Happy Trails!

I love long-trotting across the prairie!

Happy Trails!

This silly ol’ cow was running alongside the pickup!

They’re all happy girls now!

Happy trails!

Let’s begin by debunking the myth that horse slaughter became “illegal”. What forced the closures of the processing plants the US had, was the bill passed in 2005, prohibiting funding to pay USDA meat inspectors to inspect horse meat, for human consumption, bound for dinner plates overseas.

With that said, those of you who have been reading here for quite some time, know that I make no qualms about being in favor of processing facilities. However, a few weeks ago, I wrote, what I think, is probably my most eloquent explanation on the need for them, and I thought I’d share it here. I’d love to have a dialogue with you if you can be nice.

The term, “humane” is a human notion and by very definition applies to humans. It’s one to which the horse doesn’t relate. The horse understands and lives in the moment. And by treating a horse as a human, we’re disrespecting them. I’m not saying this is cause for abuse. I’m saying we need to treat a horse like he is- as a horse. I’ve written an entire diatribe on the difference between animal rights and animal welfare, so before you go thinking I’m just mean, you should go read this.

Further, I’m not saying we can’t do slaughter better. I’d love to see a facility designed by Temple Grandin, placed on several hundred acres where horses can eat some grass and live normally for the last few hours of their life. I’d also like to see facilites in about every 3rd -5th state. That would do away with the long trailer rides. I’m also in favor of only transporting them in trailers designed for horses.

What I’m not in favor of is
1) People’s emotions running amok which is what got the horse into this mess.

2) People spewing forth untruths. If you didn’t spend a couple hours reading the GAO report on the State of the Horse Industry (if you did, good for you! I did too!) I’d prefer NOT to hear from you. If you’ve read it and still think we can save them all, good for you. I applaud your passion, though I vehemently disagree with you.

3) People who tout and, or believe that breeders haven’t stopped breeding due to the state of the market. It’s not true. I know at least a six breeders (ourselves included) who have changed their breeding program due to the market- why breed horses the market won’t support? There are also many people who bred horses for a living that have left the industry due to horses being worth next to nothing.

4) I am not in favor of are people refusing to look at the facts, logically.

5) I despise those that spread mistruths- those people that believe breeders get tax incentives without talking to breeders first. If they’re (tax incentives) available we’re certainly unaware of them. Or the myth that all the horses that end up in the killer have bute (a carcinogenic) in their systems. We don’t, as a rule, take our horses to the vet, and rarely do I use Bute in my horses. I do keep it on hand, but I can tell you that most all the horses we send, have never ever had a dose of bute. While I can’t speak for other ranchers, I’d venture to say that many of the horses they send are also bute free.

I have heard it said that 70% of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter. That’s well and good, but of those 70% how many are actually horse owners? According to 2007 numbers of the AVMA, only 1.8% of US households actually own a horse. So essentially people who are unwilling to take on the responsibility of a horse, are continuing to throw fits, when they clearly don’t have all the facts. It is expensive to keep a horse. And if you can’t feed your family, how are you supposed to feed your horse? If you can’t afford to feed your horse, how are you supposed to pay to put him down (and if he’s perfectly good why would you want to?)? If you can’t put him down, and can’t feed him and can’t find a rescue to take him, what do you do with him? Previously, they’d take him to a sale barn, and he may or may not go to the kill buyer. But now, you take that horse to the sale barn, and it may actually cost you money (that you may or may not have) to sell that horse.

People who were/are in the equine industry knew that what did happened would happen. These weren’t “unintended” consequences. This is exactly what we expected to happen. If there were no floor price on your car when you needed to be done with it, (as in scrap metal) a lot of you would be upset with that because you’d have something worthless that you couldn’t even give away- save for to your local junk man- assuming you have one. A team of researchers at Utah State actually did a study on the industry in 2008- here’s what they have to say: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. And here’s where you can read what the industry looked like in 2007. If, for example, we made it say, illegal to sell houses to a certain sector of the economy, that’d be like telling a contractor, “I realize you build houses for a living, but guess what? You can no longer sell your houses in such and such a market.” Your career as a home-builder is now jeopardized and you would be all kinds of upset. As much as anti-slaughter folks hate to look at horses as a business, an entire sector of the economy, one that was the third largest in GDP has been destroyed. But it’s okay if we ruin people’s careers, livelihoods, and passions. We’re saving horses, right?

I love my horses as much or more than every other “horse lover”, as I choose to make my living, however sparse at times it may be, from the back of a horse; but I also love my horse enough to let him have a purpose in life and death. That doesn’t mean that every horse I ever own will go to the kill pen when his life is over. But I have sent horses to fill a Frenchman’s belly. It’s much kinder to do that than to have them die in a nasty South Dakota winter; or starve to death because his teeth have fallen out of his head and he can’t eat. Most times if that’s the case, we’ll help them along, but we don’t like it to get to that point, so we send them off before they get there.

I’m not sure exactly what happened that has made it culturally acceptable to butcher cows and eat them, but not acceptable to butcher horses. So many of us have forgotten that up until the 70s horse meat was available in many local meat markets.

The “unwanted horse” problem is compounded in the Western US (South Dakota being in the Western US), on many Reservations. The feral horse population is estimated to be 60k on the Navajo reservation; upwards of 20k on others. Many Native Americans that made their living riding and training these horses have been left destitute due to the price that trained horses are currently bringing; and the overflow of horses is ruining the landscape- killing off precious vegetation for other species- and that problem is worse on the drought ridden Navajo Reservation. Grass isn’t infinite, contrary to what many animal rights advocates will argue. Horses are much harder on the ground than cloven-hooved animals. People around the country are now giving horses away that are trained, if they can find someone to take them, so anyone who trained a good using horse, may have trouble getting their money (read: time) out of a horse they’ve trained. Oh they may be able to sell him, but for a penance of what their time is actually worth. I suppose to make it more relatable, let’s say your job warrants $20/hour, but there’s now too many of you in the field, so the economy will only handle paying you minimum wage now. I bet you’d be all kinds of thrilled about that- especially if what you’re doing for a living is your passion, something you’ve always wanted to do. And maybe it’s all you know how to do. What are you going to do now?

I know that for many, I’ve wasted my breath. I’m not going to change the minds of the militant anti-slaughter folks, but there are many of you on the fence that are open-minded enough to realize that this issue is truly about doing what’s right for the horse. I’m not trying to tell anyone that they have to send their horse to be dinner; I’m simply asking folks to be open-minded enough to allow that as an option.

From what I understand and have read, it sounds like the USDA is gearing up to do it better this time, but I fear even that won’t satiate a lot of you who say it will. I would encourage all of you to read up on what’s truly going on (look at the numbers- I believe at one time in the late 80s, to early 90s we processed almost 300k horses in one year). Start thinking logically, and realize that good horses aren’t an accident. Someone put thought into that breeding; and if you don’t have people around to put thought into breeding you’ll be left with whatever someone who decided a baby horse “would be cute to have” making those decisions, or performance horse folks who aren’t necessarily concerned with raising “gentle”, trainable horses. I’m certain that’s not what the industry, or those of you that have been around a nice horse want or need either.

Happy Trails!

PS. Comments will be kept open as long as people can be nice. If you’re mean, disrespectful, or start with personal attacks, you will be banned.

In the rest of the spare time I had, I worked very hard to finish the calendar project!  It is done. And no, I’m not showing you all the pages!  You’ll have to buy it if you want to see them! But you should know that there will be never-before-seen photos in it!  It’ll make a great Christmas gift, and I’m only having 100 printed, and guess what- there’s only 60 left!

You should also know that I got a call yesterday from a perfect stranger. A perfectly nice stranger, that is. A perfect stranger to me. He knows people in the family. That’s just how small South Dakota is!  He is a contributing photographer to the Capture Dakota project, and wanted me to know that my photos have been appearing in the Aberdeen News and he wanted our address so he could send me a copy of the paper! So see, perfectly nice!

Now let’s get to the good stuff! The pictures- compliments of the iPhone and Instagram!

Nukie and I bringing in some stragglers when we cleaned a pasture on Sunday.

Dozer, Banjo and Nuke, enjoying some grass over lunch on Monday.

The view from my lunch seat! I was leaned up against a very comfy saddle listening to horses eat!

Dino trailing pairs on Tuesday.

And that is pretty much my week in a nutshell. I really do hope you’ll consider making my newest project one of your Christmas Gifts!

Happy  Trails, and Happy Friday!

I’ve digressed. This weekend we went out to our pasture up north- about 20 miles or so from the main ranch, to try and gather our missing pairs. A pair is a cow and her calf. We knew we were missing some because a week ago we gathered our family and friends to ride the pasture and trail the cows to the corral so we could give them fall shots and get a count on them. The count wasn’t even close to right, but we knew that in some places the gates had been rubbed open, and storms can push cows through fences, or a hunter can come through and let the fence down and not get it put back right; regardless we were missing some pairs.

Saturday brought us to a pasture I’d never been in before- a Pasture with Virgin Creek running through it. Virgin Creek is named for three virgins, that I believe were kidnapped, and reclaimed. I’ll have to ask Zach’s dad for the full story. I only know that there were three Virgins because I’m currently reading “Dakota Cowboy” which is a history of the reservation.

I took all these pictures with my iPhone, so they’re not all fantastic.

Here’s a couple views of the creek from one of the highest buttes:

It’s hard to tell but those dark spots- all trees. Getting across that creek was an adventure all in and of itself! There were very few places you could cross, even horseback. Lots of cut-banks and drop offs and if you could get down in one spot, you had to make sure you could get up the other side and that there was enough room between branches you wouldn’t take out your eye or something!

I have to say I was glad I donned my hair-on-hide chinks and the extra jacket because the weather decided to catch us in a quick sprinkle of shower- and Bob, just so you know, those hair-on-hide chinks, they shed water just fine!

We managed to find 19 of our cows in the neighbor’s pasture and our one missing bull. We got them back to the corral, and sorted his cows from ours.

Did I mention yet that it was a beautiful day, Saturday?

Gumpy looked handsome as usual, no?

I love his mane blowing in the breeze:

It got late in the day and we needed to be done in time to go play football with Ty, Zach’s son, so we left our cows corralled overnight.

On our way to the football game, we saw this:

And it was honestly as beautiful as the photograph!

Sunday brought another round of riding, because we needed to get our cows that were corralled, back to their own pasture!

And that is just what we did:

Zach rode a handsome horse named Dozer, I rode my loyal partner, Gump, and Wayne, Zach’s dad rode his horse, also known as, the Polaris Ranger. Our cousins, Earp and his son Scottie, rode their four-wheelers through another pasture to check for more missing pairs, as we were still short 25 or so after Saturday’s gather. Thanks to their help, we’re only missing about 20 pairs now! Slowly but surely we will get there.

And that, my friends is just another glimpse into a day in my life…

Happy Trails- and remember to smile and ride!

Lily is as big as her mama and Rival is just cute. Though I didn’t get many pictures of him. He likes to “hide” from the camera. But I did get some of his gorgeous mama, Shuttle. She’s my favorite mare of all time. Ok. Maybe I’d say that about my other mares, Dolce and Sonora, but Shuttle, really holds a special place in my heart. She was the first horse I ever bought all on my own accord and I had high hopes for her. But a joint infection ended her promising career early, so she has a new career, as a mama! This year she had a colt by Poco Tivio Pep, and next year she’ll be having a colt by WDX Nukem.

Here’s some of the girls running- they did this all on their own accord. Silly mares!

Shuttle is certain that she should have been a wild mustang.

She and Rival are so pretty!

I just love this picture!

They’ve finally decided they might could slow down and let me walk in there to rub them.

Hey girls!

I love how they’re running around with long pieces of grass in their mouths!

If you look close you can see Lily Filly back there!

Hopefully you enjoyed seeing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Happy Wednesday and Happy Trails! And don’t forget- these photos can be purchased here.

As for the rest of you, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the support, so I will show you instead.

You may purchase the signed, numbered, limited edition print here:

But because there was so much support surrounding this image, I’ve decided to make it available for purchase in an 11×28 print as well (and for less moohlah)!

I hope everyone has a great week! I know I will. I am leaving in the morning to head to Iowa to ride with Buck Brannaman. And for those who’re interested, I will be blogging about the experience, again!

Happy Trails!

Here’s how this is going to work:

I’m going to give away an 11×28 canvas wrapped print of the photo below.

I will sign it and number it 1/150. Once the contest is over, it will then be made available for purchase in case you missed out and want it! Once those 150 are gone, you’ll be up a creek without a paddle if you didn’t get in on it before they’re gone! Or you’ll have to wait until the book is released to own it, and those that accompany it.

With this particular canvas wrap, you can frame it or hang it, as is.

Now without further ado- here’s the image:

In case anyone is interested- the butte in the background is called Scatter Butte. It’s one of the ways we can tell how hard it’s snowing come winter, because it can be seen for miles and miles on a clear day. It’s a good 3 miles away from the house. The horses in the foreground are some of our ranch horses, enjoying the life every horse dreams he could have.

Here’s how you enter:

1. Leave a comment (or comments) on this post.
2. Tweet me @thesdcowgirl and use the #SDCowgirl hashtag. That will get you entries. I’d love to count RTs, but I am not always notified of those, so while Re-Tweeting is great, it won’t get you additional entries.
3. Tell your friends to “Like” The South Dakota Cowgirl on Facebook, and to leave me a comment telling me who sent them and you’ll both get an entry.

Since this is a “big” giveaway- probably my biggest ever, I’m going to leave the contest open for a week. Entries will close at Noon on Friday, September 2 and I’ll announce a winner sometime the week of the 5th.

Now, go have yourself a super Monday and don’t forget to enter as many times as you like!

Happy Trails!

If you’ve not visited the Ranch Website, here’s some history for you:

At the Ducheneaux Ranch in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, we’re a real working ranch. We raise registered quarter horses, and black angus cattle. Our location along the banks of the Missouri River put us in some of the best grass country in the land.

The Ducheneaux family has been ranching this little piece of heaven on earth for 60+ years. Now, you can join us here to experience the life of a rancher.

The vacations will work this way:

You can bring your own camper, a tent, or stay at Bob’s Resort up the road.  Also, we are happy to welcome you into our home as one one of the family if you want to stay here! Some of the things you’ll get to do include feeding cattle, calving, brandings, horse training/riding, branding horses, moving cattle from one pasture to another, halter breaking weanling and yearling horses, putting the bulls out to their pastures, checking and fixing fence, sorting the bulls off the herd, and fall gathers, shipping calves. Not only can you experience them here, but we’ll take you to help the neighbors if they’re in need of our help that day. You could even tag along to a high school rodeo or barrel race if your heart desired. Every day brings a new challenge. Life here is never boring. Chances are pretty good that in the summer you’ll see rattlesnakes, blue racers, grass snakes, antelope, white tail and mule deer, coyotes, the occasional porcupine, red tail hawks, pheasant, grouse, and in the fall if we’re lucky, bald and golden eagles.

In addition to the daily chores on the ranch, of which you can certainly opt out, you can fish, hunt whatever animals are in season, help with cleaning the hen house, feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, and gardening. You can take a Native American history tour or hear stories of the ranch from 60 years ago, told on Scatter Butte. History abounds here!

We’ll serve three meals a day- many of which will include natural, antibiotic free, home-raised beef. And we can’t forget Zach’s famous Banana and Macadamia nut pancakes for breakfast; or Jenn’s World Famous Shrimp Alfredo. We can lunch alongside the Missouri River. In the evenings we’ll enjoy sitting around a campfire with adult beverages, playing guitars and singing; sitting on the back deck to watch the sun-set or we can even plop in a good old fashioned DVD. There isn’t a phone here, but we do have wireless internet access and your cell phone, well it might or might not work, so if you want to hide from humanity, this is THE place to be!

We’d love to hear from you, so if you want to experience this life, please look us up!

Happy Trails!