One year ago today

Ahhhhhhh.......

O glorious sunshine how I missed you! 

It had been waaaay too long since your warmth last kissed my cheek!

Beamer has been complaining of boredom lately so we saddled up and headed out into the cow pasture. This is a pen of heiferettes who will be bred for the first time this spring. I think there's a few late calves in with them.

My trusty sidekick wasn't about to be left behind, Tess is happily trucking along. Reminds me of the Christmas Carol "mark my footsteps good my page" from Good King Wenceslaus"

The field was our arena today, we loped circles, worked on sliding stops (fun in the snow!)

We practiced our two track......

And just had an absolutely lovely ride!
When I got back I turned the kidz out for a romp. I took Nitro out first.

He was happy to be able to light it up, their pen is a mix of mud, ice and poo right now.

He's a power house! But he kept looking for his buddies, so I added Kai and Josie in the mix.

 That was good for about 20 minutes of horseplay!

There was some red-headed attitude going on- I heard her give Kai double barrels when he was being too pesky.

Th' boyz were at their head games, rear up and bite each other.

I think Nitro won this round.

Yup, a totally wonderful sunny afternoon, perfect for that overdue horse fix I (and my horses) desperately needed!

Purple Haze

Sigh.

The highway.....

the gravel road where I turn off the highway.....

the turn into my driveway.....

and boom- it was sunset and purple fog. It only lasted a few minutes.....

it quickly faded....
The fog has been here for a few days now and it's really depressing. At least it is warm and melting all that ice and snow. I am really trying to get motivated to ride tomorrow - but I'm darned if I will haul anywhere in the fog so perhaps I will jump on Beamer tomorrow and ride the cattle fields, which will keep me off the roads.

Sunday Silence

Amber

Miss Amber has a new home. She will now be living on and working on (after some training)a 1500 head cattle ranch in the north west corner of South Dakota. The deal came together really rapidly; the fellow phoned me on a referral from someone else and found a way to get Amber to his place within 24 hours.... so off I went to Missoula today, dropped her off and headed back. She will be in Billings tonight or tomorrow morning and in her new home in the evening, I assume. She will be reunited there with both her parents as this fellow bought her daddy and is co owner on her mama. Perfect!

Another Rio pic

Rio's girl found him a new job, he looks quite pleased with himself. What a goober!

Birthday ride

Lovely mild day today, despite the 4 inches of fresh snow we got. Today is my birthday, so I jumped on Beamer bareback for a birthday ride. The snow in the field is up to his knees, poor guy had to work! That's the tail of my reins hanging down in the snow.

He really had to lift those legs to walk. I took the dogs with me- Tess was smart and stayed right behind Beamer, but Amber, young and full of herself, had to range out. She had to leap to get anywhere, good thing she is light or the snow would be up to the top of her back.

Beamer wrote his name in the snow  He didn't like doing the e's. It was tough to roll back in that deep of snow ya know! By then the dogs were tuckered out, so they just lay there while me and Beamer I had a little fun. (Beamer thought it was work, not fun. Poor boy. )

I took pity on him and rode back in the tracks we made going out.

Aaaaaaaannnnndddddd.......

Drum roll.....................................

I bought myself a birthday present..................................


Know who this is?

How about now?

Yes, it's Nitro. 

 Things didn't quite work out for Shayla to take him, so I bought him- that makes me his first and fourth owner. And his forever home. So get that worried look off your face, Nitro!

Now to work on that mane......

But wait.....


That's not all......


 I put Kai up for sale. ......

Someone is coming to look at him in the beginning of February, and if it all works out it will be The Perfect Home for him. Stay tuned on that one.

Also means that it will be Nitro going to the Buck Brannaman clinic with me.

The ole boy's still got it!

This morning the fog was thick, and I figured it would be a good chance to get some frosty tree photos. Well, I kind of got sidetracked from the tree photos- they had to wait, because Beamer decided it was high time I paid him some attention. He saw me coming with the camera.... and the performance was on!

"Oh look! Camera!"

Good thing I had the camera set to burst.....

You can clearly see the arthritis in his left knee in this photo.

His patented suspended horse move.....

Wheeee!

Getting ready to launch.....

Just in case I missed it the first time.....

Beamer in all his glory! See, when he stretches out like that it makes his belly look smaller! 

"Didya get all that?"

Yes Mr. Handsome, you are the greatest!

Oh, and I did get one obligatory frosty tree photo.

There's something in the air...

Rio update

Thanks to Facebook, I get to follow how Rio is doing in his new home- and I sure am happy with it! As Phil Robertson would say. "Happy happy happy!" I'm happy, Rio is happy, and his girl is happy. I think this picture says it all:

Here is what her mom has to say: They joined a new 4 H club, (High River Stetsons) and they ride on Saturdays with a small group of 4 members that are all level 4 and up! Smiles at every ride and they keep growing as a team! Horse shows in their future. He is a DREAM! It is a bright future for the pair."
This is what it's all about for me, why I do what I do.

So much for the sunshine!

Ooooh Sunshine!

The sun came out...... yay! After over a week of grey dismalness it was wonderful!

Snow that slid off the roof is about 4 ft. deep in places but it is heavy enough that it holds the horses.

Nitro showing off his characteristic head shake.

Kai suspended, he has the same floating trot as Rio in a scaled down version.

Steam engines!

Of course chubby   I mean Beamer had to get in on the action!

Harrumphhh! I'm not fat! 

First Snow Day of the Winter

The winter storm they forecast hit last night. Light snow until after dark, then this is what I woke up to today:

Just over 8 inches and supposed to snow all day today too. First order of business was to feed the birds, and they were all waiting for me to get out there, galvanized bucket of black oil sunflower seeds in hand, to fill their feeders. On January 1st we had 1 Red Winged Blackbird, we now have 4 and the little gold finches are really having to battle with them for food. I'm sure the blackbirds are putting the word out.... we also have a resident pair of Flickers that were trying to get to the feeders. Then there are these little guys- we don't get many of them usually, but there seem to be more this year, I like their rosy chest.

When I looked out my window at 2 AM, I could see the two geldings standing in the pouring snow (pouring snow because it is coming straight down in tiny flakes like rain) playing with the Christmas tree that I threw in their pen yesterday.  It is mild, and no wind, and I think they were enjoying the snow. Definitely better footing for them, the pen was all frozen pockets of muddy footprints before the snow hit. Now they can move around much more freely.
Josie, however, doesn't look impressed.

After horse chores the dogs decided that I should play ball with them.... it was pretty funny watching them plow through the snow and dig for the ball.

They had a blast! Even Reba got in on the play, although Amber wouldn't let her have the ball.

I'm making progress with Amber, I can now stop her when she is in full flight, and I can get her to "leave it" when she has a toy. Darn near to the point where I won't be wasting my money sending her for stock dog training, which I have scheduled for sometime in February.
Anyway, snow day for me means getting the housework done, then later trimming horse feet. Guess I'd better get off the computer!