Posts Tagged With: #ranchingfall

There is nothing that makes a person happier than buying livestock. And if we have to be addicted to something, livestock addiction is better than a drug addiction.

Posted on November 16, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday dragged on, since at 4 it seemed like 5 and I should be off of work. We were all still tired for the show, so that didn’t help the situation. WSU had a shift change on Monday, so we had new vets call with the Molly update, however, she still got the OK to come home on Tuesday. I had them contact Sheena with continued care, like blood work orders, etc. We are excited to get her home. Kaine had to stay after school to turn in his football gear, but besides that he is done with sports for a bit. It is nice with darkness coming so early to have them home for chores. Toni got Naughty, Dual and Duke back in to work with. Toni also did chores so the 3 kids that were home could wash their steers and heifers.

Tuesday Toni and mom headed to WSU to bring Molly home as soon as the kids were on the bus. I took Wild to Sheena to get her eye port taken out, then Wild was turned out with the other weanlings. Mom did not want Wild in with Molly. Wild isn’t wild, but she is big and can be pretty active. The old white trailer was brought down for Molly to spend nights in. Mom and Toni took a blanket for Molly so she did not get too cold on the way home. Molly was pretty lethargic acting up at WSU. They said she had not been super active, but was pretty resistant to getting her bandage changed. When Toni took her off the trailer at home, Molly was back to herself. Prancing, bucking in place, acting like she was pretty happy to be home. And of course mom was really happy she was home. We all were, but Mom especially. Because the trailer was at the house from bringing Molly home, we practiced loading Naughty, Duke, Dual, and Lilo. Since the weather had gotten cold we also put Double’s blanket on him. Kaine washed his heifers after school and Kade and Jaxsen did chores.

Wednesday Coco got sick, so Toni watched baby Shea from 6:30 am to about 10:30. Kendel watched Shea while Toni had court. Anna went and got her when she got home from school from Kendel. They all had lots of fun watching her, but we are still sad Coco was sick. Coco ended up going to the doctor to try to get some meds and get better. Toni and the kids did chores. Naughty, Dual, and Duke were all progressing really well. Toni was getting ready to go to a convention, so she had Kade and Kaine help her with the colts as they would be working on them on Thursday. We forget how much stranger danger the foals have until you go to introduce someone new to them. But the boys did really well with the colts. Dual is very chill. Duke, who is still really young, just needed more time to get used to the boys. We call them boys, but they are both about 6 feet tall and probably look pretty big to the weanling colts.

Thursday Coco was still sick, Toni had court so Kendel watched Shea and took Coco some chicken noodle soup. Toni and Leslie left for WCA conference at noon in Wenatchee. The kids did most of chores. I did some when I got home, not a lot, what they left for me. The boys worked on the colts themselves. They said they did fine. Someone also has to help mom lead Molly who is feeling her oats now that she is home. We still have to give her meds, change her bandages, but she is much improved. We just hope we can keep her moving in the right direction with her healing.

Happy Veterans Day. On Friday Ben the kids and I left for SE Idaho to see the Geddes family. We stay with Ben’s sister Candice, her husband James and the 4 girls. Kaydance is the only one of the 4 that does not do dance, she is in to animals, so we are trying to convince Candice and James to let her stay with us for a while in the summer. Toni got home late in the day and the Meachams did chores while we were gone. McCall came and house sat.

We had a great time in Idaho, for the few days we were there, and visited as many people as we could. We took Nugget the mini down with us for Andee.

Toni and the boys did a lot while we were gone. On Saturday, Kade went shooting. Jaxsen and Toni went and loaded out Duke, Dual, and Naughty. It was a cold but sunny day. After the three colts left, Toni and Kade got Lilo, Groot, and Rich in. Groot and Rich were the two options for Jeshua for the AQHA youth program. The Meacham men put out straw for all of the horses. They did chores.

Jeshua ended up selecting Groot on Sunday. Groot is quite a bit bigger than Rich at this point and he is bay. Jeshua likes bays. Really who doesn’t? Toni and Kade got the next halterbreaking victims in, they ended up being Judge, Gunnie, and one last sold filly that is staying awhile. Then Toni and Kade pulled Shadie and Cammie in, weaned those 2 foals, put a blanket on Shadie. Then went and caught Blue and Lendy, weaned those 2 foals. So the only foal left to wean is Summer. She is just too tiny to wean. They were supposed to haul a load of mares out after that, but ended up riding out to check the heifers instead. Kade is really wanting to ride his horse Minnie quite a bit before he has to quit because she is ready to foal. We bought her bred, so probably won’t breed her back unless Kade has moved to something else to ride, but he likes her a lot. Then they cleaned out the red trailer before winter. After that it was time for chores.

Seven foals left to sell. We are still debating keeping as many as we have selected to keep. So we may have some others for sale at some point. Toni tried to buy a few at the Millionaire’s sale but wouldn’t bid high enough. We had the Shining Spark 2022 colt for all of 5 minutes before we got outbid. I think he sold for $51,000.00. Yeah, we were an early bid! A person might wonder why we would bid on another horse. There is nothing that makes a person happier than buying livestock. And if we have to be addicted to something, livestock addiction is better than a drug addiction.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #2022Foal, #AQHA Color, #AQHA in WA, #AQHAColor, #AQHAcoltforsale, #AQHAcoltforsaleinWA, #AQHAdunfilly, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAinWA, #AQHAProud, #AQHAYearlingColt, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingfall, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchingspring, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WALoveBeef, #washingtoncattlemen, #weaningfoals, AQHA

Last Week in Pictures

Posted on November 15, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #AQHA Color, #AQHAColor, #AQHAcoltforsale, #AQHAcoltforsaleinWA, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAinWA, #AQHAProud, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingfall, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WALoveBeef, #washingtoncattlemen, AQHA

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.

Posted on November 10, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch

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 5^th overall intermediate. 4^th was cousin Parker and 6^th 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.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: ##Quarter horses for sale, ##Quarter horses for sale in Washington, #AQHA Color, #AQHA in WA, #AQHAColor, #AQHAcoltforsale, #AQHAcoltforsaleinWA, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAinWA, #AQHAProud, #AQHAYearlingColt, #QHColor, #QHStallions, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingfall, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WAJrAngus, #WALoveBeef, #washingtoncattlemen, AQHA

Last Week in Pictures

Posted on November 7, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: ##Quarter horses for sale, #AQHA in WA, #AQHAColor, #AQHAcoltforsale, #AQHAcoltforsaleinWA, #AQHAfilly, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAinWA, #AQHAProud, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingfall, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WAJrAngus, #WALoveBeef, #washingtoncattlemen, AQHA

No matter how many years a person has owned livestock, and with knowledge passed down from generations of livestock ownership, there is always something new just around the corner to keep life interesting

Posted on November 1, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday was a hectic whorl wind of a day. It started Sunday night with Molly colicing. Toni and mom lead her all night. Toni finally texted me at 4, which I did not see until 5ish, to bring the trailer down. While looking for colic remedies online Toni saw that you could haul them around and it could jiggle the air bubbly out. So I threw on some clothes and headed down. We drove her in circles until around 7, dropped Toni off at her house, because she had court starting at 9, and mom and I continued to drive her around until Sheena was open and 8. Sheena knew we were coming and met us out back. We dropped Molly off and headed home. Sheena texted me around 10 we needed to take Molly to WSU, she was getting it lined out. I had just hit 17 and was headed to work. So I turned around, woke up mom, woke up Toni (who had court after being up all night then went to bed), got the trailer, picked up mom, picked up Toni and headed to Othello. Sheena had Molly ready to go when we got there, so we got her on the trailer and headed out. It was around 1 when we got to Pullman, we had not been to the vet college since COVID, you have to call ahead now, which we had been told so we did, so they can open the gate and let you in. As we are backing up to bay 1 we had two vets, three students and a horse person waiting for us. They scooped her up and took off, mom did not even get to say goodbye, because you can no longer go back with your horse. We were sent to the waiting room. Dr Sanz came out about 15 min later to us know what that Molly had a blockage in her small intestine, which is what Sheena had already told us. I asked if Mom could go and tell her goodbye, since Molly at best case scenario would be there for 3 days. So, Dr Sanz took mom back while the intern person, Bree Brown, took down all of the info from Toni and I. We were then told that we needed a deposit, and guess what, Toni and I brought lots of snacks (our football snack bags) but no money. LOL. So, mom had to pay. We did come up with $63 in our pockets, but did not think that would work for surgery. At that point we were told Molly had at best a 50% shot, but we assured mom that the Unsinkable Molly Brown was not going down. WSU can only give statistics on horses, they couldn’t give a statistic on Molly. Toni said she had more like a 75-80% chance. We headed out and stopped in Colfax at 3 for subway and diesel. We then stopped at Dusty to pick up a new mare from Tim Johnson’s. We thought Kaine had a football game, so started hot trotting it home, we called Ben to see what the status was and found out Kaine was not playing Monday, since he was staring on varsity on Friday. So we throttled down and stopped in Washtucna and got mom and I coffees and Toni chai tea. We got home around 5ish, Kaine and Kade got home off of the activity bus. So the boys, Toni and I did chores, then the boys headed up to do their show animal chores. Toni, Tulip and I worked on the three colts, Tulip got Rich then 2, Toni had Dual, and I had Rich. Monday night we got a call to let us know that Molly also had a twisted gut, due to the compaction, however, it was still in phase 1, so none of her intestine had died, so they did not have to cut any of it out. She got up on her own after surgery, so that is great. But the next 24 hours were very critical, that she did not get septic.

Tuesday was still raining, and season temps. We were waiting to hear an update on Molly, but no news is good news? We told Mom that a lot. Kade had his last football game, Meachams went to it, minus Jaxsen, who stayed home and helped do chores. It was the excitement of his day. Kade played a good last game. It was a tough but fun game to watch. Anna was having fun at FFA Nationals, they have gone to a lot of cool places. I worked on the colts, they all did great. We had tying practice. Jaxsen helped me dr Wild. Ben and Kade cleaned the barn when Kade got home from football. I hate that it is getting dark so early. Molly is doing good, she’s been stable, no signs of colic. She’s still on antibiotic. She’s eating food mixed with water (which was good that she’s interested in food).

Wednesday was sunny. The kids had a half day of school Jana came up and picked up Pearl and the orange heifer. Toni had two hearings in the morning then went in to the school to pick up Kade and Jaxsen and attend Jaxsen’s parent teacher conference. He had a couple of Bs which are not acceptable so he only got four books at the book fair. The Bs were really unacceptable because they were for not turning work in that he had actually completed. That is pretty bad. (FYI, those sentences were from Toni). Kaine had football practice, Toni picked him up after parent teacher conferences. The boys did chores and worked on their show animals. Anna was still at FFA National convention. Her FFA advisor posted on FB that it was their first convention day. Update on Molly: she was doing really well, she’s eating and drinking, they took her tube out today and took her for a walk outside. She does have some fluid in her lungs so they have her on pneumonia meds, however, that isn’t uncommon for after surgery. She does still have some inflammation in her small intestine, so they are continuing to monitor that.

Thursday was sunny. Everyone went to work in the morning. Kaine had football practice, Toni took him in and picked him up. Dad was going too but ended up having to go to work. Toni, Ben and the boys bangs vaccinated heifers and semen tested the big bulls since the boys did not have school. It went really well. The cattle were all pretty good. Only one heifer was waspy, but she wasn’t that bad. The biggest issue was that the Hereford heifers are mostly out of Scrat, so they are big, and don’t move fast. They require patience. Anna was still at FFA Nationals. Toni and the boys had chores down when I got home, they went down and did them when they got done with the cows.

Friday Kaine and I had dentist appts at noon. So we ran to Sagehill vet and picked up Absolute first thing, then took her to mom and dads. Absolute went to the vet on Monday too, but that was overlooked due to Molly. Absolute ended up having a bad strep infection. So she had to stay at Sagehill for a few days then gets another 10 days of medication. Absolute is really easy to dr and be around but is awful to load in the trailer, probably because they only time she gets loaded is to go to the vet or come home from the vet. Then we got ready and ran to down and had lunch at Foodies in Richland. Toni and mom had been bragging about the shrimp po’boy sandwich, but they were out of shrimp. The hamburgers there were really good too. We came home after, Kade and Jaxsen were washing their steer and heifers to get ready for the show the following weekend. We went down to do chores and then at 4ish dad ran Kaine in to warm up for his game. Marlo came out and we had her lead Rich, I lead 2 and Toni lead Dual, and we took them for a walk about. Marlo, dad, Ben and I went into the varsity game. They played Royal City, it was a good game.

Saturday the boys game down and all three washed their heifers and Jaxsen washed Joker. Then we put halters on the Spokane steers. At noon we went to Connell for the Halloween party/Grandma is 92 party, the kids had a lot of fun. Grandma doesn’t like us telling people how old she is. She does not like to be reminded of her age either. After we did chores.

Sunday we were supposed to have someone come out and look at 2, but he rescheduled. The men and boys went hunting in the morning. Kade got a few. I worked on pictures. In the afternoon we hauled out another load of mares, weaned the mini colts again and haltered the next three, Duke, Naughty and Groot.

I am pretty sure we are all still tired. We have found out quite a bit about Zimectrin Gold since the Molly incident. The internet is full of information that a person has to wade through. Some good info some bad. We don’t plan to continue using it in our program. Luckily we have a wonderful vet that has continued to help us through the trials and tribulations of equine ownership. And Morgan from Old Mil is going to exchange the Gold for Equimax, that Sheena is having us use instead. No matter how many years a person has owned livestock, and with knowledge passed down from generations of livestock ownership, there is always something new just around the corner to keep life interesting.