Ok fellow bloggers!
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| How Digby's topline used to look... (FYI - not me holding him) |
I need some help. I'm a giant baby in the heat (I chalk some of this up to the fact that I work outside and I literally sweat all. day. long.) and PA is warm in the summer. Not 100+ degrees all the time Texas hot, but it's toasty. And humid. Ugh, the humidity! Anyway, no use in complaining because it's a fact of life in this state. That being said, the vet told me to give it a few days for the Previcox/Adequan combo to start working and then get back to work, especially in building his topline. I have been working on building it previously but I'm wondering if anyone had a good idea for how to build topline when it's roughly 1029 degrees out. Doing a lot of trot/canter work is out of the question. I know pole work can help but honestly, Digby doesn't tend to lift his back when going over poles. This defeats the purpose. We do have a few hills but they are out on the trails, which I'm not comfortable going on unless I have a friend. Lunging (with or without a chambon, or vienna reins, or whatever gadget you'd like) on a regular basis is out given his lameness issues. I really can only lunge once a week maximum and for a short period of time. This leaves us with transitions and correct work. I feel like transitions in the walk only, maybe with snippets of trot, isn't going to be super helpful. Maybe I'm wrong?
I could ride in the morning when it's cooler but I need to be at work by 7 am so I'd need to arrive at the barn around... 5:30? AM. Not ideal since no one will be at the barn until 7-7:30, leaving an awful long time period if I fall off and get hurt. Gah! So what do you do in the "extreme" heat to keep your horses fit? Deal with it? Try lighter work loads? Drink cold beers instead?
I think short & intense is going to have to be the name of the game for you, and LOTS of lateral work at the walk. Since you can't lunge, I would do short amounts of intense walk work - changing frame, shoulder-in, haunches-in, TOH, TOF, leg yield, baby halfpass... etc. Mentally and physically challenging without pounding his feet or doing 'too much' in the heat. Otherwise sit in a chair and drink cold beers while you watch him graze.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky that my horse is very heat-tolerant. But really, probably your best bet is just getting out there and getting it done. I don't think there are any quick fixes or easy ways to do it - tho if you find any definitely lmk! So yea, cold beer helps lol
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