WaSup

B-  Hey Ranger!  What's up?

R-  Trees and birds Beel.

B-  No no.  That's just a greeting like "What's happening?" or "How's tricks?"

R-  I am eating and I do not do tricks.

B-  Boy, that's a fact.  Say, speaking of tricks, yesterday the oldest daughter, her husband and I went to see the finals in the "Extreme Mustang Makeover" contest.  A couple dozen trainers took one unhandled mustang each and spent 3 months training them.  Yesterday was the finals and the best trainer/mustang was chosen.  Those horses could do some amazing stuff! Liberty work, riders cracking whips off them, crossing scary obstacles like tarps and stuff, side passing, roping cattle.  Stuff I couldn't teach you in another 10 years.

R-  Did the train peoples feed the horses?

B-  Yeah, of course!

R-  Did all the peoples leave the horses alone when they ate?

B-  Well, sure.

R-  That would be nice.

B-  Huh.  You saying you would do tricks if I left you alone?

R-  No Beel.  I am saying I am eating.  Leave me alone.

B-  I'll tell you what.  If you will "side pass" for me, I'll let you eat.

R-  What is a "slide-past"?

B-  Side pass. It is when you walk sideways so your side is going first.

R-  That sounds like it might make me hurt.  I think you would have to be crazy like a dog to walk like that.  Walk forward.  Back up.  Turn.  That will make you go anywhere.

B-  Yeah, but if you side on up to a gate, I can open the gate without getting off of you.

R-  You want me to do tricks because you are lazy like a cat.  Climb off.  Open the gate.  We walk through.  Close the gate.  Climb on.  No sliding past.

B-  I guess it's some sort of mustang thing.  The horse that sold for the most at the end of "EMM" was the one that was not going to do ANY of the tricks she had been taught for the "free style" portion of the contest.  It was kind of funny to watch, but that mare had her own agenda for that part of the show, and the trainer could only shake her head in disbelief.  The horse was just done with doing tricks.

R-  She was probably hungry Beel.

B-  Speaking of hungry, we had some "Mule Churned Ice Cream"  It was actually quite good.  Maybe you could get a job with them.  They don't have to side pass.

R-  I hope the mules made you do tricks before they gived you the eye-scream.

Fence

B-  Good mornin' Ranger!  How's the old horse doing today?

R-  I see you Beel.  I am good.

B-  Glad to hear it.  Sorry I haven't been by in the last day or so.  Family picnic at one of the kids' houses.I burned the burgers.  What have you been up to lately?

R-  On one of the days before today one of the next door horses knocked their fence over.  The neighbor horses all runned away and went to the scary road next to us.  Peoples I do not know stopped their little stinky rolling boxes and chased the neighbor horses back off of the scary road.

B-  Yeah, Ranger, I was here when that happened.  The folks came by the lodge and asked us where the people that ran the livery were.  I told them "They've been in my kitchen talking with my wife for the last 5 minutes."  I guess the ponies were just waiting for an unsupervised moment to make their break.

R-  I remember now.  You and Waneeta camed and helped the neighbor peoples chase them back in and set up the fence again.

B-  It was great that those people stopped their cars and helped get them off the highway.  Lives may have been saved.

R-  Then on the day before today I saw the neighbor lady put up a biting wire.

B-  Yeah, I heard her say she was going to put up a hot wire.

R-  I seed one of the bad horses start to walk up to the biting wire to smell it.  The other bad horse pushed him out of the way and touched it first .  He was not happy.  He was not happy all day.

B-  I don't think any of them have ever had experience with electric fences before.  They really smart when you touch them.

R-  He is smarter now.  Just not happy.

Just a Ride - Much Needed

The outdoors were calling our names today.  After our guests left to go hiking, we headed to the horses.

This is a HAPPY face!  On one of my horses, my other one in tow, my honey on his horse, a sunny day, blue skies .....  I could go on and on.
Down our favorite trail, we spot several live deer and .... bones.

It is a dead thing Beel.

 

After inspecting the bones, it was determined that a deer had come to its demise, maybe by animal since it was picked absolutely clean except for some hair around a couple feet.  However, Bill did decide that someone had cut the antlers off with a saw.

My guys stood patiently by while Bill did his inspections.  We noticed a good deal of downed trees from the winter winds; most of them had been dead already and just couldn't take the wind, but what a beautiful place to ride.

I love this shot of Twin Sisters, with the blueness of the sky and the clouds building behind it.

We rode around the pond.  Washoe had a moment of goofiness when a couple of ducks took flight just as we were passing and managed to get Jesse's lead rope under his tail.  I do love my horses;  his moment of goofiness was a quick scoot to the side, then freezing in place so I could drop the rope from under his tail, while Jesse stood still until we were ready to go again.  Then off they both walked like nothing had happened.

We checked out many of the trails, deciding we should get back up there soon with shovels to prevent more runoff damage.  All in all it was a very pleasant two hours, and now - it's snowing!

Bionic Cowgirl

If There Ain't Pictures, It Didn't Happen

 There is a saying among bloggers, that if there are not pictures to prove it, it didn't happen.

Several days ago, I took Ranger out for a ride with one of the new wranglers from across the street and his horse.  We had a great, though short, ride, because of the snow drifts still blocking the trails.  I have no pictures to post.

 I forgot my camera.

The next day, Juanita and I took Juanita's mom to lunch for her birthday (nineteen, with lots of experience) along with a couple of our kids and some of our grand kids.  We went to a Fort Collins landmark called "Vern's".  I spent lunch being watched by what may be the greatest example of taxidermy I have ever seen.  I didn't get a picture.

I forgot my camera.

However, our oldest daughter took a picture of the cat for me with her phone.

I love her.

This lion stared at me the whole meal with this wide-eyed "WTF?" sneer on his puss.

Made me very happy.


The following day we went to help our eldest daughter and her husband play with their horses.  At one point I was playing "dead man" draped across the back of her mare.  The stink'n horse reached back and bit me high on the back of my thigh.  No pictures.

I forgot my camera.

(And no, I'm not taking a picture of the bite mark on my rear now that I'm home, even though I have my camera here.)

Later that day, we went to a wild life refuge north of Denver.  The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a BLAST.  It is chock full of lions and tigers and bears.  Oh my.  They are mostly animals that have been taken by law enforcement or turned in because they outgrew the apartment that people were keeping them in.  Odd that you wouldn't want to share your 800 square foot apartment with an 800 pound tiger...

I didn't get any pictures of the animals or the mile long elevated walkway.

I forgot my camera.

I am a failure as a blogger.  There just ain't 'nuthing happening.

Bill