Spoons, Twin Rivers, and ticks.

Here, have a picture of cute corgis!

Because of a serious lack of spoons on my part, last night's visit to the barn involved just handing money to MT and chatting with ... er ... uh, a code name ... AM? That'll work. Just making sure the world's best corgis have a place to stay while I'm in California for Twin Rivers.

For which I am stupid excited, even though I'm not even riding. :)

I'm looking forward to lovely weather, great rides, excitement, supporting my friends, spending time with barn folks, and seeing how these things work. I'll miss my little horse, but she won't mind the break, and I'll be learning while I'm away.

I think it'll be tiring, especially because I'm not feeling my best, but I'm still stupid excited.

In other news, I don't know if I'll be able to make it out to ride tonight. I have a sleep study thing tonight (unlikely to find anything, but a hoop to jump through), which means I need to be at the lab at 8. I need to work until 6 at least -- 7 would be ideal but un-doable -- and then I need to get home to the world's best corgis, let them out, feed them, and take care of the cats too. Getting home involves a 20-30 minute drive from work. Then another 15-20 minutes to the lab, after I get the home things done. I should jam some dinner in there somewhere, too.

All this means I think I'm going to have to take my lumps tomorrow in the dressage arena. I'll work Rev as usual before we go in, and then we'll see how the test goes. Sometimes life interferes.

In other other news, I've read about people using Frontline on their horses to combat ticks this year. It's going to be a nasty tick and bug season, according to all the folks who know these things, and people on Teh Intarwubz are concerned about tick-borne diseases. Not wanting my horse to get any of these nasty diseases, I called my vet about this to see what his take was.

I know, I know, I'm so picky, not trusting Teh Intarwubz for reliable information. But the Local Keeper of All Horse Knowledge was still on the road home from Galway, and I needed to ask someone before I forgot, so I called the guy with a veterinary medicine degree and experience. ;)

Anyway, in all seriousness, Vet's take was that Frontline causes some nasty skin reactions in a significant number of cases. Plus, apparently the ticks in this area don't carry the same awful diseases that the East coast ticks do, so it's not as much of a concern here. Plus plus, he says he doesn't see ticks on horses very much around here. So overall, off-label Frontline isn't worth the trial here, not by a long shot.

Good to know. I do need to pick up some more Pyranha soon, though. And some sunblock sticks for Rev's nose.

Summer Is Coming.