Starting a New Year

Well, it's been quite awhile since I've made a blog post. We had a good Christmas and New Year. The weather has been pretty decent. It was above 40 today, but it sounds like it is going to start cooling down. We finished weaning the last of our calves today. (We like to try different ideas). All the cattle looked pretty good. Since the last post, we have ridden the three-year-old colts quite a bit. We have mainly been working with Pistol(the dun) and Bandit(the mostly black one). When spring comes, we will probably start working with the roans more. 

Today after we had weaned the calves we took some family pictures of us with our horses. 

From left to right: Dad-Jack, Jessi-Smokey, DJ-Bandit, Danny-Dundee, Mom-Poco, Sam. 

 I don't see any need to re-type all that. It is really hard to get five people, five horses, and one dog to cooperate.

Just the kids. 

DJ

Brandings, 2012

I decided to take the best pictures from brandings this spring, and put them in one post.

First we have Dad on Dundee.


Danny and Dad.



Sage on Murphy.




Dad and Jessi.





Edward, DJ, and Dad.



Dad and Jack.


Me riding Poco.


An action shot of Sage and Danny. (Danny insists he didn't fall down.)



Jessi, Danny, and I.


Danny's first time roping.





DJ

Ranch work

We've been pretty busy this month with cattle work. Getting them in for our brandings, branding, and moving them out after our brandings. The cattle work is almost done, so now we are going to be haying.

Here is a picture I took while we were fencing. Of course, I realized too late it was going to hit us and we got wet on the way back.


Here we are moving steers.


Interesting clouds.


Dad on Jack.


Trailing the cows to the river.



Dad, Jack, Jessi, Smoky, Danny, Dundee, Mom, Poco.


A few of the steers in their new pasture.


DJ

Rainbow

We've been really busy going to brandings and getting ready for ours. I'll probably post some pictures from the brandings after things slow down a bit.

I took these pictures about a week ago after a small shower came through.



DJ

More Colt Work

We have been continuing to work the colts when we have time. I started this post a few days ago, but never got around to finishing it.

Here is Dad sacking out Stormy.


And Bandit.


Here is Stormy's first ride.


Stormy did well. He really moved out.



He did try bucking though.


Outlaw was a little confused.


And tried bucking


Notice the hat. I have a cool sequence with pictures that came before and after. I might edit this post to add them.


Pistol is doing well too.


A picture of some of our cows and calves.


Since I started this post Dad has put a few more rides on the colts and has ridden Bandit.

We have been going to quite a few brandings. I might put some pictures up of that sometime. We finally got some rain. We are hoping for more though.

DJ

Working Colts

Yesterday we brought in the horses and started working with the three-year-old colts. There are four of them so it is a bit of a job.

Here Danny is sacking out Pistol, the dun colt. Pistol is next to impossible to spook, as you can see.


We tie the colts' back foot up so they learn to stand still and not to be afraid of having a rope around their feet.


Dad sacking Outlaw out with a jacket. We are also working with another bay roan named Stormy.


And lifting his feet up.


Dad is also working with Eagle, the five-year-old who still needs some work.


Today we saddled all the colts except for Bandit, who isn't coming along quite as fast.

Outlaw didn't like the saddle very much and started bucking before Dad had it cinched down properly.


We saddled Pistol yesterday because he was fairly quiet. Today Dad rode him. He did well for his first ride.



And Danny even got on him.


We are enjoying learning and gaining experience working with the colts.

DJ