Summertime Blues....

I've always loved summer.  Summer means spending lots of time outdoors, and once I had a horse, that meant trail riding, trail riding and more trail riding.  Well, not this summer.  We've gone from wet to hot, hot to cool, back to wet, and hot again.  It has created an environment for gnats, mosquitos and deer flies to not only exist but to thrive!  With the wetlands in and around this area, the woods out behind our boarding facility are impossible to traverse, as the moment you enter the woods, you are swarmed by deer flies.  I'm talking 30-40 at a clip.  I've never ever seen anything this bad.  The past two trail rides, I've trailered over to Salmon Brook Park and ridden there for a couple of hours.  Its been wonderful, but I miss the convenience of just riding out the back door so to speak.  Even riding the outdoor arena can be daunting between gnats and mosquitos.  One of the down sides is that G isn't in as good a shape as he was last year traversing the hills out back 3-4x a week.  It's definitely noticable under saddle, as he has lost some of his hind end strength.  All we can do is wait until the first frost that kills off the bugs and start enjoying our woods again.  

And like the annoying mosquitos and gnats, we have a new boarder coming in this week.  She's someone that two of us in the barn were very happy to leave behind at the old barn, which is closing its doors.  She is a non stop talker who thinks she is queen of the world and all that she surveys.  I can only hope she hates it and leaves.  Truly, I'm not sure I have the patience to deal with her any more. She really burned a couple bridges at the last place with me and hubby.  So I guess the only thing I really can hope for is the bugs to die off so I can spend more time on the trail and less time at the barn, lol!!  Praying for strength, I'm gonna need it.