June in Humboldt County

Horse people in Humboldt County wait for June. The rain stops, the mud dries up, the wind dies down, the light stays until 9:00,the temperature hoverss in the 50's and 60's, and the mares have recovered from their first 'in season' in the spring. That is, until global warming, or El Nino, or whatever is causing the unusual weather all over the country this spring. Most Aprils I can't keep the hummingbird feeders full to accommodate all the migrating hummers; this year they just arrived this past week. The weather has been unseasonalby cold following a four day hot spell that broke all time heat records since recorded time. Although our annual rainfall is down four inches (from 37+ by this time with 38+ the yearly average), we are still plagued by the early spring 20--30 mph winds that drive both humans and horses into a frenzy. Cleo seemed to have escaped her annual spring 'marish' behavior until this week, as well. At our lesson, Paula had to rescue me out of a corner that Cleo wedged us into and wouldn't leave in spite of taps with the spurs and whip. She was busy trying to intimidate the other horse in the arena as well as me. We finally got her to pay attention to her task at hand, but she had numerous regressions into belligerent behavior. It didn't help that it was not only windy outside, but also drizzling as well, and she was wet from the overnight showers. We had beeen making great progress walking and trotting up and down the lane outside at the end of each lesson, but the weather canceled that opportunity on Tuesday. The day before she had been bratty as well. Tomorrow I will try again and hope she has turned back into her sweet, cooperative self.