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by Cowgirl on November 1, 2010 · 1 comment
When I was sixteen, I wanted to learn to ride English. Growing up on a cattle ranch in the midwest was not condusive to getting a refined education in horseback riding. I learned the hard way—my sisters threw me up in the saddle and I did my best to stay on. But I did a lot of reading as a kid, and lived in a world of complete horse craziness, and in my Western-only world I felt there was a void.
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by Cowgirl on October 18, 2010
It’s an exciting time for us horse people. One reason I love harvest time is that it opens up more miles for me to ride. Crops reign over all the land here, and every square inch that is tillable is used for farming, leaving only roads and waterways left un-plowed. So most of the year I stick to the dirt roads for my horseback riding.
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by Cowgirl on October 7, 2010 · 1 comment
I’m a little baffled today. We brought a couple new horses home to train over the weekend, and last night was the first chance I got to work with Toby. He’s a solid Paint, nine year old gelding, supposedly greenbroke but too nervous and wild for my brother to ride, so he sent him to my place for some training.
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by Cowgirl on October 6, 2010
Sunday afternoon I drove the pickup and trailer over to my brother’s place to pick up two horses. He and his wife are selling their acreage and wanting to move out-of-state, and they think for all practical purposes they should pass on being horse owners right now. So the horses are coming to our farm for further training and evaluation of their potentials and hopefully find their ways on to bigger and brighter things than being pasture ornaments.
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by Cowgirl on October 5, 2010
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the fall. Leaves just starting to change, a crispness in the air, and I was so excited to be riding my mare Daisy, since she had been getting better and better on each ride throughout the summer. A long trail ride through new territory was exactly what I’d been wishing for.
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by Cowgirl on October 2, 2010
Next time you are doing math in your head and grumbling while you figure up how much money the horse, tack, hay, vet trips, etc., etc…are costing you, head out to the barn and just watch your wife or kids riding and working with their horses. Or even better, if it’s not normally your habit, why don’t you go on a ride with them? You may unexpectedly discover that you can understand why this is so important to them.
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by Cowgirl on August 18, 2010
I’ve been musing recently on where the old-style horses have gone. You know the kind I’m talking about, the rawboned, high-headed, ewe-necked, long legged, full-stampede mode movie horses that captivated the world when TV made its black and white debut. The vintage horses nobody hears about anymore.
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by Cowgirl on August 16, 2010
If you missed me the last ten days or so, it was because I was on vacation. My husband’s entire family spends a week each summer on a remote lake in Minnesota, fishing, boating, swimming, and most importantly relaxing! I spent a lot of time reading and playing with the kids in the sand, water, and sun. The only thing that would have made the vacation complete is horses.
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by Cowgirl on August 3, 2010
When I was a kid, I wanted a horse of my own more than anything in the world. I had claimed one of Dad’s broodmares as mine when I was five, but she wasn’t a riding horse and I didn’t get to spend much time with her because she was always out in the broodmare pasture. So by about age nine, Dad gave me my own horse.
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by Cowgirl on July 31, 2010
I loved taking our horses for water rides in the summer! There’s no better way to stay cool and still be outside with your horse than riding through the spray of an irrigation system or into a pond or creek for a swim. Summer days with no cattle work to do often turned out that way.
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by Cowgirl on July 28, 2010
Growing up with Chigger and the chance to ride and work at such a young age is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. Those days were hot, cold, frustrating, tiring, and painful. But I knew better than to ever complain, because then I’d have to stay home with Mom.
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by Cowgirl on July 27, 2010
I knew I wanted a good riding horse. So I picked the first foal by our Two Eyed Jack grandson stallion and the last foal out of our Three Bars bred Quarter Horse mare, Tasha Jo. This colt was a graying bay roan named Rudy, and I chose him because he acted nice and was built nice.
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by Cowgirl on July 23, 2010
Last Saturday I got the chance to ride my mare Daisy to help move our cows from one pasture to another. It wasn’t a really long drive, but I got butterflies in my stomach all over again at the thought of taking Daisy on a cattle drive. It was only her second time working cattle, and I wasn’t sure how she would do.
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by Cowgirl on July 11, 2010 · 1 comment
I think it’s something you’re born with….the horse thing is something that’s so strong you can’t ignore it. Horses give you a reason to wake up in the morning, a reason to get outside and breathe in nature, and a power to look past the small stuff and realize all you’ve accomplished that you can be proud of.
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by Cowgirl on July 9, 2010 · 1 comment
Last Saturday just after lunch, Cowboy Dad came driving up to the house and said, “Come on, hurry! We’ve got trouble. The cows are out and the bull and one calf are in with the neighbor’s cattle.” So I hurried to get my boots on and he loaded up my saddle.
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by Cowgirl on July 6, 2010
In my years of growing up with horses, there was one horse who was there through thick and thin, solid and dependable, and forever golden in my memory….it was Kokomo. He was one of those ranch horses who require no pedigree to achieve greatness.
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by Cowgirl on July 1, 2010
Yesterday was one of those beautiful balmy summertime days with a good breeze and lower humidity than usual. In other words, it was the perfect day for horseback riding. As soon as Cowboy Dad got home from work, he and the kids and I got the horses saddled and went for a little joy ride.
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by Cowgirl on June 15, 2010
I have never been a “cool cowgirl”. I grew up so far out in the sticks that being in style was never on my agenda, and keeping up with the times was about twenty years in arrears. Whatever we threw on made no difference to the horse so it really didn’t matter to us. I’ve been looking through some old photos of me riding, though, and some of my outfits are good for a laugh.
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by Cowgirl on June 12, 2010 · 1 comment
If you’re wondering how I got to be horse crazy, the photo above serves as an explanation. That is my mom, at about six months, on her pony Mickey, with her dad at her side. My mom grew up with horses, and her favorite was a horse named Old Paint, whom she kept from childhood until after she was married
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by Cowgirl on June 11, 2010
When you have a young horse, the horse is going to check you out to see what you know. If he finds out that some things you ask you don’t follow through with, he may begin to think you can’t make him do it, and will start a bad habit of rearing to avoid whatever it is you want him to do. A horse that rears is very dangerous.
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