Today was another amazing day here on the ranch (just like every other day).
We were supposed to be up and ready to bring in some dry cows from the pasture, but it was super muddy because it rained last night and this morning. Basically we just took our time this morning since we weren't sure if we could even make it out of the driveway. About ten o'clock or so, we ventured out to feed our calves and to the barn. We made it down the road without any trouble. Zach sent us out in the ranger to bring in the saddle horses, but this time we took a bucket of oats. We drove to the middle of the horse herd and shook the bucket of oats. Most of them came over at once. We started driving back to the barn as all the horses began following the bucket of oats that I was holding in the back of the ranger.
After getting the horses in, we worked on our roping while Ty worked with his six year old, George. I got some pretty good heel shots and trap shots again today which was quite exciting. Ty worked on moving George and transitioning from different gaits.
By that time, it was time for lunch so we headed to Ganny's. She made us spaghetti which was really good as always. After that we headed back to the barn where we went to grab some horses. I caught Dino in a quick amount of time and then we were all on (Melissa, Calico, Ty, Zach, and I). We worked on more of what we did yesterday, leg yields and haunches in. We also worked on telling Zach when our horses' back leg was leaving the ground. Once we were all comfortable with that, we headed outside. We walked along the road, continuing to work on our leg yields and getting our horses soft. Once in the pasture, we headed toward the yearling cows. Zach coached us all on how to get the herd moving in an easy going way. We got them into a corner of the pasture and began working them a little bit. Since they aren't used to riders on horseback, Zach had us start out with just going around the backside of the herd and shifting our positions to keep the herd in place. After that we would cut one out of the herd and then put it right back. Then Zach had us working on changing eyes on the cow to drive them out of the herd individually. Changing eyes means you push on the eye of the cow looking at you by changing your horse's body position toward the cow to get them to move their shoulders away from your horse and switch to looking at you from the other eye. We each got to try all these steps before heading back to the barn. There we unsaddled and let our horses relax a little bit before some of them got their hooves trimmed by the neighbor, Jesse.
After feeding our calves and Nora, we went down to the calving barn to watch Zach help Calico ride her mare, Maytag. She did absolutely fantastic at moving the hips and getting Maytag to move out.
After having some dinner, it is now time for some sleep as we are going to brandings the next two days.
We were supposed to be up and ready to bring in some dry cows from the pasture, but it was super muddy because it rained last night and this morning. Basically we just took our time this morning since we weren't sure if we could even make it out of the driveway. About ten o'clock or so, we ventured out to feed our calves and to the barn. We made it down the road without any trouble. Zach sent us out in the ranger to bring in the saddle horses, but this time we took a bucket of oats. We drove to the middle of the horse herd and shook the bucket of oats. Most of them came over at once. We started driving back to the barn as all the horses began following the bucket of oats that I was holding in the back of the ranger.
After getting the horses in, we worked on our roping while Ty worked with his six year old, George. I got some pretty good heel shots and trap shots again today which was quite exciting. Ty worked on moving George and transitioning from different gaits.
By that time, it was time for lunch so we headed to Ganny's. She made us spaghetti which was really good as always. After that we headed back to the barn where we went to grab some horses. I caught Dino in a quick amount of time and then we were all on (Melissa, Calico, Ty, Zach, and I). We worked on more of what we did yesterday, leg yields and haunches in. We also worked on telling Zach when our horses' back leg was leaving the ground. Once we were all comfortable with that, we headed outside. We walked along the road, continuing to work on our leg yields and getting our horses soft. Once in the pasture, we headed toward the yearling cows. Zach coached us all on how to get the herd moving in an easy going way. We got them into a corner of the pasture and began working them a little bit. Since they aren't used to riders on horseback, Zach had us start out with just going around the backside of the herd and shifting our positions to keep the herd in place. After that we would cut one out of the herd and then put it right back. Then Zach had us working on changing eyes on the cow to drive them out of the herd individually. Changing eyes means you push on the eye of the cow looking at you by changing your horse's body position toward the cow to get them to move their shoulders away from your horse and switch to looking at you from the other eye. We each got to try all these steps before heading back to the barn. There we unsaddled and let our horses relax a little bit before some of them got their hooves trimmed by the neighbor, Jesse.
After feeding our calves and Nora, we went down to the calving barn to watch Zach help Calico ride her mare, Maytag. She did absolutely fantastic at moving the hips and getting Maytag to move out.
After having some dinner, it is now time for some sleep as we are going to brandings the next two days.