On this quest of ours to find DD the right horse we decided that part of what needed to happen was my herd needed to be cut. It's not something I wanted to do but it was definitely something I needed to do...I simply do not have the time needed for all of these precious animals who need more attention!! So the decision was made and the ad was put out for 5 of the horses to go. Plus an additional 1 will be leaving this weekend. I am not good at saying goodbye to the animals I love so I chose to not be a part of it and let the Hubby do all the wheeling and dealing and saying goodbye. He told me Sunday afternoon that he is glad I did not watch some certain ones leave as he knows how hard it already is for me :(
So these are the faces that no longer grace A&MD Ranch...
She's such a beauty Freckles...
Loud and proud Lacy
My sweet 2 year old Ellie...
Hubby's girl Macy
My angel Mya
Scheduled to leave this weekend is my DD's sweet Ebony...
During the last couple of weeks we have been on the hunt for a great horse for DD... Most of you know that horse shopping can be mentally exhausting to say the least! While it is fun to look at all of the beautiful different horses, it can be frustrating trying to look past the "beauty" and get to the facts on these horses! Every where you look you can find a hundred horses for sale but out of that hundred maybe a handful are even worth the time to look!
So during this search the Hubby has found a bay mare who is 7 years old. While I am one who is partial to paints or black horses this mare is beautiful! She is 15h tall and is just super awesome! So we are making a trek to Texas on Friday to see and ride her!! We are so excited to be going there! While I have found numerous others that are cheaper and closer to home I am constantly drawn back to her! So cross your fingers, say a prayer, and wish us luck!!
After we took DD to ride the bay mare on Friday night the Hubby had a discussion with the guy who had her about letting her "test drive" the horse for the weekend and he said that would work just fine.
So Saturday morning came and DD was ready to ride! Oh and we finally figured out her name it is "Tigger" (the "horse broker" did not know it).. So she took her out to the practice arena for a little while to get her warmed up for her first event of the morning which was poles, which didn't go so well. They broke pattern but after the break Tigger picked the pattern back up and continued on fine. Barrels they knocked over a barrel! Goats she got her foot stuck in her stirrup LOL!! And for breakaway she again rode another family's retired breakaway horse and no catch :( She actually had a good run but she was about a second late throwing the rope! But by the end of the day she was cruising around on Tigger just lovin every minute of it! She really liked this mare.
Sunday morning was quite a bit colder than Saturday so all of the horses were a bit fresh but DD warmed Tigger up and they came in for poles and ran a clean pattern! Shaved 2 seconds off of her previous times on Pete! I wanted to share the video but a man sitting by me stood up in front of my camera as I was recording! Then as soon as he moved his wife stood up in front if me....UGHH I was ticked!! But oh well... So barrels they ran a 16.086 (I think it was, I couldn't hear that well LOL) but they also knocked over a barrel AGAIN so add 5! She finished her day out on Tigger and didn't have any problems with her and really by the end of the weekend Tigger was responding really great to her.
When the Hubby originally talked to this horse trader about Tigger he told the Hubby that the horse was 15. When we seen the horse we both questioned that as she looks way older than 15 but the guy said he had an equine dentist look at her teeth and that's also what he said. Well on Saturday the Hubby found out the horse actually belongs to a family in a town near us and so he talked to the wife and she said in conversation that in "Tiggers 24 years..." and so the Hubby comes over and is like "she's 24"!! AHHH just as we suspected LOL!! Which it actually ended up being a mistake of the "husband owner" of the horse and the horse trader was told her age through another friend who set up the take and sell agreement. SO anyhow even though she is older and has literally spent the last 6 months on a wheat pasture she seems to be getting right back on track! But for now the other family took her back home and the Hubby talked to them about maybe trying her out again as we obviously DO NOT want to rush!!
SO all in all it was a great weekend and all was calm again!
Video of Sunday's Barrel run, she lost her stirrups so there was no kicking towards the end...
So rodeo finals are this weekend for DD and after last weekends ordeal we have been searching for a new rodeo horse for her. Another family that rodeo's in the circuit has a 15 yr old mare for sale so D is test driving her for the weekend. We went out there tonight and she rode her for a little over an hour, she did ok but this mare is a bit stubborn....So we shall see how this works out..
So I thought I would share a few pictures from tonight!
First practice run on the barrels...So I'm thinking with all the new she forgot where her hands should be LOL?!
I feel like it is necessary for me to touch on this topic again...Last night I posted about "DD's breakaway disaster". Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and suggestions. I wanted to be able to just share a few more things with you about Pete and DD so you can see why we are so torn with how he is acting. This has been a horse that I felt the "safest" with my daughter on. When we bought Pete he was for the Hubby. And he still is the Hubby's horse but D has spent a massive amount of time on this horse over the past few years. And not just rodeo'n, this is the horse she rides to run cattle, trail riding, even the horse that she rides doubles with her friends on. So to see this behavior come to a head like this is pretty upsetting! I am torn right now because she loves this horse, and has always felt confident on him until this past weekend...
So I want everyone to know that we are looking for her a new horse, she will be riding one Friday night. I also have a couple more that I have found and we are waiting to hear back. But for now I want to share some of their happiest times...
The Winter Rodeo Circuit that DD runs in is winding down to a close. Last weekend we were scheduled for a rodeo but it was postponed to this weekend with Finals coming next weekend. I had a feeling for a couple of days to just skip the rodeo this weekend because she doesn't need it for points or anything as she has everything needed to qualify for finals next weekend but we like to let her run when they have them because it never hurts to get the extra practice, right?! Well I could have begged to differ with that this weekend, it ended up being a time that I wish I could just undo and spend the time doing something else....
As some of you know DD runs on an 18 year old gelding Pete for her rodeo's. This horse is actually her dad's but she started out on him and we bought her her "own" horse but she had already got this one working the patterns fairly well and they were working good together so we just left it alone. Over the course of the Winter season we added breakaway roping to her rodeo events, it has been a learning process and I really think if she was running on a "roping horse" she would love it! But as it is we have had her on Pete running everything. After the first couple of times running him he started to act up when it was time to go in the box. We have had issues in the past where he would randomly rear up on her but it was always short lived and they would move on. But it has slowly gotten worse, which is very strange because he has never gotten his way by rearing up, she always completes what she is doing... So this weekend proved that he was definitely having issues, yesterday it started with him not even letting her ride him to the arena with out rearing. He would get within a couple hundred feet and start acting up! My Hubby is always with her but he asked me to come out and observe what was going on, so I did. Basically he is just pitching a fit, and I do believe that DD is being kind of scared of what he's doing so that is making it worse. Her and I talked about some things she needed to do and that seemed to help. So yesterday was left with a few error's on his part but overall ok....
Today we started the day out with poles and he broke pattern, but barrels and goats he did ok on. He was still having an issue getting close to the arena but not near as bad as yesterday. So come time for breakaway and the Hubby leads her into the box in case he rears, they did ok getting in there. One of the judges came over and guided him in with his horse and Pete was in. Well they get semi set up (she won't get set up 100% right because she doesn't want to get him worked up) so she gives the nod for the calf and kicks to go, well the calf was a little late coming out of the chute so she ends up ahead of it. She tries to get Pete around and back to the calf and then it happened....
Watch the video....And please don't judge because I left the camera running a bit longer than I should have...
So now let me explain what happened...When they got to the gate he of course was ready to go out, she was obviously trying to get him turned around when he hopped up the first time. My "lack" of fast response kind of comes from his habit of doing this I think. I have my camera on a mono pod with the strap around my neck so I'm not real mobile with this 5 foot tall contraption. I am also watching all of this through my 2 1/2 x 2" LCD screen on my DSLR so when I am recording it actually takes me a second or two to catch what is going on, I actually usually have to watch it after she runs as I spend the whole run making sure I get it on camera so I don't ever feel like I have "watched" her run. So with that said when he went up the second time and walked forward I thought to myself "oh crap his foot is going to go through the gate" then he landed on top of the gate. So it took me a second to figure out what the heck to do, I was about 5 levels up in the bleachers and I was trying to get the dang thing off my neck and get down there all the while watching her because I was scared for her. I start to head down the bleachers and another rodeo mom starts freaking out and starts to run over there then turns around and apologizes to me for what she said (bad word) I said "oh no it's ok"! So Pete is caught up on the gate and D is holding on but he started to go over backwards (where I shut off the camera and ran) as he starts to go over he is like falling sideways over to the corner of the arena and DD falls and I thought OH MY GOD she going to get crushed! She was falling into the same corner he was falling into, I must have looked down for a split second while running down and when I looked back she was pulling herself back up! Her foot had stayed in the stir up and so she managed to use all of her strength and pull herself back onto Pete but on his butt behind her saddle. So then somehow they got his foot untangled and she hopped over the back of the saddle then they opened the gate and pulled her off! Then I couldn't see her anywhere so I was freaking out with tears in my eyes and I see her behind a banner but she is just standing there so I holler out to her and she comes over crying but ok. She hurt her chest by hitting it on the saddle horn during the fall and her knee is pretty bruised up but other than that she was ok. The women around me all had tears in their eyes and one of them grabbed her and hugged her and said "D you are one tough little cowgirl, and God was definitely watching over you"... It made me cry, I pray before every run she makes and usually my momma is there with me and she always says a prayer too but she wasn't there because she is out of town. So I texted her and told her what had happened and her response was that on their way to the cruise ship this afternoon she had told her friend please let's pray for DD because Pete has been acting up...I know that God saved her life and I am SO very thankful for that.
I would also just like to pause and point out something here....Did anyone notice that she still had ahold of her rope?! She held onto that thing until she fell I think, silly girl!
So you probably are thinking what will I be doing with him now? As it stands right now a girl who runs in the high school class will be bringing her old breakaway horse which DD had been running on but they didn't have room to haul it this weekend but they are bringing him next weekend and she will use him for breakaway and goat tying. She really can ride Pete for barrels and poles but another friend has offered his daughter's barrel/pole horse for her if we decide we want to, we talked to her about this and she said she would be fine with that. So we will see, we will continue our search for a different horse for her which we have already been doing just haven't found one that is "good" and not overly expensive...
When something like this happens and you don't respond in the "proper" way it's kind of hard because other people judge you when you already feel horrible enough as it is. Why is that?! But the point is, is that she is fine and I am humbled...
Sidenote~ Please pray for a little girl "Cowpirl PR" who runs the circuit with DD. She was kicked in the belly by her horse today and was flown by helicopter to the hospital where she is recovering from a laceration to her spleen...She is a beautiful little angel and her family has suffered a lot of tragedy's in the last year and a half but still feel blessed to still all be here. Now that's perseverance!
So with all of this Winter weather we are experiencing one of my favorite past times is to go through DD's old rodeo video's! Totally gets me hyped for Summer and doesn't make it seem so far away!! So on my trip down memory lane I found this video that I absolutely love for the mere fact that I cannot believe that her horse acted this way LOL....Or maybe I can....He has proven to be a toot on some occasions!!
I am SO ready for Spring!!! Can I get an AMEN?! *Listening*....OH I hear the crowds roar now!! I feel like this Winter has just drug on and on! I am missing the other "kids" in my life....We are going to have a different Spring this year, it will be the first time in a few years that I will not be having (well you know never me personally...but sometimes I think so) any new foals :( Yes this does make me very sad but it was the best thing for us as we already have so many needing ground work and some that are broke and need training!! So lots of work to do and many horses to do it with!
So I popped out into the snow last week and let them be candid while DD was feeding!
Jet....He's not mine but he lives here so he's part of the family..
DD's mare Ebony, she is such a beauty!!
Pete, DD's rodeo boy
Bob our resident comedian also known as a Jersey Steer...He is a bit of a trouble maker LOL!!
Macy, this is the Hubby's girl she is doing great! She's broke and ready for training!!
Stone my awesome yearling and Rita my sweet and shy angel....
My baby Mya....She to is broke and ready to move onto training!!
