The "MEN" in our Lives

The "men" in this picture are Spider, Ace, Duny, Joe, and Cash. This was on Friday, August 14th. We had two horses in the corral, Joe Jack's Big Mac and an unnamed gray horse. Joe Jack has a swollen knee and he is getting acquainted with the gray and keeping him company. Also missing from this picture is Art (the big BOSS) and Ted. We didn't think too much about that. We had had an electrical storm plus about 1/4" of rain and didn't give it much thought that two were missing. Art and Ted hung pretty close, being the "older horses at 25 and 17 respectively


The horses at this ranch are the backbone of our horse work. They are cared for and loved. They are fed usually each day, so they come easily when my Cowboy calls them. They know they are special and they even actually act like they want to be "picked" for the day's work when they haven't gone for awhile. They come up for their head rub... Then when the work gets heavy, they really don't think they want to be the one to go! How typical of us all!
Here is the same bunch of horses. Sometimes they will come up to the fence, which is near the house to make sure that Bill sees them so he will go to the barn and give them just a tad of grain!
Here is Kamryn on Joe. When she was little she thought that Joe was really her horse and she called him "My Joe" which we called him that a lot of the time too! He is a sweetheart and has packed me a few miles. I really like his little jig as it covers a lot of ground and I don't get too sore. Joe now is lame part of the time, so will be only for kids...

Next to Kamy on Joe is Cowboy PopPop riding Ted. Ted is probably one of the best horses Bill has ever owned according to him. He is such a beautiful bay. Cowboy says he is such a "cowy" horse. For those few city folk that read this, it means they work cattle very well. Cowboy said sometimes he had trouble staying on whenTed would cut back after a cow or calf. When I rode him he knew that it was a rather cushy job, so he took VERY good care of me and we did our work but I didn't require the same level of expertise as my Cowboy!

Typing this is even hard to do, you see Ted got struck by lightening Thursday night, August 13th. The reason Art and Ted weren't in the top picture is probably Ted's buddy Art was standing with him hoping he would get up. We were both so thankful Ted wasn't standing there with a broken leg and that more horses weren't hit also. We had one crack of thunder that shook the house Thursday evening, so it was most likely that one. There weren't any trees close where he was struck either.

I hope there are horses in Heaven...



This is Foxy, another beautiful horse. Cowboy Bill calls him his "circle horse" and he went MANY miles on Foxy. I thought he was such a beautiful sorrel. Amy just loved to get to go "work" when they went horseback. Foxy got a cut on his shoulder which turned out to be a much bigger problem than a small cut. Long story condensed, it was bad, he wasn't going to heal, something broken and he had to be put down. Tapateo was another old horse that Cowboy put down with Foxy, so it hasn't been our horse summer. We also had some that got wire cut but did heal. Ace got a hairline crack in his hoof earlier, but seems to be healed...

Our best and prettiest and youngest of horses get their legs broken, wire cut, you name it, it happens with horses. We get new ones and they become part of "the men" and we go on, but once in awhile for those fleeting seconds we think of Tap, Foxy, and now Ted. We think, oh, what a horse...