Tuesday, July 10, 2007

New Jersey Heats Up




The Heat is ON!!

Just thought this cool photo would chill things out.
Miserable day. Horrible. Stacie called me after she left the Patrice Edwards clinic to tell me her ride was great, but the heat was dreadful. Upper 90's F with warnings of over 100 F as the day progressed. Very humid too, with no breath of a breeze. Ugh!!

So, I was stuck with a decision. Tucker's shoe was missing so he couldn't go. That meant Toby. He would be fine and I am sure Patrice would not work us too hard in the heat. But....it is at least an hour and fifteen minute trailering to the lesson farm over highways with trucks and traffic. Though my trailer is white and it has windows, all I kept picturing was poor Toby in there and us stuck in traffic or stop and go at most of the 20 or more traffic lights between here and Southampton. (South of here, by the way, so even hotter.)

I finally decided to opt out. Had it been only 20 minutes away, where the lesson is on Thursday, I would have gone. I just didn't have a good feeling about sticking Toby in the trailer in that heat.

Ellen, who was running the clinic, was very understanding and agreed with me about my cancelling. I still have to pay a partial fee because Patrice still needs to be paid for her time, but I knew that going in. It is only fair. Because I am riding Thursday, I can connect with everyone and pay. That way it will all be settled before Patrice leaves. On one hand, I hated doing it, but on the other, it was much kinder to my Boy.

I took part of the afternoon to do some shopping as I needed a new battery for my cordless phone and some carrots. I managed to buy a few more things, of course, but I did get the battery and the carrots.

I came home, fed the Boys and headed for the swimming pool to do my laps. The water was almost too warm to be refreshing, but it did feel good and I got my exercise.

Back home again, I found Scott, my farrier well into shoeing Tucker for me. He also did Toby and Chance, so he finished up in one trip instead of two. His wife and daughter dropped by, so we had a nice chat as he worked. By then the clouds had rolled in threatening rain, so it had cooled off just enough to be tolerable.

Supposedly we are going to have another hot day tomorrow and then moderating temperatures for Thursday. Yea!

It should be a good day for the clinic. I'll just have to pack all my learning into one session again.

While I am sorry I missed the chance to ride today, I think I did the right thing.

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