We're melting

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How many people are tired of me beginning each blog post with "it's hot"?  Apparently, looking back on my blog post archives, I have spent the last 11 years writing about how hot it is in Texas in the summertime.  I hate to disappoint y'all but it is HOT.  Still.  We're on day five of a heat advisory and it hasn't rained at our house in months.  Everything is dusty and dry and if you haven't finished your outdoor activities by 10 am, you're toast.  Literally.  

Bowie is on abbreviated walks at the park in the morning and the horses are covered in sweat by 8 am.  In the afternoons, we huddle inside with the windows drawn and the ceiling fan lazily spinning.  Our lawn is dying, and we haven't taken the boat out in weeks.  The horses are pulled in from their turnouts around noon and the night turnout doesn't start until 7 pm.  

The biggest question I'm wrestling with these days is - how do you safely ride when it's over 100 degrees out?  Carefully?  Our barn has two covered arenas and when I ride in the evenings, that's where we go.  We still sweat a lot but the arenas get the cross breeze, which makes them feel cooler than the inside of the barn.  I've been keeping the work light, just enough to get both of them moving without having them blowing by the end of it.  Dalton is already a heavy breather and after a trot set, his nostrils are flared for a good five minutes afterward.  This past weekend, instead of doing strictly arena work, Dalton and I rode down the trail solo.  On the way back, we ran into another group of ladies riding down the trail so we went a little further with them.  D's nervousness went down in their company, and we grazed our horses in the shade together.  After that, he thought he was part of their pack and hustled his slow walk to catch up to them on the way back to the barn.

Honestly, other than sweating a lot and trying to stay inside, there's not a whole heck of a lot going on.  My sister and her baby came and stayed with us for a weekend.  The summer travel horror stories are deterring us from trying to book a flight anywhere anytime soon.  What is everyone else doing?  Are y'all out and about, enjoying the longer days, or hiding inside like Texans?