Did a heat training ride

I really hope that weather saturday is just good riding weather, not chilly and wet but not hot. But today I rode Shade 12+ miles in the middle of the day. This was lack of planning and then ambition to trailer somewhere a bit cooler rather than planning to train for heat but its still good to do some heat training. I started day with a headache, took alleve right away and sudafed after I fed the horses and it was closer to 12 hrs since my bedtime dose. Around noon I took ibuprofen and it clouded up and got a bit of a breeze so I caught Shade and saddled up instead of waiting on the stupid head. Once I was upright and moving the headache went way down.

I really wanted to get somewhat of a training ride to prep for the endurance ride. It was still pretty hot at times. Ole tagged along to start but was lagging pretty good after a couple miles. Shade and I did about 1.5 miles that he skipped. I decided I would take him home making just 7+ miles and then either take a break and ride Shade later or just offer her a drink and bit of food, and grab myself a quick bite (had my water pack on so I didn't need a drink) and go. Shade didn't want to be led over to the trailer so we went with plan B. She was pretty draggy the first 2.5 miles of this 'second loop' but perked up when the clouds came back + we were on the homeward bound part of the loop. Trotted up the gradual incline about .5 miles and then we cantered up the .25 mile bit that was more of a hill and trotted the gradual downhill till I asked her to walk the last .35 miles home.