Back to Lessons

Thursday morning I got my trailer hooked up bright and early and picked up Jessie then stopped at Chars to pick her up and off we went to my lesson.  There was lots of people there!  It was so weird.  I had never met any of them before but we all introduced ourselves and they all seemed really nice.  I had to warm up in the indoor and then when it was my turn we went and worked cows in the outdoor pen.

I know that I always have to work on stops, and we did, but at one break time I said it frustrates me when she turns in to face the cow after she stops.  He said it did him too, lol.  But if I get a good stop and act like I know what I am doing she will quit doing that.  OK that was good so I did not worry about that any more just went to working on stopping when the cow stopped.  And by golly I think I did it a few times!  The last cow we worked I only had to turn her twice and we stopped both ways!!!  Ya I think maybe I am learning something  lol.  Sometimes I wonder when I have to work on the same thing over and over again.

Then on my way home I stopped at the barn to drop off Jessie and I knew Razz needed a different blanket so I grabbed her and was brushing her and another girls stopped in so I decided to ride with her.  It was the best ride I have had on Razz this year, she is just better with other people riding I guess (and maybe I am too with her)  She was so good, even though there was a guy lunging his horse at the one end and his little boy running in and out of the arena every 10 minutes with a cat he caught   Although she still couldn't get over the box that sings, lol she spent a lot of time looking at that. I rode her a little harder than I had planned but she was so good and even kinda relaxed.

Not realizing it until yesterday when I went to ride, my legs were sore, not sure if it was from cutting or riding Razz, but its been a long time since I been sore from riding.  I did ride Jessie on Friday and she was good while riding, but a dork when I went to get her.  It is melting something serious down at the barn and for the last 3 days there has been a puddle in front of their gate that she has walked through no problem, but of course on Friday she decided she didn't know how to cross water.  Ach!  So I kept trying to get her to walk across it and then she tried to jump on me rather than walk through the water, that is not acceptable ever, so then I got upset.  I backed her through the water and made her walk in in all the way to the barn.  Funny thing later she had no problem walking through the water outside the barn.  I know in my mind she was just testing me as she does randomly it just gets annoying when she is normally so easy going.  Then I go to get Razz and I cant get her out of the water, lol.  She was just standing all 4 feet in water eating the little bit of grass showing under the snow.  Such a difference.

But I rode with Lu and Jessie was really good, did pretty much everything I asked really nice, she was so sweet, almost like she was saying sorry.  Its so hard to stay upset at her cause she is so nice.

Then today we headed into Brooks for Neil's Dad's birthday celebration and it was a good day.  Tomorrow we are heading to Olds for Easter Dinner.  Kinda hard for us to get away this time of year cause of the calving but we always try to get away for Easter, it gives us a break.

Catching Up

So the last couple days after the clinic I have just been chilling out at home and trying to catch up on everything I haven't done since I been gone, mostly laundry, cleaning and emails.  It takes forever to do everything from 2 weeks I never imagined it to take so long.  I also have been battling a cold since last Tuesday and am worried now that it is not just a cold but turning into bronchitis.  I sure hope it isn't cause I got things to do!

Yesterday I went out and met my friends for lunch and then went out to the barn.  I caught both girls and rode Jessie and just brushed Razz.  I was so tired I just couldn't ride both.  But I have a lesson tomorrow so I better ride Jessie.  I have decided that Razz is such a good ranch and trail horse and she really doesn't like the arena and I am tired of trying to turn her into an arena horse that I am not gonna worry too much if I don't get many rides on her till I take her home.  I would like her to be in a little better shape for when I gotta ride out, but I guess that will have to happen at home.  If the ground was not so icy around the barn I woulda rode outside it was so warm out.

And since I was there I took a couple pics of the ponies out in the pen since they will only be there about a week and a half more.  I plan on going to the April 6/7 show (as long as Doug thinks I will be ready) and after that will be bringing the girls home.  I hope the ground is free of snow by then and if the weather forecast is to be trusted than it will continue to get warmer and warmer out.  I don't have another show for another 2 weeks after that so I should be able to just ride outside for excersize and keep going for lessons.

(Razz kinda did a number on her blanket, good thing spring is on the way)

Every time I ride Jessie, it reminds me how lucky I am to have found her.  She is so nice and just takes stuff in stride.  I can't even believe for all that time before I got her I was told I would be just fine riding Razz who had no training and we could figure it out together.  Never will I ever believe that again.  I knew somewhere in my mind it was not right but it come from a "trainer" so I believed it.  I have since learned all you get when riding a horse that is not trained in cutting is frustration   So hard to imagine how much fun it is when the horse knows what to do.  And with Jessie she does better and better the better I do.  It is so rewarding to have her respond like she was trained and makes my job so much easier.  Its hard to explain till you have rode a good trained horse.  And yet through it all, Razz is still my favorite horse for some unknown reason, lol.

ACHA Clinic 2013

I got home and since my trailer was stuck in snow, Neil had to pull it out with the tractor and he almost never made it, I unpacked most of my suitcase and repacked a bag for the clinic.  I also got everything ready in the truck for Jessie.  She is much easier to pack for than me cause she always gets the same stuff.  I headed up to  Madden Saturday morning bright and early and it took less time than I thought so I was there early, but it was kinda nice to just have a bit of time to relax.

(the mountain view on the way to the clinic)

Then we got ready and worked the flag first.  It has been so long since I really did anything we were so out of whack  but we got a few good stops by the time our turn was up.  Then we worked a single cow, that went pretty good, but still needed some work on keeping her straight and stopping.  After lunch we worked another single cow and that was much better.  It made me laugh when Doug said to me "I don't know what you just did, but keep doing it"  I thought that was a good sign, if I only knew what I was doing it would be better, lol.  We finished about 4 and put Jessie in her stall and unhooked my trailer and headed out to see my mom.  She lives about 30 minutes from there so it was nice to get to see her.  We went out for supper and then visited for a while then went to bed.

The next morning I headed back to the clinic and we worked with the cows from yesterday just practicing cutting a cow out from the herd.  It was really neat, and boy did I forget a lot, I had a real hard time but I eventually got it.  Then we did one more pass on the flag and it was good then one more time we worked a single cow, we had 3 each.  The first one I had a real hard time getting ahead of it on the ends, but as soon as I got there it slowed right down and then I went on to the second cow.  I was better at getting to the ends and my stops starting coming together, so we just stopped there.  I was still having trouble getting her to stop straight but it was better.

Then I got Jessie untacked and we headed home.  She was tired and so was I, it was a good clinic and I learned a lot.  I am so glad it was much better than last year, I almost wasn't gonna go but since Doug and another lady I didn't know were hosting it I thought I would try again.  I'm glad I did, got me back in the mood for cutting again, and hope to go for more lessons this week and to the first show on April 6/7.  I listed all the shows this year, I would like to go to all the ACHA shows (except Kamloops) and maybe some central shows, but we will see how it goes

Leaving Arizona

Sadly on Thursday I had to leave the warmth and come back to winter here in Alberta that is supposed to be spring according to the calendar, but outside not so much.  But before we left, on the Wed  we all headed down to a local barrel racing jackpot.  We were there much early so they could get some practice in (LaTonne was helping another girl get started) and so me and Megan headed out to the wildlife park down the road.  The animal part was closed but the aquarium was open so we looked through there for a while.

After their runs we headed back and then I had to leave the next day cause I had entered in a clinic on the weekend.  My plane got in to Calgary at midnight and it sure is fast when travelling alone, I was out of the airport in less than 20 minutes, through customs and everything!  Then I stayed overnight at my sisters and stopped to ride Jessie on the way home.  We had a good ride but I was exhausted to just brushed Razz and went home.

Sure was a lot of snow at home, I remembered Neil had said there was a few blizzards, but never expected this much.  And then he said on Wed our grader man spent 5 hours on our driveway to clear it off!  I am sure glad he did since Neil got his tractor stuck trying to plow the road and he was stuck at home for a couple days, if he hadn't I wouldn't have been able to get home.  And a pleasant surpeise of my Christmas Cactus was blooming.  I have had it a year and a half and this is the first time I had seen blooms on it, wasnt even sure what color it was, but I like it :)

Hanging Out

After the ranch was a little less hectic, but I did get to go and tour the town of Wickenburg.  It is pretty neat. I stopped at the tourist office and he gave me a pamphlet of the walking tour of town and so I did that.  It was neat how they had all these bronze statues around town and some of them talked and told about life when the town was started.

I tried to go to the Hassyempa River Preserve but of course it was closed the day I was there.  I also found out Route 66 is in Arizona, I was pretty sad that I never had time to go up there but I hope to be back there soon.  Like next winter if I can talk my banker into it.  I spent time hanging out with LaTonne and Megan, what nice people, I sure enjoyed meeting them and hope to see them again one day.

All in all was a super time and I sure wish I would have stayed longer and it was spring when I got home, but I had to get back for a cutting clinic.

Tombstone

While we were down at the ranch we were not that far away from Tombstone so we thought we should take a day trip out there.  But first I have to share this cool cactus we saw at the ranch, it looked pink and almost plasticy (but I didn't touch it to find out, lol)

Oh and a couple more ranch pics, including the awesome sunset and the cow I thought was cool.

Anyways back to Tombstone, first we stopped at Boot Hill Graveyard and it was pretty amazing how many people were killed down there in a short period of time!  Some of the graves I had never heard of until we walked through town and saw some of their names around.

Then we drove and found a place to park so we could walk up and down Main Street.  We stopped at the Crystal Palace for lunch.  it was a Saloon way back, but now was an awesome burger place, we were recommended to go there by the ranch owners mom.  She was right it was good, but how could it not be with that name :)

There was lots of cools stuff going on and the shootout at the OK Corral, which we missed, but it was a hot day and so we headed back to the ranch after having ice cream.  I talked to Neil a couple days later and told him we were in tombstone and he sounded dissapointed.  I think he wanted to go so I may get to go back again one day.

Working at the Fourr Ranch

Last week I was lucky enough to go to get invited to the Fourr Ranch to help them roundup and brand thier calves, and seperate a bunch to sell.

Well before we even got there there was all kinds of drama going on and we were not sure we were even gonna go, but since they were kinda depending on us and the work had to get done, we headed down there anyways. I have to thank LaTonne for inviting me down there, it was a lot of fun and I felt a lot more at home there than driving around the cities.

 The ground was way rockier than we were told so we used thier horses, I got to ride the big grey horse, Half Moon for roundup, he was pretty cool such a good ranch horse, only trouble was he was 16 hands and I had a real hard time getting on him.

A bunch were in the trap so the next day we got to work.  We cut out cows from calves and just worked on the bigger calves.  It seemed to take forever and felt like we were not getting anything done.  But the next day when we got in there we went through the big calves and not very many were left.  I was on the ground and it was so awesome how the ranch owners were willing to teach roping and everything.

A lot of history behind the ranch and even a stone safe spot on the hill where Billy Fourr would send his wife and kids if the Indians came.  The house was also used as a cavalry house, kinda cool all the history behind the place. Would love to go back again one day, even if I have to work.