This month has honestly sort of sucked for riding. Between the extreme heat, the flooding, and the gigantic biting bugs, I feel like I haven't been riding at all. Since our 15 miler, I've only worked Lucy and Booger seven times each. For Lucy, one of those rides consisted of me getting on her bareback in a rope halter. I got on her in the field, rode her to the ring, opened the gate, cantered one lap in each direction, rode down the driveway, and dismounted in the wash stall. It was too hot to do anything else. For Booger, one of those rides consisted of me riding her bareback up the driveway to the ring where we just did some ground work before hacking back home. I know fall is right around the corner, but I'm feeling rather deprived of saddle time.

Despite the lack of saddle time, the girls have been going well. Booger is up to ride #91 for the year and the difference in her training and her personality has honestly blown me away. Watching Cam jump her earlier this year really inspired me. Plus accidentally jumping those huge ditches on trail boosted my confidence and has allowed me to finally get out of Booger's way over fences. We're actually having a ton of fun jumping around! I'm  not a great jumper, but it's absolutely Booger's favorite thing ever. Her happy ears and tail in this photo make me so happy.

 Last weekend, Mike and I drove down to Maryland to visit Nicole and Carlos. It has been way, way, way too long since we all got to see each other, though I chat with Nicole almost daily. Other than the endurance ride in July, Mike and I have not left the state for anything in so long that it feels strange to travel at all. With the Delta variant and the talks about third boosters, I'm not sure how much more we'll be doing in the foreseeable future, but I wanted to make sure that seeing Nicole and Carlos was top of the list. 

One of my favorite places. This was the first time I saw it in the summer months.

 Last Saturday, Mike and I finally knocked kayaking Merrill Creek off our list. 

 As I mentioned in my July recap, Mike and I have gotten back into bike riding. It's something both of us did extensively with our dads when we were kids. Despite the fact that we loved bike riding and have had bikes in the barn the whole time we've lived here, we only went bike riding once together. That has now changed. 

 On Sunday, things finally lined up so Eryca and I could do a longer ride together. I've been dying to show Eryca the trails that connect to the other side of the Valley since I did it back in May. Plus I really wanted to map the correct route across Lindbergh Rd. since I messed it up last time. 

With that said, it has been tricky to get all the pieces in place. While we did do the nine mile hunter pace in the heat of June, I am really not a hot weather rider if I can avoid it. Doing more than five or six miles when the temperatures are in the 90's with high humidity is just not going to happen. We are not working towards any kind of competition goal and torturing the horses in the heat does not appeal to me, especially after I spend these long, miserable summer days riding everyone else's horses. Despite being from Texas, Lucy seems to sort of wilt in the heat. Lilly is twenty this year, and while she keeps getting better, I don't need to kill her. 

The other factor, of course, has been scheduling. Riding a longer ride means carving out several hours in my schedule. That's not going to happen after work during the week. That leaves the weekends, and I have been really careful to maintain some degree of work/life balance, which means I try to take at least one day completely off of riding every week. I still feed, muck, etc. every day, but I try to set aside one weekend day for other activities (most recently, bike riding). 

This weekend, the stars aligned. The weather was really mild for August. The humidity was still fairly high, but temperatures were in the high 70's for a change. Bryce and Eryca were both free on Sunday, which meant the boys could hang out while we went riding. Then the four of us could get dinner together. The trails were dry and open. The only possible glitch in the plan was that I didn't know if any of the far side trails had been blocked by the recent storms. Only one way to find out!

I don't usually come into these rides with a solid game plan, but on Sunday I set the goal to do fifteen miles. There's a method to my madness, but #nospoilers. My longest ride to date with Lucy was thirteen miles. Lilly's longest ride ever was eleven. I just wanted to see how the girls handled the slight increase in distance. I wasn't worried about how long it would take. We'd go as slow as we needed to.

We ended up having an awesome ride.

Not one of our usual trails.

 If there is one thing Booger loves to do, it's run. With the arrival of the new horse, she has moved into a bigger paddock with more space to stretch her legs. Even that paddock isn't enough space for her to get all the way up to speed, though. Last week, Booger had the day off on Friday, and I turned her loose in one of the big grass pastures to get her energy out. She is too fat as it is, so being out in this space full time is not an option. This is the paddock Juli's horses are usually in. Conveniently, it also makes for a nice backdrop for photos.

Photographing a dark horse in direct sunlight presents some challenges, but I'm pretty pleased with some of these pictures.

 I'm actually fairly caught up on the blog for once in my life! I'm going to post photos from this week's rides to keep it that way.

The weather this week was beautiful. It was so much cooler than it usually is in August. We actually had the windows open most of the week. Of course, this means everyone wanted lessons so I spent more time with my client horses than my girls. Still, I worked Booger three times and Lucy four. 

 As I mentioned, Lucy cut her leg on our ride last Wednesday. It was a minor scrape, but I came in on Friday to find that her leg had swollen pretty dramatically and was pretty tender. She was sound so I brought her in to cold hose with the plan to give her some SMZ's and wrap it. Unfortunately, my SMZ's were really, really expired (apparently I haven't needed them since before I was married!) Despite the fact that I was pretty sure she was fine, I called the vet out for a second opinion. He confirmed that the scrape was superficial and that none of her soft tissue was involved. He dispensed some TriDex, advised me to wrap it like I had planned, and agreed to sell me some SMZ's just to have on hand, though he didn't think she actually needed them since the wound was clean and not showing any signs of infection. 

Lucy got a few days off just in case. I'm sure she would have been fine to ride, but I've ridden her over a hundred times this year already and there's no point in riding just to say I did it. We're not exactly competing. I did ride Lucy yesterday. We did a half hour or so of dressage schooling and then hacked around Pine Twig just to stretch our legs. 

Of course, because Lucy was on an unplanned break, the weather this weekend was absolutely glorious. We had mild temperatures, low humidity, clear blue skies, and even a cool breeze! Had Lucy not been out of commission, Eryca and I probably would have done the long loop to the other side of the valley together. I'm not sure that would have been possible with all the storm damage on trail, but I was still feeling a little bummed.

Luckily, I have my spare horse! I joke, but I really need to start prioritizing Booger. Treating her as the back up ride is not doing her any favors! 

Before Eryca and I met up on Saturday, I logged into my Top Trail Horse account and pulled up the My Horses tab. Booger had about 130 miles logged so far this year, compared to Lucy's 375 ish. Booger has also ponied 37 miles on top of that. As I keep saying, she has really blossomed with regular work. 

What I noticed, however, was that Booger didn't have any longer rides on her record. I did pony her for 6.3 miles in June, but the farthest I'd physically ridden her on trail was about four and a half miles. I am really guilty of keeping things "short and sweet" because I want to quit on a good note. I always say that miles make a horse, but I haven't been putting as many miles on Booger as I could be. 

This would be her 81st ride for the year, and I formulated a plan. The plan was to ride Booger further than I have so far this year. It wasn't a big goal. If we broke five miles, I would complete my mission. But it felt good to have a goal to work towards and hold myself accountable.

So after Mike and I got done with our 18 mile bike ride, Eryca and I met at the barn to go for a trail ride. 

 Another month has flown by...

July can be summarized as follows: destructive thunderstorms, haflinger from hell, smoke and haze, and bike riding. 

Summer thunderstorms have always been a thing, but the ones we've had this summer are unlike anything I remember. During this particular storm, the sky was constantly flashing, non-stop, for hours on end. During one storm this month, our local EMS received over thirty water rescue calls. One storm brought 7.6 inches of water down all at once. That's more than we usually get in the entire month of July. This past week, we had five confirmed tornadoes in the state during one storm! While the occasional tornado is not unheard of in NJ, this is not normal!!