Are you riding? Hard ground/heat/flies?

I’m still riding and schooling but only once it’s cooler in the evenings. Fields are rock hard so schooling in walk and trot only for about 15 mins. I generally only hack and never go in an arena unless out training or competing so he’s used to being ridden on hard and firm surfaces. I don’t subscribe to the idea that we should only ride on soft going, bone density is important and I actually think way more injuries happen from going that’s too soft and too deep.
 
Absolutely roasting hot here. Will be 33C on Monday and Tues even very warm in the evenings. Then a few cooler day and then back to 27C again.

Because Bert is overweight he is still having light exercise but Monday and Tues he will have off. As he has a problem with his liver that is being treated he is not being pushed too hard even in the cooler weather. This weekend 28C yesterday and 29C only doing walk with me riding bareback. All the part livery horses are being hosed when they come in and yesterday after our 30 mins walk I washed Bert's tail.

I feel sorry for anyone having to work outside in this heat. My sister works in a plant nursery and is weeding in plastic poly tunnels it is cooler in Norfolk than here but still unpleasant. I am glad to be in the airconed office Monday and Tues.
 
Day 7 of exercising at 5.45am road work. Tomorrow the farriers are in at 6am to beat the heat.

It is the way to get them worked but I am knackered. I am convinced it is lunchtime at 9am and by 5 I could go to bed !

Credit to all the race horse work riders who do several lots each and every morning. I am far too old to have two fives in every 24 hours. Afternoon nap needed now. I think keeping horses is far easier in winter than it is in summer.
 
I did 2 x dressage tests this morning. It was 23 and we thankfully had cloud cover but I was really having to push on in test 2. Our final halt was awful - more of a collapse in heap! Its the humidity that's getting me.

I can't see me doing anything much next 2 days.
 
We were supposed to be competing today but I withdrew as we were forecast 28/29’c and it was a pretty lengthy drive each way. I’m now sulking as in reality it’s only hit low 20’s and we would have been absolutely fine :rolleyes:

Fence judging yesterday and lots of overweight, unfit horses struggling round the BE90 in the heat.

We will hack today but tomorrow is forecast 30’s so I’ll play it by ear.

We could desperately use some rain, I’m so fed up of the hard ground.
 
frankieduck said:
We were supposed to be competing today but I withdrew as we were forecast 28/29’c and it was a pretty lengthy drive each way. I’m now sulking as in reality it’s only hit low 20’s and we would have been absolutely fine :rolleyes:

Fence judging yesterday and lots of overweight, unfit horses struggling round the BE90 in the heat.

We will hack today but tomorrow is forecast 30’s so I’ll play it by ear.

We could desperately use some rain, I’m so fed up of the hard ground.
Click to expand...
You made the right decision for you and the horses at the time. There will be other days to compete.
 
I'm due to go to adult riding camp this week but the travel day is forecast 30 or 31 degrees from midday to mid evening and my journey there is an hour each way, so I've told organiser I'll forego that day (it's arrival, hacking, barbecue and quiz) and instead get up at 5am on Wednesday, aim to leave at 6am and be there for 7/7.30, depending if I hit any commuter traffic, as Wed's current forecast is 23/24, cloudy with light rain.
 
We hacked for an hour about 9am and it was early 20s but no full sun. The heat was fine and we managed a short canter and a couple of trots. However, the FLIES!!! I can't ever remember a time they were so bad. Millions of midges and green fly and swatted a fair few horse flies too. Our hi viz was covered in flies.

Tomorrow I aim to do a short schooling session very early then leave her be for a couple of days.
 
My horses are barefoot, so hard ground is never of any concern to me. I ride really early to avoid the heat and my horses are washed off and back out by 10am. They live out 24/7 any way. The horse flies arrived in swarms a couple of days ago and they're much more of a pain in the posterior to deal with.
 
Well yesterday I had to put on a winter fleece, full waterproofs and a woolly hat just to go out and feed the horses. It felt really cold in the strong winds - some were gale force.

It's a bit better today but still on the cool side.

So the opposite problem really - and definitely no riding!

It's amazing to me how much the temperatures can vary across mainland Britain...
 
I only had an option to hack out mid-afternoon both days this weekend. Considered not going but we are next to a forest so plenty of trees providing shade. We got a little sweaty but nothing alarming and pony not even out of breath! She is fairly fit, young and healthy so helps but 30 degrees didn’t seem unreasonable to ride in. With the caveat that we mainly walked and just a few small trots where I could find soft enough ground.
 
Daughter has been at PC all weekend, luckily they’re only small so it wasn’t too manic. The 15 minute trailer home was awful and she was dripping, that was with 4 small windows open.
 
Nancykitt said:
Well yesterday I had to put on a winter fleece, full waterproofs and a woolly hat just to go out and feed the horses. It felt really cold in the strong winds - some were gale force.

It's a bit better today but still on the cool side.

So the opposite problem really - and definitely no riding!

It's amazing to me how much the temperatures can vary across mainland Britain...
Click to expand...
Yes I don’t think it helps when people are trying to judge “how hot is too hot” from other peoples experiences.

Temps here have been mostly bearable, humid and uncomfortable but I’ve never felt it was dangerous to ride.

However I appreciate further south have had much higher temps and me going off XC schooling sounds life threatening 😄
 
Horse flies are awful down south. Poor horses are tormented by them out in the field, so they are in during day. No riding today as v sunny but no wind. Yesterday, the winds were strong enough to stop them landing.
 
It’s the flies that are the worse here too. Puggy is a bit warm in his fly rug and I feel bad but I left it off last night and he came up in hives again so I’m not sure what’s worse! He’s been in for most of the day with his rug off and when I put him out I hosed it in cold water and let him drip dry on him. Tomorrow is meant to be 34 degrees here! I won’t be riding tomorrow, horses will all be in til it cools down. Hopefully it’s cooling down here mid week 🤞 I can cope with the hard ground - if the horse flies would just go!
 
we are still riding but either later or really early. I have hi viz thin sheets that we soak in water and pop these on. As for hard ground, we just don’t canter. It’s really no different to the road so just adjust our riding accordingly. Both horses are in during day (each with an outdoor area so they decide where they’d like to go. Yesterday one barely moved out of her stable while the other grazed and only went in if the flies were overwhelming him. I did do a dressage comp yesterday but it wasn’t too hot and we were home before the heat had built up and hosed horse before travelling him home. I put a spray on overnight in the areas where the horses come in for the day, to help the ground - it does give them a break from the hard ground. If I had an arena I would do this too as it reduces dust. I am not a fan of either sun or heat, but I do keep horses exercised just change the routine so we ride in the coolest part of the day.
 
I tend to use the “heat index” as a good guide as to when it’s too hot to ride. With the humidity in our area today it’s already over 150 (extreme caution) even though it’s not silly hot yet. But overall it’s been around 130 which is fine.
Horseflies have been awful though this year which has made hacking horrible. I usually cool off schooling sessions with a 15minute hack, but had to turn round yesterday after 10minutes as we were both getting attacked by the horseflies.
 
Last edited:
Looks like today is our last day of it anyway - dropping down to low 20's for the forseeable and finally some rain! Albeit light showers, but hopefully enough to get the grass growing a bit.
 
Well, I was hoping to get my three out and about for some extra movement for us all, in hand and under saddle walks... Not happening! It's so humid it's destroying me 😂 and the horse flies around here are like flocks of sparrows, they are driving everyone nuts, including the sheep, I don't think trying to go up hill and down dale with them following and biting, along with how close it feels would be a joy for any of us. It may be that we become autumn and Spring hackers instead! Can't do early summer mornings as I'm in work for 6am, and currently evenings are mowing/tedding/raking/baling... Not having much luck!
 
I had to go out at 10pm last night to put a fly rug on Bo. He was really quite distressed, I thought he was clicking to begin with, he was so upset. Put good old sudocrem on his itchy bits and he was much happier.

Headed up the hill at 9am this morning and had a quick hours ride around the old quarry tracks up on the moors, then gave him a cold shower and put him back out.

Our land is higher up than the stableyard so it's often cooler out in field where there is a breeze.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tda
SEL said:
Flies are driving me mad! If anyone sees video of me randomly slapping my horses please don't report me to the authorities - I am an expert fly swat.

If I only rode in weather than suited me I'd barely sit on a horse so yes, am riding. I only have a grass arena at home so working my way though various pole exercises that can be done in walk, lots of suppleness stuff too. Hacking is also pretty much in walk but I think it keeps their brains engaged and muscles ticking over.

I'm not doing any jumping on hard ground so have cancelled the x-c training I hoped to do - shame because I was looking forward to it. Riding club area dressage was on grass 2 weeks ago and it was horrible for the younger cob so only competing on a good surface.
Click to expand...
I was out on Saturday in walk bareback evening and had completely forgotten about flies when my buddy got tagged on the flank unfortunately :( luckily I stayed on, and straight away another landed on his opposite shoulder, which I very satisfyingly swatted
 
I managed a 25 minute schooling session first thing. It was quite breezy and half the ménage was in shade. She was quite sweaty afterwards though so had a good hose off, bucket of water and some electrolytes in her feed. Was really getting got when I turned the t though.
Thankfully lots of trees and a wooded area for shade and a small (almost dried up!) stream runs through the bottom of the field too.
Looking forward to being cooler tomorrow!
 
I long lined on Sat and every single person we passed on the laneway made a comment about "poor horse. Its hot" He hadn't even broken a sweat, was long lining (aka walking), is normally pokey especially going out which he picked up the pace coming back as normal, and the laneway is shaded. He walked away from me in the field faster as he didn't want to come in and then dragged me in!!

I rode on Sun but just went for a walk hack in the woods to avoid the 'poor horse' crew. He was really feeling his arthritis on Sun so kept it super short. Heat can apparently cause joints to swell so will keep to ground work when its this warm moving forward so he still gets some movement.
 
I've been really conscientious but this morning - after a second night of no sleep because I was too hot - I poo picked at 6am, gave them a very wet breakfast and told them their field was nicer than our house and came home.

My gene pool is geordie x welsh and there is nothing in that which is happy with 33 degrees and high humidity!
 
Yard have just messaged. All rides today are cancelled due to the heat wave. What a relief as I imagined it was just me, the heat and old age. I feared my riding days might be over.
 
Rode at 10am Sunday before the worst of the heat and the farmer had just cut the field headlands so had a rare canter up it. Yesterday had to be afterwork so hosed her off, did 10mins liberty work and then hosed her off again and turned her back out.
It's already hotter here this morning and she has the farrier at lunch time so she can come into the shade for that then I'll hose her off before turning back out. We've got a hacking holiday the 3rd week of July so I need to get her fit enough for that.
 
I have to say I baled, this morning. I have to go to work straight from the yard and it was 25 oC when I got there at 7.45, so I would have been an awful sweaty mess going to work. Our air con is broken in the office, so I just imagined the stink/itchiness/sweat and poo picked, instead.
 
This morning was lovely for schooling. 23 degrees, cloudy and a breeze. Pony did incredibly well and barely broke a sweat. Usual electrolytes and hose off afterwards. She has a couple of days off now but the weather has broken here now. Need rain!!
 
Roasting here! Day off for all. I have left them with lots of water and hay (fields are dry due to lack of rain).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top