Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Autumn in the air

Last night I rode Joey for the first time under the lights in the riding arena at the barn we now board at. Since the light switch is inside the barn owner's home, I have to text her and request the lights be turned on for riding. The barn owner is so, so nice and put the lights on for me even before I headed out to ride. It's been getting dark now at just 7:15PM and usually the earliest I can get in the tack is at about 6:45PM. So I have to bang out as much schooling as I can before daylight is gone. I've been holding out asking for her to put the lights on for me because it's going to be a long winter and I'm going to be requesting this a lot!

With the lights on early, Joey was able to adjust comfortably as we worked and daylight faded to darkness around us. Even with it being a chilly, windy evening, with strange sounds and gusty rustles he kept his mind on his business (which is so like him, anyway) and we schooled for a good 45 minutes. I'm trying to ride him at a lot of trot/canter work, I have plans to enter a Hunter Pace in November and I'm starting our conditioning now.


5 comments:

Lisa said...

I'm still riding under lights - I can't wait until daylight savings starts for me over here.

English Rider said...

I am very envious and very happy for you. Warhorse in London was fabulous. I started to watch the movie on the flight home and switched off after less than a minute. Why spoil it?

Jean said...

I do have arena lights and hardly ever use them. While I do have time to ride in daylight now that I'm retired, I still ride in the dark sometimes. Once my eyes get adjusted and I can usually see the fence line. It's kind of an interesting challenge. *lol*

Net said...

You may want to get a dry erase board calendar and mark when you suspect you'll want to ride under lights, and text her when you don't for the future. If it's going to happen more often than not, it can let her plan to be there or have them on already when she leaves if she'll be out, etc.

Christine said...

Net's idea is a great one! She should expect such requests running a boarding facility but I can understand not wanting to consistently ask :)