Nine years ago on the night of the October full moon, Elaine rode Chocolate on the beach. She want me to ride, to feel the magic. It was windy, occasionally spitting rain but the moonlight and the ocean truly were magical.
We - Chocolate and I - turned to look back and to wait for Elaine to catch up with us. We'll never know what spooked him - a flash of moonlight on a wind-tossed wave, the "strange" shape of Elaine jogging toward us, whatever - but something did. He spun and bucked. I was a very green rider and wound up on my back in the sand. Chocolate took off running the other direction.
It was one of the longest nights of my life. We searched and searched up and down the beach for him. Our friend Tito (who gave Elaine Chocolate in the first place) came out to search on his horse. Sometime after midnight we agreed to give it up for the night but to meet again at first light to look. Of course Elaine couldn't and was out again by 2:00 am. By first light. all of us - Elaine, Tito on horseback and me - were already out.
Sometime after sunrise, Tito found Chocolate tied up in a yard across the main road and nearly a mile away. We couldn't figure out why he didn't come home or go to Tito's (where he lived for a while). Most horses know the way back to their barn. We figure in his fear he got confused and ran up the wrong road from the beach.
Word finally got to us on the beach that Tito had Chocolate and was headed home with him. Elaine ran home. I turned and started home on the beach. Like something out of a movie, as I walked on the beach there was a full double rainbow in the sky ahead of me.
Last night, the night of the October full moon, we decided to go for a sunset/moonrise ride. It was truly magical!
Chocolate and I are a very different team now. I've been riding him bareback a lot lately so I decided to forgo the saddle and ride with just a bareback pad. We were comfortable together, riding and even trotting easily. As the light fell into dusk, there was no anxiety from either of us.
It helped that it was a different night. No wind whipping up the waves, no funny lights reflecting off strange surfaces.
It was a beautiful, easy, comfortable, magical ride. I love it.
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