Cute

Pep literally crawled into Stoney's lap.

Also, the total kitten count is....

One!

I Got Mad Skillz

All the new little heifers at our ranch have been running around with this tattoed on their hiney:

Sometimes the girls get really nervous in the chute when I stick 'em with the branding iron, so the end result can come out a little wobbly. Other times, I get girls that come in that must have a high pain tolerance because their little booties come out looking nice and pretty like in the picture above.

Friends

Kittens have popping out of the hay bales like crazy the last few weeks. Must have been all that warm weather a couple months ago.

Stoney has made a new friend.

Mama

Some little kitty is a mama this morning :)

Expecting

Someone is gonna be a momma soon...

Little Peps has us guessing day to day when she will have her little kittens. It must be something in the water here - another wild cat in the hay alley has 5 gray kittens that are just starting to come out and romp around.

This is probably one of my favorite things about living on a ranch. :)

One Year Ago From Today

Once upon a time, there was a a California sorority polo playing cow girl who spent a few summers and a winter in a little town in Colorado, working on a high end guest ranch as a Wrangler.

Once upon a time, there was a sweet girl from south Texas who wrote a birthday rap for the California Cow Girl.

And performed it at 7 a.m. at breakfast after I helped guide almost all of the ranch summer staff on horseback to our meal.

Once upon a time, I spent my birthday on top of a cliff with two of my best friends.

Well, two of my best friends and some other dear company.

Once upon a time, we dangled our feet off of cliffs and drank beer with old friends.

Once upon a time, this Cali girl could get to this exact view by driving only 20 minutes from her house.

Once upon a time, nights were spent driving down isolated mountain road with new and old friends.

Once upon a time, I watched many a breaktaking sunsets.

Once upon a time, I shot beer bottles with a BB gun off those cliffs for fun. Because I could.

Once upon a time, I got to see these lovely ladies as much as I wanted.

Once upon a time, I could count on at least one person at any given second of the day to join me on a last minute adventure.

Once upon a time, I lived in Colorado with my best friends.

Once upon a time, I was only 23 years old.

My New Baby

A quick update on my new love...

After a rough start to her first weekend at her new home, we've finally gotten acquainted wtj each other. What kind of rough start you may ask? Well, let's just say within seconds of getting on her at home for the first time, I quickly found myself somersaulting in the air and hittin' the dirt. I chalked it up to her being young and fresh (fresh means the horse has had some time off from riding so she's got some pent up energy). After regrouping and tiring her out a bit, I got into the saddle again with the company of a slithering snake close by (jury's still out on whether that was a factor in the previous flying incident). We've yet to be airborne again. :)

Jade has this amazing, smooth lope that I fall in love with over and over again, especially if I've just ridden my grey horse. He's as smooth as a scrawny boy in high school.

Soon, I'll be riding Jade in our BRAND new arena... Right in my backyard. Much thanks to Texas for getting on the ball and tearing up the pasture so quickly. It will be the first time in my life that I'll be able to run a standard size barrel pattern at my own house. Woohoo!!!!

Int the meantime, I've left you all with the above picture to 'ooohhh' and 'ahhhhh' over. This was my baby girl as well, a baby, in Canada. She's so sweet!

Goldilocks and the Many Horses

For the last several months since being back in California, I have been on the hunt for a younger horse to ride and train as a barrel horse. It's not that I don't love and enjoy my current "barrel horse" (I use this term loosely as he is also a polo horse, mountain horse, trail guide, jumper). I absolutely adore my 14 year old gray horse, "Im Handlin It" aka Romeo. It's just, he's getting older, and I never did have the chance to properly season him on the barrels when I first got him at 7 years old. ("Seasoning" a horse is introducing the horse to many different arenas at rodeos and barrel races and competing on the horse consistently until they are used to the atmosphere). While I still enjoy taking Romeo to barrel races to see if he will magically one day turn into this 1D (the fastest category of a barrel race) horse, he is getting older. Horses typically prime in their teens, and start to slow down anywhere from mid teens to early twenties, depending on the horse. Personally, I don't think Romeo will slow down until he's 40. That's a joke folks, horses typically live until 30 years old.

Back to the horse search..

I wanted a prospect that had the breeding, attitude, and conformation to succeed as a barrel horse. After seeing several horses and picking out what I didn't like about each one, I found it was quite similar to the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

Except, instead of the porridge being too hot or too cold, it was a horse who was too skinny or too green. (A "green" horse is one who has very little training)

Instead of three bears, there were many, many horses.

Here is my documentation of my search for the perfect porridge.

 Err I mean, horse.

At the beginning of the horse search, I browsed thru some online ads when I found a really cheap "barrel prospect" up in Red Bluff, about a 4 hour drive. I called the gal about the horse, and everything seemed pretty legit. I told her if the horse was everything she said it was, I'd probably want to come home with her.

Upon driving 4 hours to see this horse and riding her, I discovered this horse didn't have enough "Whoa". None, in fact.

Horse search continues. With the goal of trying to stay local.

Here is Sassy, a cute little cowbred roan just down the road from me. She had a nice handle on her, and she had plenty of "Whoa" unlike the last one.

Sassy was cute and had plenty of potential for cow work, but for barrels, she was just too small and a little older  than what I was looking for (she was 7 years old).

Horse search continues...

I found another horse locally to go look at, again just down our road! A local barrel racer had her marketed cheap because of high hay prices. I figured she was worth a look for being 15 miles away. I rode her around in their tiny arena, and she was decent.. but just not right.

When she took off the saddle, that's when I realized this one was too skinny. I guess she wasn't kidding about not being able to afford to feed all of her horses. Plus, this mare was unregistered which means if I were to resell her, she wouldn't go for as much as a registered mare.

Horse search continues, and it's starting to look dreary.

After looking at several "backyard horseman" and their "home trained horses", I decided to start going straight to the source - locally known horse breeders and trainers. I made an appointment with a pretty well known ranch in the area that had some race bred 4 and 5 year olds thrown into their typically cow and ranch dominated herd.

I really liked this guy, Will.

He was trained to the hilt. In fact, anyone could ride him. He was definitely farther along in his training than I was looking for, but I figured that meant I could put him on the barrel pattern quicker.

Problem with this one? Too expensive.

I thought the owner was giving me a quote of a down payment on his ranch when he told me the price of his horse.

The horse search continues...

After calling up a few local barrel racing breeders and finding out I was about three weeks too late to buy anything they had available, I found a lady through my horse shoer. She was located in my town with a 6 year old barrel prospect that was started on the barrel pattern.

Besides thinking this girl, Cassie, was a mule the first time I saw her, she was trained well and was easy to ride.

After trying her out twice, I decided I just wasn't in love with her, and I had told myself I would never buy a gray horse again because of my gelding's melanoma problems. (Gray horses are susceptible to melanoma and sometimes it can be fatal - my gray gelding will probably die of melanoma as they are more than likely internal)

Plus, I thought she was a little too pokey (slow) to be a barrel horse prospect.

After I depleted the local horse sources, I didn't know how much longer I could continue with the horse search. I had spent hundreds of gas money to try out these horses, dragged Texas along to many of them on his days off, and was just downright sick of the horse search.

That's when I found her.

I had seen this ad online for this 4 year old for several months. The ad seemed promising, but the price was way more than I wanted to spend. After a price reduction on the ad, I decided to ask a few questions about this girl, Jade.

After talking to the horse's "agent" (her owner lives in Canada and Texas, and dropped the horse off with the "agent" in California to ride and sell), I decided to spend the gas money to come out and try her.

That's when I fell in love.

Jade's downfall is that the extent of her training is a bit of a mystery. She was sent to a barrel racing trainer in Texas as a 2 year old, but was not getting all the training she was supposed to. She was sent to the agent in California on January 1st of this year skinny, wormy, and a little scared.

Jade is a big 15.2 hand mare and still growing. Her breeding is spectacular. Her sire (father) is a leading Canadian Barrel Racing sire, and her dam (mom) is the offspring of a Charmayne James (11 time World Champion Barrel Racer) stud. I found her ad as a weanling in Canada at the ranch she was born on, and I found information on her half brothers and sisters. They are all successful barrel horses in the 4-D and Pro Rodeo world. Even if she never makes it big like her brothers and sisters, she can always be bred and should have amazing foals.

With the right guidance, I am hoping this girl will make a really fun barrel horse.

This porridge was perfect.

I brought her home about two weeks ago, and she has adjusted to ranch life pretty well. She is still young, and anything can happen with a 4 year old.

She has already made a friend...

The old man has a new girlfriend!

Welcome home Jade!!

Pep the Gardener

Sorry ya'll for the delay in blogging. I've been busy gardening and keeping up with our flowerbeds.

Thank goodness I have such great help.

Pepe, Peppy, Kitty Kitty, Will You Please Stop Meowing... whatever you wanna call her, she is such great help around the flowerbeds. She helps with the spices, like the peppermint and cilantro above.

She gives me massages, so I don't get sore from gardening.

She's so sweet. Definitely not in the way. At all. Never.

She helps me rake the garden.

She helps me by... well, I honestly have no idea what she's trying to do here. She does make gardening a little more entertaining.

Gardening would not be as fun without little miss Pep. I think she believes life would not be as fun without gardening.

Sometimes 9 Lives Is Not Enough

It's tough being a ranch kitty.

Growing up on a ranch with cats and kittens running around everywhere is so much fun for a 7 year old animal loving girl...

...until she watches a coyote snatch a 5 week old kitten off of a hay bale, or sees a mama cat laying on the side of the road.

Such is life around here - these cats really do need all of their 9 lives to survive out here. As a young girl, I tried sneaking back plenty of kittens to my parents house. I did successfully bring back one about 12 years ago. Wouldn't ya know, that cat is still alive and has defeated all ranch kitty odds of living outside. Long live Alfalfa. :)

While I am now somewhat used to the high turnover rate of cats around here, Texas just got his first "whiff" of outdoor ranch kitty trials and tribulations.

Wednesday was a rough day for ranch kitties and Texas. Bless his heart.

I got a call from my sister early Wednesday morning to check on a "sleeping" kitty in my mom's driveway by the road. She was afraid my mom's old housecat had resurrected just long enough to get hit by a car. Fortunately and unfortunately, it was not my mom's cat that has been gone for over a year. It happened to be a little bobkitty looking male cat that actually took on Tobe's dog a couple weeks ago out in pasture.

RIP Bobkitty.

Later that morning, Texas had to take the tractor drag out of my arena into one of the corrals. He hooked up the drag, and I held the arena gate open for him, so one of the horses wouldn't escape...

Unfortunately, one of the kitties from an old garage litter of ours had been taking a catnap underneath the drag... and I'll just leave it at that.

RIP gray kitty.

When there are so many cats around with heavy machinery and the country road with cars traveling up to 70 mph, we frequently lose ranch kitties. It's a way of life around here, sadly.

This is why my Colorado Rockies kitty has turned into an indoor bug eating machine.

She is much safer inside. She'll likely die of obesity or boredom rather than becoming coyote bait. Or roadkill.