Beach Trips – April 2010

OK.  The more astute of my readers might notice that in this post Zephyr goes back and forth between wearing two different saddles, a borrowed Abetta-type and the new EZ-Fit Saddle.  That is because Melissa and I went to the beach twice in April, on the 4th and the 25th, and I have no memory of which pictures go with which trip, other than that the ones with the EZ-Fit Saddle are from the 25th, and the ones of me in the short-sleeve shirt are from the 4th.  So I’m just going to say “screw it” and keep them all lumped together.  You’ll have to just deal with it.  Hahahaha!  I guess I’ll try and point out to you when we change from one date to the other.

I brought Zephyr to Melissa’s the night before we left for the beach, to save time in the morning.  Zephyr enjoys visiting Peek-a-Boo.  She’s never quite sure what to think when he shows up, though.  These pics are from April 3, 2010.

 

Scruffy springtime hair coat:

Scruffy springtime hair coats are always better with a little mud:

OHHHHHKAAAAAAY, maybe a LOT of mud.

The finished product.

The following morning, we loaded them into Melissa’s stock trailer because the Peek-a-Bus won’t even fit in my slant-load trailer with the divider open and the rear-tack compartment collapsed.  OK, maybe she WOULD fit, but only with her nose in the front corner and her ass in the opposite rear corner, which would leave no room for another horse, even if he IS Mr. Bendy.

They’re standing with their noses lined up, here.  What?  You don’t see why I’m posting this, yet?

How about now?  THEIR NOSES ARE LINED UP.  Wow.

The full perspective:

Getting ready to go out.  From the saddle I’m using, I can tell that this was from April 4.  If you didn’t know, it’s EXTREMELY unusual to have weather that early in Maine that is warm enough to wear short sleeves when you’re just standing around.  It was almost TOO hot!

Some posed shots from the 4/25 trip… actually a cooler day than three weeks earlier!

 

The town of Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach are REALLY adamant that all riders and drivers pick up their horses’ poop.  They make us wear ID numbers so we can be reported if we don’t do it.  That scares the shit out of us, because someone could just give our number and we’d have to pay a huge fine if we couldn’t prove them wrong.  So we filmed ourselves emptying the bags out into the trash can.  Let me tell you, two horses make a LOT of poop in an afternoon!  Those bags were HEAVY!

These shots are from the April 4 trip:

Melissa has a thing for taking head shots of Peek.  Either that, or Peek’s head is just so darn big that Melissa can’t get it out of the shot?  Not sure which, but the pictures sure do come out nice.

 

 

 

 

I got caught up in the head shot fascination for a minute:

Lunch break for horses and riders… I told you it was hot!!  Look at this sweat!

These pics were from lunchtime on our April 25th trip.

Playing peekaboo behind Peek-a-Boo!!

Peekaboo, I see you!!

 

After lunch, we went back out and Peek saw the parasailer for the first time.  Zephyr had seen him before.  Note that Zephyr made PEEK-A-BOO carry the poop bags this time!!  Those things get HEAVY!!

No, it did NOT scare the shit out of him, but he WAS kind enough to “lighten the extra weight” while I was still on the ground from having picked up Peek’s mess.

That sail got pretty darn close… they both just watched it.  Gooood search and rescue ponies!!!

The parasailer walked it past us and out into the water.

We played ring around the rosie under the pier…

“Can I have a treat, Mom??”

Heading back…

Showing off the new saddle.

Those cantle buckles are meant to hold the seat cover down, because it has velcro underneath and you can flip it forward to access the straps for the stirrups and girth (and move them forward/back).  But, if you have the cantle buckle straps made 6” longer than standard, you can buckle the outer two right over your cantle pack’s water bottles!  A true no-bounce pack!

 

After we ride, if it’s warm enough, we like to sponge the sweat off the horses.

Then we bring them down to the beach to roll in the sand.  Melissa held them both while I checked to see how close the beachgoers had spread their blankets.  Zephyr likes to go right down almost as soon as he hits the beach, and I didn’t want to smoosh anyone!

 

Zephyr sure does love to roll!  He did it at least twice, and thoroughly.

SUPER SCHMEXEH!!!  HOLD THAT POSE!!

  

Peek got a good one in too.

After rolling, we checked out the water.  He’s never been that fond of going into the waves.

When we got back to the trailer, it was time to sheet them for travel.  I put on Zephyr’s fly mask so hay wouldn’t blow into his eyes, and for some reason he kept trying to put his head under Peek’s blanket. 

So Melissa helped him.  He just stood there!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures.  We sure enjoyed the trip(s).