How To Ride When It’s Dark

Happy November 15th! How is your weather where you are riding? I have to say it has been relatively warm here in Colorado, thankfully! But it’s still nearly dark when I get home which means I have to have an alternative light source if I plan on getting all 10 of my No Stirrup sessions completed. I mean how do you ride when it’s dark?

And a few years ago I made a dedicated nighttime riding area using string light strands. And it worked pretty well actually. But I found that I was limited to what I could do because the area wasn’t my ‘real’ riding arena. The ground was just that, ground. There wasn’t any additional footing added.

And with the lights only in the corner, it wasn’t enough to do any serious nighttime riding. Now keep in mind serious riding for me is making full revolutions around the arena several times in both directions with lots of walking and trotting.

Having An Arena With Lights

Now, fast forward those few years, and I have been able to add ‘real’ arena lights to my arena, thanks to Solar Goes Green.

This is a game changer for my riding. And it is a project I was able to get done in a weekend. It took a few extra days for the lights to be charged and ready for full use. But once they were done, they were done.

No more having to drag an extension cord out to the lights, plug them in, and then run back to my garage and plug them in and then reverse the entire process when I’m done riding. Now all I have to do is click a button on my handy dandy remote and wa-la…..

Let there be light!

By adding these lights I have saved myself about 15 minutes a night. Which may not seem like a big deal, but when you are trying to find time, or added daylight to ride during the winter, but 15 minutes is a lot of extra time in the saddle for me. When you don’t have lights at your barn, or in your arena wintertime can seem like it will never end.

And yes, this is definitely an investment in your facilities. But it is so worth it!

Back at the end of October, I wrote a blog post about the entire process, and what I did to add these lights to my arena. If you are curious, you can read about it here.

What To Work On At Night

For myself, I use my nighttime rides for working on walking and halts.

We also work on backing up, and changes of direction. I don’t get carried away with my night rides, yet. But it is so nice to be able to come home after a stressful day of work and actually be able to ride my horse.

And it helps to keep me active during the winter months too. This is when I tend to sit, and vegetate. So by having a lit arena, if the weather is above freezing, I can still make time to ride Plezant.

So if you have some way to light the area that you ride, or you are fortunate enough to have an indoor arena, or lit arena, make the time to spend some time in the saddle. It doesn’t have to be an hour. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be 30 minutes. Just getting out there and doing it, that’s what counts. So if you have the ability to ride at night, I challenge you to do it. You might find that you really like it!