Too hot to handle

We got blessed with a late August heatwave this past week.  Highs have been in the 100's with humidity.  Basically it's zero fun for me and the horses.

Relaxing in his stall (droopy lip!).  See the bug bites?

With today's high again being in the 100's, I stopped in after lunch to see how Soon was doing.  He was outside and being a little bit of a wuss about the heat and terrible bugs.  So I hauled him in and ran cold water over him for several minutes, hand grazed him in the shade for awhile, and brought him into his stall to enjoy his fan.  Yes, I do love for him to be outside as much as possible (he needs to learn to be a horse and wear his big horse pants), but I also can see when he's had enough.  He was sweating pretty well and was covered in bug bites.  Even out grazing he was miserable.  So I relented, and agreed to bring him in for the rest of the day.  He wasn't going to do himself any favors out in the hot sun, stamping his legs on the hard ground for the next four hours anyway.

Sleepy fan face

So he came in and was immediately happy.  He has one of the big, built-in barn fans directly above his stall which helps cool off the whole complex.  I also have a box fan set up for him so he gets double the ventilation.  After a thorough grooming and enjoying some hay, he proceeded to fall asleep in my arms (collective audience "Awww...") and we hung out for a little while. 


And if ANYONE has a recommendation of fly spray that ACTUALLY works, let me know.  I feel like I could soak him in a vat of fly spray, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference.  The bugs around here are some kind of Mutant Horsefly from Hell, because they bite unnecessarily hard.  While Soon is a pretty thin-skinned Prissy Pants type, these flies do legitimately suck.  I can rag on him for being a wuss, but I wore shorts to the barn once, and never ever again....