My Trailer is Home

Been to 3 brandings now, just getting started, this week is gonna be a busy one but after it we only have 4 more so that will be kinda nice.  I took Razz to one and Jess to one.  Was planning on taking them Wednesday to the breeders but I may be exhausted but that means I need to wait till the 15th so not sure yet what I am doing there.  I have no branding pics not sure why was working but usually get a few. I will try better this week.

I took my trailer in to get a few things fixed up and a few things added on.  Ha more than a few I had a whole page.  Well one was an inspection and they found one of my axles was bent so I asked if that was warranty and he said usually not but he will ask.  And ask he did and turns out they said yes!  so they actually replaced both and the tire that was worn.  They also rewelded the step into the tack area, added a blanket bar and replaced a saddle rack.  Ad finally got my door organizer hung up.  And I wanted them to find some way to hold open the back divider if I wanted and so he did that was perfect I love it.  And the jack was pretty crappy and the coupler had gotten seized so they fixed that and replaced the jack.  Wasn't cheap but cheaper then I expected so I am happy with that even if it took longer than I expected.  I wanted them to put another tie hook on and they forgot (and never charged me either) but I may take it back cause now I see they have neat shelves that attach in the tack area and I may get a couple of those put in as well.

(I missed having it home)

(back divider holder opener)

(new welded step)

(door hanger partly full)

(and the blanket bar I love! 

 only got one saddle in there now but can fill it up again :) )

An Adventure To A New Arena With Razz and Jessie

A couple weeks ago a friend asked me if I wanted to go with her to try out a new arena.  So sure I'm always willing.  So I decided to bring both Razz and Jessie and got everyone loaded up in the trailer and on the way.  It was kinda snowy the day before but had cleared of and was melting.  Roads by my house were dry (of course we got very little moisture) but towards Drum were pretty wet.  I was just leaving Rosedale when it my truck sounded weird like it didn't wanna shift down.  But all looked good and was fine as I got up to highway speed.  Well Drum is only 5 Kms away and I thought I would stop for coffee at Tim's anyways and might as well have a look at the truck.  It has so many warning lights and beepers I couldn't imagine anything was going wrong without a warning but who knows.

I pulled over and as I was slowing down I knew a trailer tire was blown.  That would explain it.  Well no big deal I got a spare and so changed that..what a mess everything was wet!  But came off well and this trailer is different than my other trailers somehow I never noticed before but it doesn't have the leveling axle, it just has 2 straight axles, so even though the tire was flat it didn't look it besides the hole in the sidewall but was not on the ground.  Kinda nice that it doesn't wreck it (even though it was wrecked its not from driving on it)  

Back on my way again.  I get to her house and start loading her tack in the trailer and it looks like the opposite rear tire was low.  So I tell her and her hubby was home and he puts air in and its low again.  I think I must hit something with my other tire and it went across to that one.  So change of plans we unload my horses and put Jess in the corral and use her trailer which is only a 2 horse.  I woulda liked to bring Jess but Razz has more issues being alone and in a strange place I didn't want to test that.

Well all is well, we go there and finally get to ride :) 

 I wish I could remember his name.  But he breeds Appies (and he knows of you Sherry, I asked :) )  and does lots of cowboy challenges with his horses.  He was supposed to be in one that day but he had someone coming to get horses.  So in his arena he had all kinds of fun obstacles.  Razz has seen most of them before from the despooking clinic we did in January but it was good to see them again in a new place and some were still scary...well not scary she is just rather sure she doesn't need to do them again but shes not scared.  Just plants her feet and looks away.  Crazy horse.  But that's one of the big reasons I wanted to do more groundwork with her,  I can do all the obstacles ridden but on the ground not so much.

Took a couple videos, the first we just were trying to stay at a slow trot and she keeps speeding up which was sore on my back.  

And the second shows a few more obstacles.  The mechanical cow at the end is the most scary for her.  She will work a flag no problem but that fluffy cow on there no way!  And it is kinda creepy the way it moves, supposed to be more life like but I dunno.

All I notice is I keep going back to one hand when I should keep two and my reins are kinda long as I am always shortening them.  And the saddle horn looks like its gonna hit me in the face when I watch.  I think I have figured a way to make it higher so that won't happen.

So afterwards since my tires needed fixing I left my ponies there, Jess was sure she shouldn't stay but she got over it when they got fed.  It was so wet they stayed for 3 days I sure missed them at home, but they got good care and its good for them to be other places see other things.  Id like to go there again and probly will but its kinda far to travel on my own need friends :)

New Stuff

Since I was thinking of barrel racing and I realized my cutting saddle was too flat for it and I almost slipped out of it I was slowly working towards getting a new one.  I looked up a bunch and tried a bunch (what patient sellers, lol) and finally headed up to Stettler to try one that was more than I wanted to pay for a fun hobby.  I had no great ideas it was gonna fit, I actually told the lady I was probly wasting her time cause it wouldn't fit.  She said no problem she was gonna be there anyways and shock of all we put it on and wow was not too tight!  Hokey smokey!  I was so shocked!  I rode around in it for a while and wow did Jess ever move out.  It was like nothing before It was so weird.  Its a Martin Crown C and she said they were designed to sit quite a bit farther back and so that was kinda weird to but it sure seemed to work.  She talked about shims and Sheri Cervi's video on saddle fit and so when I came home after buying it and stopping to pick up shims I had to look it up.

Pretty cool and a totally different view on saddle fit.  Kinda made sense and the way Jessie liked it I figured had to be a good sign for her anyways....never had so much trouble with saddle fit as with her.  My cutting saddle fits her OK when shes fit but not very good when shes fat.  Which she likes to be fat, lol.  Anyways I took it for a spin at home the next day since it was nice out and still big giant steps and I got a few pics too.

And then the weather turned and I had to turn out the horses cause we had no water in the corral and so never got a chance to ride in it again.  I been using it this week and boy does it make me sit a lot different and the stirrups don't go short enough for me....I need to get them fixed but I don't wanna give up my saddle and so am thinking I will use my other stirrups on this saddle for now.  It was sitting a little low in the front so now I use a shim and its pretty perfect.

But before that, my trailer broke down, I didn't think it was that bad, I thought it needed a wheel alignment and so I booked an appointment.  I took it in and turns out it had big issues, the evener was only attached on one side, the springs were broken and pretty much he told me I shouldn't use it anymore.  Well I was thinking of trading it in in the spring and so I just decided to get it fixed to work again and took it in to trade.

I went to Airdrie Trailer sales.  I saw they had a used 3 horse Aluminum  which is what I wanted. I figured I would go look at it cause looked pretty new and it was a 2014 model how used could it be??  Well I went there on like the coldest day of the year and looked at it he was pretty sure it didn't even have a horse in it.  The lady bought it took it home and then took it there a week later pretty sure she needed a bigger one.  Well it was pretty plain but still nicer than my old trailer.  A few features I really like and so I went for it.  I like the dividers are solid and they have springs to hold them open when loading, that was nice my old trailer was frustrating if you didn't park perfectly level you had to hold them open while loading.  And it has a door stop to hold the door open, it has one big wide door which I wanted.  I also like the tack room, it has a step into it which is nice and no carpet although the salesman didn't like that I do now I don't have to worry about walking in there in the winter with wet boots.  The spare tire is in there as well which takes up a lot of space and there is no blanket bar but I have an idea of how to make one work in there.

I hooked it up after paying and headed home!  I was super excited!!!  I used it the next day actually to haul horses for teeth to the vet and then hauled 3 horses down to Brooks a few days after that to ride and could hardly tell I was pulling!  yay.  But the brakes are set a little strong and I don't know how to fix them its kinda frustrating.  But other than that I love it!!!  Im super excited about it :)

Moving Cows

We have a piece of land up towards Stettler that is just grass and we didn't use it last year because we had so much grass at home but usually we have cows up there.  This year it got a little late but we finally got 47 pairs up there.  We hired a big truck and Neil took his stock trailer and I took the old one and away we went.  

(he looks like going in the ditch but there really is an approach there)

Its not a big piece, but its all tame grass and they get a lot more rain than we get so it holds a lot of cows.  The trucker was coming about noon so about 10 we went out and got them in, Neil had sorted them out a week ago.  And we separated cows and calves and bulls too.  We ended up with 47 cows, 46 calves and 2 bulls.  We could not see another calf anywhere bauling and so we hauled them up and figured wed look up there as we mothered them up to find the one who doesn't have a calf and take her back home.  We never heard anything in the field the last few days bauling so I don't know what happened there.

(odd pic of the calves in Neils trailer)

(My truck and trailer in lots of grass)

We got loaded and up there about 4 and let them out, left them in the corral for half our or so and no noise whatsoever so we looked through them, we saw what might have been a dry cow but hard to tell for me in a corral.  So we let them out and went home, stopped in Stettler at Smitty's for supper even though we were not entirely clean but we were hungry.

(Neil witching for water while waiting for cows)

We had to leave the bulls behind, not enough room, kinda sucked but Neil went up with them early the next morning which turned out goo cause he could check on them cows and there still wasn't an unhappy cow up there. So he left them and looked at home and nothing crying here either, so I guess all is well.

(the cows love the trees to rub off bugs)

(happy cows and calves in long grass)

We took all cows with heifer calves up there and the plan is to just take them to the Stettler Auction Market in October on the way home, rather than haul them home and then a few days later haul them to town.  We are hoping it will only take one trip home that way.

More Lessons and Whatnot

The last little while I haven't been blogging as much as usual.  No reason really.  I have about a million things to blog about and if I could just talk to my computer and have it type out the blog while I am doing something else (like driving  to lessons) it would be so much easier.  But since that is unlikely to happen here I am late again.

Tuesday I went for a lesson and we worked cows and it was really good.  I was a little worried cause I missed out on my second lesson last week and so it had been a week since I done anything cutting like and that was only the flag so I thought she would be super fresh, but seems like everything we did was right.  I am much quicker at correcting her and its catching on quicker to her as well if I can catch it every time she makes a mistake.  One time I thought she was going before the cow and so I stopped her from it but Doug said it was alright she was just stopping the cow.  So confusing!  But we just moved on and got more good stop and waits.   After the lesson I asked him if I should use her for other stuff and he said absolutely!   And if I get a chance, stop with a cow and turn and wait on them.  He says roping is really good for them, heeling only cause headers get ahead of the steers and don't want to start that.  So I dunno, maybe I should start some team roping?  I'm glad I asked, cause I figured it was OK, but I don't wanna mess her up.  I also asked about a trainer to start Jazz and he gave me a name so I may call him, I kinda know him, more heard of him than actually know him, but everything I hear about him sounds good so may give it a shot.

Then Wed Neil's Dad came out to repack all the rest of the bearings on the trailer and turns out the one I broke actually wrecked the hub and so it wore and the dust cap doesn't really fit on and so we are getting a new one, Neil is picking it up in town today and it should be on tonight. But in the meantime I had already booked a lesson for Thursday so had to take Neil's stock trailer and his truck.  What a pain, I hate not having my truck cause it has everything in it.

 (we went to the farrier last week and tried getting pics, 

but the ponies were not very cooperative :)

But I got to the lesson and Doug says we are gonna work the flag first then a single cow cause she can be kinda fresh on cows, so we went to the flag and it was so good!  I hardly corrected her at all, just a few times when we start we always ask for the stop and back up, but after that if my legs were on her at the right time we did well.  I am starting to learn how my legs can work in connection with the flag and now if I just translate that over to cows it will be good.

 (Jessie is shedding a little bit, she don't have much winter hair left :) )

(after our lesson, she deserves all the goodies :) )

I been riding out at home, but its a pain cause every time I leave with Jessie and leave Razz behind, Razz makes a tonne of noise the whole time, i gotta move them into a bigger pen so I can keep another horse in there so she is not alone.  I would keep Jessie by herself cause she is usually OK with that but everything is working so well I don't want to change anything and mess it up.

Flag Lesson and Mud

I hadn't rode since my lesson last Friday cause it had been so cold and snowy all weekend, but Monday night I called for a lesson anyways.  I was feeling a little bad for Jessie to just pull her out and go to a lesson without riding, but I know Razz chases her around a lot and when I ride I am just mostly exercising her anyways, not really working on anything (although a little on moving off one leg without going faster).  So yesterday I loaded up and away I went.  Was still pretty muddy and snowy here, but was hoping it was better over west.  Well sorta.  I got there and all tacked up and went to warm up in the indoor.  I was surprised when I asked Jessie to lope just by putting my outside leg on her and she didn't lope just moved over!  Wow that was a first, and even though I really wanted a lope I could not be upset because it was only one leg on her and she didn't try to speed up.  So we did another lap and I clucked next time I asked and she loped right away.  Was pretty happy with her.  Then we did a lesson on the flag.  It went really well, and now I can understand what it feels like when she is doing it right and when to correct her when she is doing it wrong.  I sometimes get confused on when to help her and when to wait on her, but now I think I kinda understand it.  I think I been thinking too hard, lol.

The horse pastures when I left that morning, top in the summer pasture 

and bottom is the north pasture, a lot of snow and a lot of water 

(no those are not the dugouts, just water on the ground)

I see a lot of readers don't really understand cutting, so I will try to explain it simply.  It really is simple, we just make it hard, lol.  We are trying to keep the cow away from the herd.  But all we really want to do it go straight across the pen and stop straight and wait for the cow to turn.  The horse can turn its head but not move its feet.  This is where we have trouble, she wants to turn and face the cow even when its not moving.  Then when the cow moves the horse turns all the way around (a rollback) and goes straight the other way and stops straight when the cow stops.  Really all there is to it, except for we should be head to head with the cow the whole time.  The horse can draw (backup a step) while waiting for the cow as well, but more often it is just a rock back on the hind end.  Pretty simple but not simple to do.

 (still waiting on her, I thought she was gonna calve when I came home 

cause she was all by herself, but she still hasn't)

 (we gotta get some animals out to pasture, over 80 head in the corrals 

and its getting crowded)

 (looking East of the yard)

 (looking west to the shop)

(and North to the house, still a lot of snow left over)

After I came home I took a couple pics of the mud and water around here, and as I was putting the trailer away I was quite surprised when I came home yesterday and there was actually ground showing.

 (my poor trailer has trouble again :(  The bearings went and so Neil took it all apart, 

luckily this is something not too expensive to fix and we can do it all by ourselves, 

once we go to town and get parts)

Hauling Cattle

So on Sunday since Susan wasn't coming out like she planned (he daughter had ball again, sometime I just wanna cancel something she wants to do cause I have to go watch someone play ball, not that I begrudge her watching her daughter, but every game?)  Anyways we  Neil decided that we should haul cows up to out place at Stettler.  I call it the Stettler place but its really Rosalind, but no one knows where that is.  We were bringing up 46 heifers, a 2 year old who lost her calf but we wanted to keep her, and 2 bulls.  So 3 loads in Neil's trailer and 2 loads for me.  When its a 5 hour round trip, that is way to much for me to do in one day, but Neil don't mind, so I was gonna take one Sun, and one Mon and he was gonna do a second one Sunday.

(sure did a number on that one!)

But as we were going down the Dorothy hill, Neil blew a truck tire.  Of course he is all worried about me and having a spare, since Friday night I had 2 flats on the trailer (I think I musta drove over something)  and he had to fix the last one at 11 at night cause I could not get the jack down.  But anyway he had his spare tire in the nose of the trailer.  But whoever designed the trailer never put a door on the outside, so we had to go in with the heifers and get it from there.  Not good.   And the spare was not good either, we pumped it up but figured we better head home cause we were not sure it would hold.  And he had no jack, we had to borrow one from the same guy who pumped the tire up.

 (haha I got her in the air!)

(The tree that broke off and landed on the corrals)

We got home and let the cows out (the rest were still in the corral) and he found a better spare and put it on and after lunch decided to try it again.  We got loaded with a different bunch of cows and left to go through Hanna rather than Drum cause its closer.  We were only going through Drum to stop at East Coulee cause they were having thier monthly breakfast there.  We were almost to Hanna and I called Neil to tell him to turn around cause I needed to change a tire.  It was not flat yet, but the tread was coming off in big chunks.  Not sure what caused it, the tire looked good, wasn't that old, but sure was hot and I was sure it would blow if we left it.

 (another mysterious bird)

(too much water, it killed the trees)

We put the spare on and decided to keep going anyways.  Have I mentioned how I hate tires!!!  Well the spare everyone thought was crappy lasted the rest of the trip without any trouble.  Which was good.  We got up there, unloaded the cows and came home.  We were exhausted and it was about 7, so we decided to call it a day.

 (Pretty rose bud)

Monday morning we got the rest of the cows in and loaded all but 12.  My truck can haul 6, Neil's trailer 13 and so the last load was one cow light.  I am amazed how much more power my half tonne gas truck has than our old dodge 3/4 ton diesel.  And better fuel mileage too.  When I used the old truck I always had to stop for gas at Castor (hour or so from home) and with this truck I still had 1/4 tank left.   I know the gas tank is bigger, but still it was quite a load for a half ton.

 (wide loads again, you know its heavy when it has a bajillion tires and 2 pusher trucks)

(weird bee stuck in my radiator which is much smaller than the one being hauled above)

We had no problems except for 6.5/10ths of rain on Sunday made the corrals a mess to be in.  Luckily the cows were fairly cooperative and the trip was good.  Sure lots of good grass up there.   And another tenth Monday night and lots Tuesday.

 (More wild roses, so pretty)

 (the diplomat mine site we always stop at to use the washrooms)

(pretty butterfly on the red rock that is so popular up there)

I stayed home for the second bunch and Neil made it home by 8:30, so all in all a much better day on Monday than Sunday.  Guess that's what happens when you work on a day of rest.  Either that or Neil shoulda just been more prepared.  I think we shoulda called someone to haul them for us, and we are this fall cause they will be bigger and it will take even more loads.

 (already mowing ditches up there, guess no one hays them)

 (peek a boo, I see you)

(OK, come on out!)