15 More

I came home to a note the other day that said, "Have gone to pick up cattle be back by 7."  What cattle, and where?  I had no idea what J was up to.  When he got home he said he had bought 15, 300 wt bulls and steers.  He has been trying to send more cattle to the feed yard so he thought he could start buying a few that would match our fall calves, graze them for the summer then send them out in around July.  

 It's a really cute bunch.  This pair look like city folk chewing on a straw to try and look country.

 The three amigos.

 They really like their grain.  J will probably feed them until the grass gets going and we can turn them out.

So far they have settled in well with little bawling and no fence running.

OK, well maybe a little bawling.

Just Kit Sunday #44

Kit Kat is very brave and enjoys exploring new territory. 

  Today he is playing a new game he came up with.

 It's called "Kat in the Kulvert."

Visitor

V said she needed a change of scenery from college so she came home for the weekend.  She also brought her boyfriend Alex.  

 Alex always seems to enjoy going out and visiting with the horses.  He had a new idea for helping with Otoelene's painting lessons.

Meditation.  Wrangler tried to get in on the lesson too.  I think Otoelene did a good job with the posture, copying with her ears, but Wangler has a ways to go to get into that Zen state.

Good Fences #1

Friday's Fences has been handed off to another blogger, The Run A Round Ranch Report, and in the process has had a name change to Good Fences.  

I'll start off this new blog hop with a picture from my archives of when we got Thumper (far side of the fence).  Jessica almost makes a mirror image on this side of the fence.
Check HERE for more Good Fences.

Just Checking

Monday ended up being pretty nice, weather wise.  Much better than the snow storm on Tuesday.  And what better way to enjoy the weather than a ride on Otoelene.  She really is an awesome little horse.  

  After some warm up in the barn I took her though the heifer field to check out the new calf.  We also did a little loping around outside to show her why we lope around in the arena.   We even practiced moving a few heifers around.  I think Otoelene could really get into cutting if I new anything about doing it.  She is always very interested in the cattle but not spooky in the least.  Even when they take off running toward or away from her, she isn't phased.

 Then over to the cows to check out their progress.

 Most of the cows like to keep their calves in the nursery, lots of calves watched over by a few cows.

 Then I saw this cutie.  I asked J why he didn't tell me about the pretty spotted calf.  His response was, "We don't have a spotted calf."  When I showed him the picture he just said it was a baldy.  Well, for what's in our herd I'm calling it spotted.

I ended up riding for about 2 hours.  A wonderful ride on a wonderful horse.  

Bad Horse For Sale Pictures #15

Today I have 3 examples of this photo problem.  It is always nice to have the item that is for sale be the most prominent item in the picture.  

Which leads me to really wonder what is for sale in this first picture.

Nice suspenders.  We don't see enough of those these days.  

And are we just too lazy to even walk around the fence post, gate and water trough to get a picture?

Horse Judging Contest Results

 E competed in the State 4-H Horse Judging contest on Saturday.  She actually had a team this year.  One of the county FFA teachers had a group and divided it up so there was a team of 4 for the 4-H contest.

 On Friday they all came out here for one final practice before the contest.

E made the state team her first year as a Senior.  She is eligible for another year but so far it has eluded her.   They take the top 8 for the team.  Usually, one or two don't accept it so the top 12 are always invited and given the information on practices and contests.  Two years ago E was 13th, and we all remember last year where she miss marked her scan tron sheet and ended up with 2 zeros placing her last instead of 3rd.  

Well, she has managed to cut it even closer this year.  She was 9th overall.  It looks like most of the top 8 are repeats from last year's team so it will be iffy if any decide not to do it.  So we are in limbo waiting.  E ended up 8th in performance, 10 in reasons and 9th overall.  The team was 7th in halter, 4th in performance, 6th in reasons and 6th overall.  None of the other girls placed individually.  It was the first contest for the rest of the team so not too bad considering.  

Just Kit Sunday #43

Spring seems to have brought out the inner pole dancing cat in Kit Kat.  

Hope you are dancing for spring.

The Eyes Have It

J and I were intrigued by a recent article in Western Horseman called, "Look Him in the Eye."  It described temperament based on eye shape.  So of course we had to go out and look at everyone's eyes. 

In the article from left to right, the open book, the work horse, the flight risk, and the herd leader.  To tell you the truth, I can't really tell much difference between the open book and the herd leader.  

(Paraphrased from the article)

The open book - The perfect horse for the inexperienced rider has an "Elsie the Cow" type of eye, round, open and kind with no wrinkles.   This horse is receptive to what is going on, doesn't show much fear, and accepts any challenge the rider puts forth.  He wants to please.

The work horse - Has more wrinkles around the eye and its shape is more oval than the round open look of the open book horse.  They are intelligent not overconfident but not overly worried either.  This horse is a little more concerned about things it is unsure of, but willing to follow the rider.

The Flight risk  - Worried with talent, his eye is very expressive and always has the startled look.  It is wrinkled on top and bottom, showing his worry.   He is timid and worried.  If you buy a horse that is borderline flight mode, you have to be a seasoned highly confidant rider to keep it together.

The herd leader - The shape of his eye - not round but more shuttered and there is not an overabundance of tissue above the eye and the few wrinkles are due to age not worry.   This is not a horse for beginners.  Each stride, he tests the rider for authority.

Otoelene, Pep, Brother, Hank, Wrangler, Jessica, Thumper, Little Girl.

The best I can tell is I have 4 open books and 4 flight risks.  I know I only have 7 horses but V said she thought Thumper's eye had been shaped like the flight risk so I went back and looked at some pictures and sure enough, there it was.  And yes, this does sort of fit everyone's personalities.  Although Jessica is a little different.  She wants to be the leader but she has no followers.  She has a very strong personality.

A very interesting write up worth reading if you get Western Horseman.

Wreck of the Week

As I eluded to yesterday there was one other thing that J had no control over and that was calf stupidity.  After we had gotten the calves up J wanted to check the field one more time because there was a calf with sore foot he thought might not have come in.  I volunteered to do this because I thought it would be pretty simple to check a mostly open field.  

 I sort of thought something looked a little odd about that group of trees straight ahead.

 You just wonder why, why, why and how, how, how.

 My first thought was, "Oh my, I really don't want to have to tell J one of his calves is stuck in a tree dead."  I was so thankful when I saw her blink.

 J went to get the chainsaw and about that time the 2 guys helping us haul the calves showed up.

J was still trying to figure out where to cut the tree.  

They finally decided that they had enough muscle to just lift her up.  

Amazingly, she got up and walked off, albeit a little staggery.   Needless to say, she didn't go on the trailer with the rest of the calves.
J put this as his facebook status on Monday with the title Wreck of the Week.  One of his friends said, "Watch it J, there's a lot of week left."

Another Load Headed West

J has been looking forward to sending these cattle to the feedlot for some time now.  The weather hadn't been too bad until Monday, the big day.  After hearing the forecast, rain, sleet and freezing rain, J had 2 loads of gravel spread in the driveway just in case.  

 We started off feeding the horses to try and get them out of the way.  More on that later.

 Actually getting the calves up was pretty uneventful.  J had been training them for a week to come into the barn lot and 3 days earlier had already gotten the 3 wildest ones in and locked up.  But there were still things which he had no control over.  More on that later too. (actually will be different blog post)  Are you tingly with anticipation yet?

 One thing J couldn't control was the weather.

 The poor calves had icicles hanging off of them.

 We had a total of 3 trailers hauling to the local market which meant they had to make 2 trips.  By the time they returned for the second load the horses had finished their hay and busy making pests of themselves.

They were finally able to load the last of the calves and head off to town.  

 We have to take them to the livestock market to weigh them so the trucker knows how much weight he is hauling.  It's also easier for the tractor trailer to get in out out of here.

 It's hard to appreciate in this picture but the steam was really coming off of the calves by this time.  At leas the icicles had all melted off of them.

Them onto the tractor trailer for the ride to Nebraska.

Bad Horse For Sale Pictures #14

I'm taking a break this week from the totally bad horse pictures and just going to the cute but little dangerous pony pictures.  

 Everyone needs a pony on their porch.

 And who wouldn't want to ride around in a cart with a collapsible chair.

 And this one was just sweet.

And how about bareback, bridleless and in a tutu.  Well, pink is my favorite color.

Judging Practice

My last instruction to E before we got the the 4-H meeting was, "Don't let me forget to take any pictures."  Luckily, someone posted some on facebook which is where these came from.

So, we had a 4-H meeting at a different barn Sunday to learn about and practice horse judging.  We had 13, count 'em 13 kids show up.  The only problem now is that 10 were completely different from the last 2 meetings.  I feel like I am starting over every month.  I don't know how many of these are really interested in the club.  Six were FFA students that are going the the State Judging Contest next week and cross entering with 4-H.  But at least it does give E a team to judge with instead of just having to go as an individual again.  

 Three of the kids even came from a different county because they said that their county didn't have a horse club.

Just hope I can keep some consistency with who shows up.  It would make my job easier.