Steer Soccer

Last night we went over to Dean’s to work with the cows. Since Sis is here I told DH if he wanted to use her he could and I’d ride Max (since he’s such a horrible cow horse). We loaded up & headed over. We got there, saddled up and headed to the arena to loosen up the horses. There were already a few other people there who were warming up as well.

Dean decided instead of 500 (exaggeration) people chasing the cows around that he’d play a game of steer soccer. He set up “goals” (two barrels) on each end of the arena and the goal was to get your steer to go through the two barrels. There were two teams and each team was given a steer.

My team consisted of DH, Chase and I and the other team consisted of a father/son (roughly the same age as Chase) and another gentleman combo. The steers were released and it was pure chaos. There was no rhyme or reason to anything and people were basically just chasing the steer around the arena so Max and I just sat in the corner. Once my teammates decided that wasn’t going to work and decided to listen to me we devised a plan to work together and we were able to get the steer in the goal with minimal efforts.

After that I sat out and let another gentleman ride in my spot. The steers were released and again it was pure chaos but it was fun to watch.

Between rounds I worked Max in the arena and boy was he moving nice! He’s got such a nice trot and such a smooth lope. Dean even jumped on him for a bit (and looked like a jockey in my saddle). He told DH that Max just got too excited and overshot the cattle. DH interpreted that as “won’t track” and I had to tell him that wasn’t what Dean said. Then Dean tried to drag some tires with Max. We apparently need to work on that as it made Max a bit nervous. He then went to a smaller, lighter log and Max did better.

Abby was being very lazy with Chase. He could hardly get her to trot so he decided after a while that he'd sit out with me too. I was actually pretty proud of him for doing that and allowing others to "play".

All-in-all it was a fun night. I’m pretty sure Sissy isn’t going to complain about doing pleasure after her workout Tuesday night and last night.

As for Max – I got a call back from the lady who looked at him Tuesday night. She really likes him but she’s concerned about his legs. They look puffy to her and bigger then her Arabian’s legs. Maybe that’s because he’s not a full blooded Arabian and he has some substance to his bone? She wants her Standardbred friend to look at him to see what she thinks of his legs. Me thinks a vet would be a wiser choice. She also thought he dragged his back toes on the gravel rode when she rode him. I guess I’ve never noticed that but he is due for a trim so I guess it is possible but I’m guessing that her Arab has animated gaits and Max just feels different. She wants to come back and look at him with her friend next Tuesday night before drill again and maybe let her friend ride so I guess we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to get too worried about it at this point in time.