Horses being ridden in the dark, on unlit country road.

Pedantic said:
We have this debate on here every year, nothing wrong with riding in the dark, but it depends where it is, how sensible your horse is, and how confident you are, I have ridden the last 8 years in the dark, sometimes pitch black and thick fog along the river, he has his headlight on so lights up where he looks, and reflective Martingale, I have a reflective flashing top and a leg light, I ride in street lit area's when coming off the river etc, I use the cycle lanes anyway light or dark, I have paid enough towards them, riding out in a full moon is magical with the large Owl flying across etc and having a canter as well.

If your struggling with your riding confidence, go out in the dark, next time you ride out in daylight it feels a piece of cake.

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You should market those... pop one on your martingale and bobs your uncle.

No horse at the moment but we used to ride early morning to school and home again dusk and night but were lucky enough that most of it was arable fields or bridle ways from home to the paddock as kids roads were not as busy either.

With winter in mind I found a fab little outfit for my son on the Imuckin website http://www.imuckin.co.uk/product_p/1828.htm & http://www.imuckin.co.uk/product_p/1830.htm he loves it thinks he's bob the builder :D
 
Reviving this thread...

What do you think of riding on a road at dusk or in the dark in *only* a hi-viz jacket? No lights or anything like that.

Someone riding a horse for its owner (so not the owner herself -- just making that clear) couldn't possibly share the school with me the other day, for reasons known only to herself, so she went out on a hack at dusk dressed as above. You have to ride on roads to get anywhere from our barn. I was floored that she did this and thought that if someone exercising my horse for me rode her at dusk, I would go bananas, but maybe I'm being unreasonable?
 
I agree with those who say it depends on location and your horse.

I livery my horse at a yard which is along a very quiet country road. It does still get some traffic but it's generally just people from the neighbouring houses.

Some of our fields are accessed from the road so there is a requirement, during the winter, to walk about 80 to 120 metres (dependant on field) to bring your horse in.

We have a light that does light up part of the road and I alway wear at least a high viz jacket and usually a head torch or flashy tabbard.

I've ridden on that section of road in poor light in the past as we are also right next to a forest entrance and in spring/autumn I'll ocassionally squeeze in a short hack - again I'm always wearing hi viz and there is a very narrow grass track alongside the road that I can move on to if needed. Luckily, because the roads are so quiet, I can hear a car coming a few minutes before it actually arrives so it feels safe enough.

I do wonder what posesses some people to hack out in poor visibility with not a stitch of Hi viz on!
 
Well is it safe to hack a horse out in the dark - yes it probably is in the respect that horses have been used a night for hundreds of years in their carriages... its the cars you can come across that makes it unsafe.

I wouldnt personally do it on the roads around me... (just as much as I wouldnt go running on them either), but if I lived somewhere really quiet or on a private lane, I may do if needs be
 
I should amend my last sentence to add without lights. I think you're fine with a sufficient adornment of lights. In the situation described above, the rider had no lights.
 
In the area where my pony lives there are lots of people who hack out at dusk or in full darkness. When you're driving a car it's actually usually the reflective stuff they are wearing that lights up best in your headlights, but it is the lights that you see from a distance, before your headlights reach them. So the lights give you more warning that there is someone there but the reflective stuff is much brighter than the lights when you get closer.

I hack out at dusk until the clocks change and I wear a mixture of reflectives & lights.

There is a definite pint at dusk when you stop seeing the hiviz and start noticing the lights.
 
Driving home few nights ago from doing my nags, it was about 7ish... driving through lanes, doing about 30. Daughter shouted from passenger side... there was a woman completely in dark clothes, leading a black horse!! Words failed me, I couldnt even trust myself to say something. I honestly didnt see them when I was 15 mtrs away from them...
I dont ride out at dark, personal preference... and in day light I wear high viz. I couldnt imagine why people would attempt to ride out without it thus putting the lives of the horse, themselves and others i ndanger.
 
I ride every morning in the dark and have to ride mostly along the roads. This is the only time I can ride as I have a baby daughter (1) and work full time. This is how I keep horse fit for hunting.

However, our lanes are incredibly quiet and the roads are not cut throughs at all so not busy at all. I haven't seen a car yet this week.

I do wear a hi viz coat and head torch and horse wears a hi viz exercise sheet as well. Because it is so quiet round us, you can hear a car from about 2 miles away not to mention seeing the headlights so can get on the very wide verge or pop into a gateway way before they come close to you.

Saying that there are many roads/areas where I would not ride in the dark. We are just very lucky that the roads are quiet and unlucky that the off road hacking is so crap!!
 
I ride at night on quiet country lanes, I however have hiviz on both horse and myself. Tabard, boots on horse rug on horse and I have to say people see me with plenty of time to spare. I tend to ridw most on clear evenings not murky ones but have done both.

I did have a head torch but I found pony spooked more at half seen things that with nothing as he could see better .

Stupid to go out with nothing on though, idiots :(
 
I ride in the dark at the moment but not on a road - yard is right on a restricted byway (so cycles, people etc but nothing motorised). I wear full hi-viz plus lights just in case, but never see a soul (with the weather so vile we are the only ones stupid enough to be out!).

Most days I ride about 6.45-7am for an hour so it is getting lighter, but sometimes I have to do 7-8pm at night.

I wouldn't go on our roads in the dark, pony not great in traffic and its not worth the risk as they are all 60mph.

As soon as we are allowed back in the school though I'll be back to daylight weekend hacks only!
 
Both my mum and I work full time, one of our horses is on DIY, I muck out, do water and hay nets in the morning and turn out. The other is on grass livery.

I am often tempted to ride out in the dark (clad in hi-viz) but I'm not sure if it would be sensible or not.

I get to the yard about 6.20pm each evening, put the horses bed down, tie his hay nets up and then fetch in from the field. The field is 1/4 mile away from the yard (on a private track) and sods law would have it that my horse will be in the furthest corner of said field possible and unfortunately doesn't always come to call. By the time I get back to the yard and have groomed and tacked up etc, it is almost dark and is getting on to be 7pm. As I'm on quite a busy livery yard, I often find that the school is extremely busy so if I do go in there, I can't get much schooling work done and spend most of my time just getting frustrated at avoiding other people in the school, but as all the alarms at the yard go on at 8pm, I can't really hang around and wait for people. Unfortunately, riding in the mornings instead when it's quieter isn't an option as I have to go to hospital three times per week for health reasons and I wouldn't have time to!

Our yard is situated on a quiet unlit single track lane, and there aren't that many cars that use it, but said quiet lane is directly off a very busy dual carriageway, and if there is an accident or a delay, we find that many cars divert and use the lane as a cut through. Our horses are brilliant in traffic so that aspect doesn't worry me too much, but Bentley is a youngster and can be quite spooky to ride around the floodlit school in the dark so I'd worry that he would be more so out on the roads. I think the idea of a headlamp is good, more to make yourself more visible rather then for visibility itself, but again, I'd worry that the shadows it would cast would make everything spooky!
 
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