Heatwave

I'm having a great Memorial weekend overall but seriously, this crazy weather needs to stop MN! Several weeks ago we had that huge snow storm.

Just in case you don't remember, this happened in under 24 hours

Then, the following weekend we hit 90 on one day and I think everyone thought it would be a fluke. However, for some reason MN decided that after an especially cold and snowy winter that broke records it would be fun to go immediately to record breaking highs. Between the end of April where we were still getting highs in the teens and this weekend with highs in the upper 90s (we hit 100+ today) we've swung over 80 degrees in just about a month. That's crazy and I'm pretty confident that humans just aren't meant to adapt to that sort of weather change. Last year this same weekend was in the mid 40s so it's at least twice as hot this year.

My barn team even showed in that weather this weekend and I have to admit that while I was really jealous that they were showing and I wasn't, I certainly didn't envy them being out in the heat.

Very fitting for Katai's mood today

At any rate besides dealing with the temps I'm still feeling like crap from a bad cold that started a week ago now so needless to say I haven't been able to make it to the barn as consistently as I'd like. That led to a very forward, rushy pony today (even though it was already in the 80s at 10am when I rode) who would not listen to half halts or halt cues. We ended up working harder than I wanted to but she got a nice cool shower to cool off at the end and then I hand grazed her in the shade.

I stuck around for the Memorial Day picnic at the barn which honestly wasn't as much fun as it could have been because of the extreme heat. Luckily all of the food was in the air conditioned lounge so we could get out of the heat for brief moments but it was still miserably hot.

It looks like the temps are supposed to be in the low 80s this week which is still extremely hot for this time of the year but much more doable. I'm also feeling more motivated than I have in awhile so I can't wait to get some good rides in!

Summer 10

Rhiannon, of The Horse Is Not Black, put together this great list of questions for an informal blog hop that I decided to join. At the very least it's content while I deal with stress causing my brain to ooze out my ears ;)

1. What are your summer goals? 

 All. of. the. shows! I mostly just want to get Katai exposure to trailering off property so that it's not as stressful for either of us. My main goal with her is for this to be fun for both of us and it certainly wasn't for our last show.

More of this...

Less of this :)

2. Do you have any tips or tricks for fly control? 

No, unfortunately I don't. I will say that the last two facilities I've been at have seemed to manage it pretty well so it hasn't been much of an issue. Well, other than the HORRIBLE horse flies at the last barn but I don't think there's much you can do with them.

3. How often do you bathe your horse? 

Very infrequently, I think I actually only bathed her maybe twice last year. Princess pony is a princess and mostly keeps herself pretty clean despite being white so I only wash her if I have something like a show. This year it will likely be more because, well, more shows :) 

This bathing photo is the most recent I have and it's from 2 years ago

4. Do you have any upcoming travel plans? 

Equine or otherwise? Unfortunately yes, I'm in WA now for a work trip. Other than this I'm not planning any more travel. If I won the lottery I'd go to the National Dressage Pony Cup again and would probably visit some part of Vermont and Portland. 

5. What is your favorite way to beat the heat? 

I love spending time at the beach or in the pool. Otherwise I pretty much hide at home in the air-conditioning. My body doesn't like the heat very much so I have to be pretty careful how much time I spend outside when it's over about 95* for the heat index. With our humidity unfortunately that's fairly often during the summer.

6. Do you do anything to prevent your horse from sunbleaching? 

I'm very lucky that I don't need to. Since she's white and a roany chestnut there's not much fading that can happen.

7. How hot is too hot for you to ride? 

Like I mentioned above it doesn't take much heat for me to get heatstroke/an all day migraine so anything around 90* is too hot for me to ride. Once my body gets used to the heat I can make it work as long as I can take it easy so trail rides are ok but anything that involves really riding is out at least unless I can do so in the shade.

8. How important is sun protection for you riding or just in general? 

Pretty important, however since I typically can't spend much time outside in the sun it's sort of a mute point. I really suspect that it's just because in MN we go through such a drastic change every year that my poor body can't ever get used to a temperature. The temp easily goes through a 110* difference between winter and summer so I'm pretty sure that when I move to a more temperate climate I'll *hopefully* be able to handle warmer temps easier. I do love my KastelDenmark sun shirt though and I got myself an Asmar long sleeve shirt for Christmas that I've been wearing as well.

9. Have you ever gone swimming with your horse? 

Yes! I was lucky to grow up within riding distance of the Mississippi river and a beach. When I was growing up we routinely took our horses to the beach and swam them in the river. It's pretty much the most awesome and adorable thing ever.

10. And because shopping is always on my mind, what’s on your summer wish list? 

So many things! Mainly more B Vertigo breeches because they're my favorite. The other things I've mainly picked up since they're all show things but I'll share a post on those later. I've also still sort of got a trailer on this list. I'm going to see how things go this year with K and if it's easy this will come off the list for the time being.

Reactive: Lesson Recap 3/13

Well this was an interesting lesson. I heard ahead of time that Katai had been doing A LOT of bucking during turnout but normally if anything that means that she's quiet under saddle because she's worked off her excess energy.

Pretty accurate

When I pulled her in that seemed to be the case. Other than some head tossing in the crossties (which isn't really that unusual) she was quiet and acting normal. She was a little tender about having the saddle put on and I diagnosed that she was in heat which normally makes her a little sensitive under saddle.

I got her into the arena, tightened up her girth, went to get on and all hell broke loose. She bucked her shoulders straight up the second I was on her back, lurched back and then forward almost onto her knees as her front legs buckled. L had had her back turned for the first part of this and both of our first thoughts were to get her moving. I turned her to get her going and this time before she even took a step she flailed up and I almost thought she was going to go over backwards. Instead she jumped forward again and almost went down. At that point L was loudly telling me to get off. I wasn't even quite sure how to manage that but did a pretty good emergency dismount as L headed out of the arena for a lunge line.

As soon as I was off her back Katai got quieter and waited patiently for the lunge line. Then once on the lunge there weren't any more fireworks.

L and I talked while I lunged her and L said that Kata's face was a mix of pain and fear when she reacted like that. Her first thought was naughty pony and that I needed to cowboy her through it but then she saw Katai's face. She's pretty sure that the saddle with my weight on it put too much weight on Katai's sensitive (since she continued to show us that she was in raging heat) ovaries. We could tell as I was lunging her that her whole right hip and just in front if it were extremely tight and she wasn't using her right leg like normal. She almost seemed to be trying to swing it out instead of forward. L thinks, and I would agree, that she didn't even know what to do or what she was doing. I could tell that she was flailing her body and it almost felt like she was just trying to stay on her feet.

Poor baby :-(

After she had lunged for a while in both directions and seemed to be softening up a little L palpated her back right over her ovaries and she was quite reactive on both sides but on the right her leg would get trembly and almost buckle just with L pushing on her.

Vegan cheesecake to celebrate surviving this one

It was a scary thing. I've never felt her out of control like that and the second time it happened I honestly thought she was going to go over or down. I was shaking pretty bad after I climbed off but after talking it through with L I'm feeling better. We are having CRAZY weather this spring and the vets have been busy in our area with an unusual number of horses with colic, pneumonia, and various other illnesses since they just can't seem to figure out how to handle the crazy temperature swings. L thinks that that along with this likely being the first real heat of the season just made her abnormally sore. Her recommendation to me is to lunge for the next few days and not climb on her again until she's not sore to palpation.

This is the first time I've ever been scared of my pony and it's not a good feeling. I also feel really bad for her because I clearly hurt her and that doesn't feel good either. Hopefully in a few days she'll be good as new and this was a fluke thing that won't happen again.