Big Thunder - Little Thunder

Last Thursday (1/14) we moved our horses from one winter pasture to another; quite uneventful as things go.  The horses came when called, were easy to catch and two loaded nicely into the trailer.  Since we had four horses to move and a 3-horse trailer, we opted to move in pairs, so while Bill and Compass took her horse, Henry, and Washoe to the new/old location I stayed behind with Ranger and Jesse.  It was a great sunny, warm day, albeit windy, and it gave me time to continue working on getting burrs out of Jesse's mane.  We would have gotten them all out, too, if Bill wasn't such a fast driver (teasing).  He did get back in half the time I had expected.  We loaded the last two on and headed to one of their normal winter hangouts.

Now we had been assured that all the fencing had been checked and was intact, but that possibly one section was not yet 'hot'.  It wasn't much of a worry since our horses knew that pasture, it was big - going from 7 acres to 20 acres - and there was no reason for them to stray.  There was a heavy layer of snow on most of it, but our guys are good at digging, so we left them.

On Saturday, we planned on going to Big Thunder, the draft horse show held at one of the local fairgrounds.  Most of the competitive large horse teams use this event to get their horses acclimated  and ready for the draft horse section of the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  On the way, we stopped to check on our herd and make sure we didn't need to supplement them with hay.

OK, they seemed like they were farther away than they should have been, so we drove to the end of the road, and sure enough, they were at the far end of the NEXT pasture..  We parked and started walking fence lines.  There's the break ... wait, there's a large section that was apparently used as a gate for large equipment, and not re-closed.  Can't fault the horses for deciding the next pasture was more pleasant looking.  After all, it had a huge patch of uncovered grass under some very large trees.

We walked most of the way across, in fairly deep snow, until we could get their attention.  True to form, my grays came the rest of the way to us, and the two other geldings saw the halters and decided "no way".  We slipped halters on Jess and Washoe and walked them back toward the gate, in hopes the other two would eventually follow.  For once, it actually did work (not a given for Ranger!)  Henry didn't want to miss out on whatever, and Ranger finally decided he didn't want to be left out and came straggling in.  We were patting ourselves on our backs about our luck; might actually get to go to Big Thunder.  You all know what happens when you do that.....

Bill fastened the gate - merely a single barb wire strand, as was the rest of that section of fence - and I released my horses.  To my surprise, Jesse took off at a dead run right for that section, ducked her head and peeled under the 'gate'!  Be careful what you teach your horses.  I had taught mine a 'duck' command to duck under things on the trail.  Last summer, unwittingly, Bill and I had both used that a lot to move the horses from one pen to another or to get out of our corral without having to unhook the hot wire every time or remove the top gate rail.  In our minds (besides being lazy), we were just reinforcing a verbal command.  In Jesse's horse mind, it meant she could move to the pasture she thought better on her own.

While Bill kept the other three from following her, I tramped back into that pasture intent on catching a horse who now did NOT want to be caught.  It quickly became clear she just wanted me to understand which pasture was better.  As soon as I called her, she returned to the fence line but instead of crossing in, she raced as fast as she could all the way to the other end.  When I called again, she came racing back, passed me and continued to the other end.  Now she was just having fun getting some much needed exercise.  This was a game we would play when she got bored if we had to keep them on the mountain in the winter.  So I just stood there and called again; again she raced past me to the farther end.  I had to laugh; she looked so like the big drafts when they go flying by in the arena, so I called her Little Thunder.

This time I just followed to the corner where she calmly waited for me.  I started to reach for her halter, but she just walked over to the fence and started to step over the wire.  When her leg touched the wire, she just put her foot down and stood there.  I realized then that the fence in that spot was barely 8 inches above the snow, so I stepped on the wire and told her to step over, which she nicely did.  I raised the wire back up to the height it should have been, gave all the horses a good pat since they had wandered down to watch the escapades, and headed back across the pastures.

Bill had secured the gate better and decided to halter Ranger to make him walk back to the proper end in hopes all would follow.  We decided to feed them a bale of hay so they would have something they didn't have to dig for.  Of course, this time the others would not follow, so Ranger got the whole bale to himself, which he promptly scoffed at and returned to the others.  Go figure.

We climbed in the truck and continued on to the fairgrounds, arriving just in time for the main events.  It's always glorious to see those huge teams in action.

The big yellow wagon won the 6-up - with all mare Percherons.  Second place was also an all mare team of Percherons - only 3 years old!  Go girls!

Nothing like traipsing around in deep snow in your dress boots to get your exercise!
Bionic Cowgirl

NWSS Draft Horse Finals

Some friends got us tickets to the last day of the National Western Stock Show for the Draft Horse Finals.  We knew this year was a big deal there - because they had a record number of entries. There were 20 teams this year; this is the 12 finalists.  There were teams from as far away as New Jersey; and the weather in that part of the country has not been good for hauling 8 to 10 2000 lb. horses and all their gear, plus the semi it takes to haul the wagon!

I was using my friend's iPad to take videos for her, so I only got a few on my own camera, and it was hard to get so many horses all in one shot, but here are a few snaps.

Believe it or not, there are 12 wagons and teams lined up here - and this is to determine the World Champion Six-Up Team for 2014.  The turquoise wagon at the farthest end took 1st place and the darker red wagon that you can barely see placed second.  I think the white wagon was 7th or 8th.  This is important, because for the eight-up teams, they usually unhook the lead team,and add a second team, called the swing team.  The third team becomes the point team and the ones closest to the wagon are the wheel team (if I understood it all correctly).  

You would think the placing in the eight's would be pretty similar, but the whole team's dynamics change when you add horses.

All of the teams are not lined up yet, but this is the best picture I had of the winning team.  Yep, the same team took first; that turquoise wagon.  Look at the placement of the feet on the lead team.  You would think it was two halter-class horses being judged.  Every time they stopped, they lined themselves up like that.  You notice there is nobody in front asking them to do that.  It makes me think that was part of the reason they took the first slot.

This time, however, that white wagon placed second and the red wagon (in the middle) took third.  You just can never tell.  That black shire team was really pretty and flashy to watch, with such pretty white faces and white, hairy fetlocks, but they just didn't have quite the precision of the others.

This video was taken as the winning six-up team was leaving the arena after their 'victory lap'.  Notice the precision of the lead teams feet.  Wow!

Before the eight's came out, Bill and I moved from the top of the arena down to the floor - right next to the rail, so it was pretty exciting watching these big horses come right next to you - and feel the ground shake as they go by.  This team took third.

As entertainment between the two heats, they had mule barrel racing.  Due to the incoming weather, only three mules were able to stay and compete, but they were fun to watch.  This video shows the second place mule.  Don't laugh, but I think it's easy to see why it's usually horses running the barrels!

We also got to watch the feed team race finals (six teams), where two teams race against each other to deliver hay to platforms, with 'swampers' (the guys who shuffle the hay bales from the flat sled to the ground and back again).  They are really racing the clock; the fastest time wins; teams are penalized if the horses break into a canter, though - must walk or trot. We got a good video but it's too long to upload here.

Last, but not least we watched the heavy-weight draft pulls.  Teams of two horses are hooked to a sled with bags of sand, starting at 5,000 lbs. weight.  There were 10 teams challenging each other.  Bags were added until non of the teams could move the sled the required 20 ft.  The last team moved 15,000 lbs.  It turned out that the middle-weight horses had also stopped at that weight the day before..

This team placed third; look at all that sand.
Well, we had a great time, and the weather in Denver was quite pleasant.  However, when we got back up the mountain, there was the glisten of snowflakes in the air.  This morning we woke up to about four inches of snow, and as I write this we are topping 12 inches and 4* outside, but NO wind at the moment.  Yeah.  I shan't complain as I feel really badly for all of you in the east!  Here's to warmer days ahead for all of you.
Bionic Cowgirl

The PBR!!!

On Tues. a friend gave us tickets to the Pro Bull Riding competition at the National Western Stock Show.  This has become a yearly event for the four of us; it's a time when we make time to get together, as our busy schedules seem to pull us in different directions, even though we have similar likes.  So when the NWSS comes to Denver, we get food and chase bulls and horses.  This year, instead of eating out, we fixed a picnic supper - and ended up eating it in the car because of the traffic going into Denver.  We still laughed a lot and poked along in the traffic.

We had wanted to arrive earlier this year so we would have time to check out the event center before the bull riding began.  On the walk from the stadium to the event center Bill and I were asked if we wanted to look around the booths, or join them checking on the horse stalls for the upcoming draft horse events.  Duh!  Like we would choose stuff over seeing horses!

As we traipsed through the cattle barn, we saw some of the biggest Hereford bulls I have ever seen.  I heard that they now breed for flatness of back and length of leg:  equals more space for meat.  They all looked like they had just stepped out of the beauty shop; I commented that the guys must have to have lessons in how to shave the tails "just so", as they all had the same 'styling'.

Entering the next building, we saw the 'nursery'; a family of goats with two of the cutest kids; a very large sow pig with eight very hungry piglets,

 and an alpaca mama and baby.

We noticed some paint horses being warmed up in the neighboring arena, so we walked over to watch for a couple of minutes.  OMG  I almost cried; I couldn't believe how these horses were expected to move!  I am sure I will be insulting showmanship here - and I am sorry - but if I ever saw one of my horses moving like this, I would think it was in terrible pain - and that's the first thought that went through my head watching these horses.

I only saw two horses out of the whole bunch moving in a natural state.  I'm sure they wouldn't place, but they looked happy, and so did their riders.  They were just having a good time.

At that, we moved back to the stadium and the bull riding.

We saw a lot of this ...       blurry, very fast bulls ....

and a lot of this ...     'cause a good deal of the bulls wouldn't hold still in the chute long enough for the cowboy to get situated.

Mostly we saw a good deal of this ....     The bulls were ahead about 3 to 1....

However, there would be a really good ride now and then ...

This is what it looked like in still life .... when the bull decided to chase the horse...

I couldn't blame the horse for looking a tad worried.

During a break in the rounds, we saw some team penning.  If any of you have read Mark Rashid's stories about team penning - this is a prime example - of how to scatter cattle and NOT win a competition.

Yep, the winners did it moving calmly into the herd, gently sliding the calf out and getting three into the pen in 19 seconds.  Another example of how going slower is really faster.

At half time, we got a short exhibition of truly good teamwork... a six-up team of black quarter horses pulling the stagecoach and a team of Percherons on the white wagon.

After the show, we went downstairs and chatted with the owners of the Percherons.  We are constantly amazed at the traveling schedule these guys keep and still keep these horses healthy and in top shape.  Their harness and gear is kept spotless.

Sunday, we get to see them perform at Big Thunder at the Budweiser Event Center, and again the following Sunday at the NWSS for their final performance.  If ever given a chance to see them... GOOOO!
Bionic Cowgirl