Friday, March 7, 2008

Have I said lately how much I love Josie? She is the BEST horse ever. I am blessed to have the most wonderful, talented dogs and horse.

BTW the score is Pix 4 and Wyatt 0.

With great joy and much trepidation I was looking forward to working REAL cows tonight. The unknown . . . what would it be like? How would Josie react? I got ready in plenty of time. She loaded beautifully - yes she loaded for me! It took an hour and a half to get there. All the while I am trying to keep myself from imploding. We went almost all the way to St. Cloud from Chaska. Wouldn't you know the temp kept going down and down and down, just brutal. We unloaded the horses as the sun was setting and tacked up in the dark. I got Josie saddle pad and saddle on. She did not like the girth being tightened as her pad and saddle were freezing cold. Mares sure do like to let you know how they feel about things. I led her up while carrying helmet, gloves, bridle and SMB boots. She got real big when she saw the cows outside. She stopped moving and just stared at them. All the while my fingers were getting increasingly frozen. If she would have tried to get away I don't think I could have held onto the lead rope.

I led her to the barn, opened the sliding barn door, we walk in together and made quite the entrance when the stirrup on the off side hits the door with a big clang and scares her. We both stare around with wide eyes taking it all in. We made it so far so good. I try warming my hands by blowing on them. You know how they hurt so bad - first stages of frostbite I assume. One of my fellow Stampedes (our league name) indicated the heater in their tack area. Praise the big guy in the sky! I thaw my fingers, Josie is staring at me with a look of don't go out of my sight, I am a little nervous but okay if you are here. When I was standing by her she would put her head by me, kind of okay it's you, you are with me. Almost reassuring herself that I was there.

Time to mount up. Hmmmm no mounting block out. Will she get scared if I try to zip my chaps when in the saddle cuz there is now way I can mount with them zipped?!?!? Ah ha! I spot a mounting block and get the assistance of a watcher. We walk around, once we get trotting she settles. Well, except for when she is pinning her ears at the other horses going by. Ahhhh something familiar, our routine. The cows come in and she gets big again. I had debated whether to stay on or dismount and decided that she will be harder to mount if she is scared. She trys touching noses with the cows - so cute. We do very well walking around them but she sure doesn't like it when they go behind her, does a little boodie scoot. All is fine until #8 decides to challenge her. She starts with pinning her ears, he takes a step forward, she pins and bobs her head, still not enough, she then decides to levade (a small rear/old time battle tactic) and when that didn't work she proceeds to spin around to double barrel him and a cowboy comes galloping in to scare the calf off. It was pretty funny. Me yelling at that cow and her go through her escalation. Luckily they changed out cows after that. The best time I saw for us was 70 seconds.

She loaded back on the trailer in the dark.

I have now decided I want to be a cowboy when I grow up. Just work cattle all day. Me, the pups and Josie. Hmmm may need to do a little research.