Who Turned up the Heat?

I am not a fan of extreme heat. I know the weather in Pennsylvania is pretty mild to the South, but I just do not understand how people ride in that weather all summer. My body does not do well in the heat at all, so on days its particularly hot if I cannot make it out to ride in the early mornings I usually do not ride. This week in PA has been brutally hot and humid so the horses have gotten a bit of a mini vacay. Lots of baths and hand grazing, but no actual saddle time.

Luckily the heat is supposed to break this weekend and we will be back to our mid 80 days for the rest of August and start cooling down as we head into September. Which is just in time for some fun outings I have planned in the next couple of weeks. One of the local barns in our area does an Adult Amateur show every year with a recognized show the day after. The show always ends up being really fun and has a ton of great prizes so I have always wanted to get to attend. Last year they were supposed to run it at Devon, but with COVID it ended up getting cancelled, which I was super bummed about. However, this year it is on and Montego and I are signed up to compete in both days.

I am really excited to be able to trot down centerline in the iconic Dixon Oval. Definitely a bucket list item of mine. We are showing Training 2 and Training 3 both days which have pretty much been our tests lately. I am excited to see how Montego feels in a new environment with his injections. I expect us to do pretty well, but either way will be a fun experience to have together.

My dressage trainer is also coming up for our monthly lessons the weekend before Devon. Montego will likely be the victim horse I choose to take to both days to clean up some things before our show. I think Luna had a great outing there last month and has made some really nice progress, but its just too hard to take both and ride both at this time. I am hoping to get her to another local barn to school off property in a new ring for her outing this month. We are still working on her trailer loading. She now has accepted getting on my trailer with the divider pushed all the way open, but does not like it when its just a single stall. Other than that, she has been great in the ring. Super willing to get down to work and is really changing the overall way she moves. Much more balanced and overall body awareness.

Not that she was even eligible for RRP because she never made it to the track even for a workout (she is JC registered with a tattoo though), but she would definitely not be a horse that I could have easily flipped around and gotten ready for that event. Talk about growing into herself and really needing this time to mature physically and mentally. She will be 6 next March and I think thats when I will have enough ride ability on the flat that we can really start get to jumping like my original plan for her. Until then, I just adore her goofy personality and getting to know her even better.