A jump lesson? In this heat?!

We all have feelings about this heat.

Particularly Dalton.  This guy is extremely grumpy about being tacked up to be ridden outside.  There is a lot of tail swishing and jerking of his head back and out of reach.  And some major feet draaaagging when it’s finally time to walk to the arena.  It’s like watching molasses ooze across a flat surface.

I can’t even get that mad at him because none of us want to be going at a speed any faster than a slow saunter in this heat.  He’s never experienced temps like this in Europe and probably thinks we moved him to hell.  Funnily enough, once he’s under saddle, he’s perfectly behaved and willing to work, until we hit about the 30 minute mark when he’s ready to be done.  Then his feet begin to draaaag again and I know his attention span is gone.

In spite of all of this, we actually had a jump lesson on Saturday morning.  It was simple enough, two cross rails set up on diagonals, trotting in to both of them.  The objective was to stay slow and straight to the jumps and give him an early release so that the curb chain didn’t catch him in the face.  Cross rails are not exciting for D so we focused more on controlling speed and steering / turns.  Because of all of the time we’ve spent emphasizing the inside / outside leg, turning him (as large as he is) is not an issue.  I’m so glad that we knuckled under and have spent the last four months working on flatwork.  The payoff is obvious.

I mentioned four months ago that D’s right lead was weaker than his left.  Both trainer and I have spent more time working on the right lead and as a result, that one is now stronger than the left - ha.  She’s been working on flying changes with him but wants to wait until his back end builds up stronger before I try them out.  

Both trainer and I have agreed that during these unbearably hot summer months, we’ll spend time building Dalton’s muscle and endurance.  We’ll fully get into jump training, etc, with him when the weather cools down.  So…December?

Separately, two days ago, we had the back AC unit at our house break.  Luckily they were able to get to it the next day but PHEW, fixing those things cost a pretty penny.  It’s not as if you can choose not to fix the AC, particularly down here in Texas.  I hope y’all are all staying cool.