Mooooooo!

Wow what a weekend! Saturday morning I went kayaking for 3hrs to start my day. I am trying to find something to do for upper body strength and I think I found it.

After kayaking I call Jim to see if they are still working cows that day. He says they are getting ready to head over and for me to go get my horse and come on! So I run home change, go hook up the horse trailer, load all my stuff, and get Andy. As we were walking to the trailer I feel Andy pause and I realize I have never hauled this horse or seen him hauled. He came in a 24' stock trailer and that is a lot different than the 2 horse that I am getting ready to put him in. He wasn't having it. He was nervous and then hard headed and didn't want to get in. It only took about 5 minutes and he jumped in but wasn't comfortable. So another 5 minutes of in and out and he was much better. I can't wait until I can afford my own trailer!!

We pull into the farm and park. I get my sweaty hairy horse off the trailer to see their sleek(under the lights), sparkly clean, pleasure looking horses. I think "oh great, now here come me and my shaggy sweaty dirty pony!". They were all really nice but they all knew each other. I got tacked up before anyone else and was standing by the arena waiting for everyone when I heard them yelling for me. Andy and I walked over to find they were having trouble getting the cows in the arena. They told me to ride out and bring the cows up along the fence and into the arena. I opened my mouth to tell them that I had NEVER been around cows before but they were all fussing about who messed up. So by now Andy has seen the cows and is like a border collie on a herd of sheep. He is FOCUSED!! I hop on and we go jogging down this pasture to collect the 15 or so cows.

Cow lesson #1: Cows are dumb! They don't move unless you make a LOT of noise or literally push them with your horse.

We get them all into the arena except for one that broke of and bolted at the last second. Andy saw her before I did and jumped sideways to get in front of her. I stuck it but was surprised and just how QUICK my little guy is. We chased her down to the bottom and then tried to drive her back up towards the arena. She wasn't having it and jumped a fence and ran into the woods. Thankfully she was in another pasture.

The arena is divided in half with coral panels so you can ride and warm up on one side and the cows are on the other. You always split it so the cows can't get THAT far from you and you can have other riders working horses away from the cows so they don't get worked up.

We are pretty warm from chasing those cows so we work on loping. Loping is REALLY important in cow work. It gets them forward, takes the edge off, and gets them balanced and ready for work. You want to stop hard and move their shoulders to change direction. We worked for a hard 20minutes and Andy was nice and warm. He was being really good and really focused on what I was asking him to do....then we rode into the side with the cows.

Within the walk from the side without the cows to the corner where we would be working turn back Andy was SOAKED. He was so worked up. He was hot and impatient and over excited. He would paw and shake. I couldn't believe that he was HOT. He has been mellow and calm the entire time I have owned him. I was so happy. We would spin and spin and then stand. It was hard to help with the cows but we did our best.

When it was our turn we went in a little too excited the first time. We pulled our cow but did push him out far enough and he was able to dive around us. Andy was fighting me and when I would ask him for speed he would get more upset and it just wasn't pretty. After this round we went to the other side and loped another 10min. I loped him until he was REALLY hunting for that whoa. Then I loped some more. When we went back to the cow side he was much better. We worked the outer turn back and got 3-4 more tries and the cows. All in all it was a GREAT day and I learned so much.

I learned that Andy and I have some stuff to work on.

I learned that Andy sucks back when he gets excited and that is where our issues were coming from. He couldn't get forward to execute the moves I wanted.

I learned that he has a MUCH bigger motor than I could have ever expected and we will be riding much harder from here on out.

I learned that 4hrs in the saddle hurts me more than my horse. He could have kept going.

I learned that no matter how pissed, upset, and excited that horse gets.....he wont' hurt me. He never ONCE moved my seat. He danced, pawed, kicked out once or twice, shook his head, tried to bite a cow that wouldn't move, shook, etc Never once did he move my seat. He was rock solid.

I learned that when you feel less because other people have prettier, cleaner, shinier horses and then you hear the stories about them bucking, or see they can't get their horse to move the way they want, or are asking horses to do things they weren't made for.....you can relax and pat your shaggy, dirty cow pony and grin on the inside. It may not look the best but dammit....we get the job done!

We have a lot to work on before the end of the month. They are having a team penning. I may not show but we are going to go there and work on quiet and controlled around cows.



Sorry to go on and on but I wanted to give as many details as I could since I don't have pictures.