Still Catching Up: New Year's Pasture Rodeo

When I turned the girls out next door for some exercise and good rolling, they exploded! It gave me a great opportunity to try out my new camera! Funny, this is how they ride too... Star collected and 'up' and Mercy low and long...

Short break...

Shoulders up!...

Please don't try this with me on you. Please...

Digging to China...

Star didn't like that idea...

But got spooked and flew back to the front of the pasture...

Even Star got some good air time...

Still not done...

Nope. Not yet...

Ya, not so sure about the camera yet. I still have a few settings to try, but it's just not fast enough for some of the sports action and it seems kinda grainy. And the biggest issue I have with it is that it doesn't recover fast enough after I've taken a shot. I don't want to see the picture I just took for 5 seconds after! I have more to shoot! I'll get it figured out eventually.

Still Catching Up: Cow, Bird, and Cat Herding?

Two days before Christmas I decided to try out one of my gifts from last year! Finally! My sister got me one of those neat steer heads so I could practice my rope tossing. For whatever reason, it took me a long time to get a bale bag and actually haul out the rope. I decided to introduce Mercy (and Star, kinda) to the sound of the rope hitting the plastic and canvas. I have thrown a rope off of Mercy before, while on and off her, but never at anything. Of course she could care less and just wanted to touch the steer head and continue eating her hay.

So I pulled on the rope and moved it in her direction. She stood her ground and seems very interested. Star, on the other hand, well, you can see her reaction... right before she bolted out of her stall and into her run.

I pulled it a little closer...

I hauled her out of her stall, de-cloaked her, groomed her up, and headed up to the trailer to saddle up. When I was warming her up and checking her responses to aids while neck reining, Chai decided to come say hi.

I actually thought she might have jumped up into the saddle with me she was that excited to see me! Could have been an interesting deal if Mercy wasn't OK with that...

No cat herding today. Only cows and birds for now, lol! Although, Chai does kind of look like a cow now that I think about it. Same blotchy black and white markings and those little devil horns I can see on her most days. Yup. Definitely part cow. *shrugs*

After that diversion, we got back to work. I practiced throwing the rope away from us, at nothing in particular, just to make sure we were still good with the basics. Then I moved on to twirling the rope over my head and Mercy. Again nothing. So I let it slip a few times and let it smack her in the face, on the rump, under her tail, to see if I could get a reaction. Nope. Nothing. We were still at a stand still, but every little experience counts, so it was a great start.

When I felt we were good enough to catch something, I positioned her behind the steer. Again, at a stand still. I took one shot and missed. She yawned. Thanks Mercy. I coiled my rope back up and tried again. This time I got one horn. Perfect! I got it tight, held on to the rope and asked Mercy to back a step. She complied and the steer moved to the right a little bit as we backed. And then the rope slipped off and we came to a stop ourselves. Perfect.

Still looking bored, I made Mercy move off to the left as we dragged the rope. I coiled it up as we made our way back to the steer. This time I *actually* made a full shot and got the whole head. Fine with me! I once again asked her to back and she got a little antsy and jigged sideways into the rope. I corrected her quickly and again asked her to back, which she did. That's where I dropped the rope in the ground, dismounted, and loosened her cinch. I would call that a great introduction to roping.

Unfortunately, I don't know that much about roping, so that is where I will probably leave it until I can get some pro help. I also decided that day that I don't know if roping is going to ever be my thing. I like working cows, not roping them. But I won't give up training Mercy the basics. I will continue tossing the rope and maybe one day I will find an old tire along the road and ask her to drag it. Maybe that will lead to me dallying off on my saddle. Who knows?!

Still Catching Up: A Christmas-y Themed Ride

December 17th rolled around and it was time for another ride. I grabbed the girls right before their 'lunch time,' so they weren't that pleased to see me walking out to the barn. Star more so than Mercy:

Good thing I chose to ride Mercy that day! It wasn't long after we had hit the trail that Mercy spotted something 'not right' up ahead. What could it be?!

A tree! LOL! We had had a few breezy days and this tree obviously didn't make it. Yeah! A new jump!

Mercy decided to take a bite of the bark and slowly walk over it instead. Guess she wasn't warmed up yet. (And no, my jeans are not white, don't know why they look that light lol!)

Star was still looking quite irritated with the whole ordeal. How dare I take her away from her hay! Ugh!

Anyway, once we really started moving I noticed that the forest was full of Christmas colors and natural decorations!

These bushes were candy cane red and white, just not twisted:

And the Douglas Firs were all decked out in cone ornaments:

Even the 'naked' trees were getting into the holiday spirit with their moss garlands:

We only rode the short loop that day. Star's feet were a little ouchy on the hard ground and I didn't want to ride that long anyway- too much Christmas shopping left to do!

When I let the girls out next door they put on quite a show:

Mercy's done...

Star still rolling...

After checking out the back fence Mercy noticed I was still standing in their pasture...

Then decided to go past me instead and show off with some head flinging...

Finally Star got up... ewww...

Ummm... palomino what?...

*sigh*

Guess I deserved that Star, fair enough! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Taking Advantage of The Situation

Of the snow situation that is! The day after the snow lightly covered the ground, I had had enough of the whole not riding thing. I was going to go! I will admit that I was a little nervous, it was still very slick and super frozen. I decided to ride Star and pony Mercy even though Star was the one most likely to have a misstep- I just wasn't comfortable riding Mercy on her first even snow ride all by myself. We started down the trail and it wasn't too bad at all:



I steered Star to the lake for our quick winter ride. We rode around almost to the 'new' city park and stopped to let them eat some frozen grass while I took some pictures. The lake was frozen solid in this little inlet. I'm sure it wouldn't be strong enough to walk on, but it was pretty impressive to see it this covered over.

After watching the birds wander around the lake's edge and letting the girls grab a few more bites, we headed back home. I loved seeing all of the people and animal tracks in the snow:

We followed the creek from the lake until we got to the 'pond.' The water was really running fast and high, so no swimming today. Plus, with the snow to it's edge, no thanks, too cold!

Where's Mercy?!:

It's a good thing I didn't lose her that day. Her camo is too good- I don't think I would have ever been able to see her, lol!

Coming out of the tall trees the snow was quite a bit heavier on the trail. I made Star move really slow and watch her feet.

Here's that refrozen mud I described in an earlier post:

You can really see how the horses would just fall through for an inch or two. Luckily I was able to get them to walk to the side where it was more grassy and solid.

Of course Star was looking too cute against the harsh winter backdrop not to snap this pic:

More mud cave-ins:

We all got back in one piece and chilled to the bone. The snow at our place had melted away with a brief sun break so the girls got turned out for a good roll naked. I regretted that later. Oh well.

It was a super fun ride. Wish TrailridinRN could have come too. I still hope we get one more snow spat before winter's officially over. I haven't had the chance to wear my new snow boots! ;)