Fairgrounds just off of hwy. 7 - South of Jasper.

Fair time has arrive yet again!  Rodeo, rides, livestock show….etc.  If you are in town you need to stop by and take in some of the events.

Here is the link to all of the event schedule:

http://WWW.THENEWTONCOUNTYFAIR.COM/index.html

KIDS DAY! Free day for the children

New this year is the Jr. Rodeo!

Hope to see you there!

Late spring I went to the Arrow P Sale to buy saddles and maybe two or three more horses for the trail.  It was late, 2 in the morning, and I had purchased a couple of riding horses.  I was about to leave but decided to stay for the “loose” pen.  These horses are either broodmares, horses that no longer can be ridden, horses that never were broke and are over the age of 3, young, young horses that are not ready to ride…etc. There is usually  no one there to tell you about them and no one rides or leads them in.  About anything can be in the “loose” pen. The good, the bad and the ugly…

So I am sitting watching nice young colts come through along w/ broodmares and older geldings.  I am thinking to myself, “It would be fun to buy one of these young horses and break it, ride it and then possibly resell it.”  Late night and cheap horses prices are not a good combo for me.  I bid on a few but they go up high enough it is not worth the risk.  Then in comes this bay paint.  He is long and lean, kind of gangly and seems a bit wild.  I bid and I get him.  Then I think, “What have I done?  Barry is NOT going to be happy.”

After the sale is all over and I have paid for my three horses I search for my new “project” out back.  I find him and to my pleasant surprise he is friendly and lets me pet him.  I did notice one thing, he was still a colt, not a gelding.  Oops.  I check his mouth and can see he is a coming two year old.  Another bonus.  He could have just as easily been a poorly bred horse that was mature and a bean pole.

After getting him home, wormed and gelded, we just let him be a horse.   Jennifer and Scott came in for the summer season and a month or so after they arrived Jennifer started George and is riding him today on some of the trails.  He is still not the widest horse but he has filled out nicely and as he matures probably will get a little more muscle and fill out more.

Will I sell him, we are not sure for now.  He has been so quiet and relaxed we may just keep him.  Time will only tell.

After he was gelding and only had been here about 4 weeks.

George today. He still has a lot of growing & learning to do.

One last push on the swing before the sun goes down.

Heading down for the twilight ride.

]]> http://gohcr.com/2010/07/28/evening-at-horseshoe-canyon-guest-ranch/feed/ 0 http://gohcr.com/2010/07/20/4th-of-july-at-horseshoe-canyon-guest-ranch/ http://gohcr.com/2010/07/20/4th-of-july-at-horseshoe-canyon-guest-ranch/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:53:36 +0000 hcr http://gohcr.com/?p=801

People starting to arrive other than the guests.

A view from across the canyon. The majority of the people view the fireworks on the lodge's back porch, pool or hot tub.

Hula hoop with lights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDo4PY3ez2E

The steak cookout.

Scott over seeing the kid’s arena ride.

If you stay long enough you start to look like the locals.

We have enough berry’s on the ranch to keep you full all week!
Blackberries and raspberries galore.

All of the baby animals are growing up!  The puppies have been weaned and almost all of them are in their new homes.  Thistle is growing like a weed.  She is being halter broke and learning her manners daily.  The kids, of the four legged kind, have started doing their part in the brush cleaning department.

S’MORES!

Jennifer loves her s'mores.

YUM!

This past year I came across the blurb website.  It is a wonderful website to make family photo/scrap books online.  As I was riding the trail the other day with some guests, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be neat to have stories and photos from past guests and make a book from that.”  So, send us your favorite Horseshoe Canyon memory and by all means include a few photos.  This book will be for guests to look at while visiting the ranch.

Mail stories and photos to: barryandamy@gohcr.com  please include your name along with family member’s names and when you visited the ranch.

Thanks!

I sat and watched her for quite some time – the moonlight was nice and bright so I could see her with out using any artificial light.  I only used the head lamp to look at her bag (if she were a cow it would be an udder) area to check milk leakage. Occasionally, I would go to my camp, the van, and take a hr nap.  This went on until 5:00 a.m. and I decided she was not going to have the foal.
The next day, Sat. the 24th, she seemed more restless, she didn’t seem to stay in one spot for very long.  That night we had more live music at the Ranch (the music was for the Waterfall Safari, an event for people who like to hike around and look at waterfalls).  Although her pen is behind the barn and was away from all the activity you could still hear the music and people talking, dancing and laughing. I  wondered if that was holding things up for Flower.  Horses have a little bit of control of birth, it is a prey thing.

Around 1:30 a.m. everything seemed to settle down for the humans, as for the animals, they were all worked up.  Maybe it was the cool wind and the possible storms.  The horses were running around all over the ranch, which made the goat dogs excited so they started barking at them for getting too close to their goat herd, which then caused the ranch dogs to start barking. I know this because I was in my fancy camp, van, in the hitching area again.  Even Flower was excited, and ran around for a second in her pen.

The other ranch horses keep crowding around the pen to look at her. It is pretty funny.

Finally around 2:45 a.m. they all started to calm down and get quiet.  Flower even quit walking around her pen and just stood at the bottom sleeping.  I thought, “Not again, no foal and I have stayed up another night for nothing.” But I just couldn’t quite give up just yet because now her milk was streaming out from time to to.   I decided to go sleep until 3:30.  I got up and checked Flower, nothing.  I went back to sleep and got up at 4:30… I told myself, “If nothing is happening I might as well go home and sleep in my own bed for a couple of hours before I have to get up for church.”

This time when I found Flower she was laying down. As I was watching her she would keep looking back at her belly, then after about 10 minutes her water broke.  She got up, walked around for a few minutes and then laid back down and had a filly at 4:54 a.m.  We have not named her yet, we want to get to know her a little better first.