Gotta Love Spring!

Tues. we went over to the roping arena. I let DH and Chase start out while Ty and I sat at the trailer. I tied Lucy up on a post in the arena next to a few other horses so she could just stand.

Abby immediately perked up (although she didn’t want to speed up) and did well tracking. Chase wanted to throw his rope but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. He always whacks Abby on the butt with it since he can’t get it high enough so right now she needs some desensitizing and he needs to learn how to throw it better.

I think DH (and a few other guys) were surprised by Black. He roped a few off of her and even dallied off a couple of times (he started off w/his breakaway). The only problem he had with her was getting her into a lope and that was just because he was being too nice IMO. He’s afraid he’s going to hurt her but I don’t think it will kill her.

He hopped off and I jumped on Lu. Boy does she perk up when we are around cattle! But on the flip side she also forgets a lot of her training. Her “whoa” sucked! I decided not to ride her very long. I was starting to accept less a then favorable performance from her in order to play and decided I needed to take it down a notch before I let her learn that she didn’t have to listen to me when we were around cows.

DH’s back was bothering him so I hopped on Black and persuaded her to lope. She wasn’t too happy with my persuasion and proceeded to let me know but I won and she loped. I tried to throw a few but missed. I’m going to try to get my first lesson in next week. She told me I could bring my horse but I think we’ll start with me first. I need to get Lu listening to me 100% of the time before I decide to try to rope off of her.

I do plan on taking her over and just letting her track the cows from time to time but I need to start working with her more consistently and expecting more from her.

All-in-all though I think we all had a good night.

OMG It Is A Horse Eating…………….Horse?

Yesterday we had records highs of 74* so there was no way I was passing up a ride. Since I wasn’t detoured like I was the previous day I decided to take Lu. Let me start off by asking – do you have any clue how difficult it is to brush a horse that keeps taking the brushes out of the brush bag and throwing them on the floor? I must say Lucy does not lack in the personality department.

Feel free to look up when I rode her last but I know it has been a while. Needless to say CA would not be proud of me. I saddled her up, jumped on, did a little flexing and off we went. She immediately started off being little miss drunken sailor again but she was a bit better then the last time.

Like Black, she decided ditch diving would be fun until I let her do it. That kind of freaked her out a bit. She did have her first real spook with me. The neighbors to the south of us have a pasture that is lined with trees. She heard something in the trees and jumped sideways. Honestly it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated her spooking would be but maybe she didn’t give it her all.

We continued down the road and even did a little bit of trotting here and there. Man is she lazy! I had to push her to trot fast enough so I could at least post. When we turned around and headed for home she started acting like she wanted to turn back around so I let her to see what she would do. She just started going in a circle. I seriously think her internal compos is off.

When we were approaching our road to head home I noticed something coming down the road towards us and so did Lucy. Was it a person walking? A person riding a bike? No! It was a person riding a horse! In all of my years living where we do that is a very rare sight for me to see & Lucy was petrified. She didn’t know what to think and she was so tense beneath me. I couldn’t get her to walk forward at all. It was pretty humorous in a way.

The gal ended up stopping and we chatted for a bit. She is a pretty big time roper around here and I know she puts on clinics so I asked her if she ever gave private lessons and if so how much she charged. I was pretty surprised with her rates (they included cattle usage) and I think I’m going to contact her about taking lessons both on the ground and on Lucy. This way I can actually learn from someone who has competed (instead of DH) and can also learn from a woman’s perspective.

I’m pretty excited about the idea of actually getting some “real” help. DH will be leasing some cattle with a few friends this year so I will have the opportunity to work them whenever I want (I’ll have to haul to where they will be kept) but it won’t do me any good if I don’t know what I’m doing so hopefully I can get some pointers from Kim so that I can utilize my time with them better.

Here is a photo of Kim roping. Due to copyrights I’m just going to put a link up for you to follow. This is the horse she was riding on last night. He made Lucy look like a yearling.

Woodburn, Iowa 6/07

Adel, Iowa 6/07

Here is also a neat article I found on-line.

Kim Wing Breaks the Ice for Midwest Ropers

Last year, in an attempt to bring opportunities to women in the Midwest a chance to earn points toward the WPRA World Standings, I asked the Iowa Rodeo Cowboy’s Association to co-approve their events with the WPRA, and they agreed.

We were all disappointed when only a few women took advantage of becoming WPRA members and competing in their events..

When I asked some of the women I thought would take advantage of the opportunity why they chose not to they said they didn’t feel they’d be competitive at the WPRA level.

I have to admit feeling the same way as a barrel racer competing successfully in amateur rodeos, until a friend pushed me into trying WPRA competition.

Roper Kim Wing of Van Wert, Iowa, did take advantage of the opportunity, and qualified for the 2007 WPRA World Finals. She was the only roper participating from the Great Lakes Circuit, and she represented her state and the circuit well, finishing 12th in the 2007 WPRA World Standings.

Kim’s success demonstrated to her peers, that if you are a good roper in your region, you will be a good roper in the WPRA.

This year more Midwestern WPRA ropers will take advantage of the opportunities to rope for real purses and a trip to Tulsa.

They are talking to producers in their area, asking them to co-sanction with the WPRA, so that they will have events to compete at. The women are excited, and so are the producers. The ball is rolling in the Midwest, and we want your help to get the ball rolling everywhere—until we’ve covered local regions to the entire United States.

Women ropers everywhere should be making plans to be one of the five women from every circuit, in every event, including both ends of the team roping going to the WPRA World Finals. If, that is, they aren’t one of the top 15 qualifiers. It’s also true that some circuits, like the Great Lakes Circuit last year, may not have enough ropers to fill all their positions, so even more opportunities may be open to them.

The message here is, don’t be afraid to get your card and enter WPRA competition. Find some events in your area, and take advantage of the new opportunities available, or encourage someone you know to give it a try. You will probably be surprised at just how much fun you’ll have, and just how competitive you really are.

See you at the 2008 WPRA World Finals!

I need help!

Yes, I know, some of you have known that for a long time. Seriously thought I need some advice on how to “ignore” things and how to bite my tongue.

Last night “we” went roping again. MIL, DH and Chase went and took Abby, Max and Sis. When we first got there I did some LFR with Abby before putting Chase on her. Then when she was moving well I put him on and had him do some flexing. When he flexes he puts his foot into her side and it confuses her. He was also going back to his “bad” hand position and pulling past his hip.

Once he got it I told him to trot her off and do some ORS. That went pretty well (minus the foot creeping up here and there). After he had that down I had him do some ORS at the lope. When he whacks Abby he has two whacks. The one is soft and annoys her and the other is hard and really pisses her off. I need to find a way to show him an in-between whack. On the positive side she didn’t toss her head with him at all when she loped even though he didn’t go very far.

Now for the negative – I didn’t let Chase go out to round up the cows with the boys and Abby is starting to have separation issues. Right now it’s not “horrible” but I see big issues in the future if it’s not resolved here shortly. These are the things I see.

MIL was having fun on Sis and besides dragging the rein over Sis’s neck (neck reining in a snaffle and pulling too far) they looked really good and I think she was having fun.

DH did take things slower with Max last night and for the most part didn’t do too bad. He still refuses to listen to me about how to properly warm Max up though and he’s going to hurt him. It’s just a matter of time.

MIL had me get on Sis and ride her and Chase decided he was done riding Abby (I think he was a bit frustrated with her). Sis did very well tracking the cows (which just sets DH off even more). When the arena was clear we did a lot of counter bending serpentines at the trot. At the end of the night we did some rollbacks on the fence. She did one quick enough to almost lose me. My fault I know – I need to work on my balance more.

When it came time to load up is when my frustration kicked in. DH asked Max to load and as Max went in DH unknowingly put pressure on the lead. Max stopped ½ way in the trailer so DH backed him out and “put him to work” (not really but that’s what we’ll call it). He whacked Max on the butt (trying to do LFR) but since his hand wasn’t up and he was focusing on the hip Max yielded his HQ (like he was being asked) which frustrated DH even more.

He asked him to load again and again put pressure on the lead so he repeated the above. By this time I lost it and yelled at DH (he either ignored me or didn’t hear me). He asked Max to go in again and this time gave him more slack and Max went in. Of course DH thinks he “showed him” but in all reality he’s the one who caused the problem.

On the way home (we drove two separate vehicles) I asked Chase if he wanted me to help him or if he wanted to figure it out on his own. I told him if he didn’t want my help I’d leave him alone. He said he wanted my help.

As for Max, I do feel sorry for him but DH does need to learn by making his own mistakes. My problem with that is that he is around my horses and I don’t want him using “his” methods on my horses.

I’m going to try really, really, really, hard to ignore what goes on with Max. Oct. 7th we are pulling his ad. After that if he chooses to try to re-list him in the spring it will be his choice and if he ask for my help some ground rules will be established very quickly.

I’m going to try to back off of Chase a bit. I know I’ve expected a lot out of him. Mainly because I don’t want to see him hurt but I don’t want him to get frustrated enough to quit riding either. He’s not a bad rider but he’s having a harder time with Abby since she tests him more.

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.

She’s not afraid of cattle

So last night Chase and I went to roping practice. Chase took the Abster and I took Sis. MIL thinks that Sis is petrified of cattle. No she’s not! She didn’t want to get right in and kill them but she did show an interest in them. Dean (the gentleman that runs the roping) really liked her.

We got two offers on Abby last night. I told Chase is he doesn’t quick screwing around I might just take one of them up on their offer. I ended up getting frustrated with him for not listening and following directions again last night so I made him quit riding and put Abby up. He wasn’t very happy with me but he needs to learn. He seems to lose all ability to listen once we get there. He is a little cattle hog and doesn’t pay attention.

DH didn’t get to go last night but one of the guys that was there is the BIL of one of DH’s friends and asked if DH wanted to start doing the ranch ropings with him. I think it’s great! DH really needs to have a place to ride with “the guys”. The only draw back is getting Max sold so he can find a horse to do it with.

I did contact the stallion owner (Max’s sire) via e-mail and she responded. She thinks she remembers his previous owner and was going to see if she could find her records on when her mare was bred. Max is eligible to be registered as a Pinto (less expensive then the Half Arabian Registry) so I’d like to at least have his dad on the papers. I did ask her if she had some better pictures of the stallion so if she sends any I’ll post them.

Lu is really starting to change. I need to get new pictures. I realized that she’s not only putting on weight (finally) but she’s also filling out and maturing a little bit too.

Nothing too exciting the rest of the week. It’s raining today and I think it’s supposed to rain into the weekend. MIL has a drill performance on Saturday and then Sissy goes home.

Are you my mother?

Last night we (DH, Chase and I) went to a practice roping with a new, more laid back group.

This was the first night and the gentleman running it had new cattle so all he did was run them out of the chute and score a few and then let us track them and run them back through. At the end he turned them all loose and just let us track a few.

Abby seems to have a natural talent to track cattle. Everyone loved her and Chase had a blast (I think Abby did too)! They worked so well together because Abby would actually mover her lazy bum and Chase was out of her face. I had to yell at him a few times to back off because he was being a little cattle hog.

Max and DH did well. It’s amazing how much better Max does when the expectations are lower. DH did a better job or riding him last night too.

Lucy…….where do we start with Lucy? I think she thinks she’s related to the cattle. They must bring back some sort of repressed memory because the only time she whinnies is when she sees cattle and then I can’t get her to shut up. She hardly ever whinnies at other horses (even when we go to shows or drill practice) and she doesn’t even whinny at ours when we leave her in the barn and turn the others out but get her around cows and OMG my ears start to hurt.

Well she wanted to talk to them but that was about it last night. She had no desire to chase them let alone look at them. We spent most of the night discussing how to unglue stuck feet (she was doing her little hump up and kick when asked to lope maneuver last night). I don’t think she gave up her union card but she was too tired to push too much harder.

Dean thought Lucy looked like she’d filled out some. I guess I don’t notice it since I see her everyday but it did make me feel better. Of course little Miss Sensitive has welts on her back from fly bites. If it’s not one thing with her it’s another.

I told DH that I’m going to give Max about a month and then I’m going to be done riding him. I need to be able to focus my time on MY horse not Abby or Max or Sis.

Where's the Beef?

This weekend we did our typical riding. Saturday MIL came over and rode Sis while my sister rode Abby. Apparently nothing eventful happened because I already can’t remember Saturday.

Cat got her face clipped. She wasn’t too thrilled with it so we’d do some LFR and then clip. She’s pretty lazy so it didn’t take long before she decided the clippers were better than the circle she’d have to run around if she didn’t stand still. I just did her muzzle and her jaw line.

I’ve found that “most” of the horse I’ve been around if you can do their muzzle and jaw you can do almost any other part of them without too much of a problem. I want to leave her looking as “natural” as possible but I also know I’m better off to get her clipping well now vs. when she is 15 hh and 1,100 lbs.

Saturday night we went to a sale (MIL, Heather and I, DH showed up later) where my poor sister got her first taste of just how horrible some humans are. There were only a handful of horses and all of them but one was in pretty bad shape.

None of the horses were ridden in. All horses were considered “loose” horses.

2002 AQHA Black Mare – she was gorgeous! She was sold w/papers but not a signed transfer (a little fishy to me). Well cared for and nice looking feet - $500

2003 AQHA Brown Mare – she had a messed up ear, a cloud/film over her left eye and she had an enlarged back leg from the hock down (not sure if it was a tendon or an old bone injury), poorly cared for feet - $125

Sorrel Mare (don’t remember age) – very skinny and had a messed up back leg as well. Poorly cared for feet - $65

FAT medium sized pony – they said he/she was kid broke but hadn’t been ridden in years. HORRIBLE feet - $100

2 miniatures – One yearling filly and a 2 yr. old stud colt. They were both VERY skinny! The filly (who was larger) sold for $15 and after no bids on the stud colt (whom the owner claimed was broke to ride) the auctioneer asked the people who purchased the filly if they’d take him if he bought him. They agreed to it.

Sunday we all rode. MIL started off riding Sis but then got ill and went home. Heather started out on Abby but then Chase kicked her off so he could ride. He’s getting frustrated with me “nagging” him all of the time but he’s going to hate life worse when Abby dumps his butt because he won’t quick whacking her.

DH rode Max and I rode Lu. She wasn’t too happy. I asked her to trot and wanted to trot her out until she’d move out comfortably but she just kept making small circles around Max and purposely trying to whack my leg on Brandon’s (which she succeeded at a few times). Then when I asked her for a lope she decided to kick up her heels. My crop obviously didn’t have enough bite.

Later in the day DH and I went over to an arena close by that has team roping practice on Fridays and Sundays. He went last weekend and wants to start roping off of Max. I wanted to see what LLL would do around he cows.

When we got there I just stood next to DH (on LLL) because I didn’t want to be in the way. The cowboys all started twirling their ropes and throwing them on the ground (imaginary calf) when it clicked with me that LLL was standing still and not freaking. Then they started roping. The chute opened and out came the steer. Lucy was too busy checking out the mares and babies in the pasture to notice.

LLL started paying attention and after a while every time they’d let the steers out she would nicker at them like “hey! Where ya going?”. They let me run the steers from the holding pen at one end to the holding pen at the other. Lucy liked that. The first time she was up there but I didn’t want to get her too close. The second time we were close! She hunkered down and pinned her ears at the steers and she wanted them to move and move NOW!

The gate guy hadn’t opened the gate so we had to hold the steers in place. They kept yelling “don’t let them run back down” and I kept telling DH there was no way Lucy was going to let one get past her and she didn’t. One came up towards her and she tried to bite it on the butt.

She was very good and I was very happy with her attitude. The gentleman who owns the arena said I could use it during the week so I’d really like to start laying out a “game plan” in regards to her training. I need to get her back to the basics and I know we could definitely use a day of the passenger lesson. I’d like to go back again but will probably wait until I have a little bit better communication with Lucy. I’d love for them to let a steer out and see how she’d work it in the arena. Maybe one day we’ll find out.

Jaimee has graciously offered to sell Lucy to me so it looks like she will be taking up permanent residence in Iowa. I’m very happy to have her as an addition to our herd. After our last drill performance (July 18th) I will no longer be riding Max and will try to focus all of my time on Lucy (with a little here and there for Cat).