Red's Eyes Get Big . . . But He is Very, Very Good

Today the weather was miserable - temperatures in the 90s with heat indices approaching 100 - it's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow and Friday before a cold front is supposed to move in and cool things off.

It's interesting to see how different each horse's response to heat and humidity is.  Pie gets hot the fastest - when I went out to get him about 9:30 a.m., he was already sweated up but still reluctant to stop eating grass.  He got a hose off and then went into his stall under the fan.  Just after that, I went to get Dawn - she was started to sweat and seemed glad to come in and get hosed off and put in her stall under the fan.  Red - he's the cool cucumber - when I went out to get him just after 10 a.m., he had come up for a drink out of the water tanks, but was still completely dry.  He didn't get hosed, but came in anyway - reluctantly - since I had to leave for the city and wouldn't be around to bring him in later.

In the afternoon, I stopped by to top up water and add hay, groom and apply fly spray, and pick stalls.  There's a "pony camp" at our barn, held by one of the trainers, with a group of 8 to 11 year old girls in the afternoons.  They were all in the (air-conditioned) viewing room when I took Pie out for a brief walk in the arena - he stuck his nose up to the glass to examine the visitors and then we went to the pasture water tank for him to take a big drink - he prefers drinking out of the big tanks although he'll also drink out of his stall buckets (one of them).

When I took Red out for a walk around, there was a gaggle of small girls in the barn aisle.  I invited them to come out and say hello to Red - he likes children and any sort of attention at all - and they swarmed him, petting him and saying hello.  One small girl even came up to his chest and grabbed him around the base of his neck and held on - his eyes got big but he didn't move a foot - good Red!  They had lots of questions: "what's his name?" "how old is he?" "is he easy to ride?"

Tomorrow and Friday will be about the same, although since I have more time flexibility tomorrow, Red may be able to stay out a bit longer - he seems OK up to a heat index of 100, where Pie and Dawn are more heat sensitive.

Looking forward to some cooler weather, and some riding, this weekend . . .