Back in high school I remember calling a friend of mine “paranoid”. He was a pretty jumpy sort and was always eyeing anyone carefully that was walking or driving past.

For some reason his candid response really stuck in my mind, “It’s not paranoia if someone is really after you.”

Good point.

I’ve been worrying about my new position in life……. and wondering if my fears are irrational.

And then I think of my friend…….”They’re not irrational fears if there is a decent chance they might happen.”

Fear #1

Heat stroke.

I have this fear that my very first day as a working student, I’m going to have a heat stroke and DIE. It could be the shortest working student job in history.

I’ve been working all day every day for months……….inside…………in what I call ridiculous air conditioning.

The buildings I work in are so outrageously air conditioned, that most of us wear turtlenecks and jackets in the summer.    And I’m NOT kidding.

I haven’t had much chance to ride lately. 

Work had taken over so much of my life……. that I sent the WonderPony to the spa for swim lessons, and I sent Baby Seabicuit off to bootcamp.

So this week I’m finally off work, and I have a little time to get some riding in before heading off to my working student gig.

The first shock was that I don’t have a choice of horses to ride………….

In order to manage this life long quest….. I had to sell some horses. I know you’ll find this hard to believe but Bad Eventer sold FIVE horses.

When I got back from my trip to see family (yes, they live in Europe, I know – oh darn), the only horse I had at home was T-Rex.

17 hands and 3 years old definitely qualifies for dinosaur territory.

I just survived 4 weeks in Europe with the hottest temperatures they have ever recorded – as in…. since the invention of the thermometer it’s never been this hot – and NO ONE in Europe has air conditioning.

I was thinking I must have toughened up a little bit. Surely after 4 weeks in 100 degree temps and no AC…… I can take an August ride in Texas.

Um……

Well……

So I tack up the 3 year old (because she’s the only horse here)……..and head off down the trail.

I like this baby more every single ride. You would never know she hadn’t been ridden in 2 months, and you would never know she’s only had 15 rides total…………..

But I was by myself, and when I got to the lower field, a mile from the barn, a herd of deer came crashing through the trees.

She’s a baby. She’s 17 hands. She can buck like a saddle bronc………..I wasn’t taking any chances so I immediately jumped off.

She – didn’t do – anything.

She watched the deer leave & looked at me like I was really really dumb……………

So now, I’m a mile from the barn, and I need a way to get back on my sensible little T-Rex.

No biggie, I’ll just walk over to the Weldon’s wall and get her to step in the ditch so I can get back on.

When I got to the ditch I realized I had never asked her to walk through the ditch before…….. and I was going to have to teach her to step down in the ditch.

As it was dawning on me that my first ride back was turning into a bit more of a training project than I had planned…………everything got kind of dark.

And no……….. there were no clouds, and there wasn’t a solar eclipse.

Have you ever had a heat stroke? Brain cells and eyeballs don’t work very well when they get too hot………….just about the time Baby T-Rex was stepping into the ditch for me, I realized I was having a heat stroke.

And that’s when I thought about the temperature reading I had seen in my truck earlier in the day……..

Fortunately the baby stepped down in the ditch, let me get on, and toted my wilting Bad Eventer self back to the barn.

I suppose it’s not an “irrational” fear if there is a decent chance it might happen………………..