If I'm going to live in a jungle-like atmosphere, I want the monkeys and the parrots in the trees

Mother Nature is relentless.

First the never ending gully washers that put my riding on hold because of the mud. Now, not only are we getting gully washers and frog chokers, we are also getting 87% humidity with 98-degree temperatures. It's hot enough to roast an elephant. How fun is that? If I WANTED to live in jungle-like conditions, I'd move to the jungle. My horses are hot and miserable, I am hot and miserable and these dangerous temperatures are doing nothing to move my Gabe training program forward. I won't ride when it's this hot, for his comfort and mine.

Instead, he (and the other two sweat machines) get evening showers and plenty of fly spray. They have finally decided that the woods aren't big scary horse-eating monsters and are (THANKFULLY!) spending a good portion of the hottest part of the day squirreled away in the cooler shade of the woods. For a couple of days those morons were standing out in the middle of the field just baking and sweating and obviously beyond miserable. Sometimes, the DO have brains! They do! They do!

I have kind of found a more effective fly repellent program that seems to be working. Somewhat. Well, better than before any way. I now have three bottles of different kinds of fly spray plus a can of OFF! I rotate the sprays in the mornings (a different brand/kind each morning) and in the evenings, their legs and necks get Deep Woods OFF! and it seems to work really, really well. At least, so far. I've also put out a couple of those Fly Jug fly traps in the hopes of capturing as many of the nasty biting flies as I can. The more in the trap, the fewer on my critters. Word of warning though...when the instructions say to pour the liquid fly bait into the jug while wearing a pair of gloves...heed that advice. I thought "me? Need gloves? Naw. I won't spill a drop." WRONG! My hands now smell like rotting flesh mixed with catfish bait and I can't get the stink off. Kind of makes eating anything at all a bit disgusting because it all smells like it's rotten.

But this not riding thing is frustrating. Very frustrating. I know the horses don't really care whether they are ridden or not, but dang it, I enjoy riding! I NEED to ride, but it's just too hot, and dangerous. If I had arena lights I'd be out there at 10:30 p.m., riding when it cools off enough to be tolerable.