A morning at Anchor D Guiding and Outfitting Ranch

The day I left Calgary to come home, I stopped for a quick visit at Anchor D Ranch- the place Ted and I got married, on horseback, in 1996. Dewy Matthews is the owner, and a long time friend. As I pulled in I could see that they had a big ride lined up as there were over 40 horses saddled and waiting for their riders. I had breakfast with them eggs benedict!!!- and did a photo shoot before I left.

The gorgeous log house

Snoozin' while he can

Dewy and his saddle

There's one in every crowd

This lady is a wrangler and a farrier

Saddled and waiting. How do you like that for a tack room?

Some lucky small child will get to ride Skookum

The horses that got the day off were napping in the sun

I'm pretty sure this young fella was posing for the camera (grin)

Peering between the logs of the round pen

When the sun goes down in Calgary and the wagons start to roll.....

Wow, the last week just flew by. I had full intentions of posting the Stampede Chuckwagons a week ago, but didn't have the time to edit photos. Got 'r' done now though! The evening show always starts with the National Anthem and a military helicopter flying the Canadian flag over the grandstand, and it was cool that I could get the moon in the photo too.

One of my favourite wagon drivers is Colt Cosgrave, and since we were able to stand near the fence I was able to get some close up shots. Here is his outfit:

The heat he was in had a wagon with an equipment failure during the practice turn, it looked like the pole came loose and the right wheeler stepped over it:

But in true wagon family style a bunch of people stepped in to help and got the team unhooked...

and another driver who was running in a later heat (Jamie Laboucaine) lent him his wagon and theey hooked up the team and ran the heat.
Anytime you work with horses, there can be mishaps as we all know. The next day after I took this photo of Tim Haroldson, he was injured in a morning practice run when the wagon he was riding in (not driving) caught a ridge in the barrel turn and flipped over, throwing him out. He was in the hospital for the duration of the Stampede but will be allright. He had actually planned on retiring at this Stampede, and auctioning off all his horses and gear, which they did although Tim wasn't able to leave the hospital to attend. They raised nearly $300,000; a nice retirement sum but not quite the way he wanted to go out- so this is probably a pic of his very last chuckwagon run.

There were a lot of good races, some exciting finishes and I just love the thunder of all those horse feet and the rattle of the wagons!

Kelly Sutherland turning the barrels:

A good clean turn off the 2 barrel with the outriders in perfect position:

Speaking of outriders....

I do like a grey horse, and there were a couple of them used by the outriders, as well of plenty of them on the wagons.
4 across coming out of the infield!

Jason Glass's lead team:

All in all it was a pretty good finish to a wonderful day at Stampede spent with my lovely daughter. The next morning I headed out and spent an hour or so at Anchor D Ranch, where Ted and I got married. But I'll save that for the next post! 

Calgary Stampede.... part one

Sunday I travelled to Calgary to spend time with my daughter who came all the way from Ontario- family stuff on her dad's side.  It was totally wonderful to get to spend Monday at the Stampede with her- more my thing than hers, but she is such a good sport!
One of the highlights of the day was the finals of the Cowboy Up Challenge, but before that we watched some other events like a demo of mini Chuckwagons- such cute little rascals!

 Some colourful teams too!

After that, there was Cowboy Mounted Shooting, and that interests me- I can see me doing that. Once I get Kai broke!
We headed over to watch Dan James (Double Dan Horsemanship). He had an interesting demo, explaining what cues he gives his horses for the liberty work- but it's a long video and I will have to edit it and upload it to You Tube at a later date, no time right now as I am working on painting my kitchen cupboards - a good thing to do to keep me out of the heat outside.
Watched a little bit of the cutting too, but I think it was boring for Jessi so we didn't stay long at that. I did really good not eating the junk food that abounded there- I did have a frozen fruit smoothie, roasted corn on the cob, and one of those foot long barbecued sausages. Mmmmm!
The Cowboy Up was a blast! I took lots of photos of the obstacles for our local club, who are putting on a competition in August. One of the unique ones was the suspension bridge..... I thought the horses would freak at the way it moved under them but they actually all did fairly well on it.

 I took a video of the last ride, which was the winning ride. Check out the most difficult obstacle; she did it in reverse order form the rest of the riders, which was a smart move; most riders did the tetter-totter, then the water obstacle and the narrow bridge. Kateri did the narrow bridge first which was smart, because most of the horses with wet feet slipped off the narrow bridge.
* It was a lot of fun to watch, and she was so cute when she realized she had won!

That's her brother, he competed too- his horse slipped and went down galloping around a corner, but they were both fine and continued on.

I guess he really did cowboy up!


Later on we went to watch the Chuckwagon Races, and I will save that post for tomorrow.

Mr. Kai

I am slowly making progress with Kai. Slow being my fault, not his, he picks up on things quickly. My problem is that I prefer to start colts in a round pen, and right now my round pen is being used for horse stalls. However, I have a plan for that that includes buying some 2x6 lumber and hard labour.

Showing his summer colour- lots of tan like his mama

Every morning, I work with Kai on the lead rope when I take the 3 kidz out to their pasture. Circles, yielding the hip, changes of direction, and yielding the shoulder as well as lateral flexion. This will be a big help when I get really serious about his training- meaning when I set up my round pen. We usually have a pretty good session, but this morning in the circle, every time he got to the part of the circle closest to his buddies, he tried to quit- the magnet effect. So I tried to anticipate him stopping and drive him a bit just before he got to his magnetic spot. At first, it made him blow sideways towards his buddies, but a couple of spanks with the lead rope, and he started paying more attention to me than the other horses. Of course, Josie had to come and investigate..... might have to put her to work too!

Who, me?

I keep the sessions short, and quit when he does everything well. This morning I got really nice sidepasses both directions, but I noticed when I asked for lateral flexion to the right, that he considered it a bit before he gave; not so much a physical thing but a mental one, like : "I don't wanna!" But I waited and once he figured it out that I wasn't going to give up, he gave me really nice bend, equally as far as he does on his left side. 

Kai loves praise, really reminds me of Beamer that way! Rio is different, more aloof, but Kai- and Josie, really love to be loved on.

The other thing I like- when I'm done working with him, he prefers to hang with me a bit, just in case, you know, that I might scratch his favourite spots or tell him again what a good boy he is. 

I think I have found the horse that will replace Stella in my affection and as my personal horse. (insert big smile!)

Happy birthday Beamer!

Cue Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" . Yes, the mare is finally in full standing heat so Beamer will spend his birthday doing his job. He is 13 today.

Outtakes

I always try to get good photos, - you know, well centred, correctly proportioned , good lighting, interesting subject, etc.
Well I actually like some of my outtakes - the ones that don't have all the horse in the photo, or something is just a little off. Like these:
In this one. Kai's ears are cut off- but it helps to focus on his beautiful eye.

In this next one, I was focused on Kai, on the left, as he galloped away, when Rio ran into the picture, resulting in only half the photo in focus.

Here I was panning along with Josie and Rio as they were goofing around, I like the angle Josie is on as it makes her look like she is just "dropping in". I could have cropped it from the withers forward, but decided to leave it as is.

In this one, I was trying to focus on Tess as she watched the horses, but instead got the grass in focus- an interesting oops!

This photo, I was trying to get Josie and Kai in full flight; I like the stretched out photos, but in this one they are all tight and goofy- but it does express their personalities. Grab a mouthful of grass, and dance around being silly!

Had to add in one more that I took early this morning. This is Beamer's girlfriend who was enjoying the early morning rays- darned if she didn't close her eyes just as I snapped the photo- but it adds to the sleepy morning vibe.

Who is who?

Can you tell?

Pupdate: Cinch AKA Phoenix

Here is an update on Phoenix, formerly known as Cinch. He now lives on the West Coast.

Hi Everybody! It’s Cinch, good old #5 - but my new Mom calls me “Phoenix” now. I wanted to tell you what has happened after my long road trip to South Surrey.

 Mom fell in love with me immediately when I gave her “the look”. BOL I have a big brother named Arrow.

 He is 14. We do EVERYTHING together. Mom gave me a herd of three “cat”tle and a flock of cockatiels - that walk on the floor. Tasty? We go to the dog park every day and I walk with a pack of really neat dogs.. Everyone says that I am well socialized. I guess it means that I am friendly.

We also go to the beach and I eat dead crabs, seaweed and other smelly good stuff. I smell great then.

 Mom and I are starting obedience classes on Monday. Mom sure needs it. She won’t do anything that I tell her to do anymore. I already know how to sit and stay down and walk and ring the bells to go potty. Maybe Mom needs some potty bells! I am going to be my Mom’s Service Dog so Arrow is teaching me everything but Mom thinks I need more schooling. I hope that you have jobs, too. Here is what I look like now.

I have feathers on my bum and my tail is getting bushy. I lost another tooth yesterday. I like to carry sticks or grass like Grandma Reba.

Our neighbour Carmen took some nice pictures of me. Send pictures to Aunt Shirley so I can see you.

Pupdate- Roper

Letter to Tess from Roper

 

Dear Mom,

 

I thought you might like to see how well I am doing. 

 

I am getting to be a big boy now and my human mom and I have classes most every day (well when it is not pouring rain as she doesn't like getting wet (hehe) but I do (hehe))  she makes sure I don't pick up any really bad habits as I do try to test her when I get in my so called hooligan mood.  I have a big brother that I can play with after class and 2 sisters (CATS) more play things... hehe and we all get along well. At least I don't have any scratches on my nose !! yet !!

 

I have lots of toys to play with and as you can see when I'm indoors I have lots of hiding places, and all the food and water is just there when I want it.

I am all done at the vet for my puppy shots and they say I don't need to come back until its time to get something called brain surgery.  I guess I will find out what that is all about when I get a little older... I sleep in my cage crate in the porch at night with my family around me.

 

Anyway It's class time so I better go for now.  I'll send more pictures another time.

 

Roper.

Ignorance is not bliss.

I've been brewing this post for a month or so, while I decided what to do.
This spring, I was considering sending Beamer to a farm in Alberta to stand at stud for the season- it would have been a good opportunity for him as I sold all my brood mares last year. One of the requirements was that I get the 5 panel DNA test done that AQHA has for genetic diseases. I thought he would pass perfectly with negative results- but it turns out that he carries one copy of the gene for HERDA. If you read the link, you will see that  one of the horses there is a horse called Poco Pine who this disease traces back to- and he is in Beamer's pedigree. 
A horse that is a carrier, like Beamer, does not have the disease, but when bred to another carrier has a 50%chance of producing a foal with the disease.
Needless to say, I was pretty upset about this and seriously considered Beamer's future as a sire. Do I retire him completely from breeding? Or do I select mares that are not carriers or whose pedigree does not trace back to the horses Poco Pine or Poco Lena?
The issue there is that there is a 50% chance that Beamer could pass on the single gene copy that he carries.
I have made a decision- and that is that I will be selective, and breed only certain mares to him, and only if the mare owner is informed and willing to do a DNA test on the resulting foal to determine if it carries the gene.
I had Coyote Belle tested before I sold her and she was negative for all 5 of the diseases covered by the 5 panel test.. Once I found out that Beamer is a carrier, I tested Josie (Chickory's daughter)- and she is also a carrier.
I feel that I am being a responsible breeder, by making sure that there is no possibility of Beamer being bred to a carrier mare, and as each foal will be tested, the information will stay with that foal so that should any foals be carriers their owners and any future owners if the foal should be sold, will be informed and able to make appropriate decisions should they ever decide to breed. It also means that there will be very few future Beamer babies.
So now, let me introduce you to a mare who is currently in for breeding- a grey appendix mare with absolutely no traces to Poco Bueno or any of his get

She has Dash For Cash and Beduino on her papers, the owners are looking for a rope horse. I am doing a foal share agreement with them, I will get every second foal, and I'm thinking more along the lines of barrel horse.

A rant... sigh...

Good ole blogger is at it again. When I sign into my dashboard, it usually gives me a list of new posts to all the blogs I follow. Now, it gives me one new post, and a button to "view more"..... which of course does not work. Hey blogger, leave things alone! If you are going to change things at least make sure your changes work!!!!!  I'll try to individually visit each blog, and I hope I don't miss your posts.

In which Amber learns....

that it isn't a good idea to work horses.
Beamer was having some flat out fun this morning, and Amber got a little excited. She ran out and barked at him....

I hollered Get out!
And Beamer promptly showed Amber that she is not boss in HIS pasture.

I think he was pretty chuffed with himself after that!