Posts Tagged With: #AQHABlackfilly

Monday was a lot cooler then it has been, it was great, except then the wind came up. Candice, James, Lydia and Aeli (they left Cristy Kay at home) came up to get Kaydence. They came though Montana so James could stop and Candice could look for rocks. Poor Mini, John’s mini mare, is not feeling well, so the kids got Rainy and her colt in, in case Rainy needed to foster another baby. Rainy is a sweet mare and the only one we thought might do it. Kade decided to jump on one of the unbroke minis and got bucked off, then he decided to ride one of his steers and got bucked off. It was just a bucked off kind of a day. Dad took Butte back up to Pullman for the new turbo, our turbo started going out on the way back from Filer and brought back the loaner minivan. Jeana came and got “Bay Mare,” so Toni led her down to the corral with a string, since that is her new thing. Toni fixed a pole and made a creep feeder for Monte, and made him go in it.  Monte is still not thriving. But getting stepped on in the first few days of life takes a long time to get over, if ever.  Jax started football camp on Monday and that added another element to otherwise already long days. He was so excited to play football and see his friends that we aren’t sure he actually played that well.

We waved goodbye to Candice, James, Kaydence, Lydia and Aeli Tuesday morning, then headed off to work. Anna and dad went to Bryans to pick up some more meat, if anyone needs some our freezer is getting full, check out our website and got-beef.net. On the way to get meat, somehow the keys got locked in the pick-up, but with a tool they were able to get the pickup unlocked and back on their way.  Dad took mom over to stay with grandma on Tuesday, and Coco and Shea went over before they left. We also had some more night of Shea before she left us. She has been so fun. She loves the dogs, cats, and horses. Isn’t as sure about the cattle. She absolutely loves to ride already. She has no fear and thinks it is great. We put her on Gracie and led her around for a while. She also ran around petting all of the younger horses who thought she was great.

                On Wednesday Toni and Kade went for an evening ride on Stormy and Friday. Toni hauled Friday down to ride with Kade. She decided Gen was too tall for her. Sagebug’s pen is also out of feed, like Gunner’s pen, so they keep getting into the corn field, but they do not want to come in so they take off of the backside of the lake when they see you coming. The problem with having horses out of pretty rough country is it isn’t easy to get them in when you need to. Especially if they don’t want to come in. Jax had his third day of football camp and was starting to let his personality shine. Somehow he managed to get the whole team some extra push-ups, but boys his age think he is funny so it wasn’t a big deal.

Anna and Kade went to grocery outlet on Thursday to get the water Grocery Outlet in Pasco, WA  donated for Anna’s senior project. Kaine has been chopping down Russian Olive Trees so he did not go with them. Mom and Anna printed off posters for her clinic and mom and dad ran to Othello and got her poster board for posters. Kaine and I went to a work dinner Thursday night. Ben was working on circles so he could not go. Toni and Kade went for an evening ride again. Ben and Anna got Sagebugs pen locked in on Thursday.

Anna, Kaine and Kade went into the CBJLS fairgrounds on Friday to set up for the clinic, with Burl Booker. They also ran the mares from Sagebug’s pen to circle 5. Toni, Uncle Joe and I went to Hunters for Dave Dashiell’s funeral. It was very well attended. Dave will be missed. As with anytime we attend those functions, we got to see lots of friendly faces but it is always sad to have to see them at a funeral. The kids did chores since it was late when we got home, and we got them pizza. Toni had to be even later because Jax had his last day of football camp. Luckily her friends know her and Holly brought her an ice cream sandwich when she picked up Jax. Friday was long.

Saturday was the big day for Anna’s Sr Project, she had lots of help getting it together.  Added to our crew, Lane came in to help as well. Toni, Kaine, Jax and I hauled in Marvel the steer and Roxette the heifer for Anna to use as demo animals. There were kids from Ephrata, Tri-cities, and all over that came. Anna had our family in the steer barn, Mackenzie Shattuck and Mrs. Shattuck on sheep, and Hanah Muhlbier and Mr. Palmer on pigs. The clinic was full and lots of positive results. Mr. Danzie and Mrs. Danzie, along with Ben and Jara and Cade Scott got the meal together. We didn’t really go to the other species, but we had a great time in the steer barn, parents helping parents, kids helping kids. Jara took Toni’s camera to get some pictures of the other species since we did not leave the steer barn. It was a huge success, lots of people came and we think they learned a lot. Now we are trying to find a Sr to do it next year.  Hopefully Anna gets an A. She put in tons more time than required to make it as great as it was. She had lots and lots of support. Our local grocery store, Harvest Foods donated part of the meal, Grocery Outlet donated, Jara and Cade Scott, 509 Show Circuit, just to name a few. Added to all of the volunteers that donated time, which is really a precious commodity. Anna had lots of help, but the majority of the work fell on her shoulders and she squared those shoulders and did a great job. It was also a reminder that our fair season is around the corner. We had some pretty deep discussions with other adults about our concerns regarding fair support. We have been talking about putting together a Livestock Booster club for about a year now to help with kids that just don’t have the necessary support for their livestock project. With that, the North Franklin Livestock Booster was born and took shape on Saturday. Toni, Kameron Jenks, and Erica Corrales are the board members. Now they just need to get donations and put a list together of kids that potentially need assistance on sale day at the fairs. Toni has more work to do to make it official, but consider it done.

Sunday we did lots of ranch work that we are behind on. Fixed fence, Ben worked on circles, kids worked on steers. Kade practiced roping, Kaine worked on his pickup, Anna helped Toni and I fix fence. Toni and Anna videoed Anna and Gunnie for the AQHA Youth Program. There was an In-Hand trail pattern that Anna was required to do and she got to have the extra trail element of pain in the butt heifers in the way. The two angus heifers in that pen decided to make themselves part of the trail course. Gunnie didn’t care and hopefully AQHA sees the humor in it. At one point the heifers were eating the straw bale that was part of the course. And Kade and Toni went for another ride Sunday night. But Toni rode Gen.  Gen loves attention and isn’t happy to be left out of the loop, so Toni said she will ride him sometimes. We also worked on my two-year-old Cash. Cash is a really cool filly out of one of our Apache Blue Boy daughters and Brays Eye Full. So she has the performance bottom combined with the run top. When working on training, a person must be aware of the horse they are working with. Cash has more react than our other fillies so has taken some extra time. You want to push that comfort zone when training without crossing the line into blowing up your horse. Because we know Cash and understand the training game, we have taken it a bit slower with her and know that going at her pace will make her a better horse in the long run.  She is really coming along, just not as fast.

We are super excited with how well KT Jackpot City is doing with TD Performance Horses, call Dillion at 509-398-7272 for more information. After years of being used just as a stallion, Jackpot has gone right back to being ridden. Saddled picture is at TD Performance Horses. Thanks to his excellent mind, great foundational training, and of course, Ty Dekker, Jackpot will hopefully continue to excel. Here are some links to the new riding videos, including him running at the rodeo grounds: https://www.facebook.com/tylar.decker/videos/698230048602651