What I Did This Weekend

If you’re a regular reader, you know I live on a ranch. Among my jobs here to is to market our Quarter Horses. (Look for a blog on our horsemanship philosophy soon- one that Zach will keep; he might include me on that fun as well!).

I also maintain a website for my own barrel horses; and those that I train. I’m not currently taking outside horses as we have way too many here to ride and train ourselves, though if you purchase one from me, as Ve will attest, I am happy to continue riding it in our training program.

They’ve been raising horses here on the ranch for close to half a century now. I’m not typically one to chase bloodlines- I have a few of my favorites: Easy Jet, Jet Deck, Rocket Wrangler via Iron Bird (read Streakin Iron), for run; and Poco Bueno, Peppy San Badger, Docs Stylish Oak, for cow. And then, if you know me well, you know I lust after Corona Cartel. OMG. Hot flash! I’ve never ridden one, never been around one, but somehow I know I must have one someday! More important to me than how one is bred is how trainable they are- do they try hard? Are they smart? Are they laid back? I don’t usually do well with go-ey type horse as I’d rather teach one to run than beg one to stop. Note* if you do not understand horse anatomy, skip this part. I also want it to be built well- with a short back, long underline, long hip, deep stifle, big, pretty gaskin, short neck, pretty head. Ok. So I’m going to ride this horse, aptly named, DX Jurassic Classic, and he’s not got a terribly pretty head but he is Gump’s half brother.

Anyway, I spent my weekend redesigning web pages. I’m working on learning CSS and HTML (though I’m lost more than I’m found) and I spent the weekend learning Gimp since I don’t have photoshop (but I think I want it). As much as I’m not a fan of designing them (and would really rather have Shauna do it for me) I figure it’s safer to do it myself, than it is to try to explain to someone, not in the horse industry how this horse and this horse go together, etc. But any tips you wanna throw my way, by all means, Shauna, feel free!

I think the biggest accomplishment of the weekend, was the catalog of broodmares– nearly 30 of them (and there are if you count Shuttle and a grade mare that belongs to a relative). They’re all now clickable for a larger photo and there’s links to all their pedigrees as well. What I haven’t done yet, is build a reference page for deceased mares and stallions that were the cornerstone of the ranch’s breeding program. Next to that would be the photo gallery page and the accompanying video page at Streakiniron.com.

So that work, my friends, explains my absence this weekend. Go easy on the reviews. I’m not a professional designer, and while it might be fun to be Shauna, I don’t really enjoy sitting in front of a computer. All. Day.