Moonlight Ride

A year ago, when we moved out to the ranch, Willa and I took one look at the beautiful full moon over the desert and promised ourselves that we would go on moonlight rides.

Last night, we finally kept our promise.

The ride started at about sunset. We went out on the trail at the back of the ranch and enjoyed the cool, calm evening. The sun was going down in a red glory, and to the south, we could see the outlines of the Owyhee Mountains. They looked almost like clouds through the haze.

The trail was a bit dusty, but soon we got off the "main drag", and were walking through the grass. We went on a long canter and I just let Autumn have her head. She really enjoyed getting out for a run. Willa was on Scotch which was great for Autumn because for once, she could actually be in the lead. She's an Appaloosa/Quarter Horse, and her short legs just can't compete with some of our Thoroughbreds. Scotch isn't that much bigger than Autumn and because of his leg injury, he doesn't canter real fast anyway.

Then we did a hand gallop up the hill. What fun!

As it grew darker we saw some antelope off to the east. And of course we kept watching for the moon to rise over the Danskin Mountains. We slowed to a nice sedate walk as it was getting a little bit dark to be capering over the hills at full speed. There are lots of badger and bunny holes in our desert.

We didn't see any coyotes, which kind of surprised me. In fact, I don't even remember hearing any--which is unusual. We generally hear coyotes howling every single night. Maybe they all partied too much the night before.

At last we could see the light over the mountains which let us know the moon was soon to rise. So we stopped on the top of hill overlooking the ranch. There we let the horses graze a bit, while we watched the moon rise over the mountains. It was gorgeous!

Words can't describe the pleasure I felt as we walked home in the moonlight. The horses enjoyed themselves very much, although they were glad to get home when we finally did. The others in the herd welcomed us home with joyous neighs.

We unsaddled in the moonlight and put everything away. I didn't get to bed until midnight, but it was worth it!

We've decided that next year, we're going to get the calendar out and invite others to share our moonlight ride adventure. It would have to be restricted to folks who know how to ride. But we think this is too lovely an experience to keep to ourselves. Of course, horse rental is extra--but that's part of what we do as a horse ranch and we're set up for that.

So anyone for a moonlight ride?