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Wagonteamster

7-28-14, Valley Falls, OR - I still have another five weeks to enjoy this wonderful summer before heading back to work.  In the meantime, I’m having a great time. I continue to help my friends, Geren and Candace Moon work their cattle on a National Forest Lease. There are few things in this world more fun or exciting than chasing a half wild cow through the brush, then pushing her back into a herd, gathered to trek to another part of the forest - the horse loves it, the dogs have a great time, and the cowboy knows he’s living life as it’s meant to be lived.

Recently, I bought a nice six year old bay mare for Jacquie. “Brandy” is 14 hands high, real sweet and loves traveling through rough country. Today, we trailered ten miles up the road to the “Mill Trail”, which follows Crooked Creek as it spills off the Abert Rim.  We followed the trail up the Rim for about 2 hours, gaining 2000 feet in elevation.  Both horses were game and took the path with a vigor. As we wound are way through stands of old-growth Ponderosa Pine, alongside the willow and mulberry choked stream bed, our horses planted their hooves alongside the spoor of a cougar which had walked down the path 2 or 3 days before.

Before taking a young colt out in the woods to chase cows, my friend Geren spent a few minutes working with him in my round pen.  In this picture, Geren alternately tied the horse’s reins back to his tail. This helps him learn to respond to bit pressure with a soft mouth - this is very effective training.

My quarterhorse, Monty and I have taken several trips to the woods to move cows and prevent overgrazing of certain watersheds Some rough terrain, wild cows and a trip through god’s country really brings a young horse along in his training.

Plenty of good work and sweat helps makes a young’un into a good horse.  Monty started the year with less than a dozen saddles behind him. By now he’s becoming enjoyable to ride.  He still needs a good rider, but he’s working his way into becoming a good horse.

Candace and Geren Moon - good folks that still work their cows the old way.  Horseback is really the only way to work this country. An ATV would only get about 100 feet before it got bogged down on a hillside or stranded behind a deadfall or a thick bunch of lodgepole pine.

This pair of bulls decided to hold up the march as they squared off to settle breeding rites for an especially good smelling cow. Candice’s sorrel horse ended the match prematurely as he reached out and bit one of the bulls in the back.

We have been on the lookout for a good riding horse for Jacquie. We wanted a shorter horse that was fairly young and well trained.  A few days ago, a lady called asking us if we wanted a young mare that fit all our requirements.  Yesterday, I picked up “Brandy”, a six year old mare that fill all our requirements. 

This is Brandy, right after traveling 10 mile and 4000 feet of elevation change in 4 hours.  You can tell she hasn’t missed too many meals in the past few years, but in a few weeks of riding the rough country she’ll be in pretty good shape.

With all of my recent horse activities, I knew I needed a horse trailer. The last one I bought was over 20 years ago.  For the past several years I commented to many a horse trailer owner, “Some people pull their horses and some people have their horses pull them”. Sadly, I’m now amongst the first category. Last weekend, I purchased a second hand stock trailer in Redmand, OR.  One of the benefits to owning a trailer is that I will now be able to haul the pulling horses and wagon to schools and nursing homes without spending several days traveling down the highway (I really don’t know if this is a plus or minus).

My new (used) stock trailer. It’s 7 feet high and 17 feet long. The height is important for trailering draft horses.  When a horse stands 6 feet at the shoulder, I needed a trailer at least 7 feet high to haul them.

Just after Labor Day, I start work at a nuclear plant in Nebraska for 8 weeks. In the meantime, I plan on having a good time, to include a nice horse-packing trip into a wilderness area.  I can’t get too worked up about work when there is so much fun to be had!