2 days til the race: Pants, Heat, & Neighbors

I title things like that so I remember to write everything and don't get caught in my own meandering rambling. Okay, distracted already. So. Cache Creek Ridge Ride is this weekend, Saturday May 7th. We leave day after tomorrow, Friday. I think we are a little less than two hours from ride camp. We drove by the Hwy 20 and Hwy 16 intersection last week so I have an idea where it is, which is nice. I am getting a little worried, because its suddenly very warm. We have been training in about 50-65 degree weather and suddenly today its 85. Other than today's little ride and Sunday's speedwork he hasn't worked hard in heat this year, and now its time for 25 miles. So I am going to try to be very, very cautious. He has been eating his super fiber wet mash (rice bran, beet pulp, salt/mineral supplement, handful of sweet grain to entice) morning and night for the last week and a half and seems to have a good appetite and be drinking well. I scrubbed the troughs today and I think he came to drink more often..he really does seem to prefer very fresh water. He looks GREAT! Shiny and muscular. I bought this season's fly masks today and had a little rodeo round up trying to get the mare's on. I tried to put it on her loose in the paddock and she felt it on her ear and took off. I finally haltered her and put it on and she seemed totally okay with it. So who knows. The fuzz on it is this lovely cerulean blue..ooh tack that color would be fabulous! Actually I have a spare bridle I have never used in that color. ANYWAYS. Worried about the heat. We'll see. Got my solar showers and camel pak today..water water water on the brain.
So, that's Heat. Now pants..well. Trying to figure out what I can wear and get away with for riding on hot days. Breeches and half chaps get SO hot. But my skin seems to be very sensitive and my saddle cover is already so worn and crushed its not even soft, its actually kind of rough. I don't know how a soft cover is so hard, but it is. Wish I knew a way to fluff it up or something. But I'm not supposed to wash it. So, first I tried these short bicycle shorts..about one trot circle around the arena and the shorts had rolled up and were just about flashing my yoohoo. Um. No. I tried exercise pants that stop at the knee and that seemed to work, if I wrap vet wrap around the spot on my calves that rub on the bottom of the flap of my saddle, where my half chaps rubbed my saddle cover into hard nothingness. I don't know if I should attempt this for the race. I might REALLY regret it. But its going to be really hot in my full get up. Uggghhhh. I can't decide. I just suck at dealing with heat...though I have noticed that just wiping the sweat off my fore head makes me feel waaay better. I don't know why.
Anyways..neighbors. First of all, my neighbor who is a "horse trainer." Fancy little business cards at the feed store and everything (okay, I know that isn't that hard to do). But seriously, this lady is nuts. Not only does she ride a horse and pony another down the paved roads here (narrow, windy, no shoulder, people drive like lunatics), she TROTS down the paved roads. Now, we know this isn't good for the horses legs in the long run..or at least, that's an educated guess. But I don't know HOW she does it without the horse sliding out and killing them all. Blaze literally slides like he is on ice when he walks downhill on pavement. I cannot imagine trotting down it. Anyways, there are lots of other worse stories of this woman's lunacy but I'm tired and don't feel like relating them. On to the other neighbors: Dead pony in neighbor's field! Its a big pasture with no house alongside it and just a bunch of horses, I'm assuming someone rents the space for the horses. The house across the street, no one was home. But a white pony was dead in the field. I could see its legs sticking out stiffly, there was no way it was sleeping. Very weird! And disturbing.
Okay, that's it for this post...I'm beat.