New Header!

So, I have been trying to make a new header and I also have been trying to do a new background. I just can't seem to figure it all out. Well, the whole background thing. But the new header is in the works. But until it is finished, you will all have to deal with the plain white blog. So, sorry!!

I will post tomorrow about my sister coming to visit!! We have so much fun! I hate to see her go. I think she should move in with me! We can ditch our husbands and become cat woman. Well, maybe not that whole cat thing, we both are allergic. Anyway, we had a good time. Her kids are just too darn cute!! I will show you all tomorrow!

Big Brothers

I think I have really lucked out with my 2 cowpokes. They are such sweet boys. It is so sweet how the boys treat their little sister. They are kind to her, share with her, give her bottles, let her play with them, and they let her crawl all over them. Big Cowpoke is really a blessing to this family. He helps out so much. He helps make bottles and tries really hard to make her happy. Little Cowpoke will share all his toys with her. They can play together all day and you will never hear a complaint, unless one of them gets hungry.

Here Big Cowpoke is watching a movie. He was just sitting there on his beanbag, when Cowpokette just decided to crawl all over him. He lets her have her fun! He is really such a wonderful caring brother.

Here Little Cowpoke moves over to let his sister sit on the bean bag. Or maybe he just doesn't want to get drooled on? Any way, he is so kind to her too, most of the time.

The other evening Cowpokette was playing with some trains in the living room, when Big Cowpoke came in. They were being really quiet, so, I went to go and see what they were doing. Normally silence means trouble. But this is what I found.

Big Cowpoke was playing with her on the floor.

They played for the longest time. He really is so sweet to his little sister. I am so grateful for my boys. I love how they love their sister. They are so sweet to her, now to each other is a different story. And that is an entire different post.

Molly

Well, after a night of scares, Molly is okay. She now is up and running around and trying really hard to keep her way adorable baby to herself. She won't let us see the baby any more. She stays in the back of the pasture and hogs her baby. I sure would love to play with the baby again. The vet had suggested that Molly had taken in a lot of air while giving birth. Then when the air was all in her belly it made her uncomfortable and act "colicy". Plus she was probably still having some contractions. I am so happy she is healthy. She is such a sweet girl.

*****DONKEY UPDATE******

Poor Molly, the mother, is not doing really well. We do not think she is going to make it. It's really sad. Molly is such a good mother. We think she may have an infection. We have talked to a few different vets and there really isn't anything you can do, except surgery. Molly is my father-in-law's donkey, so, he is the final decision maker with what to do. I would have picked her up and taken her to the vet's office. But that is just me. Just to make sure she doesn't suffer. I am hoping she will make it through the night. If not, the baby will have to be bottle fed and kept in a stall so the coyotes will not get her. Wish Molly good luck to night! I pray that she pulls through. She really is such a sweet donkey.

It's a Girl!!

Yesterday when I was gathering children to go outside to feed the animals, I received a phone call. It was my father-in-law. He said, "We have a baby donkey! It's black!" I was so excited. I looked out my back door and Molly and her baby were way in the furthest corner. I could not see a thing. So, the kids and I jumped in the van and went to go to the back of the property. On our way around, we saw that the donkey was headed back to the front. Back to the front of the property we went. We were on a donkey chase. We got back up to the barn and finally got all the horses inside and where do you think Molly is? She ran back to the back corner again. *sigh*. I really wanted to see the baby donkey, in all it's cuteness. So, I did what anyone desperate to see a baby donkey would do, I went after the donkey, with a bucket of feed. We were armed and ready for the chase.

The boys came with me. We walked all the way to the back of the 20 acre pasture shaking the bucket and yelling her name. It did not faze her. Until we got almost to her, and she realized we were going to feed her. She came over to us. But my cowpokes were too excited about the baby and she started to run away again. So, the chase was back on.

I used my cowpokes as my rear donkey wranglers. I got in front of Molly with the bucket and the cowpokes ran up the rear. Molly was headed to the barn. Then, she got stuck in knee deep mud. And let me tell ya, knee deep Louisiana mud is enough to stop a big momma donkey dead in her tracks. Molly finally gave up. She came over to me to eat some grain.

We finally got to see the little baby up close and personal. It is so darn cute! I just want to hug it, love it, and bring it in my house! But I don't think Molly would like that very much. Molly did not like me very much. But she did not seem to mind Little Cowpoke getting in close.

My little redneck child got right in there and petted the baby. I couldn't believe how sweet the baby was. She is so black! And those ears, I just wanna squeeze her. While Little Cowpoke rubbed the baby, Big Cowpoke ran back to the barn and got me a halter. We finally got Molly into the barn. The boys were so excited. On the walk back they were saying what they wanted to name the baby, "Lets call her Junior, no Judy!" Little Cowpoke said, "June we call her June" I suggested we call her Velvet. But the boys just looked at me funny. But since Molly was a Christmas present, I thought maybe she could be called Noel.

In a stall the baby donkey got hugs and kisses by all. She is just so lovable.

Big Cowpoke would catch her so his little brother could pet her. Not that the baby was going anywhere, but it made him feel good to catch the baby. It was cute.

Just tell me what is sweeter than kids and babies? Little Cowpoke thought she needed help with drinking milk.

After about 100 hugs and even more kisses it was time to let the little baby donkey have a rest. She was such a good sport about the kids being around her. And Molly was a nice mom to let us in the stall and play with the baby. Congratulations Molly on a beautiful baby girl.

As Big as a House!

There are two donkeys that live here with our horses. They arrived here shortly before Christmas. They were bought for protection. We wanted them to be our horse guards. As, many of you may know, donkeys do not like dogs. No dogs of any kind. Mr. Cowboy warned me that I needed to watch my dogs to make sure the donkeys did not chase them, because the donkeys can not tell the difference between a domestic dog and a coyote. I chuckled. He is so cute!! But soon after the two donkeys arrived we all noticed something strange about them. Mr. Cowboy says it best, "They are broke!!" That's right. We got broke donkeys. They actually let my in-law's German Shepherd bite and pull their tales. Also, they let three coyotes run right past them and they didn't even lift their heads up from eating. Yep, I would have to agree that these there donkeys are just plumb broke.

But oh, who cares if we have coyotes and other domestic dogs chasing our horses, these donkeys are just too cute!! We have other means to take care of the dog issue. Let me introduce you to Molly. She is the older donkey. She is brown and oh so sweet. My cowpokes can do whatever they want to her. And I so love her big ears.

Her name is Molly. She is just the sweetest donkey ever. The kids just climb all over her and she doesn't move. And another interesting fact about Molly is that she is expecting. She is due to have a little baby donkey any day now. Let me show you her good side.

Isn't she so beautiful. Well, kinda. Okay she is darn right funny looking, but she is such a good girl. That picture just doesn't do her belly justice.

Look! There she is! And I think she has that pregnant glow about her. It's sad to say that this photo was taken about a month ago and she still hasn't had her baby and that belly has just gotten bigger. I am really excited for a baby donkey. I want to see it's little fuzzy body, and long ears, and its short legs. Oh, I just can't wait. Molly is not the only donkey here. She came with a little one year old donkey named Misty. She comes from a long line of ancient oriental donkeys.

See. She is a rare descendant that was shipped accidentally to the US from the most eastern part of China. Or, she could just be squinting to see me. It was really sunny that day. Okay, she is really just a normal donkey. Nothing special.

But this is the closest I have gotten to her. She was curious about my camera. She came really close. The kids have started feeding her treats to get her to come closer. She is still a baby. Those are the two resident donkeys. They are spoiled rotten and fed way too much, and I think they love it.

I have some really good upcoming news!! I am so excited about it!! I will post about it later. But until then, y'all come back now ya hear!

Home Alone

Mr. Cowboy has been away working for the last week. It is his new job. He works in the big city 2 and a half hours away from us. He stays in an apartment there. We are hoping that this new job will move him closer to home soon!! But until then I get to be a single mom. Which is not fun. I have the utmost respect for single mothers. I was a single parent for about a year and a half and it is not fun. It is a lot of work. Then I only had one child and I worked. Now, I have three kids and stay at home. But wow, it still is a lot of work. I could not imagine going to work and then having to come home and cook dinner, get homework done, ride horses, feed horses, bathe kids, and put them to bed all before 8 pm. So, to all you single parents out there, you are tuff and I give all my respect to you!! It's hard work. But this is what I have been doing since Mr. Cowboy has been away.

I have been working with Little Cowpoke at becoming potty trained. It is going well. I have him completely house broken. I am so good at house breaking animals, why not use it on my kids? No, really it all came about by accident. But since Little Cowpoke has not been wearing diapers we haven't had many accidents. When he has to go potty, this is what he does........

Nice right? Perfectly house broken. I do not know what I would do if I lived in town? I may not be able to potty train my boys. Well, anyway onto a day with out Mr. Cowboy. We were invited to a birthday party/play group. I was so excited. But I needed to be able to control the whole using the lawn for a bathroom issue. So, Little Cowpoke put on a pull up. Off we went. I love going to birthday parties. I love seeing and talking to other adults. I was, like always, the last one to leave. After we left I needed to go to the grocery store. So, I picked up Big Cowpoke and off we went.

We went to a small town grocery store that has funny looking shopping carts, which are called buggies, and I now call them buggies. The south is changing my vocabulary. The cart is tall with a shallow basket. They have it this way so the cashier can pull the basket through the check out lane by her. Anyway, those baskets are not kid friendly. So, Cowpokette went in the front area, Little Cowpoke went in the basket, and Big Cowpoke who forgot his shoes sat underneath the basket. We were doing well. I actually had about three frozen things in the basket and I was containing three kids really well. Until Big Cowpoke started yelling, "It's leaking mom!! The stuff in the basket is leaking on me!! I am getting wet!!"

That is when I looked down just when Big Cowpoke jumped up and screamed for all to hear, "He peed on me!! MOM!!" Now, I grabbed Little Cowpoke and took him to the bathroom. Little Cowpoke had taken the liberty of removing his diaper at the birthday party and then decided that he did not need to tell a single person. Luckily I had a diaper in the diaper bag and we contained the situation. I can not say so much for Big Cowpoke's hair. He was wet. We headed for the check out.

I want to know what brilliant business candy selling jerk put the candy by the check out. Every time I get to the check out halos appear above my children's heads. They wanted candy. Big Cowpoke could not have any because he refused to put his shoes on before we left and Little Cowpoke could not have any because he peed everywhere. Now both boys were screaming with huge tears falling down their faces. The lady in line behind us just looked at us. Then I made it worse, I disciplined them for screaming. That made it get even louder. The teenager behind the register said, "Wow, you are going to have a fun night!"

I kindly replied, "This is every night. Would you like to have one until your shift is over. I will come back and pick him up? I will even leave the one that is potty trained!" He would not take my offer. I do not know why? I was being totally serious. But we made it out of the store. Thank goodness. I was grateful that Cowpokette was being so good. But I know she has her wheels in her head turning. I can see it on her sweet face. She is taking everything in, letting is soak, and then I am going to be in trouble. You tell me what you think about her?

Hmmmmmm..........I think I am going to be in trouble.

"What me? I did nothing, it was all my brother's fault. He is always getting into trouble! I am innocent." But just to let you all know, I was not safe from mishaps, because I left town and came home. It didn't take 5 minutes for Little Cowpoke to do this.

Yes, that is corn flakes. The entire bag. He grabbed them out of the pantry when I was cooking dinner and doing homework with Big Cowpoke. I think my eyes in the back of my head may need glasses.

Good Boy

Two Christmases ago a very good friend of mine had a litter of puppies. They were all lab puppies. There were six total. One black puppy and five yellow puppies. They were born around Thanksgiving. I just love puppies. I wish that there could be a breed of dog that stays looking and smelling like a puppy. They are just so darn cute. And these lab puppies were the cutest. They were so chubby and fuzzy and cuddley. Well, Christmas time came and my good friend decided that my 6 month old son needed a puppy. So, for Little Cowpoke's Christmas present he got a puppy. They were so cute together. They would take naps in the kennel together, lay on the floor together, and play together. I really could not have asked for a better puppy. He never jumped on anyone or chewed up toys or shoes. He was so easy to potty train and he came when he was called. A really wonderful lab. Now this puppy is all grown up. Bear is now 2 and a half years old. He is a sweet boy. Even when little ones like this creep up on him.

Cowpokette is so proud of her finding. She has never really been interested in the dogs. She would just look at them and let them pass. But the other day she noticed Bear. Bear has been such a great kid's dog. He just loves the kids to pet him and lay on him and feed him treats.

Bear loves her too. Even if she tries to eat his ears. It looks like he is licking his chops. Maybe he is related to the "Big Bad Wolf". "What big cheeks you have, my dear!" But Bear really just loves the attention.

He probably was hoping she would move her hands around his tummy some more.

Fort Worth, Texas

I love Fort Worth, Texas. I want to move there. I love the rolling hills, the tall trees, the cowboys, the horses, the huge ranches, the people. It is all just so wonderful. Mr. Cowboy and I decided that when we were going to go back to pick up Pearl from her boyfriend's house we would leave the kids at home and stay the night in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a brilliant plan. I loved it, considering Cowpokette will not sleep through the night and I wanted a full night's sleep.

The drive there is about 8 hours. That is with stopping for food and gas. We take back roads to get to Fort Worth. That way we avoid big cities like Houston. While we were at a small ghetto gas station, I saw this car. I actually laughed out loud.

Do you see it? Fore, it became known unto me that this Toyota was for sale. I can't believe nobody told the poor man that was driving this car that he totally spelled "for" wrong. He was with another truck of guys. Not a soul told him. He pulled up to the pump and was fueling up when another car got behind him and the driver started laughing too. I wonder if the man sold his Toyota?

Well, anyway, we finally made it to the Stockyards in Fort Worth. I was so excited. I have heard so much about them. How there was shopping, food, shopping, more food. Oh, my two most favorite things.

Here they are. The stock yards. I was kinda disappointed that there wasn't any livestock in t he pens. But I was informed that they don't really use them anymore. I also noticed that the floors of the pens were brick. Now that isn't really practical footing for livestock. That is very slippery when it is wet.

Here is Mr. Cowboy looking too cool for my picture. I embarrass him. But too bad.

There is a cattle drive down the main "drag" twice a day. They moooove a hand full of longhorn steers. When the steers are not being driven they all hang out in a large pen. This one steer was funny. It just stood there. It was the only one with a bell on it's neck. I wonder if that one likes to wonder into the crowds while being driven down the street?

The Stockyards have a bunch of different steak houses there that you can eat at. We unfortunately did not get to eat at any of them because we got there at 6pm and we wanted to go to the concert and rodeos that were that night.

There were motorcycles everywhere. They were so loud. It is fun how everyone gets in their trucks and on their bikes and they would cruse down the street, then turn around and do it all over again.



I had the most fun just walking around and browsing the shops.

Watch out y'all there is a new sheriff in town. Mr. Cowboy refused to put his head there for a picture. I guess I could just photoshop his face over mine. Hmmm...it is a thought. After I was finished embarrassing my husband we headed over to see Blake Shelton and Montgomery Gentry in concert. It was a free concert so, you could stand anywhere. We started out in the back and then we ended up almost at the stage by the end of the Montgomery Gentry concert. It was really good!!

We were far away from Blake. So, I watched him on the big screen.

The concerts were great! Chevy Thunder put on the shows and had their NASCAR cars there for everyone to drool over.

We had a good time. We even went to a rodeo. Where we ate dinner. How sad, we were right there next to some of the best steak houses and we ate rodeo hot dogs. But while we were at the rodeo we got to see Tuff Headerman's two boys rope. Tuff is a famous bull rider. He was Lane Frost's best friend. Tuff started the PBR, Professional Bull Riders. Mr. Cowboy would have loved to have ridden in the PBR, but he was injured and now has three metal plates in his face and pins and rods in his leg. He walks like an old man. So, no more bulls for Mr. Cowboy.

Here is the famous Billy Bobs. We did not go in. BB Kind was playing that night. But come on. Who could pass up Montgomery Gentry. After the concert ended it was about 11 pm and we were both really tired. On our way back to the truck we found a clown that was making balloon hats. This is the one he made me.


See, I can fit in in Texas. I am a long horn. Again, I embarrassed Mr. Cowboy because I wore this balloon hat for the rest of the evening and all they way to our hotel. He didn't get a cool balloon hat. I tried to get him to have one made and to wear it over his cowboy hat, but no luck. Oh, well. I guess someone has to be the mature one of the group. I had a great time. I can't wait to get a chance to go back.

Last Minute Road Trip

Last Tuesday at 10 am I made a really quick last minute decision to head out of town. Pearl had finally come into heat and was able to meet her boyfriend. I had called my vet and he was kind of confused with my mare. She was supposed to have been in heat three days before that, but she wasn't. He wanted to see her, but I didn't want to wait one more day to take her to the vet. So, I made a real quick decision to hit the road. I arranged for Paw Paw to get Big Cowpoke from school and I put the other two in the car. I called Mr. Cowboy and told him I would meet him in town with the kids and we would leave to Fort Worth, Texas. Just a quick 8 hours away.

We really love road trips. I had everyone packed and ready to go by noon. Even the horse! I was speed packing. I called the stallion owner, MSC Paints and told them that we were on our way. I was really excited to be going to Fort Worth. I have really only been to the Houston area of Texas. Which looks just like Louisiana. So, it was exciting to see a different part of Texas. The drive was long. But thank goodness for lots of cows to look at. Little Cowpoke loves cows. Also, thank goodness for the DVD player. I really like Texas. I love the rolling hills, the horses, the really nice big horse ranches, the open spaces, big trees, and the horses. I love how every Texan has Texas Pride. They are all so proud of their state. I was really impressed with this statue.

I took this picture from the opposite side of the interstate while going about 75 miles per hour!! I was not driving, Mr. Cowboy was. That huge statue is Sam Houston. He has a lot of parks! I really do not know what he did, but he has a city named after him, a lot of roads named after him, and a lot of parks named after him. He must have done something great. And I bet a lot of you are making fun of me right now because I do not know what Sam Houston did. I will Google his name later. Right now I am too tired.

We arrived at 8 pm and we were all so very tired. We were going to just drop off Pearl and then leave to drive back home. But the ever so nice people who own the stud asked if we could stay with them. They were so very nice. I just love horse people! We stayed up late talking about horses. I think horses can be seriously addicting. I have dreamed about them for my whole life. As far back as I can remember. I always dreamed of having one. Now I have 7 of my own and 20 in the pasture that I take care of with my father in law! Any way. If you are a horse person and you meet another horse person, you can talk horses with them forever! But it was late and we all hit the sack around midnight. The next morning I got to go and see Pearl's boyfriend. He is a nice boy.

Don't mind his dirt. He was having fun. He is enjoying his new found freedom. He had not been turned out and let to run for about 8 years. He was kept in a stall and then exercised on a hot walker. So, it is okay for him to be a bit dirty. Plus you can never keep a light colored horse clean. His name is Final Review and he is a Cremello paint stallion. If bred to the right colored mare he will make buckskin and palomino colored paint babies. Neat huh?

I am obsessed with large rear ends. I hope my baby has a rear like this one!!! There is another stud at MCS Paints too. His name is Cody. He is beautiful. I fell in love.

He is for sale. But I was not aloud to take him home, said Mr. Cowboy. I would have taken him home too. He is gorgeous. Here is one of his yearling babies.

I wanted her too, but she wasn't for sale. Not that I could have bought her anyway, but I still wanted her. She is my favorite color. I am a sucker for a blood bay. But I am sure you are all sick of horse pictures. And you are all probably wishing I would find something else to talk about. Which I will so here. Here is what Little Cowpoke did for fun while I drooled over all of MCS Paints' horses.

He found a cat and decided they were going to be friends. I don't think that Little Cowpoke has ever been able to hold a cat. This cat was so nice to Little Cowpoke. He held it by it's arm and it didn't complain. She also had kittens, which was a complete joy for Little Cowpoke. He would pick up two of the kittens at a time and say, "Awh baby, shhhhh baby it's okay." He is so sweet. Then he tried to put them all in a bucket. Silly boy.

I think he really liked the cat. Little Cowpoke is such an animal lover. It makes me smile. I love animals too. I just sneeze when I am around them all. Cats exspecially. We had a great trip. That morning we all packed back in the truck and headed back south. We left Pearl at her boyfriend's house and planned on picking her back up the next weekend. It was a fun ride back. Little Cowpoke cried when we left Pearl. He did not want his horse to stay there. He is so sensitive. It's sweet.

Friend or Fraud

As many of you all know I have been trying to sell some horses for some time now. It has not been really successful. The horse market is really a buyer's market. You can buy a really nice horse theses days for super cheap. So, for my yearlings, that are normal horses, it is kinda hard to compete with higher prices of the really nice bred yearlings. I have my two yearlings advertised on some horse selling web sites. I get questions about them every now and then. But just recently I received an email from a lady from Wyoming who was so very interested in buying Mac. He is a registered breeding stock paint. That means he has no spots.







He is really hairy from his winter coat. I have been shedding him but there always seems to be more hair. But, back to my story. This lady from Wyoming emailed me concerning my horse. She wanted more pictures of him and then after she got those she wanted to buy him for her daughter's birthday. This made me curious. First thing that threw me off was that she is from Wyoming. That is where there are some really nice horses. Also, she would pass through Oklahoma, which too has some nice horses. So, why would she drive 27 hours to buy my breeding stock paint colt? Also, who buys a one year old horse for a little girl? Not any normal mother! That is dangerous.

Yet the lady kept on emailing me and saying how her business partner was going to send me a check for the amount of $350. And then I was to contact her and she would send for a shipping service to pick up Mac. Strange, but if she really wanted it then fine. Now, I am blond but I am not stupid. My detective sister helped me Google the lady and the address that she gave me as her home. My sister did the satellite map thingy. It showed her living in an industrial area. Fishy, huh? Then my detective sister helped me come up with an email asking the buyer some questions and then suggesting she pay me using PayPal. The buyer never answered my email. So, I then sent her an email saying that if I didn't hear back from her then I would sell the horse to someone else. Then she replied.


She told me how her business partner who was sending me the money had died in an auto accident. And the business partner sent a check but for the wrong amount of $3,000. The buyer then asked that when I received the check to cash it and make her change and send her the difference. This is where I laughed. Come on!! I might have been born at night, but not last night. Who falls for this stuff? I emailed her back telling her how sorry I was for her loss and how I was sure her business partner's lawyer could cancel the check and she could send the proper amount. I then never heard from her again. Until I received this in the mail a couple of days ago.

These are Postal Money Orders. Three of them in the amount of $850 each. The thing is, they were mailed from Fort Worth, Texas. Then the sender's name on the money order is from Indiana, and the buyer is from Wyoming! Come on!! I could not believe that the buyer still sent the money after I told her I was not selling my horse to her. So, I called my Dad, who is much wiser than I am in much of everything. (Okay he is wiser in everything, except maybe horses.) My Father advised me to take them to the post office and see if they were real.

I then took them to the Post Office and the Postmaster said with out blinking, "These are fake. They are not even the right color. They do not have a water seal on them. They have the wrong check numbers....." He went on about how fake they were. I said that was great. He told me that he had never heard of someone trying this trick with buying a horse, but they try it all the time. He said the Frauds always send money in the amount of $850 and with either Money Orders or American Express Checks. He said they are very fake and most likely from overseas.

It was a relief to have this whole thing over and done with. So, I advise you all to keep your eye out for fraud. Sneaky people are lurking everywhere. I warn all you fraud people to stay away from me and I will not be tricked. And if you try, I will send in my reinforcements.

They are armed and dangerous. Well, if you don't mind being squirted with water. So, now Mac is back up for sale and if any of you would like to buy him, please feel free to do so!!! Until next time, y'all come back now ya hear.

Playday

This past Saturday we loaded up the kids and horses and went to the High Hope Rodeo Playday. It was a practice rodeo before the "real" rodeo started. Big Cowpoke was so very excited. He rode his new horse, Daisy, everyday that week in preparation for the rodeo. We almost didn't get to go to the rodeo. We thought we would have had to go to Fort Worth, Texas to take Pearl to go and meet her boyfriend. But Pearl was not quite ready to go and see her boyfriend, so, we were able to go to the playday rodeo.

When we got there we unloaded the horses and started to tack them up. The High Hope Rodeo is very family oriented. It is run by the Martin Family. They have 6 children who are all grown and married with about 5 kids to each new family. There are kids and babies everywhere. We love it. The Martin Family is known mostly for their kids roping. You should see their cute little 6 and 7 year old kids riding horses and roping calves. It's really cute. Well, any way. Big Cowpoke's horse was supposedly a roping horse. That is what the man told us when we bought her. The man also told us she was 16 years old and she ended up being around 21! So, we asked one of the Martin grown up kids to try and do break away roping on Daisy. He said he would. So, we tacked her up and he jumped on her and into the roping box they went.

And off she went. Now as you can see she is a bit far behind the calf for the rider to be able to rope it. We discovered that she was not at all scared of the whole roping thing, or chasing the calf thing, or the noisy shoots. But that was it, she was a bit too dull. Not quite fast enough. But she was good and she tried. And we came to the conclusion that she really had no idea what to do with the calf. But that is okay. Big Cowpoke doesn't ride faster than a walk so there will be no calf roping in the near future.

As soon as the kids were all ready to ride they all got on their horses and watched all the faster bigger kids ride. Here is Big Cowpoke looking worried while watching the big kids fly around the barrels.

Big Cowpoke kept saying, "Look mom they are all going so fast and they will want me to go that fast and I don't want to go that fast and I am not going to do it." But I reassured him he could go as slow as he wanted.

Here is Big Cowpoke and his horse Daisy. I mean come on, does she look like she could go fast? I think she is even sleeping in this picture.

Here is Little Cowpoke. He was so brave to ride Pearl after his whole falling off incident. He really loves to ride.

Little Cowpoke was ready to go fast. He was so excited about it being his turn. I think Pearl has a different plan. She is taking a small nap.

Here are all the cowboys and cowgirl. The two in the middle are my cowpoke's cousins. Those two horses were buddies and they didn't want anyone near them. So, we had the other two stand a bit farther away!!

Here is my angel. Cowpokette, hung out all day in her playpen. She loved it. Then it was time for Big Cowpoke to take on the clover leaf barrels. And they were off.

I think this was the fastest walk I saw Daisy do all day. Which it wasn't very fast. Then came some barrels.

Here they are turning around the second barrel.

And now here they are "running" home. I would yell, "Trot, come on you can do it!! Trot!!" Big Cowpoke just moved his head back and forth and kept on walking. His time was 1 minute and 34 seconds. A normal barrel run in this arena is about 18 seconds. Way to go Big Cowpoke.

Here Little Cowpoke had his turn at the barrels. He isn't old enough to turn all by himself so Mr. Cowboy lead him through the pattern. You can see how slow Daisy walks here. Little Cowpokes time was 1 minute 20 seconds. We need to get Big Cowpoke to trot just a little bit!!

Then it was my turn. I have never run the barrel pattern at a rodeo before. I have always ridden English or Western Pleasure. So, the thought of going that fast and turning that fast kinda scares me. But I gave it a try on my old trusty horse Pearl. I love that girl!!

Here I am rounding the second barrel. I think I need to give some more with my right hand! You see how wonderful that picture is? Mr. Cowboy was taking pictures of me.

And here we are rounding the third barrel and running home. Again, Mr. Cowboy took this picture. We were going kinda fast! See the dust flying? We had a time of 29 seconds. I am a scardy cat. I just did a slow canter around the barrels. But now for the final run. Mr. Cowboy rode our 12 hand pony Buttercup. I have been riding her for about two weeks getting her ready for the playday. I do all the dirty work at home and then Mr. Cowboy gets on and rides the hair off the horse and takes all the credit for the run. But that is okay. I let him. It makes him feel good.

But that is about it for now. I have lots more pictures but I won't bore you with them. Oh, and just to let you all know, Mr. Cowboy messed up Buttercup on the third barrel. That was all the rider's fault!! I think their time was 22. Which I think is darn good for a 12 hand pony. A big horse will run that pattern in an 18. We will get Buttercup to take off a few seconds!! Just give me some time! But that is all for now, y'all come back now ya hear!