I hate summer. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a heat person. I like the 70s or cooler. 50 degrees or 40 degrees, particularly dry cold, I barely need a jacket. I hate North Carolina summers.
There are thing that are nice about it though. Frogs. Bees. Dragonflies. Fireflies. "Free" horse forage. Beaches.
Funny that the first few things I mention are critter related, and mainly insect related. Hahaha. I think for horses, summers are also the least favorite season. It's hot, there are flies, and even when the human rinses them will nice cool water the huge horse flies seem to b-line for their haunches.
I haven't ridden in a ridiculously long time and summer certainly never helps the matter. I don't like being outside in the summer but I have to in order to mow our pastures, care for the horses or inspect the bees. When I'm done with all the outdoor chores I just want to retreat into the nice cool inside and take a cool shower to rid myself of the dirt and sweat.
I often have the though that I should wake up early and do some riding before the heat comes but that never seems to happen.
My poor horses sweat so much when it's 70 percent humidity and 90 degrees or more. I wish I could bring them inside. They have full water troughs that are not exactly chilled water which sucks but they do have the cool barn and two fans that blow everyday....an electric bill I"m more than willing to pay. The deserve it.
Some days I go outside to care for them and see they are crusted with salt from all the sweat. How miserable. I hose them off often and I think they really enjoy that cooling effect, though I think a water heater could help so the water isn't so darn cold on their tender areas!
I've been assessing the areas around the barn as to where the most logical place would be to build a washrack where Dani and Chance don't end up standing in mud every time I hose them off. In the barnyard I've found a location that appears to be an optimal place though I will need to build up the area with leftover Chapel Hill gravel I have from the barn mud project.
I purchased a 10 x 12 mat from stall savers. It's permeable and will work nicely as a wash rack ground cover. I used it today in the area of question, no substrate there yet so eventually a puddle formed during the second horse bath. It worked pretty nicely and I think it shows promise that I can get this set up with little effort.
Both horses loved the bath and afterwards seemed to be much less itchy. I hate itchy ponies! The only thing that makes me so mad about giving them a water rinse is that it seems to attract the biggest horseflies. I try to smack the flies but they are too fast. I have to spray the horses down with fly spray after the rinse which is a bummer. And of course they both end up rolling in the dirt while still damp but the bath was certainly not for vanity.
Luckily we are in August and that means September and then October follows which means a little bit cooler temperatures. I would love to get out of the 90s into the lower 80s. That would be fantastic! I'm sure Dani and Chance agree!
1 comment:
I'm literally reading this with an icepack on my head, desperately trying to cool down in my suffocatingly hot house, and it's apparently just like your weather outdoors, the last 2 weeks. I cannot do anything but the bare minimum of chores outside, and I cannot sleep at night. My animals are often trotting from location to location, trying to find a cooler place or a place with less horseflies. To see them trotting here and there in shorts bursts, in this heat, it must be awful for them. My horse has bloody flecks from the flies, red in his tail. Just going out to water the vegetables leaves me with sweat running into my eyes down my back into my underwear and today I actually got nauseous cuz I made the mistake of going outside after eating food. It sounds worse where you are. Are there lightning storms with no rain, just thunder and lightning due to the humidity? (Something we don't have in Seattle.) They say Germany never used to be this hot/humid in Summer, and I remember those days (2007). And even yet, AC is not a thing here. All our fir trees died this Summer, all of them, like 20. They're standing there naked looking like the Star Trek Crystalline Entity. One good thing - there are no slugs or snails to eat my vegetables. I'm with you girl.
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