Posts Tagged ‘American west’

I Miss The Mystery

April 25, 2017
Tayler Teichert

In all my years of dating, my sister told me to maintain a little bit of mystery. Don’t let your date know everything about you right off the bat – make them wonder. They will get bored if they feel like they aren’t learning anything new, so don’t tell all your secrets on the first […]

Christmas on the Ranch

December 21, 2016
Jenn Zeller

I love decorating for Christmas. And every year, folks the world over (mostly via my instagram account), ask to see photos of our tree.  This year, I was kind of lazy, and basically only decorated the Great Room, and even then I didn’t do as much because, construction is still going on in this barn […]

Ranch Country Neighbors

November 20, 2016
Jolyn Young

I loaded up my kids the other day and drove an hour north to visit some neighbors who had just moved to the IL Ranch. In the Great Basin ranch country, our “neighbors” sometimes live many miles away, often down a rutted dirt road. I love the drive to the IL. While still on the […]

Do Like Mama Does

November 10, 2016
Jolyn Young

In ranch country, there are a plethora of jokes likening mama people to mama cows. When I was pregnant, I usually just rolled my eyes and laughed obligingly at  wisecracks of using calf pullers on a lady in labor (ouch!) or anything related to a “first-calf heifer.” Really, what pregnant lady doesn’t want to be […]

Life Between These Ears

November 2, 2016
Jenn Zeller

I ride Dino into the sunrise to ship calves at the neighbors. Since the First of October, there’s been only a few days that I’ve not had the view of cows between my horse’s ears.  October has been the stuff cowgirl dreams are made of. Catching horses in the dark, and on the road by daylight, […]

Working A Corner

October 24, 2016
Jolyn Young

Do you know how to work a corner? No, not THAT kind of a corner! I mean a fence corner. With cattle. And roping. Working a corner (either kind) requires a certain amount of finesse and skill, but this post addresses how to rope calves out of the corner of a corral or branding trap. […]

Get Short

October 22, 2016
Jolyn Young

Say you’re out cowboyin’, just doin’ your thing, and you rope a big calf. You let some rope slide through your dallies to ease him to a stop, but then realize you’re a little long on your rope. What’s a person to do? You can either A) get short or B) turn your horse, drive […]

Hoof Cadence: Lope

October 13, 2016
Jolyn Young

In the last two installments of this series, we discussed the hoof cadence of the walk and trot. The lope is a different breed of cat altogether from the other two gaits; it’s a three-beat gait with two split-seconds when only one foot is on the ground, and another split-second when none of the horse’s […]

Hoof Cadence: Trot

October 6, 2016
Jolyn Young

Learning the cadence of each gait is a little thing that really isn’t a little thing at all. It’s a hugely important aspect of horsemanship, and it’s something all top riders know. Horses are born knowing it; the rest of us just have to catch up! In the last installment of this series, we learned […]

Hoof Cadence: Walk

September 28, 2016
Jolyn Young

All horse enthusiasts know there are separate and distinct patterns to each of a horse’s three main gaits (walk, trot and lope/canter), but not many know each pattern. Learning the cadence for each gait and studying it while riding until you know which foot is going to move next and where will unlock the next […]