And it's bloody hot. And I'm too stubborn to cancel so I dragged a reluctant Mag up our street, him in a state of disbelief that I'd force him to do something in this weather.
Ani never showed. I would have never stepped out (besides chores) if I'd known. I sat on the bench waiting while both horseflies and mosquitoes ate from both Mag and me.
He was soaked in Permectrin. Huh.
I killed three of them though, blood splashing Mag's coat and my hand. I learned today that once they're commited to drinking, they're less aware of thier surroundings. While they're still seeking, they seem to use their enormous eyes to escape my hand. Poor Mag and Bellis, it would be awful to live outside this time of year.
Since she was not coming, I led Mag down the switchback and then got on him and rode him back up. I rarely ride alone, so this was important. It was only 15 minutes total. *sigh*
***
Today Ani wanted me to accompany her on her weekly Wednesday walk with the mare Rudi (for some incomprehensible reason she's only permitted to take the mare for walks on Wednesdays, rather than ride, despite the fact Ani weighs less than the saddle).
So I set the alarm and got up early and again Mag dragged behind me, "Really, human? We're going out again into this misery?"
I let him walk as slow as he wanted, while I despised the choking "air."
I rode more than normal today because I could not walk up and down these hills in this weather. Mag was fine. The horseflies make it problematic, at one point he reached around and freaking BIT my half chap! Mag, forever a baby horse, not knowing where he's aiming.
When we got home I sprayed him off with a hose, and sprayed the many, many horseflies who attacked him during his bath. I was pissed. He was helpless, tied there, with blood streams from their feeding. I carefully scraped the water from him cuz I could see how miserably itchy he was.
I put the Amigo Bug Rug on him, including the neck piece, and turned him loose.
He rolled 5 times in a row and then started kicking at the Bug Rug, cuz it was a little to the side. I tried to help straighten it out and he skittered away from me, so apparently fly sheets are an issue for Mag, *sigh*.
Later at pasture he rolled again and again and self-righted the thing. I just wish he could settle down about things touching him.
***
Tomorrow is a national holiday (Corpus Christi) and I had to go to Aldi to get food...BY BUS... cuz J is working a very long day today. After my very sweaty ride, I took a shower, and took my shopping bag to the bus stop. I was soaking wet by the time I'd reached it, so wet that rivers were running down my back and my eyelids were sweating.
The bus was even worse. No air movement at all (AC does not exist in busses here). I sat there and melted onto the floor into a puddle.
At Aldi I got my groceries and made the shortest bus trip home, which was also the most miserable, the bus was full of kids (in Germany there are no school busses, only city busses that take entire classes to school and home again every day). Nowhere to sit, I stood holding on for dear life as the bus careened around our curvy hills. German bus drivers are expert Autobahn drivers, apparently. They whip you gleefully around.
Finally almost home, Mag saw me and recognized me from afar. I was up on the street, he was down in the lower pasture end. He was intrigued (he rarely sees me out on the street without him) and approached carefully. I took a break, setting my fancy (not plastic) grocery sack down.
Mag was afraid of the grocery sack. He knew it was me, but couldn't come those last steps to greet me because of the horrible awful grocery sack. *shakes head*
I made it home with my food and my AC is on full blast so I can escape this land that is similar to the surface of the sun.
***
Is it true, that this is the new normal, everywhere?
Do horses understand when we hit them to kill a fly that is biting them? Do they get that?
Do your horses freak out if you bring a fabric grocery bag to the field?
Do you have to endure a bus full of children on a city bus?
Has your donkey completely shed out by now or are you just on the way? (We're on the way.)
How many tick bites do you have on you at this very moment?
***
This is not Mag, it's my heart horse Baasha, on the dam at the watershed on the day I took him on our great expedition, where he ended up underside a bridge requiring the fire dept. I love this photo cuz he's standing over the water fall and he's OK with it...well, doing it for me: )
I miss him so much. If only he'd been here to teach Mag in my place, what's what.
10 comments:
Flies, mosquitoes, ticks...in general, I am their last choice. So if there's another live animal within a mile, that one gets bit instead of me. But I might trade "insect invulnerability" for "cannot breathe because allergies/asthma". I dunno.
Heat: we don't have much of it yet. There were a few 90*+ days a few weeks ago, but then it rained. Grey skies this morning, even a little rain overnight. This is June for us, totally normal, just the way I like it. More rain = fewer forest fires.
Fee totally knows when I'm smacking a bug. She often gives a quick little nod: "got 'im!"
You poor thing & don’t those school kids have any manners? They should be the ones standing. And yes, I do believe horses understand and appreciate us killing horse flies. We’ve been having horrid flooding rain here in Ohio. So far my barn & house have been good. Paddock & yard not so much. . The horse rescue that moved in across the road has moved out due to the flooding. Several inches predicted over night & it’s very humid. The minis are still holding on to some coat. I’ve been told they’re greedy about loosing it!
I come from the tropics. It was bugs x 10 billion and breathing water x 1000 24/7 365 days of the year, every year. And it was far worse in Florida than in Puerto Rico, believe it or not. I'm just glad we get a break from it now in the wintertime.
My friends in South Florida had the hottest May on record. That said, our summer in Maryland this year has been unusually, unseasonably **cool** which makes me mad: I *want* it to be so hot that by the time winter rolls around, I'm yearning for the cold weather. But last week we had days in the 60s and nights in the upper 40s, which is insane: this is the same month that the Old Dominion endurance ride is held in Virginia. Normally the heat and humidity are so awful that horses don't complete due to metabolics.
Send us some of your heat and humidity please! :)
My horses have always known when I'm smacking bugs. If I'd fail to see the bug land on them, they would show me the body part where the fly was biting them that they couldn't reach, "Here! It's right here! Please kill it!" *SMACK* And then a huge sigh of relief from the horse.
I've never walked into a field with a grocery bag of any sort. I know Gracie would come out of curiosity though...she'd want to know if there's any food in there for her...and Lucero would have done the same. I once made the mistake of walking into the field to get Lily with an umbrella. Ha! Talk about "freaking out"...
That arrangement that Ani has is just weird.
Here we are in blackfly/mosquito season. Our temps are pretty good- mid 20s which I like.
No tick bites yet, although I have found some crawling on me. The horse and deer flies are just starting. Poor Irish is bit to pieces. Carmen doesn't seem to react as much. I start to carry a crop now and use it to swish off the flies. Carmen is learning to tell me when she has one and then I will say 'I got it' and take care of it.
Our weather has been weird, but we have had a few days where it was just stifling. Yep, the bugs are out, but with my black ultrashield fly spray, and my little ear bonnet, my horse is rarely frazzled. Ticks are very abundant this year but (knock on wood) I have not seen any on me or my horse yet. Friends with dogs, who sleep in their bed, have not been so lucky.
Stay cool! I stay in the cool woods and ride early to avoid the hot weather!
From last weekend I have two horsefly bites that are still bothersome and a handful of mosquito bites, luckily for me no tick bites. I could not count how many places he was bitten in, but as a red dun, it doesn't show as badly as on a grey. The place we live now (NC) has less ticks than where we used to. There, even using Military Grade insect repellent (the kind that you have side effects from if you use too much and too often and is probably banned in all sensible countries), I would still find them crawling on everyone when we got home. When he was six, I had to teach him to ride with a mesh rump-rug or he would want to buck and kick at the flies. Now, at 14, he just pins his ears and tosses his head to let me know to turn around and smash them. I don't know how, but yes, they do seem to understand and appreciate a hard smack at a horsefly, when the same thing would cause him to have a heart-attack at another time. It is not as hot here as it was a couple weeks ago (only in the low 90s now), but hot enough that once we started moving, his pulse never went below 72 for the rest of our training day. Not from effort, I promise - only the heat! North Carolina is miserable for heat and humidity.
You guys are right about smacking horseflies off horses - today he had a horsefly biting inside his penis sheath (had crawled up in there) and I was able to reach in and flush it out with my hand. I had coated his sheath with Permectrin, but I won't spray his actual penis. I stream of blood ran down his sheath onto his leg, ugh.
I might start carrying a crop while riding for this purpose.
Have you tried a fly whisk made of horsehair?
https://www.amazon.com/Exselle-111200-Fly-Whisk/dp/B008XWI5RC/ref=asc_df_B008XWI5RC/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312029887095&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16811495083823473831&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003007&hvtargid=pla-491237906606&psc=1
Re: wishing Baasha were are around to teach the new kid. I hear ya. One of the Dragon's primary jobs right now is teaching young horses how to be Good Citizens, much in the way that I allow my senior dogs to teach new dogs (and cats) proper behavior. Since I can only afford 1 horse at a time, this is how I hope to get Fee's influence on my next horse: by using an intermediary (taught by the Dragon) who will be around in 15-20 to push it forward for me.
Chrome most definitely knows I'm killing horseflies when I smack him. In fact when he gets one he will run to me where ever I am in the pasture and practically beg me to kill it.
I feel fortunate I like the heat. I would keep my house 80F if not for my husband. We compromise at 70F. I shiver if it's colder than that. I'm the opposite of you. I suffer so much in the winter. The only thing I would change about summer is bugs and humidity. If those would go away summer would be perfect, even when it's over 100F. :)
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