Words that we hear regularly from June

Words June says (and their translations)

Dow (down or up)
Pup (up)
Unnn (hungry)
Meal (milk or drink)
Duce (juice or water)
Du-orse (horse)
Meow (what a cat says)
Mooooo (what a cow says)
Boot (book or boot)
Boot-th (boots or books, plural)
Socks or thocks (socks)
Shoes or th-oos (shoes)
Du-wash (rhymes with squash) (=trash or Josh)
Du-wash-du-ah (Joshua or Phillip)
Wu-cy (Lucy, Rachel's blue heeler)
Di-ssy (Dixie, Rachel's yorkie)
Beeee! (rhymes with yell, and is always said loudly)- (Belle, the lab)
Kacker (I saw you with something resembling a cracker package and I would like to have one)
Cookie! (I know you have cookies in the cabinet and I want one now!)
Petzel (pretzel)
Pees (please)
Cacker cookie cacker cookie pees (I want something to munch on NOW)
Mama (mama)
Da-dee (daddy)
Mama da-dee mama da-dee! (I'm still here in the backseat. Are we there yet? Talk to me!)
Gusss (Gus, the blue heeler puppy)
Ho-wee (Jolie, our australian shepherd)
Bus (car, truck, vehicle)
Sow-side (outside)
Baby (baby or a stuffed animal that isn't a horse)
Tot (hot)
Towd (cold)
Wide (I want to ride on a horse, toy, or something else I see)
Bee (Granny B)
Nana (nana lisa or banana)
Papaw (papaw terry)
Papa (papa gene)
Ga-gace (Granny Grace)
Pow! (sound effect for high-fives)
Ticken (chickens)
Tank-you (Thank you)
Tanks (Thanks)
Head-oh! (hello, usually said while talking to someone's cell phone she's stolen)

Progress pics - Purina Strategy

Chief (sorrel) is 23, rarely ridden, and has been on 2x/day 2 quarts of Strategy for about 3 weeks. He needed some weight put on him just because he wasn't gaining on all-stock 2/day and green pasture, and winter is on the way.
Sonny (bay) is 4. He was fine on all-stock feed 1/day until the husband began roping and riding him in ranch rodeos 1-2 times a week. He lost quite a bit of weight in a few short months.
This is their condition at approximately 3 weeks into their feed being strictly Purina Strategy, with green bermuda grass forage.

A little thing that's growing!

Our daughter is 15 months old now. I don't particularly have a baby book, so this seemed like as good of a place as any to record what she's doing this week.
Sunday she colored for the first time.
She likes to open and close doors, lids, really anything.
Today while she was "helping" me feed she tried to eat dog food, she did eat some purina strategy, and she played in the chickens' water.
She doesn't eat much most days.
She likes cream of wheat, ice cream, spaghetti, red beans, and bananas.
She likes to lay down and splash with her feet in the bathtub.
In the store, she yells "HEY" to everybody until they look at her.
Last night she gave me a kiss for the first time.
I think she's named her teddy bear "Popple."
She can do sign language for "more, milk, please, eat, drink, wash," and sometimes "diaper."
She can say "dow (down) outside, dog, kitty cat, dow, meow, horsie, Belle, dow, Nana, mama, dada, dow, Papa, mmmma (milk), popple, diaper, ( and did I mention "dow?") on her own. She has repeated many things like "light, breakfast, up, poo-poo, Jolie, Sophie, bible," and so much more.
Monday she nearly picked up a feather that had chicken poo on it. I told her "no, gross, poo-poo." Then she came to another clean feather and called it "poo-poo."
On walks, she stops every 3 steps or so to bend over and look closely at something on the ground.
At night when she gets tired she comes to me and holds her arms up.

I have no experience with a 1 yr old child at all, so pretty much all of ths amazes me.

Pictures of Tex tonight

Tonight Tex was a model! This senior in high school wanted pictures with a horse, and Tex was my choice out of our three because Chief is a little bony right now, Sonny is a little skittish on the ground, and the girl was short enough to use Tex. Plus, he's gorgeous!  (OK, beauty is probably in the eye of the beholder.)

Besides his scrubby little mane that rubs off every time he sticks his head through the fence to eat and his lack of height, I think his color is nice, but I personally like his decently full hip, his topline, and his shorter neck. In these pictures I did stand his rear-end on the uphill side to make him look a bit taller than the girl. Are there any conformation experts out there who'd like to give input? Does he fit the foundation or ranch-bred quarter horse description?

Obviously I'll never breed this horse, and I'll use him no matter what he looks like. However, it's always good to learn more about correct conformation in my favorite animal.

TM

Tara and Tex's first team sorting- the video

Here's the video of our short first ride together at team sorting practice. Now,I'm having trouble getting motivated to ride because all I want to do is go team sorting again!
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> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg9W8Ck8jmM
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The best day of my life! (well, in the top three)

Date: August 27, 2011 

Today was one of the best days of my life. It all started when I told Josh all I wanted was to go team sorting for my birthday. I'll be turning 30 this Tuesday the 30th of august, and it's kind-of a big deal to me. And, on top

of that, on my written Tex goal list, it said "August- team sorting- participate." Today was the last chance to team sort in August. It had to be done.

I have always been terrified of hauling horses in the trailer on the interstate or highway. But yesterday, Josh's work schedule changed to 9:30-6. We live an hour from his work, and team sorting begins promptly at 8. I HAD to bring the horses the 1 hour drive, on some interstate, to Baton Rouge.

 I've driven horses to the vet 45 minutes away, but only on small highway. I had a huge fear of going fast, and especially of lane changes on the interstate. Well, I wanted to go sorting, and this was the only way. So, today, I looked that fear in the face and told it "forget you" (in other words). I remembered that I was once single, and made up my mind that if something happened with the trailer, or the horses, I would simply deal with it! And so I did. There were no catastrophes. None of the horses fell down in the trailer. The trailer didn't come unattached and careen all over the interstate. There were no flat tires. The truck DID start. I didn't end up with a flipped trailer. I actually arrived with myself and all three horses safe and sound, and by doing so, faced so many fears and feelings of inadequacy. 

 We arrived around 7:15.  Josh warmed up Tex while I warmed up Sonny. Tex was pretty antsy with all the other horses loping around and behind him in the arena, but didn't throw any fits.

Then, it was time to ride! At this team sorting practice, teams are drawn and each person gets 5 rides for $25. I asked Josh to ride Tex on his first ride of actually team sorting, just to see what would happen, he held the line and went in to get cows. His turns weren't what they ought to be, and he was a little jumpy when the other horses moved quickly around him. But, no fits!! 

Josh rode him one more time, I rode Sonny once, and then it was my turn on Tex. I couldn't stop grinning as we walked into the arena. When our number was called, we went in and tried to sort out the cows. As one tried to go past, I had to ask Tex to stop, go, stop, go, stop, go to maneuver the cow, and he did exactly that. He did everything I asked him to do. It wasn't perfect, nor pretty, but I was so proud that he did what I asked. 

I rode him on four rounds tonight. By the last round, he seemed to understand our task and maybe even locking onto a cow or two. I loped him back down to the arena exit on our last ride, and probably had the cheesiest grin on my face you've ever seen. 

I am so proud that Tex did his turns when I asked, moved quickly or slowly when I asked, stopped on my seat, and even seemed to follow one certain cow toward the end. It was the best reward for all the time we've spent together that I could have ever wanted.  I felt a few happy tears creeping up by our last ride.

To top off my birthday celebration, I entered the $10 jackpot sorting at the end of the night on Sonny, and lucked out and won $35, which paid for all my rides that night. 

Seriously, it was the 3rd best day of my whole life.

If I ever decide to plant butter beans again, somebody talk me out of it!

The evil butterbeans are taking theor revenge! We've had a bit of a dry spell, but my hopes that it would kill the bitterbeans were to no avail. They are climbing up a crepe myrtle, tearing down the support fence, and producing like crazy. I shelled a few, but never cooked any. I guess I'll just save the dried ones to eat through the winter.

I planted red potaoes today on the ex-pea row, and a little lettuce on the dying pepper row. Hopefully the potatoes will sprout. I have no doubt about the romaine lettuce sprouting. It was like a weed this spring! I am planning to plant the lettuce in alternating weeks so it doesn't all come in at once. These seeds are from the flowers of the spring leftovers.
I also transplanted some of the marigolds from garden front row to pots on the porch. This should give more room for lettuce, broccoli, or cauliflower.

I'm supposed to be exercising, since I'm 13 weeks prego and have been very grouchy. This
morning's potato-row-hoeing definitely got my blood pumping and increased my mood level quite a bit. I'm thankful
to have a garden today.

A beautiful evening loping session with cowboy Josh.

The back of the property where we live is so beautiful when the sun is setting and when a storm is rolling in. Add a horse, and voila- gorgeous.

Finished with fundamentals

We have completed our summer lessons with the Clinton Anderson-trained Katherine Clark. We did around 8 or 9 lessons together, and she taught me how to do the fundamentals that she thought would be more applicable to me, and to Tex.
The red piece of paper is what she gave me to remember each exercise. Although we're finished with lessons, we're not through with practicing and mastering these exercises.

Throughout the process, I realized two fears that I have- trotting/loping downhill, and loping in any sort of somewhat wet environment. I have visual pictures of my horse bucking me all the way down a hill, and also of him loping along, hitting a muddy spot, losing his footing, and flipping over on me. So I must overcome those fears.

Today I got up and rode at 7 am - 7:35 or so in the shady pasture, and when we finished, unsaddled and tied Tex in the far corner away from his buddies.

When I came back about an hour later, he happened to have his whole body against the fence- just right for me to climb on the fence and swing over his bare back. So, I looped the lead rope over his neck and gave it a try. I figured it wouldn't be far to the ground if he pitched a fit. We walked, stopped and backed along the way for about 50 yards until we reached the barn. THAT was the highlight of my whole day! It felt great to have him just respond to my seat and the halter to stop and back. I look forward to many more hours of bareback riding with my little cow horse!

Yielding the hindquarters (and other progress)

Tonight, for our 3rd lesson, Katherine asked me to go ahead and do groundwork exercises beforehand so that all we had to work on was lunging, a little cruising, and the one-rein stopping exercises at a walk, trot, and canter before moving on to the next activity- yielding the hindquarters under saddle.

The one rein stop at a walk, trot, and canter is showing a little bit of progress. Tex actually wanted to stop when I sat down at the trot and actually at the canter, too. This is probably my favorite exercise for now because it does so many things! 1. It solidifies that when I sit, we WILL stop. 2. It works on flexing and becoming more supple with each stop.
3. It is sort-of fast!
4. It gives my horse ONLY 2 chances before he had better be moving at the speed I ask him to put out. This will really relate to our cow work and any reining we may do in the future. How nice will it be to have a responsive horse who goes the speed I ask, when I ask? The only horse I've ever ridden like that was Fancy, the short little sorrel quarter horse mare with an attitude at CP.
5. This one-rein stop exercise also drives in the fact that I do have a way to make things "stop" when I'm on my horse. This in turn helps my control-freak self gain confidence that I CAN do this.

Tara Marie Photography
225-634-7229
www.taramariephoto.com

Clinton Anderson style training- my progress

Today was my second lesson with Katherine, who is an avid Clinton Andeeson follower. She recently attended a 2 week training clinic at his ranch in Texas. She's working a day job at the camp two miles down the road, and in her off time "training" me and Tex at the same time. It's exactly what I needed- accountability, specific goals, specific activities/exercises to do, and someone explain it all and push me a little.

Last time we did three ground work exercises only- yielding the forequarters, flexing, and lunging for respect stage 2. I'm going to skip talking about all those for time sake. But one note for myself- I need to remember to point when lunging.

Today, 2 weeks later, we reviewed those three activities and added two in-saddle exercises: 1. The one-rein stop at a walk, trot, and canter, and 2. Cruising at a trot and canter.

Before the one rein stopping exercises, I told Katherine exactly these words- "This horse has a great stop on him." Boy did he make a liar out of me today! He ONLY attempted the nice sliding stop after he was dead tired at the end of cruising. He really leaned hard on the bit today. I will now start flexing him on the ground in the bit, not the halter. I didn't know that he was supposed to be that flexible and supple in the neck, in either a halter or a bit. That is my bad. I am supposed to bump, bump, bump his mouth if he knows to give but instead leans against the pressure.

So here's what I had to do- 1. Squeeze , then kiss, then over & under, until he trots. 2. Let him take 5 strides. 3. Sit hard and say "whoa." 4. Pull him around to a one-rein stop until he stops moving and touches my boot. 5. Flex him to the other side.
(repeat steps 1-5 a lot of times). I wasn't allowed to steer him at all during this time.

Next, do it at the canter. I let Katherine do that first on Tex, and then I did it. He looks so gorgeous doing what quarter horses are supposed to do- starting fast. I overcame 95 percent of my fear of loping on him today.

Then on to cruising- pretty much, i was supposed to lay my rein hand down, ask him to trot and keep him at a trot for 5 straight minutes, stopping only i he broke into a lope, and speeding him
up if he slowed to a walk.

I struggled not to steer him with legs and hands! At the canter, he kept going over some muddy areas and I got a little nervous about that, but made it through. We only cantered for around 1.5 minutes because it was time for me to go.

I am proud of myself for overcoming that fear and also learning what his "give" is supposed to feel like. And, both of today's exercises were quite fun, and something I can do on my own pretty easily.

Babies

Today, like every Wednesday, June and I spent the day together at home. The day started out wonderfully. She woke up late, around 8:45, had her milk and some cheerios. We went to the barn and let the chickens out, came back for her 10:00 nap (which she didn't really take), lunch at 11, playing, nap at 1:00, woke at 2:15, snack at 3, and dinner at 4:30. Then, right when I needed to be cooking and working, she got fussy, grouchy, needy, and clingy.

I can't help but think on days like this that I stink at this. I don't know what to feed her. I don't know what to do with her when she's in that "mood." And I feel very impatient when I'm sleepy and she's just wanting to jump all over me, but she cries when I put her down. How am I supposed to know what to do in these circumstances? Surely there must be a "parenting for dummies" or something like that. If only this could be like one of my animals or garden- plant at a certain time, feed it the same thing at the same time, read the manual from the ag extention office if you have questions. Does the ag extention office have pamphlets for fussy one-year-olds? :) Does anyone have any books or blogs for beginner parenting they would recommend?
TM

Tara Marie Photography
225-634-7229
www.taramariephoto.com

Improved Purple Hull Peas (cowpeas)

Gardening always tends to remind me of the people who have given me seeds and starts to my plants, and it always brings back good memories. For example, Mrs. Jan Miller, my best friend's mom, gave me the seed for these improved purple hull peas five years ago when I went up there to help their family on their small dairy during a crisis time. It was a fun week, spent milking cows, hanging out with my best girlfriend's parents, feeding calves, tilling the garden, and even getting to AI (artificially inseminate) a cow. I don't think it was a successful breeding, but hey, it was good practice. (If we ever do our own cow-calf operation, which is in the long term plans, I'll be in charge of all AI on our cows, since I did it quite a bit during grad school.)

But back to the peas...
Last year I planted the purple hull peas from my grandparents- California Pinkeye Purplehulls. But this year I gave the improved a try again, and I'm glad I did. They seem to be much longer, which means more peas per pod. Most of them are longer than this ice cream bucket that I use to pick them. The peas themselves are very fat, too. I can understand why they're called "improved." One thing that's a little different about them- when they're deep purple, they're too dry. They need to be picked a little greener than the California variety.

I am now getting at least 1.5-3 bucketfuls of peas each day on a 30 foot row. I planted them around late March.

God's color palate

Garden plunder

This is becoming an everyday occurrence, minus some of the yellow squash, minus some of the bell peppers, plus a whole flat of tomatoes each day, purple hull peas, and some green beans. We've now canned 14 quarts of tomatoes and 7 quarts of squash.
Monday we picked the two rows of sweet corn- it was so tasty. The Merit variety seemed larger and perhaps a bit sweeter than the silver queen. Off two 30 ft rows, we got around 7-8 gallons of corn on the cob.
The peppers aren't doing well again. The plant just randomly shrivels up and dies. I don't know what's wrong!
I now have 24 chickens-- 17 young sex-link pullets around 2 months old, 2 rhode island red hens, 2 dominic hens, 2 cuckoo maran laying hens (new as of Tuesday), and 1 very lucky rooster.
The weeds are overtaking the garden! I'm trying to decide whether to spray with roundup between the rows or just get the old hoe and do some "hoeing around." ha ha.

May 21st pic and lesson with katherine

Tomorrow I am trailering Tex to te nearby arena for a lesson- a lesson for both of us. Katherine is a young, yet experienced, horse trainer, and also a friend. She said she will be starting us from the ground tomorrow, and will show me some exercises that will directly relate to in-the-saddle time. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on ground work because it seems like that was my only option with Tex for so long, due to him being little and then because I was prego with our precious little girl.
When someone "goes to a trainer," is it customary for the trainer to "train" both you and the horse, or just the horse? I really want both.
TM

Cow work- right on schedule

Last Sunday a neighbor invited us to come work a few cows with our horses. I decided to ride Chief for the initial rounding-up of the herd, and then threw my saddle onto Tex to see if he would give cutting in the small pen a try. (by the way, he has been around in a pen with cows about two other times, and has been tied to the fence near them during ropings and team sorting multiple times.)
In the pen with about 10 cow-cal pairs, I started by asking him to move one light-colored calf around the pen. He wasn't focusing at first, but the longer we worked, the more he seemed to catch on. It also helped me understand why it's important fo him to have a strong stop, fast go, and fast turn with a light front-end.

By the end of our little 30 minute work time he had sorted all of the calves away from the cows. They didn't stay in the corner where we put them, but that's ok. If we get the chance again to sort cows for real, I'll feel comfortable getting on him and using him for that work.

Pros- 1. There is definitely some interest in cows, and a little bit of a natural cutting feel to him.
2. Tex is being very calm in the arena.

Cons/things to work on-
1. I can no longer allow him to be lazy with his turns and going forward.
2. I must get on and off him multiple times to work on standing still. He is starting to walk off when I mount up, even though I've always refrained from moving for at least 20-30 seconds after I mount up.
3. He is still very nervous outside the arena. We nearly had a wreck once out on the trail with 3 other friends.
4. On the trail, he is pushing through the bit, wanting to go, go, go. But when we do pick up a trot, he gets super nervous. I'm not sure what to do about that. Suggestions?

Another random
TM

Encouraging week!

I have ridden Tex three nights in a row this week- Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I trailered him to the camp next door so I would have lights to ride under after dark. Josh has been helping me each of the 3 nights get a grip on what to work on.
So, what I'm working on is leg pressure. I'm supposed to put my leg into the horse's side about 2 seconds before I pull the reins, so that he will begin to relate leg pressure with turning. And, while remembering to do that, I'm supposed to keep my heels down, press my legs into him toward the front of his body (not toward the middle or rear), use my calves first and then my heel, keep the amount of pressure relative to how sharp I want him to turn, use my legs to keep his speed constant, and also encourage him to turn his front feet, not his back feet. THAT's not much to remember, is it? (sarcasm).
Sunday night, my first night to do all this, I got so frustrated because I felt like I was trying to remember too much at once, and that I was giving Tex 10 signals at once. Which, really, I was giving him 10 signals at once. But, he already knows that he's supposed to keep his speed constant. So I guess he's mainly learning how to turn on leg pressure, and also how to turn correctly (crossing one front leg over the other to turn.) Regardless, it was frustrating the first night, and I felt like I was the one learning, not him.
Monday night was MUCH more encouraging! I could feel Tex actually begin to respond to my leg pressure. When I would push my leg into him, he would turn an ear to me and start showing that he was getting ready to turn.

Tuesday night (last night) showed HUGE improvement! Tex turned correctly I'd say 80% of the time, and he definitely was responding and moving away from the leg pressure. I could feel him moving his front feet correctly (which was improvement on my part) and was able to give him a release when I felt it. We did some great turns at the walk and trot.

Some interesting things that have happened in the last three days:
1. Monday night, Tex spooked at some running horses and a car door slamming, and he didn't buck or run, just jumped a little.
2. Tex encountered a huge beach ball, and doesn't seem to care about it. We rode around it and up to it.
3. Tex will now, on the ground, put two front feet on a platform with barely any encouragement, and stay there. (Which is pretty much useless, but it looks cool.)

Other improvements that have come along with these three days of training-
1. I feel like I'm in better control of my legs and seat.
2. My hands on the reins seem to be more in control.
3. I'm finally able to feel a "correct" turn versus an "incorrect" turn.
4. I think Tex is enjoying being ridden!
5. We are riding in close proximity with other horses while they're being ridden, which is good practice for my Feb. 25th goal of taking Tex to ride around other horses at the team sorting.
6. Being at the camp has put Tex in a different location, which increases his comfort zone.
7. Josh has had to make me suck it up and get on a few times (like after the car door slam spook) and I'm glad that I did it.
8. We're also having time to just sit together- me on Tex, not doing anything but sitting there. That's good practice too!

I have called to schedule my horseback riding lesson, and should be able to do it within the next two or three weeks.

PS maybe soon, with all this riding, my baby fat roll will disappear...

TM