Ok! I HAVE to start by asking – who noticed the BIG mistake on yesterday’s post? My biggest pet peeve and here I go, doing it myself. It went something like “Anyone who knows me no I don’t like snakes” or something along those lines. *KNOW, not no!!!! Problem is, I’m not sure what happens when I edit a previously published post – is it resent as something new to everyone? I didn’t want to annoy you with that so I’m just mentioning it to start today’s post!
WOW! a LOT of riding for Day 1! but I survived.
Monday morning mandatory refresher session. The last couple years, they’ve split us up in groups and we did our refresher sessions in the meadows with wranglers but today, because we’re such a small group, it was everyone in the arena with Shane. GULP 😳. They have a state-of-the-art new indoor arena that could fit us all in and that Shane wanted to showcase this week. Shane is the owner and has been known to be a little harsh (to put it mildly). It’s all good for the ‘interns’ or the ‘hard core’ guests who come here to learn but a little much for the once-a-year folks like me. Needless to say, I was not looking forward to the morning session with Shane but it turned out to be the best ever Shane ‘horsemanship’ session (I had managed to avoid him/ his lessons for the last 4yrs!). There were several (like more than 3 or 4 times) times where I heard the words “looks beautiful France ” or “Well done France” or “that’s how it’s done France” ………….. and there were NO OTHER France in the arena – he WAS talking to ME! PHEW! Survived that!
Given the title of today’s post, you probably figured that I didn’t get to ride Quick today. I was a little bit disappointed when I found out this morning but i totally forgot about it the minute I got on Catman – he is equally (if not better) than Quick! I had never heard of him cuz he’s only been a guest horse for about a year but he’s sweet and easy and I would be happy to ride him all week – even though it was hinted that I might get Quick for a few days mid week and then end back with Catman …….. we’ll see, I ‘m not getting my hopes up on any horse, I’ll ride whoever I’m told.
Catman – that’s kinda a funny name for a horse but if you look at his picture below, you’ll see the little paw print on his nose 🙂 I totally made that up – he’s probably called Catman from his lineage but I like to think that it’s because he has a cat’s paw print on his nose. 🐾
There were a few different options for the afternoon – I could have gone back for more horsemanship with Shane but lets not push it 🤣. I opted for moving cattle – really my favorite thing to do here at the ranch. We had to get 24 steers from one wooded area, through a large field, through 2 holding pens, across the driveway and into another field. NO PROBLEM! Started out with only 22 steers so we had to find the 2 hiding ones in the bushes. 3 people stayed with the heard so they wouldn’t disperse away while 3 of us went looking for the straggling 2 – bushwhacking on horseback has begun! Catman & I were the first to spot them and were able to get them back to the rest of the group and across to where they needed to go – first cattle drive of the season ✔️.
We were so efficient, we had some time left for our afternoon ride so we split up and went for a trail ride. Gill & I went with wrangler Scott and went WAAAYYYY up the mountain to a beautiful lookout area – see pics below. Beautiful day / beautiful ride but I have to say, after 3hrs (not counting the 3.5hrs in the morning), I would have been ready to get off ….. but it was about another hour to get back to the ranch – “beer & Advil” time was welcomed! All in all, 7.5hrs in the saddle after 2yrs of no riding ………. good day! Fingers crossed I can get out of bed tomorrow am!
We had another fabulous dinner, ate in the outdoor tent. I will try to do a full post on the food cuz it’s sooooooo good!
I think this covers today’s adventures. Tomorrow is ‘graze’ – all day in the mountain, looking for cattle. Talk to you tomorrow. PS. I’ll try to do a better job at proofreading tonight 😉
Checkmarks ✔️ 