It's Getting Green

Yay, spring is here! It's getting warm and the bluebonnets are out! I love looking at all the shades of green.

My finger is doing just fine now, it healed up really nice and you can't really notice anything is wrong with it unless I hold it next to my other index finger (you can tell it's shorter). I got a new horse, her name is Pistol. She just turned a year old in March and she is registered with AQHA. I have been wanting a new project to work with and hopefully she will be my new sorting horse when she gets old enough. She goes back to Hollywood Gold, Doc Bar, Doc O'lena, etc. Her grandsire is Holidoc. She is going to be a beautiful bay roan (hopefully).

Things have changed a lot on the ranch. Cathy (the camp director) is leaving and heading to Alaska for the summer. I am kinda jealous, that would be so much fun! We are left with a guy who took her job that has about as much smarts as a common goldfish. It's frusterating.... My camp horses are doing good, though. I think they are as happy as me that it is warming up. I hired a new wrangler, Mark, to help me and he is doing good. It is weird, though.... it is hard to share my horses... haha. I am used to being the only one to take care of them.

I guess we will see what the future holds, hopefully something good!!

Yay Camp!

I guess I have been at my job for about two months now and I love it! The hours are long, I work from about 7 am to 11 pm, but it the winter it will slow down, so it's ok. The horses are doing awesome, no major accidents yet (knock on wood). We just finished a week of camp. It was by far the funnest and yet most frusterating camp week I have ever worked. It was awesome because the kids were great (except for one), so we did so much fun stuff with them! We branded some steers with a hot brand, went on many hours of trail riding, let the kids run through a huge pond of water on horseback, camped out under the stars with their horses, taught them how to work cattle on their horses, and awesome stuff like that. Oh yeah, and I rode a steer on Friday! It wasn't that big, but it was still awesome! I was the only girl that did it.

Now to the frusterating part. One camper, let's call him "Phil" was from the city and was totally spoiled by his mom. He came from kinda a broken home, but he was 12 years old and had no respect for authority and especially not for girls. I would ask him to do something and he would look me in the eyes and flat out tell me no. One of the days he tried to run away and so I went to talk to him and he said "I just want to get away from asses like you". That wasn't the worst thing he said by any means, but it just hurt my feelings. Here I am busting my tail for these kids who I care about and try to teach and try to do stuff for, and he might as well of spit in my face. He did it to everyone, though, and you could tell the mother just didn't care to teach her son. We talked to her on the phone and she just didn't give a flip. All he said he does at home is play his Wii. I just get so frusterated at people who are too dang lazy to teach their kids anything, so they let video games and TV occupy them and they think it's ok. Parents need to get their kids outside and let them play and get dirty and not sit them down in front of a screen! We are going to have a country full of wussy kids here in not too long. Ugh! Ok, I am done ranting, it just really gets under my skin. For the most part, though, the kids were awesome!

We were supposed to go to Amarillo tomorrow, but we can't because we have to much stuff to get done around camp between sessions. I really need to ride and learn more trails to take clients on. I love trail riding with clients! I have had people from Dubi (not sure if I spelled that right), England, Ireland, New York, California, etc, ride with me. It is really fun! I am on a horse probably about 4-7 hours a day, so you can't beat that! Adam is doing awesome as well. He has really become an amazing boys counselor. It sucks because he has to sleep in a cabin with boys and I have to sleep by myself, but he is doing a wonderful job. :)

The New Job

It has been a crazy first week at my new job! I love it, but it is like nothing I have ever done before.... haha. Basically I am the head person over all the horse stuff. That includes riding the horses, feeding them, scheduling all their vet/farrier appointments, coming up with materials for camps and school groups, maintaining all the tack and barn area, etc. As you can imagine, I have been busy!! There is one guy under me, and he is cool, but kinda does stuff a lot different than me... I won't go into details... Anyway, the horses are awesome. They need A LOT of work, but I really like them. There are 13 of them (hopefully I can get more) and they are all quarter horses! Yay!

Anyway, this job is awesome! I ride about 6 hours a day (give or take) and spend the rest doing stuff around the barn. We work pretty much about 9-10 hours a day, but it's a different kind of work, so it flies by! I need about 20 hours to get everything done! Lol. It is so cool, though, because I can be riding down a trail and see Axis deer, Kudu, and Sables all in the same ride; maybe about 20 yards from me. It's insane!!

The funny thing about my job, though, is that I have to wear long sleeve button up shirts and a cowboy hat, and I am so not that type.... ha ha! Adam and I went into town yesterday and I got all that stuff and I feel so out of place!! But it is totally worth it! A few nights ago we went out at about 9 pm to net blackbucks. The ranch sold about 20 of them and we had to net them to transport them. We load up on a jeep with a big spotlight and a gun that shoots a big net out to catch them, and then we put them in a stock trailer. It is totally harmless for them, but it sure is a blast!

That is about all I have time to write about today! For anyone who loves to ride, you need to come out for a trail ride with me!! It will be a great time and it is not your average trail ride! :)