Hottest Day of the Summer.

Today was absolutely STIFLING! I mean, wow. I am really glad and grateful that we only had ONE day this summer like this. It was unbelievably hot, so hot its hard to breath and harder to move. Now I know there are other parts of the country that get hotter and have been hotter for a good portion of the summer but its all relative and for us, in this area, this was a doozy of a day. I think it hit 102 here in the foothills. The hottest we had probably reached this summer up here just out of the valley before today was 98. And there is a big difference even in that small degree gap. Something about hitting 100 degrees and above is just..wow. I didn't sleep well last night and woke up this morning with big plans of going for a run and/or riding Desire in the arena, but as soon as I set foot outside the house and felt the wall of hot air and read the thermometer which said 80 degrees at barely 7 am..well, those plans changed. There was a gusty breeze and some clouds in the sky, a strange, stifling sort of weather that would have definitely meant lightning and storms if we were in, say, Virginia. There was a NOAA weather warning of gusts and dry lightning, high fire danger, for the higher country, but I don't know if that ever came to fruition. I do know it was ungodly warm and nasty here. At least the sun wasn't fully out and blazing, there was a strange cloud cover almost all day. I think due to that lack of direct sunlight it was hard not to be out in it, since it wasn't blazing and uncomfortable under the sun I felt guilty being inside closed up in the house and decided to round up my mini horse, Napoleon, for de-worming and and to address his unsightly mane and forelock which were sticking out straight with hundreds of stickers. Napoleon isn't the easiest to catch and is rather skittish and if I'm honest doesn't get as much daily de-stickering as the others so he was sorely in need of a touch up. He was pretty easy to catch (who wants to run around and have a rodeo when its hard to breath its so hot, eh?) and let me de-worm him no issue, then it took about a third of a bottle of Cowboy Magic and 15 minutes of frantic parting and combing to clean up his hair. As I was working on his mane I started to realize just how hot it was, since the relatively low-impact job of kneeling down brushing the mini's hair was making me drip sweat and want to keel over. He looked much better afterwards though and its a good couple of things to check off the animal maintenance list. I trimmed his forelock a little too since he has so much darn hair he can barely see past it sometimes. I usually give him a little hair trim a couple of times a year to try to maintain his wild 'do. I also hosed off the big horses over the fence about midday when I put Napoleon away; I wonder if they will ever figure out how great it feels and just let it happen rather than trotting away from the spray in annoyance. I usually stick my finger across the hose and just let it sprinkle down, not blast them, and I know it feels amazing when I do it to myself but Blaze and the foal act as if they are going to melt when they get sprinkled. Desire actually stood in it the longest and was pretty well freckled with water-spots. Blaze and Sheza used it as an excuse to buck and fart and be dramatic. Well whatever! All things considered I call that productivity with my horses for such an uncomfortable, god-awful day. At least I tackled something that I have been meaning to do for a while by cleaning up and de-worming the mini. Its still hot right now at 8:30. NOAA says it will be 88 degrees Sunday and BOY do I hope that's true, but I don't entirely believe it.