Preg Check

J put me to work today pregnancy checking 3 heifers he's seen come in heat.

They were all open. Good thing we kept a few extra when we did the culling. This puts us down to 19 spring heifers.

The Race

We finished the race! With no lasting injuries!!

The Vet check in was Friday afternoon.
J and Jessica trotted well to the cone and back. A breeze considering we had 30 miles ahead of us the next day. We then saddled up to take a short ride but Jessica didn't want to participate. She had a bucking and rearing fit so J took her back and lounged her. She was perfect for the ride though. When J lounged her Saturday morning before the ride he said she was just like a kitten.
We took our friend Aimee and her 16.1 hand 4 year old QH mare Inny. She decided that the first time ever that she would trail ride Inny would be the endurance ride. Never been on a trail, never trotted or cantered on a trail, never had 2-way horse traffic, never crossed water, never trotted across rocks... Did surprisingly well.
We were disappointed to get to the halfway point 25 minutes late (had to wait on Inny a bit) but we thought we could make up some time on the way back. Because we were running behind, the photographer had already left so we have no trail pictures. We cantered most of the last 6 miles and got back with 12 minutes left. Unfortunately, the horses' pulses didn't drop until 23 minutes later so we finished 11 minutes over the time limit but we were not disqualified on metabolic. (because the pulse dropped before the 30 min. limit.) The only injury (other than sore muscles) was when Inny jumped a creek, squeezed past Hank then kicked him in the stifle. It left a hoof shaped cut but no swelling or lameness. Jessica had a bad muscle cramp but was better after about 10 minutes. J is already planning his strategy for next year and looking for other rides to go on.

Helmet

Looks like J will be doing the endurance ride with me instead of V.

He has really gotten serious about it now. The only tack or attire requirement is a helmet which J bought yesterday (the ones we already had didn't fit him). He practiced riding in it this evening. The saddle we borrowed is about 20 pounds lighter than his other one. I guess we're ready for the 30 mile race.

Toad

I have been working on staining the deck for the last month. I finally got the rails finished and started on the floor. I finished most of the first coat yesterday. It started raining last night so I thought I would check to see if the water was beading up.

Look who surprised me.
Isn't he a handsome fellow. He had to come up 3 stairs to enjoy the new deck surface. I hope he ate some spiders while he was visiting.

State Show Decorations.

The 4-H club decided on a winter theme for the stall decorations at the state show this year. We had a work session/camp out this weekend. I thought I would take "winter" pictures of the girls for the stall IDs.

E says I can add falling snow to the pictures on flicka.
I was surprised and glad that V didn't mind dressing up.
Katelyn, our newest member was very enthusiastic. But she pretty much is about anything horse related.
Sydney did consent to having her picture taken but no amount of shaming would make her dress up.

I think the pictures turned out very cute. They should look even better with the fake snow.

Trail Ride

V is acting like she will back out on the endurance ride next week. Please encourage her to do it. Between all of the homework she has for Governor's School, trying to relearn the math she never learned properly to start with and cross county practice every day, she hasn't had much time to ride.

J has been good enough to step in and help with Jessica's conditioning. This morning we hauled the horses up the rode to the national forest for a quick 8 mile ride. Jessica was feeling pretty spirited to start with.
J had to fight with the cinch to get the girth on his Big Horn cutting saddle tight enough.
Then he had to fight with Jessica for a minute.
He finally got everything straightened out and ready to go. I think Jessica will think the ride a breeze if V goes. She'll be carrying 80 less pounds from what she did today. If J does the ride we will try to borrow a lighter synthetic saddle. I think J would do a great job, but I hate for V to miss out on these experiences growing up.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of county schools. V has already been going to Governor's School since last Thursday. She reminded me after the first day that I didn't get her traditional picture but I had the fall back position that it wasn't her normal school. So today I had to get up before she left at 6:20 to take her picture.

It was too dark to take it outside.
The sun had come up by the time E left for school at the more decent time of 7:40.

A weather update... 2 1/2 inches of rain yesterday!!! Things are already greening up.

V's Show Results

V showed in 4 classes Saturday.

She did well in most of the classes. There was one pony class where they showed against a very small pony that the little girl couldn't get to do anything but follow Pep. When Jessica caught up with her she acted like she wanted to bite the pony.
Since it was such a small show we didn't spend much time on Jessica's mane. Instead of the 44 braids we put in last time, we only did 15. I had originally tried to french braid her mane. It looked good for about 2 minutes then she moved her head and it all came out.
V won 2 firsts, 1 second and a fourth. The fourth was in English go as you please. There was no hunter gayp so I put her in English. Apparently, the judge didn't think she should have been in that class against the gaited horses. She was by far the best.
I even managed to show in a class. I took Pep in Adult walk/jog and came away with first place.

E's Show Results

We had a very nice show yesterday. It was mostly overcast so the temperature only got into the 80's. There were 57 classes but a lot of them had no entries. Unfortunately, there weren't many horses at the show but it is always good practice. It was over by 4:00.

E showed in 5 classes. The judge really liked her horse but she broke from the lope in about every class.
Her last class was trail. The wind was blowing while she had to pick up the rain slicker. I couldn't believe Pep didn't shy from it.
She even crossed to bridge without too much problem.
I think an airplane could have backed through these poles.
E ended up with 2 firsts, 2 seconds and 1 third.

Blooms in a Drought

Our area is officially in a drought. It has been too hot and dry to do much of anything. Still, a few flowers are blooming in the yard.

I saved some zinnia seeds from last years flowers. Apparently I picked my favorite color to save.
The phlox is still blooming albeit a dull.
Of course some black eye susan,
and sun flowers.
No new volunteer butterfly bushes this year. I guess they need more rain.

Leaving for a horse show in a bit.

Bred Heifers

J recently moved the bred heifers to the field in front of the house.

They are now sharing this field with the goats and horses.
So far the water tank has kept up with the additional livestock.
The biggest problem is getting up the driveway. For some reason they seem to think the middle of the road is the perfect place to hang out. Plus, even if they are not in the driveway they have left plenty of evidence behind to splatter on the cars.

Sunrise

Fair Cattle Show

We decided at the last minute to go the the cattle show at the fair this morning.

Had to get up at 6 am to catch the heifer, lead her to the house, bathe her and hook up the trailer.
We got to the show in plenty of time and everything was very relaxed.
V did very well. She placed 2nd in showmanship (behind the 20 year old). His heifer was acting up and the judge had them switch animals. V did well controlling the other heifer. The judge's reason for placing her second was that V's heifer needed her rear feet trimmed and she had a structural problem with her hip. Both problems have nothing to do with showmanship.
She was also 2nd in her Hereford heifer class.

County Fair

The county fair is going on this week. For the last several years it has been the week of July 4th because that was when the carnival was available.

This year they were able to move it back to August. It is really hard to have any produce ready by the first of July.
We entered the cabbage E made me plant. That is our's with the blue ribbon.
And we entered the broccoli that we double planted after the goats got into the yard and ate the first planting.
The ranch rodeo was tonight. There was a moderate turnout of contestants but it is always a crowd pleaser. My favorite is the wild cow milking event.

Water Park

C took Matt and the girls to Emerald Pointe water park yesterday. I think they all had a good time. They stayed until closing and C enjoyed it much more than she had anticipated.

She made the children pretend to be on a ride so she could get their picture. I'm surprised that they cooperated so well. Matt said this was not a true representation of how he rode because he was too busy hanging on to throw his hands in the air.

Bon Fire

Matt and C are visiting for a few days. Last night we decided to have a bon fire with the brush from the fence we had built a couple of years ago. We had had some rain recently so we didn't think it would get out of hand.

E's first order of business was to get a marshmallow stick ready. This proved to be a brilliant idea because by the time we were roasting marshmallow's it was pitch dark so finding a proper stick was difficult.
Matt pick out a spot to try his luck starting the fire. I think he has forgotten anything he may have learned in boy scouts about fire starting. His never did work.
J went straight for the paper fire starting technique. He lamented the fact that paper just doesn't burn like it use to.
I was greatly hampered by Emma and we all had to share one box of matches.
We finally did get it started. We had to resort to J's paper technique however.

We enjoyed to fire, roasted marshmallows and had smores.