My Old Man Turns 22

No, I'm not talking about My Man...I'm talking about My Old Man...

Tucs Big Boy aka "Toby"

Way back in 1987, I was living in Marana Arizona (just north of Tucson) working for a guy riding his horses. He raised cutting horses. One day he said to me that if I wanted that big sorrel colt in the pen of weanlings I could have him...he said he saw him cribbing and couldn't have him around.

I asked if he'd give me the papers too, and he said yes as long as I gelded him...not a problem...so this huge 8 month old colt comes home with me.

Now, I'm 5 feet tall, so you can see that at 8 months, this guy is pretty tall. I named him Toby, and he turns out to be just a sweetie. At 1 year old, he's gelded and gets his wolf teeth pulled. But, the funny thing is that this colt never cribbed. I think Jim had mistaken Toby for another colt...which he got rid of too. So, I got a perfectly good horse by accident!

I stayed in Arizona for another year or so and than came on back home to Oregon. In the spring of 1989, I took him down to the local boarding stable that had an indoor arena and started him under saddle. He was a piece of cake to start. We started trail riding as a late 2 year old and even won a competitive trail ride that year!

Look at the legs on him!

At that time in my life, I was starting a few colts and mostly just trail rode with my girl friends.

Riding around Timothy Lake on Mt. Hood.
Me 'n Toby on the left.

Then in 1993, I got a wild hair to join a drill team. Toby really wasn't a finished horse by any means...I didn't even know how to teach him to do flying lead changes. I could start colts pretty well, but didn't know to finish them...but, riding drill pretty much self taught Toby to handle himself to make everything easy...he was a super horse!

1993 at our very first demo exhibition.

Our team was practicing once or twice a week and competing 3-4 times a year and also riding in local parades. In 1994, our team decided to ride in the Portland Rose Festival Parade...the biggest parade of the year in Oregon.

All dolled up and waiting.

Riding down the streets of Portland...it was a blast...
something I never dreamed I would do!
Me and Toby even made it onto the TV cameras!

I've never had children, but Toby was still a good baby sitter for the kids I did have...here's Cowboy hitching a ride at his first camp out!

1997 at Sheep Springs campground,
Deschutes National Forest

A very monumental day in my life was on July 10, 1999. My Man and I got married. And we did it in the best way ever possible...

My Man on the late Carina & me and Toby.
A day never to be forgotten!

Drill team continued on for a total of 7 years for me and Toby. It's a hard sport when you have that many women (with different personalities) and that many horses (who always seem to have lameness issues). But all in all, it was a great experience.

The team in 2000.
Toby on the left and his twin on the right.

This was my favorite of all the outfits we ever wore.

In the latter years, some of the team members wanted to participate in rodeos as a pennant team. That was the most fun out of all the drill team stuff. The crowds, cowboys, and running fast...it was a true adrenalin rush!

Yamhill County Fair and Rodeo
Year 2000

The year 2000 was my final year in drill, and somehow I ended up being the coach as well as riding on the team. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. I'm proud to say that our team tied 3-4 that year at the Oregon State Meet...something the team had never done before!


We moved to Central Oregon that same fall and Toby has continued to be a super trail horse for me and My Man. And the years have gone by so quickly since then...I've gentled 4 mustangs, bought Colt and started to train him for working cow horse...something I never did with Toby.

But, with Toby's breeding as a cow horse, I thought I'd try him out as a practice horse (practicing cutting training on him while getting Colt ready to start cutting). So, Toby started his cutting career at the age of 20!! We just cut with our local club here and it's a perfect environment for beginners like me.

2007 - 2nd place year end standing
in the Novice/Novice class
after 7 competitions!!
I absolutely love this old man!

Toby injured his hip after a fall on the ice in 2007 and I gave him all of 2008 off. He's sound again, but I think I'll just ride him lightly. He loves to help me with the colts...

Toby ponying Dakota up our hill.

Toby grew to 15.3 hands and actually did pick up the bad habit of cribbing when he was about 4. But, he has been the best horse I could ever ask for...willing and kind...with good looks thrown in for good measure.

Thank you Toby for the years of friendship and fun you have given me...may you live a long and happy life here on the Rough String.

~~Happy Birthday my friend~~

Winnemucca~A Ranch Hand Gatherin'

What a busy week last week was!! Thursday and Friday I had ag surveys scheduled up in Grant County (had to stay the night in John Day) and then Saturday morning My Man and I, with lil' Cindy Sue in tow, headed to Nevada for the 20th Annual Winnemucca Ranch Hand Rodeo and Ranch, Rope & Performance Horse Sale.

Last fall, one of my clients had mentioned that they might take the two geldings I started for them to the sale and asked if I would ride one through the sale...of course I said yes. But, it turned out that they're going to keep the two geldings.

But, by now, My Man and I are really looking forward to a road trip, the rodeo and the sale...so we're goin' anyhow!! On Saturday the rodeo starts at 11 a.m., so we left at 6:45 a.m. with big mugs of coffee in hand!

Lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

Spring is here!! Look at the cute lil' foals!
These aren't wild horses. They are ranch breeding stock.

And the road looks never ending...

I would have loved to spend the whole 4 days there. Thursday had cow dog trials; Friday started the sifting of the sale horses, a Stock Horse Challenge, and the preview of the sale horses. But, we could only go for one night.

The Winnemucca Event Center is really a nice place (for our area). It's the county fairgrounds as well as the venue for anything else someone wants to put on.

The posting of the colors at the rodeo.

The ranch rodeo was a great time. There were 33 teams of five members (one of which had to be a cowgirl). My photos didn't turn out at all as you can see by my post from yesterday's Sunday Stills! But a great time was had by all and no one was injured.

Was there shopping to be had??? Why yes there was...and my kind of shopping too!!! Any kind of buckaroo gear you wanted or needed could be found at the trade show. Dan Fowler, who is braiding my hackamore, was there. I've never met the man...only talked to him over the phone. He and his wife live here in Harney County, so I would consider them neighbors! Well, I got to see my hackamore...it's beautiful!!! All that's left to do is put the heel knot on it! I should have it by the end of the week!!!


After checking in at our hotel and having a fantastic Mexican dinner, we headed back to the Event Center for the sale. With the economy and horse market in the toilet, I was very curious how this was going to turn out.

67 horses in the catalog
6 horses were either sifted out or pulled from the sale
14 horses passed out...meaning the seller wasn't willing to sell the horse at the price the auction brought.

Highest selling horse: Blues Little Badger (by San Badger Blue by Doc San Badger) a 2002 blue roan gelding
$16,000

Blues Little Badger

Next highest was at $10,000, another at $6,600, another at $6,000

Everything else sold for under $3700

Lowest selling was $800

So many horses that were seasoned horses that went for less than $3000...amazing. We had no intentions of buying a horse, but if I had been in the market, I would have been able to pick up a really nice horse for not a lot of money!


But, I had a lil' helper that kept me in check...

Remember mom...no more horses!!!

Ok...one last pic...this is how they do rodeos and horse sales in Nevada...cocktail waitresses come to you in the stands!!

Sunday Stills

Sunday Stills has come around again and I almost missed it...here's my late entry...

This week's challenge was "Motion." What I've decided motion is in a still photo is just bad photography!!! LOL...I actually have one photo that would qualify as a photo showing motion.

This is my mother's beautiful antique spinning wheel...gave that wheel a spin and took a pic...nothing happened. So, I lowered the ISO to 80 and set the camera on portrait and got this:





The next photo was a fluke. I was just snapping a pic of Cindy Sue and she happened to shake her head at the same time...she looks pretty funny I think!




Then my real screw ups. My settings were ISO at 400 and the camera set in Action Mode...but being an indoor setting, I'm sure I should have done some other stuff. But, these are entertaining to me...maybe to you too...


This was taken Saturday at the Winnemucca Ranch Hand Rodeo, cow mugging event. I've got two teams in this shot; 5 members per team. There's lots of movement going on...but that wasn't my intention!






The last one is also from the Rodeo (cow mugging event). As I mentioned above there are 5 members per team. So, this team has the rider (member #1) who roped the cow outside of my photo to the left (you can see his rope going from the cow to the left), 3 team members mugging the cow (yep, there's a cow under there somewhere), and the gal with the long braid is their 5th member. So, who's the ghost between the gal and the muggers?


It took me a few minutes to figure it out. But, it's a gal from another team who is running to the finish line. Her motion indicates she's moving to the left which is toward the announcer's stand and where the finish line is. Mystery solved!!


So, those are my comical "Motion" photos for this week's challenge. To view more challenge entries, check them out here.