Strategies for Staying Cool (plus lesson notes)

(This isn't an actual educational post... I have no strategies for surviving this brutal heat other than acclimatization and trying to ride in close proximity to storms but without getting struck by lightning) 

Monday, Ms. GY and I loaded up BB and her mostly retired dude, one of Butterball's pasture mates, and headed to a pond/lake to the west of us. 

I have zero pics. The phone stayed in the car which was the right choice because Butterball turned full sea horse this trip. The pond wasn't as clear as the one we went to on our first swimming adventure this summer. But it was still very delightful. Butterball is basically a solo trailerer 100% of the time now, so it was interesting to see him travel with Ms. GY's horse. He basically dragged me on to the trailer after her horse and hadn't pooped in the trailer at all after our short 20 minute drive. So I guess there is a small stress component to our solo trips that goes away with a buddy, I'm sorry kiddo. 

We moseyed from the dirt road where we parked down to the pond. Both boys snorted at the edge of the water for approximately 10 seconds, then Butterball charged on in. The bottom wasn't completely even and it freaked his friend out a bit, but Butterball didn't seem to care at all. He went in and out on his own the same way as he had at the other lake, even spending a few strides here and there swimming. It was so neat to feel him swim!!! He snorkeled some and pawed, although he did less pawing than last time, I think because he was mostly at least chest deep. At one point he even laid down in about forearm deep water. He looked shocked when I jumped off of him and stood right up again when I slid off. I thought he was going to roll and certainly wasn't going to be on him for that! It definitely seemed to be part of his plan to keep me on for his laying down adventure though LOL. I led him out of the water to a nearby fence blocking off the area around the pond and hopped back on. He headed back in and did some more deep water walking. After about an hour of splashing around and standing we headed out of the pond. Both boys had devoured their open hay bags of orchard on the drive over, but survived the ride home without snax. 

He is SO HAPPY in the water, it is awesome. I did encourage him to try the few strides of swimming the first time, but after that he explored it on his own, just a couple of strides at a time. It seems like GREAT fitness as well, and especially since the underwater treadmill facility is 45 minutes away and $75+ for a 15 minute session, this seems like a major upgrade. The dirt roads leading in to Dinner Pond were nicely hilly... might be a great place to park, do a trot/canter set, and then cool off with a quick dip in the pond in September/October when I could at least not kill both of us in the heat on the unshaded dirt roads. 

His fave water source at home because... Horses

The next morning we were supposed to load up at 6 AM today head down for a lesson with PW. It has been 3+ weeks at this point. But when I woke up from my 4 hours of sleep I just... wasn't feeling it... so I texted PW and went back to bed for another three hours. Thursday we did load up, at a much more reasonable hour given my work schedule, and headed to JV's for a dressage lesson. I did a good job listening to my brain on Tuesday it seemed... I thought I had hooked up the trailer completely the night before, but I missed the essential step of climbing into the truck bed and actually LATCHING THE HITCH and doing up the chains and such, but mostly LATCHING THE HITCH!!! Ooookay. So I did my usual peek in the bed Thursday morning and saw it wasn't latched and fixed it before I moved the trailer... sheesh... 

Fortunately there was a bit of a breeze at JV's and it wasn't quite as hot as it was the previous few days. We had an absolutely AMAZING lesson (with no media). 

• Now that we're consistently getting good reactions and have forward, swinging gaits, we're starting to ask for a bit of collection. Collection at the trot should feel like he's bouncing over trot cavaletti. At this point poles on the ground is okay. Soon we'll want raised poles. 
• Get freely swinging forward first. Then half halt. He needs to react in *that stride*. The rapid reaction makes it much more likely you'll maintain the lift vs slowing down over multiple strides just leading to being on the forehand and going slowly. 
• Once he's slowed, has he maintained impulsion? Ie can I take my leg off and he doesn't peter out and break?
• Don't guard against the break. More applicable with canter than trot... Ask for just as much slow down and don't be afraid to have to correct the mistake of breaking. But if he breaks, is the trot actually slower than the canter was? If yes, then pick the canter right back up. If no, slow the trot then pick the canter back up. 
• It was very helpful to work on collecting the trot before we tried collecting the canter. 
• In the left lead where he wants to throw his outside shoulder right, don't get trapped circling where it is even easier to do that. Go straight, use right leg to move the shoulders. If that doesn't work, counter bend slightly. But don't skip using the leg, he needs to learn to yield to the leg aid. Don't be afraid of getting a flying change when he is getting straighter. 

The energy level Butterball had after this lesson. Pony was TIRED.