First solo ride

It went well, though not without its moments.  If you dare to look at the Strava link, you can see that the beginning of the ride had lots and lots (and lots) of circles.  Ruby was very up - she wanted to trot everywhere and (predictably) was not listening when asked to slow down so we did lots of one rein stops.  Even the one rein stops didn't stop her feet right away though; at one point, we circled so many times that I was actually getting dizzy!  When she was walking calmly, we headed to the trail *cue Jaws music*.  There was stopping, and ducking to the left or right in an attempt to get back to the trailer, but nothing too serious.  Even so, I was starting to feed off of her nerves so I turned on some tunes and started singing to calm myself.  There were moments of brilliance, when she was listening to slight cues and walking forward with impulsion like she knew what she was doing and maybe starting to enjoy herself a bit.  Then she was attacked by a monster horse fly, so I hopped down to lend my assistance.  That's when I heard the first peals of thunder, uh oh.  People and horses get struck by lightening all the time here in the Sunshine State so it was time to leave.   On the way back she was calm, forward, and rateable - a pleasant surprise, as I thought I was going to have a real fight on my hands with her trying to bolt back to the trailer.   When we got back to the trailer, I untacked and loaded her in record time.  Within two minutes of pulling out onto the road, I saw a lightning strike.  Somehow, the storm completely missed us during the drive and didn't hit the barn, phew!  Even though our ride was cut short, I feel like Ruby did very well - I am proud of my girl!  https://www.strava.com/activities/16125472

Ever-so-slightly worried about what her crazy human may have in store for her...