First Ever Night Ride

Friday, June 27th. 95° with a slight breeze. Left at 8:20 pm, Arrived home at 9:30 pm
Rode with T/Red
Arena, then took Red home

Had a rotten day at work. Texted T and asked her if she wanted to ride. Let her know I wasn't going to be home before 8:00, but she was OK with riding at dusk.

Heading out

We headed to the neighbors arena to work on jumping .... Morgan's second attempt at jumping poles.  We rode around the arena to work out nerves, then circled back to a low pole (1 ft off the ground). Had her step over it a few times before asking for more speed.  Initially she lifted both fronts, but continued to step over with the rears.  Tried stepping over poles laid out at evenly spaced intervals, then stepping over a double stacked pole before returning to the jump.  After two more attempts, she was jumping quite nicely. So proud of her!

T & Red

It was getting dark, so we rode to T's house.  Going down the middle of the road was odd as cars coming towards us blinded us with their headlights for a few paces. No street lights at all. Used my camera to take a few pictures ... The flash caught the horses by surprise at first, but they handled it quite well.

Playing with the flash

Made sure T got Red put away before heading home. It was really dark (no street lights), we had never ridden in the dark before this evening, and now we were on our own. Sounded like a grand adventure.

Headed home ... at a quick pace

We rode down the middle of the street until I heard a car behind us, then I moved to the far right side of the road. We were fine until the car got closer ... Morgan wasn't fond of the way her shadow stretched out and moved in the headlights.  She snorted but kept moving along at a nice pace.  I slowed her down towards the edge of the asphalt, and she balanced herself quickly when she got to the packed sand/dirt of our street.  Once she knew where she was, she began a panicked pace.  Made her slow down and she held it all the way home.

Made it home safe & sound

Exhilarating and a bit scary, but overall it was wonderful! Wouldn't have attempted that with any other horse but Morgie!

One tired Morgan

P.S. That was the quickest I had ever made it home from T's house :)