Heat, Trail rides and torrential rain.

Oh yeah baby, gotta love the crazy New England weather! There was a rumor that a tornado touched down in the middle of the state, but I don't know if that's true.

Anyhoo! The heat this past week was killer. It reached 100 degrees one of the days, and the humidity never let up. I rode UK bareback on Tuesday, as it was too hot for a saddle. I didn't get to ride him again till Saturday morning because of the heat.

Friday night my phone starts buzzing that I have a text message:

Jean: trail ride in the morning


Me: Not if it's this hot. UK's a mess just being in the paddock


Jean: 730 am


Me (my phone didn't get me the new text till 11pm): Just got your text with the time. I'll try to make it. Just got home.


Jean: Call me in the am. let me know.


Me: Ok

So I am not a morning person, never have been. I think God thought it would be decidedly funny to make me a horse person who's not a morning person and allergic to horses, hay, mold, grass, dust, pollen, etc. I bet every time I get a rash from touching my horse he/she falls out of his/her chair laughing.

Anyhoo, I called Jean in the morning and we both dragged our sorry selves to the barn. We were tacked up by 8:30am and heading out. UK was a nice mis-mash of western and english tack. My western pad again, western bridle, rope halter with leadrope attached, ear net, english saddle and english breastplate and a borrowed pair of bell boots. Jean was taking Rebel this time.

Now then, I had a theory that the reason UK tries to turn around is because walking gives him too much time to think. So the plan was to trot a lot and maybe canter.

I really think us horse people should know better by now... plans never work. Plans are made to be ruined....

The bugs were horrendous! The sky was cloudy and it was humid with almost no breeze. After trotting for awhile I looked at Jean and we both agreed to canter. We cantered, and cantered, and cantered. Uphill, downhill, through the woods and past water. It was wicked. Jean and I just going down the trail, laughing and joking around. We eventually walked and let our poor ponies cool down. Our calm was short lived however as the bugs then swarmed us again. A good chunk of our ride home had to be trotted, in order to try to keep the bugs at bay.

UK lead through the water on the way home again. Jean said I should trot it, and I told her no, he'd jump it. She laughed at me and I reminded her that I want him to be an eventer, he needs to go through water, not over it!

UK got a nice long hose down when we got back to the barn. I'd ridden with super long stirrups again, and my ankle was pissed at me for doing that. Next time I need to ride with normal length stirrups if I want to be able to walk the next day.

I rode UK bareback Sunday night again, and I plan on riding him tomorrow. It's been raining the last two days. The cooler weather is nice, but I'm getting sick of being soaked...