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)