Ranch Roping

In the afternoon we would go into the indoor arena for the Ranch Roping clinic.  Where the Horsemanship class had all sorts of horses in it, this one was full of high dollar, gorgeous, ranch geldings.  Ranch roping is different from team roping.  They use big loops and the emphasis is on keeping the cattle calm rather than on speed.

The first day Buck had them hobble their horses and work with their ropes on the ground.  One of the horses freaked out and ran all around the arena so Buck roped him and all was well again.  After they were confident with the 4 basic shots, they got on horses and practiced them some more.  Then they brought in the cows.  Buck divided the participants into 4 groups.  One groups would work with the real cows down at one end of the arena, and the others would practice their shots on dummies down at the other end.  As soon as the team had roped three calves, it would be the next teams turn.

Buck says you point your horses nose to where you want to cut the herd, and knife slice right in cutting out the 3 or 4 calves you want.  The other team member help by blocking their escape routes and angling them back around in a circle.  Then you can take your time, choose the calf you want, and rope it. 

The boys sat on the fence and heard all the side dialog, which they said was very informative.  I got a lot of insight too, not all of it useful.  For instance someone asked Buck about using a Reata.  Buck said, "a reata is like a cheating wife..." and then gave a big dissertation along those lines, which I won't write down here, even though it was very informative.  

It was an awesome clinic!

The Buck Clinic

The clinic was at the fair grounds in Thermopolis.  The weather was perfect: hot in the morning, then storms moving in for a little afternoon rain, and then clearing in the evening.  We sat in the bleachers.  The Spy twins got a lot of sun because they wanted to be right next to the arena and Mr. Bechtel and I sat a little higher up in the shade.

The first person I saw when we got out of the car was Buck.  "Aahhhh!"  I tried to smile and wave nonchalantly (impossible) without being a camp follower fan.  He said, "Good Morning, how are you guys this morning?"

Great!

It was $25 to watch for the whole day.  What a steal.  There were about 30 riders in Horsemanship 1.   Every possible kind of riders and horses were there from english dressage to mustangs to a Wynonna Judd style lady with flaming red hair, black suede boots riding an icelandic pony.  They always started out each morning with questions.  Here Buck is explaining about how to hobble a horse.

 Buck was working with a mare out of Playgun.  He'd been working with her for 2-3 months.  She was really better trained than any of the other horses there.  He just doesn't make mistakes.  Everything is so clear to his horse, it will do amazing things for him.

We were also lucky because Ricky Quinn and his fiancee, Sarah, were there.  Ricky has been a protege to Buck for years and now does his own clinics.

After awhile Buck had his helper, Issac, bring out a new colt.  This horse was one his wife, Mary, bought.  We got to watch while Buck worked with him and then rode him for the 3rd time.

This new horse was attached to his daughter, Reata's, horse, so one of the funnest things to watch was how he dealt with that.  The Spy twins were just amazed at what he was able to do with this colt that only had 2 rides on him.  I don't know as much as they do, but I was pretty amazed too.  It was altogether awesome to be able to watch someone who was such an expert.  It made me want to be better at everything I do in my life - not just horses (obviously, since I don't ride).... but just being around someone who is so good is inspiring.

Off To Thermopolis!

The Spy Twins, Mr. Bechtel and I just got back from an amazing 4 days at a Buck Brannaman horse riding clinic in Thermopolis Wyoming.  We only went to watch, but it was still incredible!  Braeburn was down working in Provo, and Golden Delicious and Granny Smith agreed to stay and do all the chores for us. 

Palisades Lake was beautiful as we drove by on our way. 

And the Tetons were just as beautiful as I remember.  Such amazing, amazing mountains!

We were on budget rations so we decided to camp.  We stayed at this place two years ago when we went to Mount Rushmore and it was so memorable (not completely good) that we decided we'd better try it again.  The boys stayed in a tent and Mr. Bechtel and I stayed in the back of the suburban.

The Camp ground (rv park) has a mineral pool to swim in so each night after the clinic we'd go swimming, and the pool still had the inch of strange sediment at the bottom that I remembered from last time.  The first time we stayed a man came and serenaded us on his guitar each night.  He was pretty good.  (he also was a registered preacher and would conduct baptisms at the pool on sunday).  This time he was gone for the week and so a different a guy came out to sing for us.  Unfortunately, he was not so good.

  He would come out and sing the same 7 songs on his guitar.  Exactly the same songs, in the same order, each night.    Most memorable was his rendition of..."old dogs and children and watermelon wine."  Every night he also sang a song he'd written himself..."and I"ll never move horses with Willy again."  And each night he would introduce each song in exactly the same way.

By the last night we were begging Prairie Spy to go sing us a song at the mic. "Well, folks, this is open mic, so If you've got a song you'd like to sing, c'mon up!"  We tried to cajole, plead, and force Prairie  to go but he was not going to sing for an audience, so in the end we just ended up listening to more of his songs, which ended with him doing Tim McGraw's "Why do you have to be angry all the time."

When we had all the culture we could handle, we would round up our quarters because you could have a shower for 2 1/2 minutes for 25 cents.

Then we went back to our own campfire and sang Marty Robbins songs, and sounded much better, if I do say so myself, and went to sleep early thinking about what amazing things we were going to see Buck do the next day.

Mr. Bechtel Photo Shoot

Mr. Bechtel wrote an article for the April edition of the Idaho Bar Journal.  It was the international edition and one of the editors asked him to write an article about Japan.

He was almost done with his article when he realized he didn't have a picture of himself to go with the article, as requested.

Oh no!  Not pictures!

Mom brought her camera out since ours was out of batteries and we subjected Mr. Bechtel to at least 20 minutes of torture.  None of the pictures looked very good with a white background.  So finally I went up to the loft and stole one of the Spy Twins' navy sheets from their bed.  Ah!  A dark backdrop.  This one was my favorite so he used it.  Golden Delicious thought he might look mean, but I just think he looks competent - wait, maybe attorneys are supposed to look mean??

 At any rate, the article got in on time, and he got great feed back on it.

Maggie, in Memorium

This spring Golden Delicious lost Maggie, her oldest and best alpine dairy goat.  "Magpie" was born when GD was in 5th grade.  We were living in town then, and Maggie's mom, Pippin, was staying at a farmer's house.  When we first saw Maggie she was the cutest thing on four legs, and so pert and sassy.  We loved her from the beginning and GD would stop every morning on her way to school and say hello.

Maggie won grand champion at the county fair every single year GD showed her.  She was unbeatable - she was always just positive she was the superior animal and she had the attitude to go with it.  She was getting old, but we thought we'd have her a lot longer.  It was a very sad day at Crabapple Farm when she died.  

Golden Delicious bottle raised Maggie's babies since they were still too little to be weaned, and Robin and Lady are doing great.  They are very friendly, but whether they will be champions like Maggie still remains to be seen.

Frecker Saddle Shop

This spring I happened upon a saddle shop listing on a website.  When I went to the website of the saddle shop, I saw it was in Idaho Falls.  "Wow! What a great field trip idea!"  I called the shop and the man was so generous and kind and told us to come up.  We had no idea the treat we were in for, and absolutely no idea that this saddle maker is one of the best in the world.

Mr. Frecker took us all through the shop:  the room where he keeps the rawhide and stretches it over the wood tree, the outside shop where he makes his own trees, and the main shop where they build the saddles.  

Most saddle makers buy their trees, so he is very unique.  He also has the original "Wade Pattern" from Dale Harwood... the real deal.

He was part way through making a saddle so he showed us how he attaches the rigging and 

sizes a saddle.

The boys got a case of leather envy when they saw his tools!

All his leather work is unique.  When he first started he copied patterns to learn.  But now he goes on trail rides in the mountains, takes pictures of flowers, and then comes home and incorporates them into his saddles.

This is a rough out style that was finished and waiting to go out the door.

 When his children turn 21 he gives them each a saddle for their birthday.  This one was for his daughter.  It was almost too beautiful to touch.

It was an honor to visit Mr. Frecker.  He and his apprentices were thoughtful, kind and so interesting we could have stayed there for days.  

We did go back a week later, but only to drop off thank you cards and pecan carmel rolls as a thank you. 

Someday, we will have a Frecker Saddle.

Horse Riding Update

Finally!  The weather is nice enough to ride outside again.  The first good news is that Nova Spy found a nice used saddle to buy so now the Spy twins both have saddles, even though only one of them has a horse....

Since Nova Spy does not have a horse yet, he gets to ride whatever extra horse they happen to have at the arena.  This winter he rode at least 6 different horses including Paylee, Dot, and Cisco.  But the three main ones were Mariah, Jack, and Beau.

Mariah was a barrel and rope horse.  She was a good horse with a lot of energy.  She knew her leads, but needed help being soft and rating her speed better.

Jack was a powerhouse whose biggest problem was that he was trained English style, which meant he was trained to lean on the bit and pull with his front feet instead of pushing with his back feet. Nova Spy spent several months trying to get him level instead of downhill and to get off the bit and be softer in the mouth.  Basically trying to re-train him western style!

Beau was a fun sweetheart of a barrel horse.  She was not confident and would "ball up" and so Nova worked on getting her to move forward.

Here Nova is with Jack one of the last times he rode him.

Prairie Spy spent the winter with Nikita, his gray mare who just turned six.  She is doing great and getting more solid all the time.

When Braeburn got home from BYU, he wanted to ride, so Prairie Spy sat on the fence and let him ride Nikita for a bit.

Braeburn looked good.  But the boys laughed at how long his legs were dangling down past Nikita's Belly!