Day Twelve: I saddle and take Happy to the round pen. I put the snaffle on, tie the reins up on the horn and let him run a bit. With over reactive colts like this one I make sure not to tie there head around to the side of the saddle yet, before long lining them because they are so reactive and quick they think they know what I want and will turn in circles tangling the line every time I try to turn them. I have to pull a little harder than I would like to turn them but it’s a good trade off. Happy has learn to give his head down and straight back so when I ask for a turn he does just that and keeps on going straight chin to chest. I have to pull him into the panel pretty hard a few time before he get the idea and start to turn willingly. Most of my lessons last only about thirty minutes or so on young horses, depending on their attitude that day. If they need worked to pay attention I work them but if they are really trying, I give back and make a short day. I really don’t want to make them so fit it take forever to get there attention. Happy learned his first driving lesson in twenty minute so I put him away. I am happy with Happy.

Day Eleven: I remind Happy of the lesson of lunging close up and personal, he leaps away again but settles faster today. I want to make sure he is ok with this step before I move to the next thing, making sure to wind him down to a walk each time, changing directions often until he will walk off. I am close enough I could almost reach out and touch him. Now with the end of the lung line I rap it around his hind quarters to get him use to things around him. He tucked his ass but stay with me at a trot. I let him trot around me until he will walk again. I do both sides. He surprised me today I thought for sure he would through a fit about this step, he really doesn’t like me around his hind end. He handle this well. Still wide eye but he never kick at the rope as I had thought he would. Happy is ready to be driven with long lines:0)

Day Ten: I came down with the common cold and so It’s been five days sense I worked Happy. The needs of the Ranch never stop even if I am sick so I do the bare minimum to make it through. You can see how I fall behind on my own horses every year. Blogging Happy’s progress is really working for me, I felt really guilty not working him the last few days, it was funny.
The sun is out and it feels like spring and Happy is feeling the call of the wild. This is the first time I have seen him act like a stud. It wasn’t very impressive and the mares he was showing off too weren’t very impressed either and run off to the other side of the pasture. Witch in turn sent Happy into a frenzy, he started to worry, pacing his stall, calling after them. He was preoccupied to say the least when saddling, still worrying over the mares, he didn’t seem to notice me saddling him. I took him out to the round pen and let him run some of this energy off. Normally Happy is overly aware of me, at of times. but today he across the pen and back to the gate calling after the mares almost wiping me out in the process. He was good and tired when he finally would stay with me and follow me around the pen. This was a good day to get him used to me working him closer to me. I put the long line with a halter on him and made him lung closely around me at a trot. He doesn’t like me being so close to his sides and he keeps leaping way, facing me and backing, it takes awhile before I can get him to stay trotting around me closely and then finally down to a walks. He has finally given me his full attention, softened his eyes so I love on him a little and put him away.

Working Cow Horse on a Budget part two:

So excited with my new livestock I put them in the round pen to work and quickly realized I didn't know what the heck I was doing. They were much faster than the cows, I had been taking lessons with. My horse was loosing confidence fast. I took a moment, rethinking how to make this work for me. I looked at the wild sheep more like the buffalo I had worked in the past.
I put one sheep in the round pen. I watched the sheep nervously pace the fence back and fourth trying to get back with the other two sheep. The sheep did not need any more pressure at this point. I put my horse in the pen and stay on the far other side away from the sheep. At first the sheep would try to jump out and crash into the fence, there herding instinct is very strong, but they are so small no harm is done to the sheep or my fencing, they just bounce off. Keeping my horse way off the sheep, I school my horse by following the sheep back and fourth, backing and turning my horse as the sheep paces. It was much like working a fag but I didn't need another person to run it for me:0)

The sheep are much smaller than a cow and can turn around in the same place they are standing, this creates a problem in keeping the mirror image of the sheep with my horse, much more backing is required. Keeping things slow, I turn my horse whenever the sheep turns and then I back my horse back into position. After a while the sheep do settle and then I could start tracking them around the pen more like a cow.

Day nine: I am feel a cold coming on and just wasn't up to working with Happy today. As I approach his stall to clean it, he turns around nervously as always. I stand and just watch him for awhile. He take a bit of hay and then turns around in his stall again this time coming up to the gate to smell me. He takes another bit and does the same thing, each time coming back to smell me. He is curious but still not sure about me.
He handled being sacked out, the saddle on his back and bit in his mouth and so I feel good about his progress. I like a horse to have a health respect for me and a little fear goes with that. He is so athletic and quick it make things a little unnerving to say the least so I'm not wanting to climb aboard until he warms up to me more.

Day Eight

Day Eight: I tied Happy in a stall I use for saddling. I also use this stall as storage for blankets and shaving. I brushed him again (with the soft brush) he flinches and cruel his bobby in the corner of the stall in protest going down on one knee but he doesn't bump me with his nose or pull back today. I ride another horse and when I get back in the barn he had untied himself, pulled all the blankets down, scattered the grooming box and opened a bag of shaving. There is Happy quite happy with himself standing in this mess he made. He even managed to get the blankets out of their storage bens and of course had to crap on everything while he was at it. Thanks Happy.

Auction day in February and I have talked my friend Ashley to help me rope and tag the sheep before loading them in the horse trailer the night before. Now, I know, there are easier ways of getting this done and that is something we discuss every year, like making a mini shoot before next winter, but we never do.
This winter has been a wet one and the pen is slop, just walking is difficult without losing a boot. We stand at the gate looking at the 11 young sheep we have to tag and drag to the trailer. I have a ramp on both the back door and side door of my horse trailer so getting them loaded without letting the other sheep out is a skill we have learned through trail and error.
I have waited longer than I should have for Auction day and the sheep are bigger than I would like, lifting them up into the trailer while I open the ramp slightly is hard enough when they are small because they are wiggly little things. I have let things at the ranch go sense my father passed away Nov. 30th and I felt really thankful Ashley was willing to help. I have never worked these sheep with my horses so they are wild and would have been hell by myself. It's been eight years I have been working this ranch by myself and sometimes I wonder why I do this. Today was one of those days.
The pen really stinks, it's pure crap and we start to laugh and laugh some more. I decide I'm going to catch the big wildest one first, get him out of the way while we are fresh, Ashley agrees and so I throw my first lope, I miss him but I rope two in one. I had two rams roped. The day was getting a little brighter. I never get two, I'm lucky if I get one, they are really good at leaping out of the loop. Tagging two however had it's challenges but we got it done with few battle wounds, the rams horns can be sharp. I swing a few more time getting nothing and then I did it again this time two ewes. Without horn one of the ewes wiggled her way out but I grabbed her leg. One still roped and one in hand, I was on fire today.

I gave the rope to Ashley and let her give it a go. The rope at this point is total slime and we go through a period where we can't hold anything. The dogs are at our heals trying to help biting at the sheep and we are done laughing and now are screaming at the dogs to get out of the pen. We went from tired not sure we want to take this on today, to really happy laughing our asses off, to mad and now we are back to tired and want to just get this done.
There is this one sheep who is just spry, I have been trying to get him from the start. I have him in my sights, I swing and the rope go's around all three sheep. The one lone ram and the two ewes on either side, the ram jumps out of it leaving me with the two ewes and there he his, still running. Spry
This little ram has seen his buddies picked off one by one and now he is running, snorting, and going after the dogs. He was like a mini bull, madder than heck. I was a little worried he might come after me so I swung my rope and that little ram started to try to jump out, bouncing off the fence, he was losing it, and for the life of me, I couldn't get my rope untangled and he was going to hurt himself. As he leaps buy me trying to jump out he hit his face hard on the rock pillor, stunned for a moment, I give up on the rope and just grabbed him by the hair. I had to admire his spirit for life. We try not to think about where we are taking them, for I really do love my little sheep. There are others like me who collect and don't eat them and we hope for the best.
The sun started to set and cloudy Sky's give way to rays of gold. We stop and watch for awhile remembering some of the other Auction days we have shared together. Times like these, when things are harder than you think you can handle, you find out what matters to you. Good friends and my ranch matter to me. I thought I was going to loose it when I divorce with two kids in middle school but I pressed on and work really hard. Now with the economy I face loosing it again. Not sure if I have much more left to give. I realize, I do, I love this place, I love my horses and my sheep. Yes, I love my life in all it's trails and tribulations. Covered in crap, tired, feeling beat down, I see the truth of my life. I'm not just a horse trainer, I am a Rancher, it's who I am and what I love.