Best laid plans

Maybe I should give Mother Nature a costar role in this blog.  I certainly discuss her enough.  Today it's about the heat and humidity.  For New Hampshire, 94* with a dewpoint over 70* is just ridiculous.  We're on day two of this.  Heat Index is expected to go over 100* again today.  I tried riding yesterday at 8am to avoid the heat, but that didn't work with the dew points so high.  None of our sweat evaporated.  Mi papi looked like he'd just had a bath and I used a sweat scraper just to keep him from leaving a puddle in the aisle while untacked.

We're also in a severe drought, so bath time for the ponies is limited.  It's a mess.

You know it's bad when my cardio beast is panting after 35 minutes of running through dressage tests.  I was very startled to see that.  He was also mentally not with me.  I said leg yield, he said sure, but it's going to cost you all of your forward.  It wasn't bad, we made it through the tests just fine and he was generally cooperative, but it was braced.  He didn't want to work, and I can't say I blame him.  We did have a short discussion on getting up in front of my leg.  Even when it's hot out, me putting on leg means go forward, not sigh and think about it while shuffling your feet.

Today is even worse than yesterday, so I didn't bother trying.  The temp outside was already 80* when I woke up.  Theo will spend the day in a stall, hopefully with a fan, and drink lots of water.  It's really not the heat that kills him, it's the high humidity.  If that sweat can't evaporate, he fries.  The big drafty Green Bean was really struggling after her ride yesterday and had to be cold hosed multiple times at 9am.  It's just not good weather for their type of horse.

The Green Bean at her show last weekend.  She's not the dainty, delicate type.

Tomorrow is going to be stormy, but not so hot.  I should be able to get in a good school before packing up.  Then the heat is back for our show.  I'm trying to come up with a plan.  We're getting day stalls since the ride times suck.  Green Bean is 8am, my last ride is 2:30pm, Miss Thang is between us.  We ended up with something like 8am, 9:40, 10:40, 1:30, and 2:30 for the group.  Nice for the coach, long day for the horses that are waiting.  That's a lot of hours to stand around with limited shade, especially for the Green Bean that only has one test at 8am and then she's done.  I want mi papi out of the sun with a bucket of water under his nose all day.  And if it decides to storm, at least we'll have the option to be under cover and not in a sardine box that's hotter than the outside.

I've considered scratching, but I really do need to get Theo off the property again so he can remember he's a big fancy dressage horse.  If the day is really miserable, I'll just scratch my second ride.  But Miss Thang really needs to do her afternoon test, so I doubt we'll be leaving early.  At least with a stall, Theo can chill and eat hay and basically be doing what he'd be doing at home anyway.  I'll just plan on very short warm ups.  These scores aren't for any goals, I just wanted to get him out again.

At least I can plan on waived jackets.  Must remember to not wear a dark bra in case it rains on me while I'm in my whites.