We are definitely back to season temps on Monday. We are supposed to have a La Nina I hear, and it is rainy and cold. Not that we don’t need the rain, the rain is good. It just does not feel the best when you are working on the foals. Monday the kids did not have school, so they clipped and got ready for the upcoming show. Kaine had football practice, so dad ran him in and brought him home. Toni and the kids did chores early, Toni worked on Duke and Naughty and tied Groot since he was the biggest to Tulip. She quickly discovered that Groot was the easiest, so traded Duke and Groot. When I got there, we only had to get Rita in for dad and mom to take her home on Tuesday. I guess she does not want to leave because that took 30 min and we had to run the whole pen across the driveway. Then of course they couldn’t go back into their pen, all the horses wanted to run around the driveway and see what they could see.
Tuesday morning Toni loaded Cappy and Rita into the trailer. Mom and dad took Cappy to Jason Hicks to start and Rita went to Marcy’s so she could go home. Jaxsen and Kade did horse chores and Anna did the show cattle chores. Kade and Jaxsen went up to help her finish. Kaine had a game in Royal City, it was moved up to 4, luckily Heidi texted a bunch of us so we made it in time. Toni worked on the colts; they worked on tying in the rain. Rain makes it hard to work on foals because you really can’t get a good grip on the lead rope and have no traction. The three weren’t trouble for Tulip so Toni just had to work through it. It rained all day Tuesday, but not in Royal, it was dry there. Which was good for the game. The game was good, the boys played hard. Molly report from WSU was not as good as it has been. She had some fluid buildup at her incision area, so they put a sleeve on her. And she still has fluid in her lungs so they are still monitoring that.
Wednesday was a little brisk. Kade are Jaxsen are done with football, so they got home and helped with chores, Kaine had another game on Friday, so he still had practice after school. Molly is doing well at Pullman, but still has fluid in her lungs and a slightly elevated temp, so it does not look like she will make it home this week. Toni worked on the colts and did chores with the kids. The colts were leading pretty good, tied pretty good. Groot is pretty chill. Naughty is really soft, like a typical Jackpot. They are pretty sensitive and have lots of give. Duke is good too, he is just a little guy and more scared. We got home and helped her doctor Wild and Absolute. It is getting so dark so early, and next week will be worse. That is the worst thing about fall. The kids were getting the trailer packed to head to Moses Lake for the weekend. Last week when it was in the 70s I was looking forward to the show. Now that we are back to seasonal temps, my excitement has been dampened.
Thursday morning we woke up to a heavy frost, snaps from people from other parts of the NW show snow. It was a cold and windy day, but we had better weather than a lot of other people. Kaine had practice, dad picked him up. The kids packed the trailer and got their show animals ready. Toni worked on the colts, they were all lead out in the corral pen for at least a couple of laps. Again, Thursdays are the best because the foals pretty much lead and you are just introducing them to new concepts- like going through a small gate, or stepping over something. Thursdays in general are pretty fun in the foal pen. McCall has been coming out and helping the kids get ready for the show.
Friday I finished getting everything packed up, food, drinks, etc. Then went and picked Kade and Jaxsen up from school and we headed to Moses Lake to set up, with Leslie, Whitney and Deb. Traci, Natalie, Julian, Ady and Savannah were an hr or so behind us, then McCall got there and Toni and Anna an hr or so behind them. Dad was already up in Moses Lake helping set-up at the show. Kaine had a football game, so we did not see him on Friday. It was big drama to not have Kaine. The little kids wanted to know where Kaino was. We got everything set up, animals blown out and a few washed. We checked into our hotel, went out to eat and went to bed. We had a really good dinner, it was just late by the time we got everything done and the cattle take care of.
Saturday we were up before the sun, got the animals washed and ready to start showing. The wind was howling and there were high wind warnings in effect. Saturday was the steer show. The judge got stranded in TX due to a lightning storm, so a local guy from Ellensburg filled in. There were 18 classes of steers, so the show lasted all morning and into early afternoon. Marlo brought us all coffees and chai’s in the morning, and I for one needed it. Jolene showed up with 4 boxes of donuts, yeah 4 boxes. We had to tell the kids only two and then wait an hr. Natalie was first in her class, so got to go back into the championship round. Anna and Julian had seconds, so were on standby. We had a great team, that included Jay, McCall and everyone listed above that showed up on Friday. Everyone did a great job showing. Only Anna and Jaxsen had steers from our group. Because Kaine did not have a steer, Kaine and Ben worked the heifers, moved them to a fresh pasture, and then Ben brought Kaine down after. We washed everyone, including heifers, when we got done showing and then went to the 509 banquet. We had a great time seeing everyone. Anna was a 509 ambassador this year which was a great experience for her. We think Alyx Corey does a great job on the program and the banquet is always a highlight for us.
Sunday we were up again, we got to sleep in an hr with fallback, so we could have an hr of darkness and despair in the evening. The medium kids got to sleep in since they only had steers, so showmanship after the heifer show. The rest of us got up and washed and got everyone ready to show. The judge made it in from TX. Lane showed up and helped fit. He was a lot of help, and we all convinced him he needed to show in showmanship, since he was already signed up. The kids all showed great. Kade and Baby Cow got second in their class, so were standby in the championship round. Kade, Kaine and Anna all made it back to the championship round in showmanship, Kaine was 5th overall intermediate. 4th was cousin Parker and 6th was cousin Delany. The medium kids, Traci, Leslie, McCall and Deb started packing stuff up while the big kids were still showing. Ben and the big kids helped some in-between classes. Afterwards we packed up and headed south to do chores in the dark. FYI everyone, kid with the camera, Julian, is my camera intern. He shows and then grabs my camera and takes pictures. He is doing a great job. Toni, Marlo, Leslie, Traci, McCall, probably Whitney also all took pictures. Savannah even took a few, she is 5 so can not be turned loose with it yet, but she would like to be. She would also like to be turned loose with a fitting comb, some adhesives and clippers as well. Soon Savannah, soon.
With 290 entries for the Western Showcase, it was a long weekend. The individuals that organize the show, Ruth, Gerry, Scott, and everyone else, do an amazing job. It is one of the biggest and best shows in the Pacific Northwest with kids from Montana to Oregon and everywhere in between. Of the 290 entries, our group (us and the cousins) had 16 head. For many of the cattle we took, it was their first show and they were excellent. This was Jax’s first time at this show and he is already planning to show again next year. It is a fast paced highly competitive show.
The other big news that we got when we got home was an email from our AQHA youth recipient. We are excited to meet Jeshua and get the right foal selected for him. Anna was also selected to participate in the 2023 program, so we are excited to see how she does. We are thankful that AQHA has a youth program to keep young people interesting in quarter horses. Being part of this program has been something that we have valued as breeders, as it allows us to expand the impact that the American Quarter horse has to influence future leaders. There is nothing more important to any breed organization than ensuring success by influencing youth. Programs like the NILE Merit heifer program and the AQHA youth program ensure agriculture’s tomorrows. We are proud to say that we support both of these programs. Kale Cordill is our Nile Merit Heifer Recipient and Anna was a Nile Merit Recipient last year with a heifer from 3C Cattle.
Also, Cappy is doing great with Jason Hicks, we are excited to see how he does.
KT Ranch 
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