Hay there

You'll hear me say this again, on repeat, this summer but it's hot.  Welcome back summer, we're glad you're here-ish.  Luckily, we've also been getting a good amount of rain, which is keeping the heat in check, however summertime has required some adjusting, on all of our parts, particularly by the animals.

Bowie and his best friend Chloe being patriotic on Memorial Day

For the dog, Bowie wakes up with the rising of the sun and at 6 am when my alarm goes off, he is ready to tackle the day.  He starts each morning with a big stretch, shake, and then pads over to the backdoor to sniff the yard.  We bought him this elevated bed that we keep outside and he'll curl up outside and snooze outside in the morning while it's still cool, keeping an eye out for the critters that like to visit during the early morning hours.  His park visits in the morning are getting earlier and earlier, in order to beat the heat, and he spends most of the early afternoon snoozing and drinking water outside under the shade.  He doesn't get overwhelmed by the heat until late afternoon when he'll ask to come back inside to hang out with whoever is home.  Despite what his dentist recommends, we'll throw some ice cubes into his outdoor water dish when he's particularly warm.  For those of you who live around a lot of critters or want to take your dogs out into the field, we got him the rattlesnake vaccine.  You really can't be too safe in Texas and I signed up for a snake breaking clinic in July as well.

Bowie's other favourite summertime things include:

Spot Farms treats - These human grade treats look like sausage snacks that you could eat and people probably do.  I haven't tried them but they smell good and I can't say I haven't been tempted.

Pointer Traditions field collar - These collars are so good that Bryan's mom bought one for Coda as well.  They're made of PVC, waterproof, easy to keep clean, and made in the USA.  We got Bowie one with a customized nameplate on it and the company's customer service is fantastic.

Mae is all smiles

For the horse, Mae still gets turned out during the day.  We've added electrolytes to her supplements and installed large agricultural fans in each of the horse's stalls which helps with cooling them down as well as shooing away the flies.  She hasn't been hating the heat as much as she has in summers past (remember her faking lameness???), however that's because the spoiled girl got put on new hay.  And let me tell you about this beautiful green new hay that we got.  It's lush, it's rich, and its made our girl Mae think that she's a bucking bronco.  All of a sudden, she has an energy reserve that she didn't have before and has "expressed" herself in ways that I'm not all that crazy about.  She threw in a handful of bucks after a lead change this weekend (I stayed on).  She's spooked at the tractor, which she's seen every single day of the last 2.5 years.  That being said, we've been working on a lot of transitions, walk to trot, trot to canter, and she's been listening better and better to my seat and her boost of energy has meant her endurance during transitions has significantly improved as well.

Surprisingly, the flies haven't been as bad this year.  She has a fly sheet that we haven't had to put on once.  Those of us with OTTBs and their notoriously bad feet get nervous around summer when hoof walls like to just fall apart, so I've been conditioning her hooves with Absorbine hoof oil at least three times a week.  With the rain we've been getting, I have also been spraying her back legs with fungicide.  She gets a lot of crud built up on the cannon bone and some of the horses have scratches, so I just liberally spray the entirety of that entire area.

Mae's favourite summertime things include:

German muffin treats - The cheapest place I've actually found these is on Amazon ($26 with prime) and I haven't found a horse that turns these down.  Plus I like that they're soft and you can break them in half

Centaur double thick bell boots - We started putting bell boots on her last fall and she ripped off the nice pair I got her after four months.  I bought her the cheap pull on kind that Centaur makes, hopefully they last longer but even if they don't, they're cheaper to replace.  A note for those buying that brand, size up.  She's a medium in Eskadron but a large in Centaur.

What are the changes to you and / or your pets routines for the summer?  Do you spoil your animals as much as I do?