It is cooler down here this week, instead of the temperatures going up to 105° F they have been only getting up to 99° F.  Next week we will finally cool down to normal, the upper 80’s, a cold front is due to come through.

Wednesday, for my lesson, Mick started off really stiff.  I have been giving him massages with my little hand held roller massager before I ride, he really enjoys the massages but they don’t seem to loosen him up much.  Doing my 15 minute warm-up at the walk I gradually loosened him up so he would stride forth when I used my alternating legs every stride, reaching out with both his legs and his head.  He was particularly resistant to turning even during the wide turns.  With more walking he gradually improved, then Debbie told me to trot.  The sun was out, the air was heating up minute by minute, I was already sweating, so I found it difficult to help him at the trot.  Amazingly Mick consented to keeping contact whenever I asked him for it, I guess with the Mullen mouth snaffle my hand summer hand tremors do not irritate him as much as with a jointed bit.  Since I could keep contact I was finally able to get Mick into his good hunter trot, then I sort of collapsed and we stopped trotting, I was done in, pouring off sweat while Mick was hardly sweating at all.  He had not worked hard enough to bring up a sweat, though the nice breeze probably helped too.  Wednesday I did make it a full half hour but I collapsed the rest of the day, washed out, wrung out and put out to dry.

Friday it was a little cooler, and Debbie plugged in the big fan for me.  Mia’s hooves were not too bad, I have been putting an oil based fly spray on her once a week, spraying it on her body and using a cloth to apply it to her legs, paying special attention to her cannons, fetlock joints, pasterns and coronet bands.  Since this spray is oil based it is not supposed to come off with sweat or a little water so it lasts at least a few days which is fortunate because she gets sprayed with it just once a week.  It seems to be working, her hooves have not been coming up with as many chips and cracks as they usually do during the fly season, which means I had to spend less time under her sweating while I try to get her hooves in better shape.  I also need the fly spray to ride her comfortably in the heat, Mia just simply freaks out when I try and ride her with my fly whisk, it seems to bring up some REALLY BAD memories of something in her past, as does my string fringe brow band.  At least she consents to her ear bonnets and the leather fringe brow band so I am not totally helpless against the flies.  I suppose I could force the issue and make her resign herself to my fly whisk, but since she is around 30 I really do not want to put her through the stress.  All old folks have their peculiarities, this is hers.

So long as I murmur some sweet nothings into her ear while I give her head and ears a GOOD scratching with the plastic curry comb Mia is pretty content to come in and get handled even if it isn‘t too comfortable for her to get her hooves rasped.  If I forget the good head scratching or murmuring sweet nothings into her ears Mia is not as content with me and gets a sort of sour expression on her face until she gives up waiting for them, so I try and remember every time.  I much rather ride a happy horse!  She considers being groomed an absolute necessity, it feels so good to get all those nice scratches and she cooperates, sometimes asking for more scratches in one place and not so many for other places.  When Mia is properly groomed, tacked up, and checked to make sure the tack fits EXACTLY RIGHT Mia is pretty content to be ridden.

I could only ride Mia for 25 minutes.  Walking her around was fine, she does not need as much urging with my legs as Mick does so I don’t get as hot riding her.  There was a nice breeze again which helped me the many times I stopped to rest.  But when I started trotting her I started sweating a lot and I could not make it all the way around the ring.  Mia did not care that I ran out of energy, she was just as happy to walk around the ring and not get any hotter.  She also consented to taking up and keeping contact with my hands, this is pretty good, usually by now I have to switch to my bitless bridles because the horses simply refuse to keep contact with my hands for more that a stride or two.  When I had ridden around 20 minutes Mia started telling me that it was time to stop, I guess in the heat and humidity time passes faster for the horses, making 20 minutes seem as long as 30 minutes.  So I worked on getting her to go past the gate without slowing down for several minutes before I decided I was just too hot to ride any more and got off.

Today it was Bobby’s turn, and since it was almost 10° F cooler than last Sunday I got to ride him.  Bobby was not thrilled with the idea, cooperating with a slightly sour expression on his face.  He did perk up when I cooed sweet nothings into his ear, but when I stopped the sour expression came back.  I made the wonderful discovery that my riding IS getting Bobby a little more fit, I could feel his ribs through the lard on his rib cage, barely (before I could not feel them at all), and his neck’s crest is no longer as hard as a brick down its whole length, just a little toward the top approaching his head.  In the ring he was reasonably cooperative, for a pony.  He went forward at the speed I desired but it was up to me to make sure he did not get a chance to rub my leg against the fence.  One time I was concentrating on something else and I heard my stirrup hit the metal livestock panel that serves as the arena fence.  So I used my outside leg a lot today, and it was not enough just to use my leg, I also had to use my outside spur to keep him off the fence going around the ring both ways.  I am so glad that I got my Spursuader spurs, they are nice and rounded and they do not seem to irritate the horses much, even as much as I was using my spurs Bobby kept his tail nice and quiet.  Keeping him off the fence (which has no long straight lines) I tried to get Bobby to go straight.  Bobby did not want to go straight, he either wanted to run into the fence or go to Shannon in the center.  One time he INSISTED on going to Shannon, I got him stopped before he reached her and she found a particularly nasty biting fly on his belly just out of reach on my fly whisk.  Finally I started to get a few steps of straightness on good even contact before we had to turn or run into the fence, then I had to start getting him straight all over again.  After 20 minutes of riding I got him to go straight for a few steps once again, so I sent him in to Shannon and got off.  I was pouring sweat yet again, Bobby, being just worked at a walk, had a little sweat under the saddle pad.  Sometimes I think I work harder riding the horses than the horses do carrying me.

Yeah, I rode three times this week in spite of the heat!

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran