D in Maine~