Acadia, BLTA pleasure ride

Thursday
Another wonderful adventure! Ten of us ladies headed up to Acadia for a four day camping trip with our horses. Bonnie and I headed out Thursday morning sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. We had been up there last year so we weren't worried about how to get there. We soon proved that two heads are not better then one. Last year we drove separate vehicles. Bonnie was hauling the horses and I drove my truck with the camper. We just camped in the trailer now as it saves the cost of driving a second vehicle. Well, we were gabbing away and missed the exit for I-395 in Bangor. About 15 minutes out of Bangor I came to the realization that things didn't look right. I told Bonnie she had better turn around at the next exit. We did and headed back to Bangor. There were signs for the exit nearly as big as a house, it was hard to believe we missed it. Oh, well, that was really no big deal. Then, right as you drive onto Mt. Desert Island, Rt 3 splits and goes both ways and circles the island. We needed to stay right. But, we were gabbing again and went left. That takes you right through the very busy tourist town of Bar Harbor. Oops. Bonnie did great driving through town. Then, at the bottom of the island, Rt 3 takes a hard right and we went straight ahead, which is a dead end with no real good place to turn around. AAAGGGHHHH..... Bonnie did manage to get the trailer turned and we finally got to Wildwood Stables. Susie, Maura, Ann, Nancy, Joanie and Sue were already there and had taken all the good stalls near the campsite. (rotten buggers!)

Joanie's horse, Porsha, has been a bit lame so Joanie just came to spend the night with us. Bonnie, Halla, Missy and I had to take stalls on the other side of the grounds. Not that far really, we are just lazy. We got set up quite quickly and headed right out for a ride. Bonnie, Ann and Missy didn't go, they wanted to just hang out and relax. Susie, Sue, Maura, Nancy, Halla and I went. Joanie also went riding on Ann's horse, Ted. We tried to ride slow and stay together but Susie couldn't stand it and before you knew it, Susie, Sue and I had left the other girls in the dust. We had quite a crazy ride. Marie is in great shape and was quite excited, for her. We took a small side trail that isn't maintained and found a jump. It was a downed tree a little higher then a horse could step over. We could have gone around it but when Susie saw it, she got so excited that she forgot to think that maybe Sue and I might not be comfortable jumping. I've never jumped Marie before and didn't know what she would do. Susie took off and sailed over it. Sue went right behind her. So, I screwed up my courage and headed Marie straight for it. Marie didn't hesitate for a second and sailed over it like a pro. I was sooooo proud of her.

Marie actually over did it at the start of the ride and was just a hair tried by the time we got back. Susie's horse Cody is in terrific shape and Sue's horse, Sassy, is a wonderful Standardbred mare that easily kept up with us. She could trot faster then either Cody or Marie could run. We actually did a bit more galloping downhill then I was comfortable with. I just let Marie have her head and trusted her. She is the most amazing horse and managed fine. She was even doing some flying lead changes. She's never done that before. When we got back, the girls that had stayed behind had wine all chilled and ready for us. Ann and Nancy pretty much took charge of all the cooking for the weekend. Lobster was served the first night. YUCK! I had a can of soup. I did eat a small piece of Susie's lobster just to say I had. Joanie made some roasted red pepper with garlic which we spread on French bread. We had my 'guitar' sugar cookies for desert. Susie, Sue and I broke out the guitars later and we had quite a sing a long. We went a bit past quiet time. Thankfully, the two other campers liked our singing and playing and didn't complain

Friday
We were all up fairly early. Nancy, Ann and Joanie had coffee ready. We had bagels, cantaloupe and blueberry buckle. Poor Joanie was sick as a dog. That poor woman vomited for hours. We think she had too many lobster bodies. UGH! We decided to split up into small groups to ride. Susie, Sue and I went out together. Sue and I are the only ones that want to try to keep up with Susie. Bonnie, Ann and Missy went out together. Nancy, Maura and Halla made up the third group. We had a great ride. We did the 'Around the Mountain' loop. We passed Bonnie's group about half way out. Bonnie looked like she was doing fine with Max. When we got back, Bonnie's group was already there. We knew right off that something was wrong. It seemed that Max got real upset after he had seen Marie and then panicked at a group of bicycles. He reared up and spun around throwing Bonnie. One of the bicyclists were deathly afraid of the horses. She jumped off her bike and ran into the woods crying. Bonnie was laying on the ground afraid her horse had somehow done something to hurt this woman. Max had never touched her. The whole incident scared Bonnie to pieces. She got back on to ride back because they were too far from camp to walk. She was a bit bruised and scraped up. Poor Bonnie. That afternoon, Bonnie drove me up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. It was a clear day and we had a great view from there. It was very windy though. Later that afternoon, I took Max out with Susie and Sue to see how he would behave with me. We did a real short easy ride. Max was quite good but we didn't see any bicycles though we did pass four big wagons. Cody did a big spin though and twisted one of his shoes and made it very loose. Wildwood Stables called in a farrier to put it back on the next day. They said he would be coming sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 AM. That night Ann and Nancy made Tortellini with peppers and onions. It was great. We played guitars again until about 10:30 PM then headed to bed.



Saturday
Another nice morning. I finally, with great difficulty, persuaded Bonnie to ride Marie that morning and let me take Max. I told her I would wait with Susie until the farrier came then go riding with her. Bonnie really wanted to wait and go with me. I didn't want her to even be around Max. If I had any trouble with him while she was there, it would spoil the ride for her. She finally agreed to go with the morning group. The farrier showed up a little before 11:00 AM. I took Max out and lounged him a little. He seemed a bit uncomfortable on one side. Missy had also stayed behind to ride with us. It didn't take long for the farrier to reset Cody's shoe and we were on our way before noon. Just as we headed out of camp, Bonnie's group was headed in. I was hoping Max would not see Marie but no such luck. He didn't give me any problem about it though. Max did spook at the bicycles. I kept him under control but it was not very relaxing. We finally all agreed that he was definitely feeling some discomfort on one foot or leg. I decided to just get off him and walk him back to camp and let the other two get a good ride. We were only about two miles from camp so that was really no problem. Max was very good at first. Even letting bicycles go by without a problem. Until we were in sight of camp. We had gotten to the corner where you turn to go down the hill into camp. The road is kind of narrow with a big drop off on one side and rock ledge on the other side. Max heard the horses in camp and got really excited. A large group of bicyclists were coming down the hill behind us. I didn't think it would be any problem as he'd been ignoring the bicycles for a while. WRONG! He started to pull me and then spun around. The group of bicycles all came skidding to a halt and when Max heard the sound of the tires skidding on dirt he just lost it. There were at least 10 bicycles with some small kids. They had nowhere to go and Max started to spin right into them. Thankfully, one mother stayed very calm and kept telling the kids quietly not not move. I threw myself into Max to keep him from spinning into the kids. He slammed into the rocks bordering the drop off and thankfully stopped dead. I managed to get Max going and led him back up the hill past the group so they could go on their way. That is when I knew that Bonnie needed to take Max back to Hemphills. Bonnie was at the stalls when I got him into camp. I told her what I thought about him and what I thought she should do. She is feeling very disappointed right now. She thinks maybe it's her fault and that she's failed in some way. I am glad we are here in a group of women that have all been through this same situation and know what she is going through to help her out. We have all unanimously agreed that this is not the horse for Bonnie. Bonnie told me it took her almost half of the morning ride to gain her confidence back. Max had given her that much of a scare. She said about halfway out it suddenly clicked and she got her confidence back. She and Sue took off and had a great wild ride. Bonnie was very impressed at how fast Sassy can trot. The girls took her over the jump with Marie!! I was so proud of them both. Bonnie has never really done any jumping and is nervous about doing it. She said that Marie once again handled it like a pro. Bonnie realized that this kind of fun is what riding was supposed to be. I think she is in love with my horse, and why not, Marie is a great horse. I had a little snack after the ride and was tired so decided to take a nap. After all, It's my vacation, I should be able to nap when I want. Bonnie and Missy went into Bar Harbor to poke around. Some of the other women went to Jordan Tea House for tea time. We were planning to take a moonlight ride to the top of Day Mountain since it would be a full moon.


Unfortunately, the fog rolled in very thick that afternoon and we decided to ride at around 5:30 PM since we wouldn't have any moonlight with all the fog. Bonnie took Marie and I rode Bally. Maura had gone home that afternoon. She was getting a bit home sick. She has two children and one is just a baby. Bally is a big Thoroughbred. I was a little put off when I saw the postage stamp that Maura calls his saddle. It is a close contact saddle and not much to it. I decided if Maura could ride in it, so could I. Bally was horribly rude while I was tacking him up and I had to get help. I felt stupid but Ann said he is like this even with Maura. I climbed aboard and off we went. Bally is big, strong and forward but despite that and the saddle, I soon got the hang of riding him and had a great time. We even did the jump. It was fun watching Bonnie ride Marie. I don't often get the chance to see how my horse travels. Bonnie was having a wonderful time with my little mare. I was so glad. Halla didn't really want to go to the top of Day Mountain, she's afraid of heights. We told her not to worry since with all the fog, she wouldn't be able to see over the edge of the trail anyway. It was true. We met two of the big wagons up there on the sunset ride. They stopped and let us go by. All the horses were pretty good about that. When we got back to camp, Missy, Nancy and Ann had a tarp set up over the table because it was drizzling and they had supper all warmed up. Bonnie, Susie and Missy went over to Ed Winterburg's campfire for a while to get the story on the whole stable closing deal. When they got back, we all sat around the campfire and chatted. Halla and Missy headed to bed early. At around 10:00 PM the fog suddenly started to clear out. We all started wishing that we had waited to go on our moonlight ride. We hemmed and hawed about doing it but didn't really want to take the horses out for a third time in one day. A few of the horses hadn't been out twice and we thought about taking them. But, finally Susie and Sue decided it wouldn't work. Then Nancy said that if someone would go with her bareback, she would go. I looked at her and asked if she was serious and she said yes. I told her I'd go with her if I could take Abby. She had only been ridden once today and I knew she was comfortable to ride bareback. But, I haven't ridden bareback in years. I really didn't think I could do it. I decided to give it a try. I hesitated because Missy had gone to bed and I didn't want to wake her up. I also was not going to take her horse without her permission. I finally couldn't stand it and went to her tent. "Missy...are you awake?" "Missy?". No answer. " Missy..." Finally, "uuugh?" in answer. "Missy, are you awake?" As if I didn't know the poor woman was sound asleep. Halla woke up and asked what was wrong. I told her I wanted to take Abby for a moonlight ride. "You're going riding now?" she yelled. That woke Missy up. Missy told me to go ahead and take Abby and have a good time. Susie and Sue didn't believe we were really going to go. Bonnie went over the the barn with me to help get Abby out. Susie and Sue helped Nancy. Someone else that was there feeding their horses shone their car lights into the Barn for Nancy. They thought we were crazy. When I got over there with Abby, Susie had given Nancy a leg up onto Cabbot. She gave me a leg up onto Abby and off we went.
You could tell that the horses were wondering what was going on but they soon got into the spirit of it. We walked and trotted them to the top of Day Mountain. All the way the fog continued to clear and it got more and more beautiful. There were times when we came out from under the trees and the moonlight was so bright we had to shade our eyes. We could hear the buoys clanging out on the ocean and see all the lights of the town down in the valley. The horses were awesome. Not a single spook or wrong step. At different times along the trail we had clear views for what seemed like miles. I thought I was seeing some clouds when Nancy pointed out I was seeing islands out in the ocean. She was right, I could see lights on them. The ride was, as Nancy said, magical. We had left camp at 10:00 PM and got to the top of Day Mountain at 11:00 PM. On the way back Nancy asked if my legs were hurting. I said yes and she said her were killing her. She then said that we had to be able to tell the girls back at camp that we galloped the horses along the moonlit trails, could I handle it? I told her to go for it and off we went. We galloped for a bit both of us giggling like a couple kids. We entered a dark spot under some trees and Abby broke into a hard trot. Between that and giggling so hard, I nearly slid off her and I yelled to Nancy I had to stop. Abby was taking good care of me and slowed then stopped on her own before I came off. There we were, giggling, laughing, breathless and in pain. We were having the time of our lives. We got safely back to camp about midnight. I hurt so bad when I got off Abby I thought I was going to have to crawl back to camp. It was pain joyfully earned. Susie and Sue were in their tent when we got back but still awake. They had to have all the details. They said Bonnie hadn't wanted to go to bed while we were out as she was worried about us. She finally did go to bed around 11:00 PM. When I got to our trailer, Bonnie had left a light on for me. What a wonderful friend I have. Bonnie told me that it drove Susie and Sue crazy that we went and they almost followed us. Now I have something to lord over Susie. HA! It really was a great chance to get to know Nancy. What a nice woman she is. My magical moonlight ride to the top of Day Mountain with Nancy is going to be a memory to last me a lifetime. It took me a while to go to sleep. It was so excited and happy when I got back. the fog rolled back in sometime after we got back. How incredible that we had that few hours of clear moonlight for our ride.



Sunday
We got up and packed everything. Everyone was going out for a short ride. Bonnie and I decided not to bother. We decided to head for home since we had heard we were going to be running into some bad weather on the way home. I would have been happy to ride if Bonnie had wanted to. I had Bally I could ride but Bonnie didn't really care. And nothing was going to top last nights ride for me so we headed out as soon as we got packed up. We did encounter strong winds and heavy rain on the way home but got home safely.