April 17, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
All winter we had kept the water tank full for the bulls in the bull pasture. When spring came and the ice went out on the dam, it was one more chore we were glad to stop having to attend to,what with calving and everything else to do, so we shut the tank off. On […]
April 5, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
Back in the years of having a band of broodmares, we actually had few foaling difficulties. One spring though, a big mare that I had raised and ridden for several years just refused to have her foal. The foal’s feet and muzzle would be out and as soon as the pressure of the chest coming […]
April 2, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
My hip had gotten progressively worse over the years from a horse wreck when I was young and limber. I still made a living on a horse, but it wasn’t getting easier. Getting on was a struggle as my right leg couldn’t bend “out” anymore, thus making it challenging to get it over the cantle […]
March 30, 2021
Jenn Zeller
In my continuing series on making a barrel horse, I wanted to share my latest run. My mare is now 7, and we spent most of last year clocking in the 4D and 5D respectively. For those of you not in the world of barrel horses – that means she was running 2 – 2.5 […]
March 28, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
The summer before had been a severe drought and dams were empty. Some spring rain, though not enough for runoff, had made the grass come on, so there was good grazing, but not a drop for livestock or anything else to drink. My folks had decided to rest their summer pasture when they found they […]
March 11, 2021
Jenn Zeller
Hauling a horse is one of the single most important ways to make them great — save for roping cattle on them. The more broke you can get your horse, the better; the more they’ll focus on you. The less likely they are to make mistakes. Getting a horse really really broke is a never-ending […]
February 22, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
It was time to give spring vaccinations and wormer to the horses, so I had saddled Lily up to go trot the main bunch of about 20 head in from the north pasture. I had them in the windbreak corral and was letting a few head at a time into a smaller pen to work […]
February 14, 2021
Ruth Nicolaus
The 2020 Montana Circuit WPRA Barrel Horse of the Year award has gone to a model. Well, the ten-year-old bay mare may not be a model, but her name is Covergirl, and if you could ask her, she’d probably agree that her moniker fits her. The horse is owned and ridden by Lindsay Kruse and […]
February 12, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
My Dad’s “horse of a lifetime” was a good homebred buckskin gelding named Reno. He was fast, cowy, a cat on his feet, and smarter than he sometimes needed to be. He was sired by the ranch stud Mack, who was a close up Peter McCue bred horse, and out of a good Thoroughbred mare. […]
February 1, 2021
Ruth Nicolaus
One of the most influential bloodlines in pro rodeo began with a naughty mare in a riding stable in Detroit, Michigan. When a brown mare started throwing her riders off, she had sealed her fate. But the Zinsers, Jim and Maggie, of Clare, Mich., who at the time owned J Bar J Rodeo, stepped in. […]