July 28, 2003

Hello farmers and friends. It's a slow hot day here, near 100 and 3 more just like it in the forecast. That will keep me busy watering things, I'm so thankfull to have a good well.
This past weekend I went to an endurance ride in Canada. My riding partner couldn't go this time so I made the trip alone. I hadn't ever taken a horse across an international border so it was kind of worrysome but we got in and back out ok. The trip took me about 10 and a half hours each way. My ride went well until the hottest part of the day (yep, hot there too) and then I really had to work at keeping my horse cool enough to not cause problems. The vet had us wait an extra half hour and checked him 2 extra times before she let me go back out on the trail to finish the last 8 miles, by then the sun was almost down and it was starting to cool off so that helped him a lot. We walked almost the entire section, it got dark and he cooled down just fine. We finished the 75 mile course with about 25 minutes to spare, so I sure wasn't hurrying, my horse just doesn't deal with a real hot day very well. The vet was pleased to see that just getting him cooled down was all it took to make him look ok again. I've had this problem with him before but this vet had never seen either of us before and so she wasn't sure what was happening. I was sure it was just the heat, but it isn't advisable to tell the vet what to think so I had to just let her draw her own conclusions and hope she would let us finish.
Kathleen, how nice that you got a new vehicle! The dealers get quite concerned about those new cars sitting on their lot when the next year's models come in, that is when we buy ours and save $$$.
Jewel, I hope you get the job, when will you know?
I hope you all have had a nice day, count your blessings.