Down here in central southern North Carolina we are now paying the price of our plentiful winter rains.  The gnats are truly horrible.  Debbie has ALL of her 30 plus horses in face masks and she asked me 1) if gnats are poisonous since she has swallowed so many of them this year,  2) if gnats are good for anything, and 3) if there is any other critter that eats them.  I could not give her an answer, I guess I better start researching gnats someday.  Debbie even tried the spot insecticide.  That worked wonderfully for about 20 minutes, for the first part of my ride I had no gnats attack me, but then they gradually came back.  Shannon is dousing her horses’ heads with Skin So Soft and covers her nose and mouth with her t-shirt while I ride.  I’ve switched my riding crop for my fly whisk (except with Mia, she, for some reason, is scared of my fly whisk,) and I put the ear bonnet on for every ride.

I have officially switched to my Kerrits Ice-flow shirt for riding.  I was holding out on changing breeches since I am reluctant to give up the security of my FITS breeches with the deer-skin panels, but this morning it was so humid that I gave up my security for coolness and switched to my much more slippery FITS Treads summer weight breeches, at least it is still cool enough so I do not overheat too much in them.  Soon I will have to switch to my even more slippery Kerrit’s  Flow Rise Performance tights.  So I’ve dug out my Fiebing’s Saddle Soap and I am putting it on my saddles and the grip area of my breeches so I do not slide all over the saddle.

The night before my lesson on Wednesday Debbie had done the switch from day-time turnout to night-time turnout which meant Mick was out for most of 24 hours before my lesson.  Unfortunately I forgot to do the Ttouch circles on his back before our ride.  Mick was very stiff in his back, even more stiff than usual, and I don’t think that the constant head-shaking to get rid of the gnats helped his back at all.  Mick was just plain reluctant to move, not wanting to move out at the walk, not wanting to “swing” his back, and he made to use my legs a lot to keep him in a rather poky trot.  Fortunately I had put my Back on Track exercise sheet on to help him warm up (plus I used the Back on Track saddle pad) or I do not know if I could have gotten Mick to move at all.  When I asked him to extend at either gait all I got as a response was “not today!”  By staying up in two-point at the walk and using my legs a lot I finally got Mick to “swing” his back some.  By then I was hot and tired and called it a day.  On the way back to the barn Debbie breathed in yet another blasted gnat and went into a coughing fit.

On Friday I got to ride Mia.  Last Friday she had reverted to her old habits of protesting my contact so I was not expecting a completely smooth ride especially with the gnats plaguing her.  Mia has started stamping her legs at all the flying pests so I had to do more when I trimmed her hooves, I just hope it makes some difference in preventing chunks disappearing from her hoof wall.  Debbie had gotten a package of the Celebration Spot On fly repellant and wanted to try it on some horses to see if it helped, so Mia got spotted along with the two ponies for the lesson Debbie was giving two home-schooled girls.  I did not put on my usual fly spray so Debbie could get a decent appraisal of the efficacy of the spot fly treatment though I put the ear bonnet on Mia.  Mia gave me a good ride, kept contact reliably for several minutes at a time, and moved off promptly to my leg aids, so at least she still thinks her new bit (the JP single jointed full cheek) is comfortable enough to keep contact.  The spot treatment worked wonderfully for the first 20 minutes of my ride, the gnats were avoiding Mia and the influence of the spot extended far enough so that the gnats were not flying around my head, but the gnats gradually came back after the twenty minutes was up, bothering both of us.

Friday was the day that I realized that the heat and humidity are here to stay.  I had been wearing my Back on Track back brace and neck brace because rasping Mia’s hooves makes my lower back hurt and riding in two-point makes my upper back hurt.  As it got warmer I took out the padding in the back brace so I would be cooler but I finally got overheated riding Mia on Friday.  I am going to have to stop wearing the back brace and the neck brace, and soon we will have to take the exercise sheet off of Mick except for a short warm-up.  This is exasperating since the Back on Track stuff helps me so much and the horses also respond positively.  But we live in the South and in the Summer the heat rules, and the Back on Track stuff works by reflecting heat back to the body, making me even warmer.  Bummer. 

Today I got to face the gnats at Shannon’s place.  I am becoming very familiar with the smell of the Skin So Soft lotion this year!  Cider has gotten so paranoid about the gnats that she kept on shaking the ear bonnet off, after all it might trap a gnat in her ear.  Since I had brought my fly whisk along and because Shannon is so good at getting the ears all covered with the lotion I shrugged my shoulders and moved on.  I had some troubles adapting to my more slippery breeches today, even though I had applied the saddle soap (without any water) to both the saddle and the gripping area of my breeches.  It was slightly harder to keep centered in the saddle, and when I did the two-point I had to grip harder with my knees (since my EZ-Fit saddle is more like a Western saddle, there are no saddle flaps for my calves to grip).  This triggered my hip bursitis on my right hip big time, so much so that I cut my ride short.  Wide horse, wide saddle, slippery leather, slippery breeches, and me gripping harder with my knees all conspired to get my hip bursitis going.  At least it was only my right hip giving me grief, but that made it harder to keep myself centered in the saddle.  But Cider kept excellent contact and she even gave me some straight strides when I got myself even in the saddle.  I did not trot because it had rained some last night and I did not want to cut up the grass in Shannon’s ring, this is fortunate because if I had tried to post the trot my hip would probably feel a lot worse!

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers.  I had a wonderful Mother’s Day morning because I got to ride a horse! 

Have a great ride, and don’t let the heat defeat you.  Just remember how COLD it was last winter and bask in the heat.

Jackie Cochran