Friday, Already?

24 Jul posted by

I cannot believe another week has flown by so quickly!

Next Saturday, my sister comes for a visit. I’m excited she’s coming! The sad part is I’m not excited that she is going to be in South Dakota on the day that she should have been getting married. The best part- that the stupid asshole she was going to marry, flipped out before they started their life together. I am, however, still bitter about how obnoxious he is, and how no one in the church wants to tell him to not act like a little spoiled child. Which is he. He better hope he never sees me again, because chances are really good, I’ll choke him. In front of God and everybody, until he apologizes for being such a boy.
Ok. Now on to happier things, (and yes, my teeth were gritted in the above paragraph, Zach, but I’m over it now).
Yesterday I washed my truck. Aren’t you proud, Daddy? Right before branding (in JUNE!) my truck basically had a mudbath. Kelsey and I went down the road about 40 miles to pick up her cousin, my neice, Cindy and her horse. It was right after a pretty good rain, and you can imagine how a dirt and gravel road might give a truck a mudbath. I really didn’t mean to put off washing it, but it did get put off. I thought washing it would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone- I have been laying out over lunch, and thought, I could wash it, and get some sun at the same time. Only, I didn’t get an ounce of sun on my legs. NONE. Today will be a better day for that- it’s windy and that will keep the bugs away. I’m not sure how long I’ll have to stay out there. Wednesday I laid out on one side for an hour, and got not a single line. The sad part is that my arms and shoulders and hands keep getting darker. So maybe I am getting sun, but the rest of me can’t catch up!
I’ve ridden Nukie the last two days (WDX Nukem). He is my latest barrel horse project. I adore him. He should be ready to start showing him the town later this fall. He also has the prettiest mane, ever (click his name above to see). Today I will probably ride a Nukie, a Gumper, a Camo a Big and a Dino and whatever else I have time for.
Tonight I think we’ll go up to the Days of 1910 Celebration in Timber Lake, SD. It’s supposed to be fun. We did not go last year as I think Zach needed to hay and there were other things for us to do around here. Anytime I get to go out with Mr. Hotness (Zach) and show off how good we look together, life can’t be bad.
I also realize I’ve been slacking off in The Spin Cycle department, and I hope to remedy that beginning next week. Since the good weather started, I have had trouble keeping up with this blog, let alone reading others so I never know what the assignment is, and in the chance that I find out, I don’t have time to write anyway!
Happy Friday!

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Horses and an Update

22 Jul posted by

Yesterday was a great day!

It started with some fabulous entertainment from Zach and Kesley who argued about how best to build a bigger round-pen. In the end it got done, with lots of laughing, some zinger one-liners and smart ass comments from the resident smart ass #1 (zach) and smart ass #2 (Kelsey). At least that is how I like to refer to them.

Then we sorted off some mares, and put them out to new pastures- and we pulled in the studs, one by one. Zero, my old high school and college rodeo horse also got put out to his summer pasture, where he’s turned out with two grade mares (both have babies), 15 yearlings, and Elvis, who managed to cut half his foot off.

When we went to get Tom (from his pasture which on the bottom side of the pasture in which Zero is now living), we found Zero had wandered all the way to the other side of the pasture, and was very lonely. So I waited with him and the trailer, while Zach went, on the four wheeler to catch Tom. Once Tom was caught, I left, and Zero followed me. So I opened up the back of the trailer, and he (with no halter or anything) loaded right up. I figured I’d take him back to the road side of the pasture to join up with all the other horses.

Streakin Iron, aka, Sonora Nora, is also in now, as she’s healed enough to probably breed back. So I brought her along in the event that she cycles this week, like she should, so she can be bred to Tom. If she doesn’t cycle, well then she’s close so I can leg her up and start riding her again until the spring of 2010 when I’ll turn her out with a stud to let her get bred for a 2011 baby.

Today I’ll be giving The Nukie (WDX Nukem) a bath, get his mane all combed out and braided up and we’ll get him started learning the barrel pattern. Thank you to Wayne Ducheneaux for allowing me to ride the beautiful beast. Kelsey will be starting our stud Banjo on the barrels, and Zach is going to put Chachi on cattle.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have horses to ride!

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Kelsey’s Barrel Bash Weekend

21 Jul posted by

Kelsey had some great runs this weekend. She placed fourth in the youth class on Thursday night in Dupree (where she ran her fastest time so far this summer), and then Friday night at Rapid City she won 6th in the 4D which was good for a $73 check. Needless to say she was absolutely beside herself! Saturday’s run, while it was a tenth slower than Friday earned her the top spot in the youth 2D incentive, and actually she was the only youth to place in the 2D incentive, so she won more than the youth that won the 1D incentive! That check was good for $129 so she was even more excited. Her Sunday run was 2 tenths slower than her Saturday run, but over-all she was very consistent.

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Sunday:

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Barrel Racing Videos from the Weekend!

20 Jul posted by

Here is video from the weekend starting with Thursday night’s run. I won’t show you Friday’s run because Gump fell going around the first, and the rest of the run went down the toilet. The ground in Rapid was really deep, and he really struggled with it. And as much as I hate to admit it, I feel like, subconsciously I was really freaked out about it too. He gets better every run. We just need to clean up our turns on the backside of the barrels and we’ll be even faster. I got to talk to Hallie Melvin while I was in Rapid and I’ll be getting to go ride with her soon. I’m very excited about that. Her horses run in very little headgear, and she’s like me, in that she believes less is more. If you can keep them in a snaffle, why put them in anything else?

Thursday in Dupree where he ran faster than he has so far this summer:

Saturday:

Sunday:

I’m going to dedicate an entire post to Kelsey’s runs this weekend. That girl did really good and brought home $200! Needless to say, she was stoked!




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DX Jurassic Classic

16 Jul posted by

Meet my newest project (ok, so there’s a lot of projects here but this one is special), Dx Jurassic Classic, or Dino as we call him. He is a half brother (by a different daddy) to my barrel horse, and favorite gelding of all time, Gump. Can you see the resemblance?

Yesterday he had his first ride, with me aboard! It was my first time to make a first ride on a horse with only a halter. I have it on film, but it’s not off the camera yet, so when I get it off I’ll share it. You can hear Zach coaching me through it. I may have Zach ride him today though, as I want to make sure that I did everything right and that I’m not feeling any tension in him (I felt none). He’d really rather stand around than move out! My kinda horse. If I had to guess I’d say he’s gonna be able to run a hole in the wind and he’ll be a stopping machine. I have priced him, so I guess if I can get what I want for him I’ll sell him. Otherwise, I would like to keep him and futurity him as a 5 year old, and make him a rodeo horse like Gump is becoming!

Tonight we will go to Dupree and run. From there we will head to Rapid City for the Barrel Bash. Four runs will definitely help my horse, and to make it even more helpful- they’ll all be on a standard pattern! Running in Rapid will be just like running in Dupree where we have run all summer! I cannot express to y’all how excited I am about getting to make four runs in four days!

I probably won’t have internet access for the weekend, but rest assured, that I will post Dino’s first ride video, and the video from the barrel races. Also, yesterday, Ty had his first outside ride on his pony Lil’ Banjo, so I plan to make him a movie of it for posterity’s sake!

Happy trails!



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Update

14 Jul posted by

Nora is doing really well. Thanks to all of you who are concerned about her. I haven’t got the photos on my computer yet- but it poured last night, so there’s a good chance I’ll get to do that today, along with updating my Etsy store, editing some more video of our ranch’s stud horses, and maybe I’ll get to clean this house up too!

I have decided that if my mare isn’t ready to breed back on her foal heat, that I’ll leave her open this year (which depresses me) and bring her up to the house so I can ride her and start entering her again.

Have a video of her from last summer:

I’m off for the day. Have a good one everybody!




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Three

13 Jul posted by

They say bad things happen in threes. I surely hope all the bad is gone from my life for a while.

First: the chicken massacre from a couple weeks ago.
Second: the death of my uncle.
Third: the beautiful Nora (my pretty gray mare that all of you adore- almost as much me!) lost her foal. We have no idea what happened. When I returned from the funeral at 1am Wednesday the plan was to go check her on Thursday. I was unable to get out there that day, so Friday morning, Zach and I headed out to find her. And what we found was not what we planned on finding. She was a bloody mess and her back end was all torn up. Literally ripped up and shredded. I have photos for those that want to see them. You can send me an email if you’d like and I’ll share them with you. There was no baby anywhere to be seen. Her bag was swollen. In a 900+ acre pasture there’s no way we’d ever find the baby. Honestly, being torn up like she is, we wonder if there isn’t a mountain lion making its home in that pasture. How else would you explain all that? Anyway, I think I’m done crying about it. The good part is that I can ride her. And even if she doesn’t heal up enough to breed back this year, I can run her all winter, and get her back on a schedule with the other horses so she’ll foal the first of June like the rest of them. I wanted to have photos of a pretty colt to share with you, and instead I got nothing. Bummer.



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He Just Keeps Getting Better!

10 Jul posted by

Last night at the barrel race, Gump ran an 18.183. Now I know, to some of you that seems slow. But at this particular pen, they run a WPRA standard pattern. In Alvarado, TX the record is a 16.665. But an average rodeo placing time on a standard pattern is between a 17.2 and a 17.7. At the big barrel races, where the ground is immaculate and you get the chance to run over and over again in those pens, the times get faster. So Gump, running where he did, and me being in his way on barrel number two, is, to me at least, super exciting! And I didn’t ride him at all this week, save for Monday when we moved bulls.

Here is his run where we placed 4th:


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He Just Keeps Getting Better!

10 Jul posted by

Last night at the barrel race, Gump ran an 18.183. Now I know, to some of you that seems slow. But at this particular pen, they run a WPRA standard pattern. In Alvarado, TX the record is a 16.665. But an average rodeo placing time on a standard pattern is between a 17.2 and a 17.7. At the big barrel races, where the ground is immaculate and you get the chance to run over and over again in those pens, the times get faster. So Gump, running where he did, and me being in his way on barrel number two, is, to me at least, super exciting! And I didn’t ride him at all this week, save for Monday when we moved bulls.

Here is his run where we placed 4th:


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Bad, Blogger! Bad!

9 Jul posted by

There has just been so much going on lately. I’m sure that no one is even reading this by now since I’ve been sporadic at best. I’m going to try to get caught up on the goings on around here in this post, and then I will hopefully be back to posting every day as per my usual routine.

A week ago we had a prairie fire in one of our north pastures. I will post photos soon as I get them off my camera.

Yesterday we had a funeral for my Uncle Larry, in Manhattan, KS. That was interesting. His wife and kids want nothing to do with the family and his 350lb daughter threatened my 105 lb mother with bodily harm. I’m sure that my mother is mean and evil and needed be threatened (why would you do that anyway, really). His family didn’t care that he had died. They asked no questions. And they were less than cooperative with his brothers and sisters. Thankfully, they left all the planning up to Larry’s brothers and sisters.

Some of Larry’s family didn’t come, because they were afraid that his daughter and ex-wife of 36 years might cause a scene. They didn’t but regardless. I did get to see some family and they all got to meet my favorite cowboy, Zach.

The silver lining in this is that I got to get in touch with some family history. We had the funeral at a church that was started and built by the Zeller/Avers family back in 1882. Construction on the current church building was finally finished in 1899. It’s a beautiful stone building complete with a bell tower. The pulpit was built by my great great grandfather Zeller and is still in the church.

Somehow yesterday evening on our way home, we either picked up another cat, or one of the wild mama cat’s babies found her way to the engine block of the ranch pickup. The kitten was yowling around in there this morning. I really thought it was one of my mama cat’s babies, but not so much.

Today we’ll head to Dupree, SD to a barrel race.

Nora has still not had her baby last I checked her. We moved the bulls out of that pasture on Monday and there was still NO baby! But, it stormed last night, and so that’s a good time for a mare to have her baby! If I have time today I will check on her. Shuttle’s baby isn’t due until August, and we still have two mare in addition to my two that are still to colt.

I started a Facebook page last week for Ducheneaux Quarter Horses. If you’re on Facebook and want to follow us, click on the link and do it!

Have a happy Thursday folks!

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