Day 3 of 7

Ok, so I am trying this week of rides again. I am on day 3. Thursday, I rode at Bible study. Yesterday, our church had a playday and I was on horse most of the evening. I did not participate in the events, but did mostly stay on her from about 6:30-9:30. Today, I saddled up and rode in the pasture a little, took a break for dinner, then rode down the road to the end of the pasture and back. I started at 7 pm and finished after sunset. I have been doing various riding situations. This is good for Koda and me. Tomorrow, I am taking her and riding before church. That's a morning ride, where I have only been doing evening rides. I think I may have her go into the other field. The tricky part will be starting Monday. I begin the work year again. I will be gone from 7 am to at least 5 pm. At least the kids won't be back until next week.

By the way. Update on the fish experiment. Both fish were alive and feisty yesterday. I can't say that they have made any improvement on the algae. A friend asked what I am feeding them. Hehe. I am feeding them algae. They have enough of that, I don't believe that I need to add to it.

Oh what a ...

MARE!
Koda was all mare and trying to be alpha today. And I think she might have won in the feed pen, except that she didn't get any feed. I locked her out of the feed pen because she was being SO disrespectful to me. I loaded her up at 4:30 for the 7pm Bible study. I had a family meeting in town at a local hamburger joint before the Bible study, so I wanted to make sure that I was ready.
Anyway...Koda was in the trailer from 4:30 until about 7:15 and most of that time she was waiting impatiently in the trailer. She was kicking the snot out of the side of the trailer when we walked out of the hamburger joint. We had to make another stop by the school to pick up our kid from band. At the school, Koda was still agitated and was completely covered in sweat, so I let her loose in the big section of the trailer. That didn't work. Then I pulled her out and brushed her down, trying to calm her some. I think it worked a little.
When we got to the church she started prancing in half-circles where she was tied. She continued her attitude a little when I started to ride, then majorly disrespected me at the house. She was pushing past me and moving when I tried to get her back hoof. On the way back to the pasture she was trying to bowl over me and was in my personal bubble. Of course, I did have a scoop of feed in my hand. Since Koda kept getting in my space, I kept pushing her back. She finally got annoyed and ran in to the main part of the pasture. I locked her out of the feed pen so she can't get to that feed. I figure that if she's got the energy to have attitude, she doesn't need grain. She's not lacking in food.

While at the Bible study, I noticed that there were some cattle roaming free on the open church pasture. I asked our arena team leader about it and he said that after the Bible study, he was going to pen them in the arena and load them in his trailer. He got distracted so us ladies decided to do it. So Kyla, Jolita, and I herded them in. I really enjoy doing this type of work with Koda and prefer it to the arena events. I would love to learn how to work cattle with Koda, and be able to put that knowledge to use. With no cattle of my own, and our leasee not "needing help", I don't get any practice doing that work.

On the plus side, I made a beautiful cake today for a 12 yr old's birthday I modeled it off of this cake on the Wilton website. The girl told me she wanted flowers connected with an ivy. She wanted bright pink and deep blue and purple.She got this cake: She loved it and it was gone immediately.
Chop, chop, chomp, goodbye!

Weekend happenin's

We went to the Youth Rodeo hosted by our sponsor church. I was late getting home from my dad's house so we were late to the rodeo. It started at 7:30 and we didn't get there until around 8 or 8:30, just as the straight barrels were finishing. I think we completely missed the clover leaf barrels. They then had all the normal competitions for rodeos. We watched the straight poles firstThe kids did well. I was proud of one girl who took her time and got her horsemanship and the pattern correctly instead of rushing and knocking poles over.

After the poles was goat tying. The goats are tied in the arena and the kids ride in, flip the goat and tie two of the legs. I think I need to learn this so I can deal with our goats better.


This gentleman was the time flagger. He parked his horse there, and never once looked in the stands. Just stared down the fenceline at the end of the arena.

He was judging the calf-roping. They had break-away and tie-down roping. I think this picture is the tie-down, but I'm not sure.
They also had calf ribbon roping. The girl stands at a starting point and waits. They release the calf, and the boy ropes the calf. The girl starts running when the horse breaks through the line and after the boy has a hand on the calf, pulls the red ribbon off the tail. I can figure most rodeo events, but the reason behind making a girl run for the ribbon is beyond me.


We got home around 12:30 that night. I got up Saturday and make a "blueberry buckle" for us to take to the workday our church was having. We helped paint old tin sheets with polyurithane and sheetrock the upstairs rooms.

Hubby had a men's night at the church last night and their menu included steak and baked potatoes. I couldn't find anyone to hang out with, so I decided girl's night out was a great alternative. We went out to Red Lobster and the movies. Yummy fun.

Today was church and not much else. We've been especially lazy today. And so much for riding every day. That kinda bit the dust. Oh well, I'll leave you with our beautiful sunset with a wonderful shadow in front. Koda was enjoying the buffet in our front yard on Tuesday after my ride.