Early Riser

It’s been hot in the Hoosier State. By “hot” I mean that it’s been in the nineties (Fahrenheit) for a prolonged period of time. About twelve days. And honestly, I don’t think just being in the upper nineties would be so bad, but we have this thing called humidity. It basically makes it feel like a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit. Fun right? Now, as an island girl, most people would think that I’m used to this. Nope, wrong! I’m used to very mild weather, a higher elevation and fairly dry heat where I’m from. None of this oven/baking sensation. I do find it terribly ironic that Yvonne’s weather posts as of late have been about the opposite problem, cold. I would love to trade her for a few days!

So, off of the weather and onto the pony talk. Normally, my internship goes a little something like this: wake up, clean the barn, ride all day, feed horses, go to sleep. However, when it feels like you’re being cooked, riding all day is pretty futile. Horses are dripping sweat just standing in their field and you feel like the air is pressing down on you. Literally, not cool. One of our solutions to beat the heat is to do the morning chores, ride one horse, have a siesta in the mid-day heat, and then ride a few more horses in the evening. I decided to try another solution one Saturday.

For some reason, an idea flourished in my mind. As someone who hates waking up, other than the fact that it means that you’re alive, the idea surprised me. But hey, I’m young; I don’t need sleep, right? I jumped in. Change can be fun. I forgot about that when my alarm rang at 5:30AM the next morning. It looked like night outside. It’s wrong to get out of bed when the stars are still out. I went back to sleep for thirty more minutes then dragged myself out of bed. Once, I was out, I was on a roll. I let the horses onto the grass, walking from one end of the farm to the next. I was hoping for a storybook sunrise so I could write home about it. The clouds decided otherwise. I didn’t see a sunrise as I hopped on my first horse of the day. It was a blessing in disguise, since the cloud cover prevented the fine, almost white limestone in our outdoor arena from blinding me. I rode outside to take advantage of whatever breeze might come along. Had a great schooling ride. It’s nice to work hard and achieve something with the horse. I guess it’s just training, but it can still be thrilling.

Bam, I was onto my second horse of the day, Rocketman! I’m one of those riders who’d rather be safe than sorry, so not only did I lunge him for several minutes, but I rode him in the indoor arena before heading to the outdoor. Being a stallion and under saddle for barely a year, he did marvelously! Only got distracted a few times and was easily convinced otherwise. It was an enjoyable ride. As we were cooling out, I eyed the pile of dirt scraped aside to level out the arena. I decided it was time for Rocket to become a mountaineer. He climbed up the pile and we stood on the top of it for a minute. Then I pointed him down the other side and nudged him with my calves. He leaned forward and looked at his toes. He didn’t know how to get down! I nudged him again and he quivered anxiously. Poor Rocket was used to the flatness of Indiana and had never in his life had to go downhill before (apparently, going down the trailer ramp doesn’t count)! It was really only two feet to the ground, but Rocket was pretty sure he wouldn’t make it. I tried to be the tough but fair leader. I even gave him a pep talk and when that didn’t work, I called him a wimpy stallion in hopes that he’d get mad enough and just do it (way to anthropomorphize, I know). We went up and down all over that dirt pile. Once Rocket realized that he was not in a dire situation, he started getting cocky and strutting down to show the horses in the surrounding pastures just how cool and confident he was. I laughed, silly boy.

After that I cleaned the barn, rode another horse, relaxed and took a nap, rode another horse and did the evening chores. I decided that waking up early could be worth it. However, when the time came to wake up the next morning, my body thought otherwise. Needless to say, I haven’t done it again yet.