Work and play

We had over 1600 head go through the cattle sale yesterday, and worked until after dark. I had my camera with me and caught the sunset sky,and Kelly, one of the pen riders. We have two pen riders who push the cattle down the alleys for us to pen. They bring a total of 5 horses, and are in the saddle all day-often 9 or more hours. We do bulls first, so they use their best horses in the morning, then change out around lunchtime and ride their younger horses. They do a great job. Today, I'm working at the monthly horse sale, which starts at 6 PM, so I bet I don't get home til after midnight!

I had a good session with Peppy today. I introduced him to the idea of walking over the feed bag:

which he thought was a better idea than having it rubbed all over his body! He is getting very tall now, and getting a little pushy at feeding time, so he is getting his manners tuned up too.
When I worked with Chickory, she let me touch her at first, then regressed into being flighty, so out came the stick to rub her with, and the rope around her neck, asking her to give to pressure-which is coming along nicely until she decides to take flight! But we ended up on a good note with her letting me rub her neck, poll, cheeks, and under her jaw. She still hasn't got that soft look, though; I'm thinking that will take a while.