Morning riding

Wednesday I tried something different for riding, since it's regularly been 90 degrees each day. I put off going to work for a couple hours and instead got up at my usual time and went over to the barn. Temperature-wise it was far better than standing in the shade, sweating.

We had a pretty good ride, tempered with some drawbacks to riding from 7-8am:

1. Hungry, hungry hippo - breakfast is at 8, so he was definitely looking for some munchin' the whole time.
   
2. Flies - the night's condensation hadn't burned off yet, so it was very humid, which meant in short order (by 7:40 or so) the black flies were an absolute menace. To me and to Jester. I guess Swat and Off! will be in order for future morning rides. And sunglasses to keep them out of my eyes.
   
3. Animals sleep, too - not so much Jester, but the deer (?) that sleep in the woods next to the arena. Just when I was getting comfortable and stretched out, we started to trot and woke something up in the woods alongside the arena. Jester did not like hearing wildlife without seeing what it was or how quickly it was going to eat him. We became close, personal friends with the other side of the arena, fairly quickly.
4. Punctuality - this wasn't a problem, but only because I was watching my watch closely the whole ride. It's one thing to be late to dinner or bed because I'm off riding; it's another thing to be late to work (and miss my bus) because I'm out riding.

All in all, I think riding in the morning is more stressful than in the evening, but then again when it's 90+ degrees for the high, it's mornings or not at all.