Hotter Than Hades!

The horses are hot.
The dogs are hot.
The chickens are hot.
The kiddo is hot.
And the farm/cowgirl is hot.

It has been hot, hot, hot at the farm lately. Its only July and I can tell its going to be a long summer. Last weekend, Anthony and I were supposed to go for a joint riding lesson. Sounded simple enough...load horses into trailer, drive down road, unload horses. That, apparently, was too simple of a plan. So in the 100 degree heat with 100% humidity, I fought, whined, implored, tugged, and tried to bully horses into the trailer. And ultimately, when a 1,500 pound animal plants its feet and says no, he's not going anywhere. So since I was drenched in sweat and pissed off at the horses, I called it a day and went to go cool off.

Yesterday, we were headed to the Galveston County Youth Summer Series. This time, I had a more complicated plan in mind. I had noticed that Abby (Anthony's horse) had seemed a little heat stressed when I had previously tried to get her in the trailer. So I went and soaked her down with the hose, washed her, rinsed her, and then when she dried off in 15 minutes, I soaked her down again.  One damp horse went into the trailer with some encouragement. And since poor Joker looked so hot and pathetic, I soaked him down for good measure. He practically danced for joy at the relief and ran off kicking up his heels when I was done. Guess I'm going to start soaking both of them in the afternoons until we get a break from the heat!

The chickens are also getting some heat relief. I threw out some nice, cold watermelon for them as a treat and their chicken huts are being upgraded this weekend to a full out coop, complete with ventilation! Their pen is already tarped so that it is nice and shady, but I think the coop will help them out a great deal too.