June 29, 2019, Volume 14, Issue 24
Making her highline writing debut this week is our very own Ash! Enjoy this great piece about our week here at McGinnis Meadows!
Hi Everyone!
This week was a sunny one, with temperatures up in the high 70s most days. Its really starting to feel like summer. We were joined this week by a group of really awesome and tough ladies. Everyone got along famously and I have to say, there was a really pleasant

Lyne and her personal horse Andy- they make a great team!

vibe about this group. Also, one of our long time friends and guests, Joy, has returned to the ranch! We are very excited to have her with us. She has three of her adorable personal horses here, Cisco and Hildago and Angel. Lynn N. also returned this week. Her horse, Andy, has been in training with Roby and she finally got to come ride him this week! And boy did she ride him, Roby had her doing everything from jingling the horses out to climbing the mountain to look for cattle. Her and Andy seemed to get along really well, and she’s very excited to bring him back to her home soon.

Camilla demonstrates on Nigil how to safely go downhill in a soft feel

We continued with the task of moving cattle from our pasture land on Shayne’s mountain to the state piece. It’s getting harder to find the cattle on Shayne’s mountain because there are only a few left. Our guests did a fabulous job at moving all the cattle we did find though. Our Guests Camella, Nadejda, Carol, Kim, Morgan and Kelly really took this job on. They got several groups of cattle down off the mountain and onto the state piece. They are some tough cowgirls! We only have 9 steers left on Shayne’s Mountain now, so the work will continue next week.

In Horsemanship this week there was a heavy focus on getting your horse with you. If you have your horse’s feet, you have his mind. Everyone worked on moving the horse

Our dedicated horsemanship class- we had so much fun this week!

with your body and not being so dependent on your reins for steering. You really have to have a high level of body awareness to be able to do this; but, It’s so much fun when you finally can guide the horse without the reins, you feel like you can go anywhere and do anything. The interns and guests who decided to stick with horsemanship really seemed to have fun. Beth really improved as the week went on; Her and Mighty were an awesome duo to watch, they really seemed to get along. Wendy, Kendall and Joy also really took to the horsemanship. It was very cool to see how everyone improved as the week went on.

Anna trimming Buzz

On Thursday this week, many of the guests joined Anna Banana, our farrier, back in the forge for a half-day shoeing demo. These demo’s are very informative, about everything from anatomy of the horse’s hoof, to the actual process of fitting and tacking on a shoe. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. In addition, we also got to watch Anna Banana trim one of Shayne and Des’ colts, Buzz. Des did a demo about how you prepare a young horse to have his feet done. It was very interesting to see how much work it takes to get a colt to where they are safe for the farrier.

Well, that’s it for now folks! Until next week!
Ash

Rowdy and his posse Turk, Fancy Pants, and Roanie

Happy Birthday, Kelly!! We loved celebrating you!

Des and Chupa

Beauty in the midst of storm

Kendall on Benny and Wendy on Twizzle at the lookout