Just Beachy

Saturday, Lynn and I rounded up Star, Brady, and Ziggy to go to town for their flu shots. Ziggy chose to turn around again in the trailer so he rode backwards to the vet's. In the parking lot at the vet's, I managed to get horse slobber, and I don't know what all, in my hair and on my sweater as I walked Star and Brady around. But for once, I did not win the dirtiest shirt contest--Lynn ended up with horse poop smeared all the way across her shirt, on her hands, and just about everywhere.

Ziggy threw a fit when he was tied to the trailer after getting his shots. Star, Brady, and I stayed near him so he could see us, but he pulled back so hard, he pulled himself down onto his back legs and took some hide off. He left hair and shoe skid marks on the pavement--scaring me into screeching for Lynn for help. I hate when one of them hurts themselves, even when they are being stupid.

We loaded them up and headed for Clam Beach. Lynn wasn't too sure about this venture since Star has never seen the ocean, heard the waves, or dealt with sand like that--not to mention it was only the second time I was to ride him. Moreover, Ziggy was going to have to ponied.

When I took Brady and Star over to the hitching rails, there was a woman and a couple of horses waiting for the rest of their party to arrive. Hanging over one of the rails was a guy with near-waist length dreadlocks. He asked the woman how tall her horse was and after she replied, he informed her he wanted a 16-hand horse (her were too small for a guy like him). He liked them tall. Casually, she said it was farther to the ground the taller the horse. He said confidently he had no intention of falling off his dream tall horse. She dryly replied, "No one usually plans on it." I hid my smile in Brady's mane and she went back to her book. He must have gotten the hint and he sort of sauntered away.

We saddled up and then I put Star in a hole and smugly went to get on, but as I stepped up to put my foot in the stirrup, he started off. I barely had my toe in, but jumped and lay across him to get my other foot in. He kept moving and almost ran me into a tall sign that I hadn't noticed during my graceful attempt to mount (in front of a small audience of course!) Lynn rode Brady and he and Ziggy did really well together. Ziggy followed with no problems--oh except of course when he lay down in the sand and rolled! We were right in the middle of a bunch of campsites, no less. Star had his feet just going too, so I kept his head up because I'm sure he thought it looked like a good idea, too.

We had a few problems, and probably looked a little silly, trying to find a good way to get over to the ocean. The obvious way was through an inlet of water; however, neither of us felt good about going through water we couldn't see the bottom of and it was sandy to boot. Lynn has been in quick sand before and neither of us was in a hurry to experience it. We tried several different trails, but did not get through on any of them.

There were tents pitched all around and as usual there was a little breeze. Star was listening and looking at everything and Lynn reminded me to pay close attention to him. Can you imagine how fast he and I could have gotten into trouble if someone would have zip, zipped his or her way noisily out of one of those moving green monsters? Or if a gust of wind filled it up and it snapped and moved wildly? Thankfully, we did fine together.

We finally started down the Hammond Trail, staying off the pavement and on the shoulders as much as possible. We easily crossed a bridge and continued to try to find a path over the dunes to the ocean itself. Unfortunately, we met a man who said it was miles before we could crossover easily, so not wanting to ride on a paved trail, we turned around and made the decision not to ride any longer--we had only wanted to keep them moving after their shots anyway. As we made our way down the highway, I saw that we actually had been almost to a place we could have crossed over. Oh well--riding on the beach just wasn't to be.