In June we traveled out to Idaho to visit my folks. It’s been almost a year since we’ve seen them, as we didn’t make it out there for Christmas. So we were really looking forward to the making the trip, getting some fresh mountain air, spending time with family, and going on some adventures. Our seven year old daughter said she wanted to climb a mountain while we were there, and all along the way through Wyoming and southern Idaho, if we saw a steep hillside or tall mountain, we would ask the kids, “Do you think you could climb that one?” Of course they’re always much bigger than they look, and estimating how long it would take to climb to the top of them made the drive more interesting. I always think that the long drive out there is part of the adventure.
We got out there on Wednesday afternoon, just in time to go to church with them to their midweek prayer service in Challis, Idaho. They also went early so they could sing for the residents of a nearby nursing home. My parents have always sung together, and taught us kids to sing when we were little, and my mom plays guitar and they sing old fashioned gospel songs. Now it is just my dad, mom, and youngest sister Karmen still at home, so they form a trio and Karmen plays the mandolin along with Mom’s guitar. They know all of the residents by name, as they sing there weekly, and they introduced us to all of them. I always like for our kids to have the opportunity to be around the elderly, as I want them to learn to respectfully talk with the older generation and be appreciative of their age and wisdom. It makes me miss my grandma whenever I’m around older people, and wish she was still here to enjoy her great grandchildren. She would love them!
So on Thursday morning, things got off to a slow start, we slept in and woke to the smell of bacon, coffee with cocoa powder in it (my folks’ new addiction!), and french toast. Mom is an incredibly good cook, and I always marvel at how thin the three of them are, with her good cooking at each meal! They usually have a big breakfast, light lunch, and then a pretty substantial supper, such as elk steak or antelope (always meat and potatoes of some kind). And every meal except for breakfast features a dessert at the end!
Cowboy Dad helped my dad with the big square baler, and our four year old son tagged along. The baler was all taken apart enduring repairs, getting ready for the summer’s haying season which begins in mid-June. Mom said they had a hard time getting the old part off, and that she, Dad, and Karmen had taken turns beating on it with a sledgehammer! So I think it was a good thing my husband was able to help out.
I got the baby put to sleep, and while he napped I went out with my camera to take pictures of their horses. They have two new 2013 babies, a sweet little buckskin stallion, and a bright bay roan stallion. The kids had fun admiring the foals, and the foals reciprocated with inquisitive sniffs and a very gentle curiosity. 
The mares accepted us without alarm, their natures calm and sleepy.
The next day we drove cattle to a sagebrush pasture up next to the northeastern slope of the mountains. It took a whole afternoon. The two littlest ones rode in the pickup with my mom, and our oldest daughter took the reins on Frosty, an old horse I had trained when I was a teenager. Frosty took care of her so well, I was proud of them both!
My husband rode Red, a big bay gelding that is generally my dad’s favorite cow horse. He hadn’t ridden Red before, and I think the instant power the horse possessed kind of took him by surprise…Red is anything but a dead head. Cowboy Dad held him in for the first half of the ride, but I think once he figured him out he relaxed a little and had an enjoyable ride.
My dad was on Challis, a stout sorrel gelding that belongs to my little sister Karmen. I was surprised (and pleased!) to see Challis in a hackamore, my dad’s choice of headgear. Karmen has kept Challis in a ring snaffle for about twelve years, despite my encouragement to move him into a shanked bit. I rode Challis once and could hardly control him, he was so headstrong. But of course, he worked just fine for my dad.
Karmen rode her good working mare Chicory. Usually the choice of riding horses is limited to which ones have their shoes on properly. I grew up in the sandhills of Nebraska, so the shoeing business is all new to me. But Karmen has lived out there in the mountains long enough to be able to shoe her own horses, and she keeps the horses able to work. It is very rocky, rugged country.
I was given the choice between my old gelding Rudy (he is twenty-five years old, and lives in a pasture with the young horses…I saw him gallop to catch up to them, and he is not the same horse I used to ride; the old fellow has arthritis, and should not be ridden) and an old mare I trained when I was a teenager, Belle. I chose Belle, and we got along great except for a few spells where she balked, hit it in high reverse and backed herself into the fence. This happened once because Karmen loped by on Chicory and Belle thought she should be loping too and when I held her, she fussed. The second time, she did it when some young fillies came storming up beside us on the other side of the fence, and Belle wanted to high tail it along with them…again, she just hit reverse and no leg pressure or rein pressure from me would stop her. I finally talked her out of her fit, and we continued on the cattle drive, but it left me scratching my head at how an old horse can just kind of “sour” once in awhile.
The next day was our last full day at the ranch, and my sister and I had not yet gotten to ride any of the young horses. So we worked on getting them in from their summer pasture, and then tied each one, and I saddled one to ride while Karmen trimmed another’s hooves. The one I chose to work with was Stormy, a sweet four year old mare that had been saddled but not yet ridden. She was very laid back for me, and I saddled her and bridled her with no trouble at all.
I rode Stormy in the round pen for about half an hour, and other than being completely “green” and not knowing what the reins or my urging forward cues exactly were, she was a sweetheart. I am pretty certain she’s going to make a good riding horse, she just needs to be ridden for about a year.
I wish we had had more time to spend in Idaho, but it was a good visit and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing my folks and sister again.
If you know of anyone looking for young horses, yearlings, two year olds, three year olds, four year olds…my folks really need to sell some of their stock. They are working in the hay fields from sunrise to sunset and sometimes through the night, and they just don’t have the time it takes to train the young ones like they need to. So contact me if you’d like more information on some of the Idaho horses, or visit their website, LewisHorses.com.
