Switching Schedules & Summer Heat

TC used to board in a pretty warm area, given that you could get to the beach in an hour. But that heat is nothing compared to where we're living now. And it's not even gotten hot yet!

We may have hit the 100s for a week here and there, but we were in an area that always got windy in the afternoons and always got pretty cold overnight. So essentially, aside from a few days a year, if you rode at 7:30am or at 6:30pm, you were pretty good temperature-wise. 

I'm just now getting my first dose of the central valley heat up here- it was 95 for a few days last weekend- and I do not like it.

Summer means beach rides maybe??

Monday morning for the trail ride, it stayed nice and cool until the end (we finished around 11), then started to get hot. I had lunch with Kate where it was pretty miserable outside, then headed home and was going to ride TC when it cooled down.

It did not cool down. I got to the barn around 5 and it was 96, but there was no wind at all, so it felt much hotter. I hosed him down and went inside, thinking that I'd ride in the evening. It was still 89 degrees at 8pm when I decided to just go feed him and try again Tuesday morning.

This week is my first week doing my 9/80, where I work 9 hours a day Tuesday through Friday, and then have every other Monday off and every other Monday I work 8 hours. We do this through summer term since work slows down a bit. It's ten weeks, so five Mondays off! I decided to flip my schedule to riding in the morning for the summer too. First, that's the only time that it's remotely cool enough to work the horse and second, it means that I'll hit less traffic so the 9 hours a day doesn't feel so bad. 

Riding Tuesday morning (high = 97) was rough even at 6:30am! I was on by 6:40, started working him just before 7, stopped working him at 7:30, and got off of him at 7:45. By 7:15 it was in the 70s and the sun was beating down on us. And this isn't even the summer heat! 

Last summer, this place got hot but at least there was often wind

Luckily Horse Expo is happening soon so I'll be researching all the summer things. I have one pair of tights, that I was going to reserve for wearing on the hottest days or where I had to ride in the afternoons, though I think I may need more pairs. I definitely need to get a helmet with better ventilation (definitely need recommendations, I have a more oval shaped head so a lot of helmets don't fit me well, only the COs seem to and they're hot as hell). I think I'm going to nix the gloves for the summer too. They have holes in them where my reins go anyway so it's not like they're doing anything.

And then I need to figure out what to do with TC heat-wise. He's already on electrolytes so nutritionally I'm not worried about him. He also has a fan. I'm thinking about rinsing him off in the evenings when I get home from work, it's not the heat of the day but again, it's still in the 80s at like 7:30-8pm so I'm sure he'd appreciate being cooled down. 

Any summer advice for me and for the horse is appreciated! I'm more worried about him, as I live on site and can jump in the shower before heading to work.