Bittersweet

Well, since Romeo's been on a winning streak the last two weeks, I decided to take him to another local barrel race this weekend in hopes I could muster up the courage to push him even more.

Well, things didn't really go as planned. You know how I mentioned before the I could not get Romeo to understand the whole stopping factor? Hi Ho Silver, our tires were screeching like no other yesterday afternoon.

Instead of his usual third barrel blowout, Romeo had some difficulties turning around the 1st and the 2nd, but ironically came around the 3rd in decent time. Looking back at the video, confused and disgusted with how last time I ran him he was so smooth, and now he's back to not knowing what he's doing - I realized he was looking like he was very much in pain. I have mentioned before that Romeo suffers from melanoma - skin cancer. He has growths all over his body, including his lips which continue to get bigger and bigger. I have been trying to use a hackamore (headgear without a bit, so that his mouth doesn't get torn apart) the last month or two on him, but I had to switch him back to a bit two weeks ago when I was switching gear around.

My theory is that Romeo's mouth was sore from being in a bit the last two weeks, so he was less sensitive to the racing bit in his mouth yesterday. He went into the barrel like he was going to turn it, and when I tried to help him around on the backside, he literally stopped in his tracks and his head came up = not good, very much in pain.

We finished the run 1.5 seconds slower than we had ran two weeks before. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed, confused, and worried.

Why would Romeo just do a 180 on me? What did I do wrong?

Well, cross your fingers folks that we get it figured out. First step is getting him back into that hackamore, and trying him out in another week or two at the next barrel race.

Funny thing is?

Texas and I left the barrel race before they finished because I assumed my time wouldn't win any money, not even in the slowest division. I checked online this morning to find out that we won the "slow" division for a prize money worth almost 4 times what I paid to enter. Woo! I guess that was Romeo's way of saying, "Sorry Mom, my mouth hurt, but here's some money, please forgive me?"

We'll see Romeo, we'll see...

Obsessed

My dog has this problem.

You see, he loves his tennis ball.

He takes it everywhere with him.

He takes it to my mom's house.

He takes it to work with the cows.

He runs around with it in his mouth until someone offers to kick or throw it for him.

When he gets that offer, he begins to bounce up and down in anticipation which I can only imagine he inherited from his mother, a Viszla. Viszlas are know for being a little bit bouncy. Stoney definitely has got some boing in his step.

In Your Pocket

Over the last three months, someone has come into her own...

Jade has completely come out of her shell. It wasn't like she was a mean horse when I brought her home, but she definitely lacked the special personality I like to see in my horses.

Now that she's used to her surroundings and me, she has turned into what I refer to as a lovebug. She loves hanging her head over the fence (yes, most times in hopes of grain, but she does enjoy a scratch on the head here and there too), she likes resting her muzzle on my shoulder, sniffing my hair whenever I'm working around her... She's just such a sweetie!

Being a sweetheart along with totally bullying Romeo around with her huge ol' body makes it fun to be around her. I have yet to watch her do anything mean besides pin her ears at Romeo here and there, but I think that stems from him getting bites of her grain. :)

Taking A Ride In Ol' Blue

I'm such a rude bloggeress.

I have yet to introduce yall to Ol' Blue.

"Who in tarnation is Ol' Blue?", you say.

Ol' Blue is our 1970's Ford Cattle Transportation Truck. It's awesome.

I love riding in Ol' Blue. Sometimes he doesn't start in a jiffy, but once he gets going, it's hard to slow 'em down!

Today, Stoney and I went with our Herdsman to the local auction a few miles down the road (that's about as far as Ol' Blue can go from the homestead) to drop off a couple cows.

Lovin' this life.

8 P.M.

In case you were wondering...

...this is what 8 P.M. looks like around here.

Dust Bowl 2011, West Coast Edition

Sometimes in the evening hours, the younger black and white gals get a little bit rowdy.

Last night was one of those nights. This picture may not portray it true to fashion, but trust me, we were experiencing Dust Bowl 2011, West Coast Edition.

Dang cows.

STEERS GONE WILD!

Last night, Texas and I rode the horses out in the beef pasture to cool them down like we do almost every night that we ride.

Last night though, something was a little off.

I think the steers out in the beef pasture have gotten a little full of themselves with their Daddio and Chief (Chico the Angus Bull) being separated from his ladies for the month.

Texas and I were just enjoying a leisurely ride and were headed back to the gate when we heard grass crunching and pounding hooves.

Steers gone WILD I tell ya! So glad my 4 year old horse thought nothing of it. Maybe she used to get run down by cows as a baby. Or maybe she's just really chill. It's probably the latter.

Folks, be forewarned, steers may go wild when not under Bull supervision...

Redneck Woman

For the last month, I have been waiting on a special delivery.

I saw this item in a catalog a couple months ago and knew I just had to have them, especially since they were rather fitting for my new redneck of a horse.

Why is she redneck? Well, her registed name contains the phrase "Yawl", so obviously that means she's a little bit hillbilly, yah?

Anyways, back to the story. I ordered these special bell boots (boots that go around her hooves to prevent her from hitting her front hooves with her back hooves) about a month ago. They got lost somewhere between the mail lady and my mailbox, but they mysteriously ended up in my mailbox a day after I complained to the company I bought them from and the Post Office.

The End, And They All Lived Happily Ever After.

Wrong.

I put the boots on my precious baby girl, and they were too small.

Dang that red big boned, large footed creature.

So, I had to send the boots back and wait for them to send a larger size. Two weeks later, I check the tracking website to see what day to expect them.

Turns out, I missed the mail lady when she stopped by to deliver them the other day.

Does the world not want my horse to be stylin'?

I finally caught the mail lady yesterday and tore my package out of her hands, and then kicked her tire as she tried to escape before Texas came out with the BB gun.

Alright, that story may have been exaggerated just a touch, but I had some extreme anger and annoyance towards the mail lady for causing so much distress in my life over these joyous bell boots.

The End, And They All Lived Happily Ever After...

... In Their John Deere Boots.

6 A.M.

In case you were wondering...

This is what it looks like here around 6 a.m.

Or, 5 a.m. if you're Texas working in June.

Also, in case you were wondering, that dark haze in the sky is not actually a California smog haze! It's the Sierra Nevadas we have right out our backdoor! Or maybe 10 miles out the back door. Ish.

Today was a very long day. I don't think I took a breather between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Our Herdsman and I sorted cows all morning to get all the girls ready for the vets that came at 1 p.m. to start the blood work process necessary for them to go overseas next month.

Between sorting cows, pushing cows back out to pasture, sorting cows again, running cows from one pen to another, figuring out the jumble of paperwork, plugging the jumble into the computer to make an organized jumble, and dealing with all the work when the vets were here in 99 degree heat, I'm done in.

Holy cow, that was a long day.



I'm ready for a Tri-Tip sandwich from our favorite beef joint in town, rightly named House of Beef (clever, right? I think it pretty well gets the point across) and a couple of cold brewskis. Which means, not only do I get the night off, but so do two rambunctious 4-legged beasts I know...

Today

Today...

our Herdsman and I went at it early to sort through a few hundred heifers to see which ones were pregnant, which ones were not, and to find the ones in between. We have another pending international sale in which we need to locate all of our ladies that could be pregnant from 1-5 months. From our standpoint, we want to find every possible girl on site that might be pregnant within that time, so we can sell as many as possible.

How, one might wonder, do you decide whether a heifer is pregnant, could be pregnant or is definitely not pregnant? Especially when we are going through girls that are no more than a month or two along?

 Eeny-meeny-miny-moe?

He loves me, he loves me not?

Rock, paper, scissors?

Red light, green light?

Sometimes, it definitely feels like that's how we do things - just pick every other one and you're good.

In reality, we have all of the information we need at our fingertips in order to determine which heifers are pregnant or not (or in between) via technology.

Everytime the breeder (the guy who comes in every morning to, well, breed via artificial insemination) comes in, he records what girl he bred, with what bull, and on what day. After a two week period, we take the compilation of all that data and plug it into the computer. From those figures, we decide when those girls need to get checked in a few weeks to determine pregnancy.

With that knowledge, along with steady record keeping of tracking what pens contain what heifers, we are prepared for drop of the hat sales like this one we are currently handling.

Today...

is also a beautiful day. Temperatures in the 80's-90's. Where did the Central Valley California summers disappear to? The ones where we had several days straight of 100+ degree weather? The ones that didn't have a nice breeze? The ones where you couldn't see the not so far away mountains and foothills?

Today...

cows got fed a lot of food.

Oh wait, that happens everyday.

Today...

I got paid to hang out with these black and white balls of fun. Well, mostly fun. I got slathered in manure a few times, but that's to be expected of nearly every job ... right?

Today...

Stoney played Superviser all morning.

Today...

I'm missing my best friend, boyfriend, and roomie as he starts his first day of school. See ya in three years Texas.

As you can tell, I'm a drama queen.

But dangit! I've been so spoiled the last 7 months to be living and working with my man, I've gotten used to having him around all the time. It still amazes me that we don't get sick of each, but maybe it's because that's how our relationship began, two friends amongst other peers living and working together.

Today...

is not over yet, so I must be on my way! I have to ride TWO horses this afternoon because my exercise rider is being studious. I need to get some barn chores done. Last but not least, I need to work out, so I can keep this new bod of mine in shape which is now twenty pounds lighter.

Happy trails!

A Ranch Kidnapping

Yesterday morning, our herdsman and I were running around the ranch trying to kick some pregnant ladies out to pasture, but we got sidetracked when we noticed something was up in the Beef pasture. We watched one beef cow separate herself from the herd by running towards the north side of the pasture while she was bawling and very much in distress. FYI - it's not normal for one of the cows to completely separate herself from the herd like that. We knew something had to be up, and since we had two mamas drop calves this week, so we assumed the worst. What's the worst, you ask?

We have a ditch/watering hole that runs through the north side of our Beef pasture, and the last time we saw the newest calf which was the night before, it was pretty darn close to the cliff that dropped 5 feet into the water below. Yesterday morning, the mama Beefer ran all the way to the edge of the cliff and stood, bawling for her calf.

What immediately goes through our heads??

"Oh no, the calf got up and fell over the cliff into the water, and she's drowned."

After further investigation, we discovered the bawling mama was indeed having a cow over her calf.

Good news?

It didn't fall into the water!

It didn't drown!

Woo!

If only the saga came to an end right there...

During the night, we gained a third newborn heifer calf. The third calf this week. I was not aware that this was apparently our fall calving season. I'm guessing Chico (the Angus Bull) got a lot of work done approximately 280 days ago.

Anyways, the wigged out mama had given birth to the newbie the night before across the ditch when the herd was cooling off in the water. When the herd moved back to the south side of the pasture later in the night/early morning, mama Beefer left her calf behind on the other side of the ditch, resulting in a distressed mama yesterday morning, and a lonely calf. The calf is not strong enough nor large enough to cross the 3 foot deep watering hole, resulting in its mom leaving it behind to graze with the herd.

What happens next?

Cowgirl Kate and Joe to the rescue!!

There is no way for a vehicle to cross the ditch in the pasture besides going around the north side of the pasture by taking the city road. So, we took the 4-wheeler on the road, with me holding on for dear life on the back.

Of course, in true Ramblin' Cowgirl fashion, I took plenty of pictures on the trusty camera phone.

Joe had me stay back on the 4-wheeler, so he could sneak up and then crawl to the sleeping calf. The last thing he wanted to have happen was for the calf to get up and run off scared when we came at it with the Wheels of Death.

When Joe had successfully sneaked up and trapped baby girl, he had me drive around and back up as close as I could get to the calf without having the 4-wheeler drop off the ledge into the water.

As per usual, the next thing that happens is that Joe does that hard lifting, while I take pictures.

Look at her cute little face!! Now, if only it was over...

You see, mamas, of any species, get very protective over their kin. Beef cows are no exception. In fact, they are rather crazy. We had a 1500 pound (give or take a few hundred pounds) mama cow jump over a 5 foot gate a few weeks ago when we were deworming the herd.

Needless to say, this mama was not pleased when we began to drive off with her beautiful girl. As I'm on the back of the 4-wheeler holding down the calf with its legs kicking everywhere, including Joe's back, we're both crossing our fingers and praying to the high heavens that mama cow doesn't try to jump over the gate or barb wire fence onto the road in order to chase after the her baby's kidnappers. I watched her cross the watering hole and race towards the fence in a fury as we sped down the road and got back onto the ranch property. It took us about 2-3 minutes to get back around to the pasture, and luckily, we were greeted by happy mama.

Reunited!

I think Mama cow will forgive Joe and I for kidnapping her girl.

And they lived happily ever after...

All Of A Sudden

All of a sudden...

My 14 year old white fluff of a goof ball horse...

Has decided to become the barrel horse his mom always wanted to be...

Seriously.

I'm so ecstatic that Romeo's kicked into that other gear. I always knew he had it in him...

There's never been a doubt in my mind that he has the speed to be successful in barrel racing...

He's just had this issue with stopping at the last barrel that he's completely gotten over (with the help of a good bit in his mouth).

Here he is making his 2nd money winning run last night at the local barrel racing jackpot.

He ran a 18.1 which is his fastest time on the pattern to date - not to mention I fumbled/lost the reins a little bit going around that 2nd barrel, so we lost some time there. Hopefully next run we'll have good turns around all 3 barrels? I'll keep yall posted.

I'm so excited to have him so keyed into the barrel pattern now!! Good things come to those who wait... yah?

This Is How We Roll

 

Out here in the sticks, Texas and I have to keep ourselves occupied by spending a lot of time outside.

Outside with the horses.

With the horses out in the pasture.

In the pasture taking pictures of our shadows.

Actually, the last part is really what I do to keep my mind occupied.



This is how we roll.

Proud

I was so proud of my pony Romeo this weekend.

I've had this guy for 6 years, and he has not gotten the opportunity to showcase his barrel racing talents as much as I'd like.

I ran out of money doing college rodeo on him, so I had to quit my Junior Year.

Romeo had only competed once in barrel racing when I bought him at the age of 7.

I thought, What the heck, it'll take no time at all to get him competing at the rodeos.

Ha!

For anyone who's had to spend time taking a novice barrel horse to rodeos knows that it's just not that easy.

Long story short, I didn't spend the right amount of time with him getting him used to the rodeo atmosphere. Instead, I just kinda threw him into the game and wondered why he wasn't winning rodeos after only competing a handful of times.

Over the course of 6 years, I have given up on Romeo countless times, and then put my faith back in him. He can be a handful at times, he's just got a lot of GO! Unfortunately, I spent the majority of the last 6 years trying to teach him how to WHOA at the barrels. It wasn't until the last year or so that I found a bit that he can respect STOP in while running at top speeds. Unfortunately, I have only taken him to two barrel races since being back in Cali for the last 7 months. Hopefully since he's got a traveling partner (Miss Jade) and now he's in great shape (Thank you Texas!!), we can start hauling more.

Here is Romeo making his first check winning run at a local barrel race here in the Central Valley:

No, we didn't make enough money to take everyone out to a Steak Dinner, but we did almost make back our entry fee - which is the goal for me as I really don't make enough money to spend hundreds of dollars on entry fees per month.

So cross your fingers for me, Romeo, and Jade in the upcoming months and years as we try to take down this Barrel Racing Fever!!

In The Middle Of The Night

In the middle of the night...

I wake up to...

crashing sounds...

and my cat running around the house...

What did I wake up to in the middle of the night last night?

My cat trying to suffocate a mouse she had found in the house.

Might I add this is the 5th mouse that we know of since January that's not helped pay the grocery bill?

Ohhh, the fun of country living. I'm so thankful to have such a good hunting kitty living in the house. Imagine, what if we didn't have a cat?? *Shudders* We'd be like a haven for all the little mice outside the Oakdale city limits.

In honor of our priceless feline, I had a photoshoot with her the other day in attempt to showcase her hunting physique...

The jaws of death...

The nose that sniffs out crime...

The bite that taunts all rodents...

And of course, the glare that is seen in the last breaths of life for so many...

Hats off to Goose. Thank you for keeping our house rodent free - or at least not as full of rodents.

In other news, my last post was my 100th post, and I was not aware!! So Happy 101st post to me!



Mooooovin'

Here at the ranch, we have about 1300 cows on site.

During the summers, we kick out all the pregnant cows that aren't going to pop soon to the pastures. It cuts down our feed costs tremendously when we can kick 300 pregnant girls to grass that we can feed for free.

Even though we have the mama to be's out in pasture all summer long, we have to bring them in about once a week to check on them. We check them for Pink Eye, spray them for flies, deworm a few that are looking skinny, and check on their due dates. This usually takes a couple hours to go through the girls. After we are done checking them and cutting out ones we plan on keeping in the corrals, the Herdsman and I push them all back out to pasture.

We take the Herdman's "horse" (aka the 4-wheeler) and push the girls out to whichever pasture they're being put back in.

I shot this video of us pushing cows back out yesterday:

Little Brother Syndrome

Texas and I take our dogs out to run in the pastures at least once a week, usually on the weekend.

Hote has a blast chasing and killing gophers (good riddance, those devils make so many holes in the ground around here).

Stoney has a blast chasing after Hote.

I feel so bad for Hote because everytime we take the dogs out to pasture, all Stoney cares to do is chase after Hote, biting on his ears.

It's a case of Little Brother Syndrome.

Goose and her Puppy

Jail Break

Last night, Texas and I were taking the horses for a ride out in the pastures to cool them down.

We were well on our way to checking on a new beefer baby when we noticed something was a little off in one of the other pastures.

And that something was a...

Jailbreak!

Someone must have crossed the canal, got through the fence, or jumped over the 5 foot barb wire. Hmm.

No matter how she got out, someone had to put her back in with her other black and white furry friends.

Jade and Cowgirl Kate to the rescue!

Romeo and Texas helped us out too. Texas didn't do much besides launching himself over a few barb wire fences to stop the gal from going too much farther down the road. Yup, all he did was climb over those itty bitty, smooth feeling barb wire fences.

Crazy man.

All ended well, and everyone was put back where they were supposed to be.

Someone could use some new pants though...

Instead of Blogging

I've been busy entertaining some guests this week.

My old college roommate and sorority sister came out for a day to help with our vet check.

After she left, Texas's little brother, came out to visit for a few days. He's actually still here, and he is currently eating cereal getting ready to come help us look at some baby cows to potentially buy.

Here are some quick snapshots of the week:



Baby Girl

My baby girl is doing good. :)

Videos

Here is a video clip of me working Jade on the barrels in our new arena for the first time. She is quite the special little project because her previous training is a mystery. Something tells me she has been patterned a little bit on the barrels, but I am starting from square one with her!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W19F5j4pb9Q

Now, here is a link to me barrel racing with my awesome high school rodeo horse circa 2005. This might have been around 2003. This was an awesome little mare.

http://youtu.be/a78x-rVblDI

Hopefully little miss Jade will turn out as nice as Pebbles. :)

Love Affair With Water

There must be something in the water here...