We need the rain....

We need the rain...

We need the rain....

My new mantra. I was reciting it tonight when I got home after 6:00 after working all day, driving home and then feeding and unloading pellets in driving rain and total darkness. The forecast calls for---guess what?----more rain in the next 10 days. About 3 days coming up that look like they may be dry. I'll be composing my Ode to Mud soon.

Fortunately, I have worked a lot this week in order to support my equine addiction. It hasn't left much time to enjoy the addiction or to get any exercise. The fitness program that is supposed to be central to this blog is suffering badly. Especially for Cowboy. He has gained weight but there have been very few opportunities for sustained physical therapy.

I subscribe to various newsletters from The Horse and got one yesterday that I was browsing through and found an article about headshaking in the horse. As I skimmed it, it hit me that it was describing one of Cowboy's oddities. As I've mentioned, he is allergic to the little biting flies (culicoides) that have been on the rampage with the moist weather, and one of his responses is to flip his head up and down. I've noticed that he does this more and more, whether there are flies around or not, but haven't paid much attention to it. But it seems this is a pretty common phenomenon. Seems that "this syndrome involves abnormal firing of the trigeminal nerve" and earned quite a long article about causes and treatments. Wow! Something new to deal with. Seems to especially effect overfed and underworked horses. He tends to do this a lot at feeding time and it's pretty easy to interrupt it just by touching him and making soothing noises so I don't think he's a hardcore case, but it is probably contributing to his neck soreness.

I'm working in Marin County tomorrow, so a long drive in the rain again. But it is close to a really great shopping center so there could be some possibilities if I can wrap it up early.

My memory has been on vacation lately. On Friday, I left a water bottle at a client's. I joked about it to my Monday client and assured her I would probably leave one at her office as well. Sure enough....then on Tuesday I stopped to pick up the one I forgot on Friday and as I was joking about it, I noticed that I had left the one I had brought with me at the Tuesday client's. Three days, three appointments, three forgotten water bottles. Today I worked again with the same client as Monday, so I picked up that water bottle. I was feeling pretty good that I had remembered it until I got home and realized that I had left my Dayrunner behind. So there is one water bottle and one Dayrunner at large. My life is in that Dayrunner so I will have to pick that up soon. I'm going to invest in some carabiners and start clipping everything to me. I need a vacation!