Typical Day

A typical day on the ranch, maybe like this. Get up, feed your horse, eat breakfast, then saddle up. You may ride out on your horse or load up in a stock trailer to check on cows that are calving. While riding , some horses can be fresh or don’t want to ride off alone. Here is a great opportunity, to get help on your horsemanship from the Ranch Instructor , David Stackley. We may gather up cows with their calves and drive them up to the sorting pens. In the sorting pen, the cows will be separated from the calves. You will get to experience what cutting a cow feels like ,on horse back. The pens can sometimes be scary to horses. Here you can work on your horsemanship ,of getting them through being scared. You will also work on opening and closing gates from horseback. Another lesson is learning to work as a team with the other riders as you take the cows up the alleyway to the chutes . It’s time to break for lunch. Now you may feel like a nap and that is ok . You can choose to take a nap, go fishing, shopping in town or lounge around. If you are still wanting to cowboy, there is plenty more work to do. After lunch we head back to the sorting pens to preg. check the cows. Some riders will work the pens from horseback and others will help on foot with the chutes. When the last cow goes through the squeeze chute, the calves are run through and turned back out with the cows. Time to drive the herd back to the pasture they came from or to rotate them to a new pasture. Before it is called a day, we may ride to take another peak at the heifers, checking to see if any have calved or are in trouble. A days work is done and your dream of being a cowboy has come true . Your horsemanship and cattle handling has improved. Time to ride home for a home cooked meal . The evening is not complete with out soaking in a jetted hot tub under the starry sky and having good conversation...