May 23, 2022
Jan Swan Wood
One chore on the ranch that I didn’t enjoy much came in the last weeks before lambing started. Since we range lambed, we didn’t shear until on the brink of it starting on about May 15, as those ewes could get mighty chilly once sheared. So, when it rained, their fleeces got really heavy, and […]
January 31, 2022
Ruth Nicolaus
One of the first Miss Rodeo Americas rode a special horse. Dallas Hunt George, the 1957 Miss Rodeo America from Lincoln, Neb., owned a special quarter horse, Wyoming Badger. The gray horse known as Badger was purchased for her by her granddad, Guy Hunt, who she knew as Gramp, when she was sixteen years old. […]
September 29, 2021
Ruth Nicolaus
An iconic horse passed away on August 13 of this year. Frenchmans Guy, the palomino stud owned by Bill and Deb Myers of St. Onge, S.D. died at the age of 34. The horse changed the rodeo world and the Myers’ world as well. Sired by Sun Frost and out of the Laughing Boy mare […]
September 28, 2021
Jolyn Young
The cowboy world has produced many colorful phrases that folks might use and not realize their Western ties. “Ride for the brand,” “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” and “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” are common phrases used by country and city people alike. Here […]
May 18, 2021
Jenn Zeller
I dropped everything on Wednesday May 5th, to take our 18 year old ranch stallion, Poco Tivio Pep (Chachi) to the vet. He couldn’t breathe. Fluid was running from his nose like water from a spout. By Tuesday evening, it was obvious he struggled to breath and realized we might be dealing with heaves. After […]
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 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 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. […]
January 19, 2021
Jenn Zeller
How do you help a ratey barrel horse free up? How do you help a free-runner, rate up? Here are my tips. Happy trails and happy training!
January 10, 2021
Jan Swan Wood
Back in the days of running a small broodmare band and standing two stallions, I was always interested in older mares with the old time pedigrees and characteristics to add to the band. Even with the extra work and maintenance old mares took, they were nearly always worth the extra effort. I had been taught […]