barrel racing

Gump’s New Jewelry

27 Aug posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

As most of you know, I’ve been running in a summer barrel racing series about 80 miles west of here. Last night was the conclusion of that series and as I mentioned yesterday, I was winning the buckle in the 4D.

For those of you unfamiliar with the D-System, or Divisional system, here’s a brief tutorial:

The fastest time of the night sets what is to be called the 1st Division, or 1D. So if, for instance someone runs a 17.621 and that’s the fastest time of the night, they win the 1D. Add to that 1/2 a second, or 5-tenths, and you have the start of the 2nd Division or 2D. That time would have to be a 18.121. Rarely will you end up with someone running the exact time needed to set the 2D, so it would go to the next closest time- maybe an 18.2xx. The 3rd Division, or 3D, would be 1/2 of a second slower than the 2D. So in our example it would be a 18.621- or a full second off the 1D time. And the 4th division or 4D is a second and a half off.

There’s a lot of advantages to doing a divisional system like this. You can see how your horse is stacking up compared to more experienced, faster horses; and you can also ride a slower horse if you’re less inclined to go as fast, but you can still “win”. I know women that are embarrassed to have anything less than a 1 or 2D horse. Me, I don’t care- so long as my horse is happy, I’m having fun, and we’re consistent. And in this case we were. Plus, I can rope and drag calves to the branding fire, open gates, move cows, start colts, flag colts and put a kid on my horse. Those are all more important, to me personally, than having a crazy barrel horse that wins and can only run barrels.

We finished the series tied for the lead in the 4D. If I’d have managed one tenth faster last night, I wouldn’t have to share the title with anyone, but if I’m going to have to share it, I guess there’s no one better to share it with than my crazy friend, Sharon.

Here’s our new jewelry:

I let Sharon take it home- the club is ordering a second buckle, so we don’t have to share!

Gumpers did really great this summer, and I’m anxious to see how much improvement we’ll make over the coming years. On an unrelated note, I am officially going to ride with Buck Brannaman, AGAIN, in September in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I’m not taking Gump this time, however. I’m hauling his little brother, Dino. And I plan to learn a lot more that will make Gump, Dino, and every horse I ride better!

Happy Friday!

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Riding, Riding, Riding

26 Aug posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

In the past two days I’ve ridden three different horses for a minimum of 25 miles.

Zach and I moved a couple hundred pairs of cattle.

Cleared our AI pasture (named for the fact that it used to house the cattle they’d artificially inseminate), the Saddle Horse Pasture (because that’s where the saddle horses live), Buck’s Pasture (named after one of the ranch’s founding studs) and the alfalfa field (because well, we grow alfalfa hay there). We finally got them all situated in our Parker Creek Pasture (named for the creek that runs through it).

Needless to say I’m tired and my arse hurts.

I had planned a whole post about freeze branding for today, but I’m pretty sure that’s gonna have to wait.

Tonight is our last barrel race of the summer series and I’m winning a buckle as of right now. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please!

Happy Thursday!

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Barrel Racing Videos

10 Jul posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I have been too busy, and then too lazy, when I do get home, to post some videos.

Here’s a run from the first of June:

Here’s a run from last week:

This Wednesday, I took our interns, Kara and Emily, to the barrel race in Onida, SD.

I ran my gray mare, Nora, and my gelding, Gump.

Nora, being her pretty, pokey self:

Gump making a pretty nice run. I think they just get better!

He must’ve stubbed his toe or some such thing when he stumbled coming out of the first barrel, because when he left the arena he was a tad short on his left hind. I was physically sick for a short time after that run because he hadn’t walked out of it and all I don’t need is another crippled horse. But about 15 minutes later he seemed to be fine which made me feel better.

I didn’t win any money at this barrel race, but I did spend $5 and enter a raffle for 1/4 of a butchered pig and guess what? I won! Oh yeah! I was so excited! Kara, did win some money. In fact, she won the 4D, a nice check, a cool, handmade headstall, and a gift certificate to a western store. She was ecstatic.

The rest of our week was spent riding horses. We handled about 16 horses on Thursday and 21 head yesterday. Needless to say, everyone is busy!

Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend!

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Memorial Day Rodeo

1 Jun posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Because the window for high school rodeo season is short, here in South Dakota, we have a couple rodeos on Memorial Day Weekend. Kelsey only opted to go to one- yesterday! And it was fun!

She made her first ever pole run in competition- and you could see Pommel going, “huh? what’re we doin’ Kels”?

Her barrel racing run went pretty good- seeing as how her saddle slipped at the last rodeo, she needed a confidence building run.

Zach’s niece, Cindy, rode my pretty gray mare and for only her second time to make a run on her did pretty good!

To top it all off, yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day- it could not have been prettier.

This week we plan to sort off pairs, which means a lot of riding. I love my life!

Happy Tuesday!

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Eagle Butte’s High School Rodeo

22 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Zach’s daughter and her horse made a really nice run that put them towards the top of the entries. I believe she was 5th on the weekend.

Happy Saturday!

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Timber Lake’s High School Rodeo

16 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

South Dakota’s High School Rodeo season is set up quite differently than what I experienced growing up as a kid in Texas. Our season lasted the entire school year. Here, it wouldn’t work quite that good, since there’s snow on the ground by Oct/Nov and it’s not usually nice enough to want to be outside full-time until April. So that’s when their season starts. April. And they have rodeos nearly every weekend until the third weekend in June. Which works out well for us, since that is the weekend we brand around here.

Friday afternoon we ventured up to Timber Lake, South Dakota which is where The Cowboy’s daughter lives. Her home-town high school rodeo was at 5pm that day.

There was lots of pink…

A cute little brother…

Bling. Don’t forget that bling is an integral part of a barrel racer’s wardrobe!

Pink, Green and Bling make for a lot of color! And of course, Wranglers are important!

It had rained all week, and so the arena was less than dry! In fact, it was a bit icky.

The first barrel really sat in a mud hole!

Despite the muddy ground, it was an absolutely gorgeous day outside! Timber Lake turns 100 years old this year. They have an annual celebration, complete with an Amateur Rodeo sanctioned by the South Dakota Rodeo Association every year. This year, it’s their Centennial, so it’s going to be a really big deal.

Like at most rodeos, there was a grand entry. Albeit, this one was small.

There’s always at least one cute little dog at a rodeo. At barrel races, they’re practically a pre-requisite accessory for every barrel racer!

Now it’s time to get down to business. Barrel Racing is the first event at this rodeo. I like it like that!

I think Kelsy’s horse, Pommel thought that mud around the first barrel was not cool.

I love the look of concentration, on both their faces! Run, Pommel, Run!

Time to run home!

I took a lot of other photos from the rodeo too- some before it started, when they ran the roping calves and steers through the chute, to the other end of the arena; and plenty more of the barrel racers. Next week, I imagine there’ll be even more photos- and maybe some of the other events!

Here’s the rest from the Friday. Enjoy!

[flickrset id="72157624071679874" thumbnail="square" overlay="true" size="large"]

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Filed Under: barrel racing, family, life, photography

Stephenville Photos

6 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I know, I don’t post enough photos on this site, right?

Well here’s more from our runs in Stephenville, TX back in the middle of March.

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Money, Money, Money!

23 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Thursday's Checks

I had a barrel race this past weekend- I ran two horses on Thursday night; my pretty gray mare, Streakin Iron (aka Sonora Nora) and the Gumpers, of course. They won 4th and 5th in the 4D for me (which means they ran 2 seconds off). The good news is, I really trusted Gump to the first barrel and that run (and all the others we made this weekend) felt a lot better than the previous week’s runs. I have video coming of our runs from Friday and Sunday, but it’s not here yet, of course. Nora, while bred to be a racehorse extraordinaire, could really care less about going fast, but she’s so fun to ride and makes the prettiest turns, that I think I want to start entering her again. I don’t really care if she wins me money or not, because after all, isn’t this game we play all about having fun? I mean it’s nice to win a check, but if winning were everything everyone who didn’t win would quit, right? Maybe I’m looking at it all wrong. What I won on Thursday night, paid all my fees for the entire weekend and gave me money towards fuel, so you can’t beat that. Green spends the same whether it’s 1D, 2D or 5D money. Money, is money.

Happy Tuesday!

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The Weekend’s Barrel Race

15 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I had a lot of fun in Stephenville, Texas, or The Cowboy Capital of The World, as it is known in these parts. They don’t call it that for nothing. There are countless NFR (National Finals Rodeo) Qualifiers and Rodeo World Title holders in Stephenville, as well as a famous singer, Jewel! If we took a count of the number of people that live in Stephenville that have been to the NFR, it would be pretty high! To name a few off the top of my head: There’s ropers, Randon Adams, Martin Lucero, John Paul Lucero, and Turtle Powell; in Barrel Racing there’s Molly Powell (Turtle’s wife), Kassie Mowrey, Cheyenne Wimberly; There’s Bill Pace in Steer Wrestling; Calf roping’s World Champion, Cody Ohl, and 7 Time All Around Champion/2 Time World Champion Bull Rider Ty Murray (married to Jewel), as well as 3 Time World Champion Bull Rider, Tuff Hedeman. I am just certain I missed some folks- but it’s early in the morning, so go easy on me!

I was able to stay with my college room-mate from Freshman year when I was in school in New Mexico. They moved from Colorado to Stephenville 2 years ago. I hadn’t seen her since 2003 (on a family vacation to Colorado) when she’d just had her first baby. Since then she’s had another, so it was fun to catch up and hang out with her family and her husband- a damn good roper in his own right- in fact if he could get someone to finance him he’d have just as good a chance as anyone at making it to Vegas. Kyle has out-roped most of the guys that go to the finals every year.

My Friday night run wasn’t so pretty; he took the bit in the alley and pretty much ran to the first barrel with his jaw locked and I had trouble getting him back. As per my horse’s current running times, we were 2 and a half seconds off. I have to say that he’s getting softer in his face at a higher rate of speed, but we are really missing out on some rate, so that is what we’ll keep working on. Some people might say I’m insane to keep riding him in the same bit, and doing the same things over and over (with perpetually the same results), but really, if he can’t get it in a snaffle bit, what’s the point in putting him in something else? Consistent riding is the key, and if I keep changing head-gear that’s not being consistent. I’m getting to undo 12 years of running, running, running with him. And if he learned to run off in a big bit, why am I to think he wouldn’t still do just that? I constantly struggle with being a barrel racer, who does the right thing for her horse. So many of the girls change bits on a regular basis, and don’t really give a fly flit about how their horse feels. It’s all about winning. My philosophy, as crazy as this seems to some of them, is to have my horse want to do this for me- for him to like it, and not be so wound up or crazy that I can’t do anything else on him.

Saturday’s run was nearly 3 tenths faster than Friday’s run and Sunday’s run was 3 tenths faster than Saturday’s run. I’ll take it! I am entered in a big barrel race next weekend at Alvarado; then I’m thinking that if we don’t have our rate down by then, I’m done entering until I breath the thought slow down and he melts into the ground. Hopefully the Buck Brannaman clinic will help with these things.

Anyway, it’s spring break this week and as such I have a full schedule of lessons, new horses coming in to train, ground to work, a barn to clean and stuff to do, so I’ll be busy, but it will be fun.

Saturday’s Run: