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Foals in Idaho

May 29, 2012

I finally got word from my folks about their first crop of foals from their new stallion, and best of all, they sent pictures! Now I can’t wait to travel out to their ranch in Idaho to see them for myself. They have had a good foaling year (last spring they not only lost a foal before birth, but also had to put one of their best mares down due to birthing complications) so it’s a blessing to see these happy little horses on the ground, safe and sound.

How To Draw Horses

May 16, 2012

I started drawing horses when I was four. I remember I had been given a large book of colored construction paper, and if I had been more frugal I might have understood that such a variety of colors could have been used more creatively. But I made a horse drawing on each page of that book, using a black marker, creating rather pudgy replicas of the species, usually only supplying them with the two legs nearest the viewer, but never forgetting the feed pan for them to eat out of. All of my first drawn horses were happily eating grain from their feed pans.

Horse Names

May 5, 2012

We’re still trying to come up with a name for our mare. We have kicked around ideas, but no matter what one person suggests, someone else has an aversion to that particular name, or they have a suggestion that they think would work better. I’m beginning to think that I just don’t have the imagination I used to have when I was younger. Coming up with horse names was a cinch when I was a little girl.

Four Hours West

April 25, 2012

Last weekend we took our cows out west where I grew up. From here, it’s a four hour ride in a car…a six hour ride for a cattle pot and truck and trailer with seven people packed into the crew cab. Saturday was one long hectic day. But it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a long time, because to me it meant going home.

What You Find At The Auction

April 19, 2012

I’ve been going to a lot of cattle sales lately, at the local auction barn. Inevitably, there are two or three horses there every week, and I’m always curious at what they bring. I wonder why they were brought there, and where they are going after that final winning bid. It always makes me wish I had multiple pastures and unlimited funds so that I could take them home with me.

Two Orphans

April 5, 2012

I was at the cattle auction last Friday watching our feeder heifers sell when I got a text message from my brother-in-law that said, “You haven’t been checking on your adopted calf lately, have you?” I panicked, thinking maybe it was dead. “No, why? Is it sick?” I typed back. “Emaciated, lethargic, and has a runny nose and scours,” he replied. Great….I had quit checking on the mama cow, several days earlier, thinking she had adopted it and was caring for it. Evidently not.

Stallion Shopping

March 29, 2012

It’s springtime, and babies are being born, and it makes me start wishing and hoping. No, we don’t have any expectant mares this year, but my folks out in Idaho have several mares that are bred to this Hancock bred blue roan stallion, Handmade Forever, for his first foal crop. They purchased the stud colt and two fillies from Keith Munn’s production sale two summers ago, and are really excited to see how this young stallion turns out. I’m looking forward to lots of baby pictures and celebrating spring as it should be.

Mix & Match With Cows

March 20, 2012

Grafting On A New Calf To A Cow Whose Baby Died

I’ve been really busy the last three days. Four days ago we lost a calf. One of our herefords’ calves was stillborn, and it’s a real shame because the calf really would have been something—a purebred hereford bull calf. But for some reason or other, he didn’t make it through the birth process. So we went to the cattle auction to try to find a replacement calf to graft onto the cow since her milk was still good. I had seen my dad do this many times, and figured our chances were pretty decent, since this particular cow is Dorothy’s mother, and is very gentle and easy to handle.

Choosing A Bit For Your Horse

March 19, 2012

When you’re just buying a horse, or beginning riding a new horse, it can be really hard to know what type of bit to use. There are two ends of the spectrum, where you don’t want to use a bit that is too severe and risk ruining a horse’s mouth, but you also don’t want to use a bit that the horse doesn’t respect at all and risk getting thrown or run away with. So choosing what bit to use for your horse is a very important decision, and I’ll share some tips that might be a help.

Apache Tear

March 7, 2012

The Story of My Sister's First Horse Apache

I have a horse story to share that my oldest sister Kandra has written, telling about her very first horse, Apache. If you’ve read very many of my own horse memories, you’ll remember that my sister is the one who influenced my siblings and I to love horses, and I wanted to know the details of how she came to own her first horse, because it happened when I was just a toddler, and I don’t remember it so well. I have always felt a strong gratefulness to the man who gave her the horse, as his generosity set off a wave of fondness for horses that encompassed my whole world, and changed all of our lives. It is Kandra’s favorite horse memory, and this is how her story goes….

A Cure For Bunchy Riding Jeans

March 5, 2012

One of my biggest complaints about spring is the mud in our barnyard. The mud wouldn’t bother me so much, but I have to wear my muck boots. And my muck boots wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t hate how they feel…they feel yucky because my jeans bunch up inside them and actually wear blisters on the sides of my ankles as I’m walking and working around the farm. But I recently learned about a neat little cure-all for riding jean bunchiness. It’s called the BootStroot, and I’m giving away a BootStroot set right here on this blog post!

Hello Babies

March 1, 2012

It’s calving season! Granted, we aren’t all done with winter yet, but we’ve had such a warm one it’s made us think spring a little early. The cows have been out on cornstalks the last couple of months, and now a few of them have calved, and it’s fun to drive by and watch the little babies trying to get their legs under them and navigate through the corn stubble. It’s just one of the first signs of promise that winter is going away and there are brighter days ahead.

A Little More To The Story

February 20, 2012

I am a writer, and one of my favorite things to do is to tell a good story. I have often said that getting a horse is like getting a brand new notebook. You open it up, and it’s blank….just waiting to be filled in with adventures, experiences, knowledge, sentiment, good memories, colorful adjectives, and whatever else comes your way. So it is when you get a horse….I went for a ride with Cowboy Dad yesterday. We had talked about trailering out to some trails or something, since we had a whole afternoon and warm sunny weather.

Share The Love!

February 15, 2012

I’m baking treats today, in honor of Valentine’s Day, and I’m baking them for my horses! I’ve actually never done that before, but a reader commented over on my Cowgirl Recipes page and requested some recipes for making your own horse treats. Having read several horse treat recipes online, I went to the kitchen to see what I had on hand, and made up my very own kind of horse treat. They turned out great, and my horses loved them! Here’s the recipe so you can share some love with your equine friends this Valentine’s day!

The Word Nobody Likes

February 9, 2012

I’ve been thinking about the horse slaughter topic a lot lately, and would like to share some of my thoughts on the issue, but I find that I can hardly discuss it without stepping on toes, and probably square on the toes of some of my friends. When you start talking about killing horses, there isn’t any middle ground where you can please everybody—people are either adamantly against it or staunchly for it, and are prepared to fight for the chance to prove that the opposing side is filled with lunatics and monsters. I would like to point out that it shouldn’t be that way, because I do find myself somewhere in the middle on the question of horse slaughter.

What Is It About Snow?

January 17, 2012

I never pay attention to the forecast. I’m not a fan of watching the evening news, and I don’t listen to the radio on a regular basis, so I’m pretty much out in the cold when it comes to knowing what’s going on with the weather….literally. It snowed in the night and I didn’t even [...]

Cow Manure

January 16, 2012

My sister-in-law introduced me to Pinterest a few weeks ago. If you’re not sure what it is, it’s a website where you can “pin” or bookmark websites or photos that inspire you in a neat collection of “boards” for you to come back to and read or use later. For instance, I have a board of horse photos, a board for scrapbooking ideas, a board of photos of things in my favorite color of green, and boards that give do-it-yourself tutorials for making some really neat things. Last night I was creating a board for the style I’d like to have. As I was pinning a beautifully ruffled dress that you could only wear to a wedding party or soiree, the thought hit me, “Who am I kidding? I deal in cow manure!”

A Day in Pictures

January 9, 2012

Today was amazing. Well, if you don’t count the fact that it’s the beginning of January and still a little cold for my taste. And if you don’t mention that today was my husband’s first time to get bucked off a horse. It was sunny with no wind, a Sunday afternoon, and he said we’re crazy if we don’t go for a horse ride today. So we did. Here’s how it went:

The Fun Is In Not Knowing

December 24, 2011

I absolutely love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday, and all of the excitement and anticipation that comes with the shopping, giving, and receiving is what makes it fun. Growing up kind of makes that excitement fade, until you have kids of your own, and then you get it all back watching them exclaim over their gifts. If you’re like me, you just can’t quit thinking about what might be in that package under the tree with your name on it. I’m everlastingly curious but too principled to peek. So this time of year always gets me giddy with excitement!

Trailer-Loading Techniques

December 7, 2011

How To Train A Horse To Load In A Trailer

I had our weanling colt on the lead line the other day, working on halter training a little bit more, and I thought it would be a good time to introduce him to the horse trailer. I wasn’t there when my husband went to pick him up, when we first purchased him, but I heard that he was hard to load, and wouldn’t follow his mother into the trailer. They had to use portable corral panels to box him into a small space behind the trailer and then adjust them smaller until he was forced to jump in. So I knew that trailer loading was an area we needed to work on with him.

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