Hot
I stepped outside around 5am this morning and I could feel it like a warm blanket on a warm night with all the associated unpleasantness as the heat still radiated without even the sun to blame.
I knew it was going to be a hot day.
It's not even 10.00 and I admitted defeat after training this morning, mucking, and cleaning out the horse trailer. I was going to work Kitt, but I've abandoned that as the heat with the added humidity is intolerable.
I could be outside and I know I can tolerate it fairly well, but I'd rather not risk the heat both for myself and the horse when I don't have to be out there.
So instead of sweating into nothing outside I'm hiding out in the house with all the blind closed and will be sorting through magazines, saving good articles and sacrificing the rest to the scissors as I continue my fanatic collection of reference images (predominantly equine, but I'm starting to gather other stuff as well now).
The good news is that we should be dropping below 110+ and will actually be at 103 by Saturday, hurrah! The bad news is that yesterday we broke the record for the highest low/night temperature and it's near 114 today. I don't know what the humidity is, but I think it's over 30% (I know, the humidity isn't bad compared to other places, but you put that on top of the 114 and it gets really gross really fast).
Monday I finally took my computer in to have the RAID card look at. They're going to replace it so I'm without my personal computer until they get that done so at the moment I'm using Chris' Windows PC.
All of my students are starting the shift to evening times for lessons as school is starting up already for most of them. In my book it's pretty insane considering that, well, we're in Arizona. It's HOT and the kids won't be able to enjoy recess or anything like that because it just isn't safe for them to be out there in it. Of course Chris has suggested that in AZ the kids should be in school during the summer and loose over the winter because then they'd be able to be outside and running amuck when the weather is nice during their break rather than sitting on their butts inside because it's too hot to do anything else. Sounds reasonable.
Yesterday I had my second driving lesson. The harnessing is getting much easier now that I've done it a few times (on my horses as well as hers). We need to get the cart up and going so I can practise at home! We need to finish stripping down the paint and put a fresh coat on it. We also need to adjust the harness so that Ruby can pull the cart safely as currently the tugs (the hole where the shafts go through on a single-horse cart) are way too high on her and puts the balance much farther back than it should be, giving the cart the desire to flip over backwards and putting more pressure on the horse's belly rather than the chest and back. This will require punching holes in the harness leather, which will not be an easy task because I think it's almost a half inch thick!
I'm starting to get the hang of guiding a single horse and where to keep my hands. It's funny as when I ride I tend to have my hands a little too far forward sometimes, rather than allowing my upper arm to fall straight down I tend to open my elbow a bit and have it out infront of me. In driving I tend to have my elbows at my side rather than having them in front of me where they're supposed to be. I guess I'm just opposite! The reason one wants the elbows farther forward in driving is mostly due to the seat. Your arm can not come behind you as it can in the saddle as the back of the seat is in the way. I think the next thing to do is figure out how to use the whip as I'm not terribly effective with it yet, mostly because I haven't used it much. Fortunatley this is something that I can work on at home without the cart, just ground driving.
I'll either use Kitt or Panda as my guinea pig. Kitt because she's a bit shorter and supposedly has some driving training and Panda also because she's shorter than Ruby (though a full hand taller than Kitt) and she needs the work on the ground so she can become more relaxed around people.
Now that I'm getting my mornings back I need to do more riding and work with the horses. Of course, it'll help once the weather starts to cool down!
I think it's time for lunch-ish ... we'll call it brunch. When you eat breakfast around 5am lunch comes a bit early.
I knew it was going to be a hot day.
It's not even 10.00 and I admitted defeat after training this morning, mucking, and cleaning out the horse trailer. I was going to work Kitt, but I've abandoned that as the heat with the added humidity is intolerable.
I could be outside and I know I can tolerate it fairly well, but I'd rather not risk the heat both for myself and the horse when I don't have to be out there.
So instead of sweating into nothing outside I'm hiding out in the house with all the blind closed and will be sorting through magazines, saving good articles and sacrificing the rest to the scissors as I continue my fanatic collection of reference images (predominantly equine, but I'm starting to gather other stuff as well now).
The good news is that we should be dropping below 110+ and will actually be at 103 by Saturday, hurrah! The bad news is that yesterday we broke the record for the highest low/night temperature and it's near 114 today. I don't know what the humidity is, but I think it's over 30% (I know, the humidity isn't bad compared to other places, but you put that on top of the 114 and it gets really gross really fast).
Monday I finally took my computer in to have the RAID card look at. They're going to replace it so I'm without my personal computer until they get that done so at the moment I'm using Chris' Windows PC.
All of my students are starting the shift to evening times for lessons as school is starting up already for most of them. In my book it's pretty insane considering that, well, we're in Arizona. It's HOT and the kids won't be able to enjoy recess or anything like that because it just isn't safe for them to be out there in it. Of course Chris has suggested that in AZ the kids should be in school during the summer and loose over the winter because then they'd be able to be outside and running amuck when the weather is nice during their break rather than sitting on their butts inside because it's too hot to do anything else. Sounds reasonable.
Yesterday I had my second driving lesson. The harnessing is getting much easier now that I've done it a few times (on my horses as well as hers). We need to get the cart up and going so I can practise at home! We need to finish stripping down the paint and put a fresh coat on it. We also need to adjust the harness so that Ruby can pull the cart safely as currently the tugs (the hole where the shafts go through on a single-horse cart) are way too high on her and puts the balance much farther back than it should be, giving the cart the desire to flip over backwards and putting more pressure on the horse's belly rather than the chest and back. This will require punching holes in the harness leather, which will not be an easy task because I think it's almost a half inch thick!
I'm starting to get the hang of guiding a single horse and where to keep my hands. It's funny as when I ride I tend to have my hands a little too far forward sometimes, rather than allowing my upper arm to fall straight down I tend to open my elbow a bit and have it out infront of me. In driving I tend to have my elbows at my side rather than having them in front of me where they're supposed to be. I guess I'm just opposite! The reason one wants the elbows farther forward in driving is mostly due to the seat. Your arm can not come behind you as it can in the saddle as the back of the seat is in the way. I think the next thing to do is figure out how to use the whip as I'm not terribly effective with it yet, mostly because I haven't used it much. Fortunatley this is something that I can work on at home without the cart, just ground driving.
I'll either use Kitt or Panda as my guinea pig. Kitt because she's a bit shorter and supposedly has some driving training and Panda also because she's shorter than Ruby (though a full hand taller than Kitt) and she needs the work on the ground so she can become more relaxed around people.
Now that I'm getting my mornings back I need to do more riding and work with the horses. Of course, it'll help once the weather starts to cool down!
I think it's time for lunch-ish ... we'll call it brunch. When you eat breakfast around 5am lunch comes a bit early.