Come what May – 10 questions

I’ll call this an unofficial blog hop, since I don’t have much of a following, but I needed a distraction. So without further ado, 10 questions for May. Repost if you like!

1. What are your summer goals?
2. Do you have any tips or tricks for fly control?
3. How often do you bathe your horse?
4. Do you have any upcoming travel plans? Equine related or otherwise?
5. What is your favorite way to beat the heat?
6. Do you do anything to prevent your horse from sunbleaching?
7. How hot is too hot for you to ride?
8. How important is sun protection for you riding or just in general?
9. Have you ever gone swimming with your horse?
10. And because shopping is always on my mind, what’s on your summer wish list?

 

My answers:

1. Horse-related: To start riding in general would be the biggest one. Try to get up to walk, trot canter rides and if all goes well, take Dexter for riding lessons. Non-horse related: Get some answers medically, make time and set aside money for some weekend trips and hopefully get to spend time in the water somewhere.
2. My horses live outside 24/7 and unfortunately live next to a bunch of cattle. Last year I did feed through garlic and I put up fly traps around their pen. I just bought some shoofly leggins (Dexter hates flies) and a fly sheet to try. As far as actual fly repellents, I don’t really feel like one works better than the other, sadly.
3. My two have yet to be bathed this year. I would say they get a full bath 3 to 5 times a year.
4. No horse related travel plans, but I’m hoping to visit my sister in Texas in July, as well as one of my friends and my parents in Alaska in August.
5. I don’t really care to swim, but I love waterparks and lakes. I’m not a hot weather person at all, so trying to keep cool is one of my main goals.
6. I’m going to try a fly sheet this year to see if we can minimize the sun bleaching. I’ve used coat sprays in the past, but I’m not able to apply them often enough for it to be really worthwhile.
7. I won’t ride above the upper 80s, low 90s at most. Which makes it hard since I live in Kansas, but usually I’ll just ride after 7 to 8 pm when it’s slightly cooler.
8. I am pretty fair skinned and tend to burn easily. I jumped on the Kastel bandwagon last year, so I will either wear one of those shirts, or short sleeves or a tank top and sun block. I hate being burnt.
9. I have never taken Dexter swimming, but I’ve ridden him in creeks and a pond. Growing up, we used to go trail riding to a pond or to a creek that both had deep enough areas where you could swim with your horse for a few strides. It was always a lot of fun.
10. I want to buy everything. Ideally though, I’d like to finally get an English saddle. I just about bought one off ebay to at least try yesterday, but it had sold by the time I got onto ebay yesterday morning. Probably for the best since buying a saddle would not have been in my best financial interest, but I really, really wanted it.