December 12th, 2020, Volume 15, Issue 49
Hey everyone! It’s Maddog reporting live from the ranch! I will be writing the Highline for Janice while she is home for the holidays. I’m excited to have the opportunity to share the latest happenings of the ranch with all of you.
Last weekend we said goodbye to Scott and Alyssa who went home to their families for the winter. It’s been very quiet without the both of them. I keep expecting Scotty (I affectionately refer to him as my big brother) to walk through the lodge door and start cracking jokes. I also miss having hilarious conversations with Alyssa over breakfast, it was the best way to start the day. Scott and Alyssa will be back soon though and the crew and I are looking forward to having them back!
Meanwhile, over at the arena it’s been another busy week of riding. Des has been riding through some of her younger horses and I’ve had the opportunity to help her along the way. Riding beside her, I’ve learned how to support her horse with proper positioning and presence. Doing this has helped me learn to read the horse better so I can be in the right place at the right time, giving the colt support. Des does such an amazing job preparing her horses on the ground to where the first rides are a breeze for both horse and rider. It’s been really fun to help Des along the way and she has taught me so much on how to properly give a horse the right start.
Along with watching the younger horses progress, we have been working on backing and roping. This week,
Chris cutting down our Christmas tree
Shayne taught us how to canter small circles with our ropes around a barrel. The goal was to stack our ropes perfectly while coiling or uncoiling with each rotation around the barrel without our ropes touching the ground. I had never done anything like it before and was a bit nervous to try it. But I entered up, and lets just say I had Shayne laughing pretty good with my lack of coordination. After a few minutes, I found my rhythm and was stacking my coils around the barrel. My goal is to do that exercise everyday until branding season. Kevin’s mom, Bronwyn, has also been riding with us this week. She has improved leaps and bounds in just one week. Her seat position has completely changed and she’s had a great feel with the horses. All week long Bronwyn has done a great job performing leg yields, haunches in and backing arcs. Not to mention she is a pleasure to have around and the crew enjoys hearing all the Kevin stories.
Here’s trouble 🙂
In other ranch news, it finally starting snowing again- maybe we will have a white Christmas after all J. Many of the ranch ponies are enjoying some time off this month and are full on in their winter coats! Chris has been busy keeping all the ranch vehicles up and running, and the rest of the staff is busy with a variety of projects
We are all looking forward to decorating our tree in the lodge this weekend. Stay tuned for more pictures…
Until next time!
Maddie
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
Shayne looking out from his new grazing allotment
Another beautiful sunrise!