The second week of January has been relatively uneventful, as far as ranch life goes. Just the normal ranch stuff is happening here, more new calves, bangs vaccination the heifers with Dr. King (now Schneider) checking horses, checking cows, feeding horses, feeding cows. Which is good, Great Grandma, who is 105, needs some extra visiting this week, so we have all gone down to see her and Uncle Manny, who has flown in from Alaska to be with us during this time of need.
We have gone from being iced over to being flooded. All of the fields are full of water and mud, with more rain expected. Being in the desert, we need this moisture. The days have been getting into the high 30s, so this is pretty nice weather for January! The mares are starting to get big, with our first set right around the corner to foal. With all of the mud and rain we still haven’t started those last 2 foals to halter break. Whim, being an Azteca, is only getting taller. We need to get the halter on him and get him started before he is too big to handle. We haven’t had an Azteca before, making this a new experience on that front. Little Blackie is the other foal left to halter break, and she is not big. She is also a Double foal so we expect her to be easy. Let’s hope that expectation is proven true.
We also had chore helpers on Saturday, Joe and John Hallowell from the Prescott area. They came to pick up their colt Nicky, then they like to stay and hang around and help for the next few hours, whether we want them or not. Three of Joe’s kids came too so they got to play with our kids.
When the weather is like this, it puts a person in the mood for spring. Good weather always gives us a bit of optimism. The horse market also starts to pick back up once the bad weather is behind us (which we hope it is). We get asked frequently on trainers; who do we use? We have used Katie Whetzal out of Pullman for many years. She has been our go to gal. Katie can be reached at 208-301-1170. Rachael Hamby is a fantastic hand. We have known her for years, but she wanted to get done with her degree before devoting herself to training. She is now at that point. Rachael has ridden quite a few horses from KT and puts a good handle on them- 509-688-4153. In the last few years we have become acquainted with Josh and Crystal Hoelscher out of the Palouse area. Josh specializes in colt starting and harder to break animals- 509-592-5601. Nina Lundgren at Bonina in Eltopia has been a cutter and horse trainer for longer than I have been alive. She shows, trains, and is a fantastic horsewoman and person. Currently Nina has a colt starter at her facility as well, Blaine Davies. Blaine is riding Jackpot for us and we are excited to see Jackpot in his first show next month. Nina can be reached at (509) 539-3435. We aren’t saying that there aren’t more good horse trainers out there, these are just the ones that we use.
The boys are back in boy scouts, so they get to build their Derby Cars this month. The race is the day after my birthday.
Also, we have some terrific Hereford and Braford bulls for sale for anyone looking for a bull. Go to our bulls for sale page fore more info.
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