The South Dakota Cowgirl

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Monday, In Pictures

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Yesterday I felt like I was living in Texas, NOT South Dakota. The Mercury reached all the way to 103. And it’s just barely July, not August. We need some rain, and lower temps, but there’s very little relief in sight. The silver lining is that we should be in the upper 80s for branding this weekend, which, needless to say, I’ll take!

Through a collective effort we got all the chores done yesterday morning and the kids headed to the house to beat the heat. Had they not been to the river the day before and sunburnt themselves, I think they’d have headed to the river again yesterday. Instead there were movies and beading (more on that to come soon!), in the A/C!

I took the time in the heat of the day to go check water gaps and visit my mare, Shuttle and her baby, Bombshell.

Or at least I made an attempt to go see her.

Here’s a shot of my trying to find the horses (All photos are SOOC via iPhone):

Oh, here they are!

But where is Shuttle?

After scouring the pasture I couldn’t find her.

So I headed back to the house to get a drink and ran across some almost-grown-baby-sharptail grouse who were hiding in the grass near the edge of the gravel road:

When I got back to the house, our cousin showed up and said: “you know, Shuttle is in Scatter Butte Creek, right?”

To which I replied, “Thank goodness!”

So I hooked up the pickup and trailer, grabbed a bucket of oats (because we all know a horse will sell their soul for oats) and went to pick her up. The oats were a bonus. She’s never been hard to catch- even in a pasture 2 sections big!

There you are!

I got her caught, loaded her up, and her smart, pretty, little baby, Bombshell, just walked right in the trailer behind her. I decided since she escaped a river pasture that I would put her in a pasture that’s nowhere near the river so there’s no water gaps to walk around (which reminds me- I best go see how she got out of that pasture today!).

I got her dumped off, and went to get a glass of ice-water and took a five minute cat-nap at the kitchen table. The sun on a hot day like yesterday will really suck the life right out of you. The phone rang, which woke me up, and I decided I’d go unhook the pickup from the trailer, and water all the stock in the corrals again. I watered critters three times yesterday and they were always grateful to see me!

I got all the critters watered and just as I was getting ready to unhook, the cowboy showed up and told me he was going to go fix fence. Now, I can’t resist him, so I jumped in and went with!

I snapped a few photos along the way:

I think, if you look close, you can see a mama deer. She had a baby hidden away in the creek:

I just thought the light on the creek grass (I have no idea what kind of grass this is) looked pretty:

When we got to the first water-gap, what do you think we found? Yes. A set of wire stretchers. Random? Not for here. It’s like Christmas when you go fence. Sometimes you find plammers, sometimes you find a post pounder, and today we found a wire stretcher!

Here’s the section of fence to fix:

And of course we can’t have a blog post about fencing with my cowboy if there is no photo of him, right?

He just chuckled at me as I took photos of him.

I told him he was going to be in a blog post. I cannot tell a lie.

There’s water in the creek!

A pretty view of Scatter Butte:

Open spaces:

The creek:

A dried up dam- only because we need to have it repaired. Again.

Sorry. More Scatter Butte:

And that, my friends, was my day in pictures!

Happy Trails!

About ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western.

After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her mother, who told her she had to have a “real” job after graduating college), she finally took the leap and stepped away from a regular income; trading the business suit once and for all for cowgirl boots, a hat, and jeans. She has not looked back.

When Jenn first moved to The DX Ranch on the South Dakota plains, she never imagined she’d find herself behind a camera lens capturing an authentic perspective of ranching, and sharing it with others. Jenn has always been called to artistry, and uses music, writing, images, home improvement, and her first true love of horses to express her ranching passion.

Horses are the constant thread and much of her work centers around using her unique style of writing to share her horsemanship journey with others in publications such as CavvySavvy, the AQHA Ranching Blog, the West River Eagle, the family ranch website, and her own website.

Using photography to illustrate her stories has created other opportunities -- Jenn’s brand “The South Dakota Cowgirl” has grown to the level of social media “Influencer”. This notoriety has led to work with Duluth Trading Company, Budweiser, Wyoming Tourism, Vice, Circle Z Ranch and Art of the Cowgirl, to name a few. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Woodchuck USA, Arenus Equine Health, Triple Crown Feed and Just Strong fitness apparel. Her photography has been featured by Instagram, Apple, TIME Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Oprah Magazine. Jenn’s work has been published internationally, has been seen in several books and has graced the covers of several magazines.

Jenn became a social media influencer by accident when she started to explore Instagram as a way to share her life on the ranch with folks that don’t get to experience it. It’s grown into an incredible platform that she uses to empower women, create an environment for self improvement and share life on the ranch.

When she’s not working, she loves to drink coffee, play with her naughty border collie named Copper, start ranch colts, and run about the country chasing cans. Her mother still thinks she doesn’t have a “real” job.

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