Branding on the Ariziona Strip

I love it! We went to brand with Alan's family down in St. George. First thing that morning we went over to Alan Sr.'s house and he shook Jer's hand and said welcome to God's Country. (I love good ol' boys!, I'm so glad I am married to one.) We then drove through Hurricane, and Colorado City (but that is a whole nother post!) and out to the the Arizona Strip. It was so beautiful and warm, our family fell in love with the beautiful senery. When we got out the ranch we saddled u and and started out. I also love that my husband is so useful, he was able to pull shoes and check horses feet. I was also very thankful to our hosts, who made it such a family oriented day. They had the perfect horse for Parker named Snickers, by the end of the day they were best pals. Parker rode Snickers and then he led Snickers around and then he rode some more. He even cried when we had to turn him loose, not very becoming for a seven yr old, but very tender. Payton rode double with me and wanted to steer so I handed over the reins, and shortly after she forgot that she was steering and dropped the reins on the ground. Everyone was so quick to help us.

This is Parker riding Snickers and Alan a little behinde him. Notice Ben in the background on the gray mare, I am just pointing it out because that is the only time that day that he was on top of the horse. I think I will nickname her HB. (If you don't get that you haven't spent enough time watching Lonesome Dove, or maybe I have spent too much time watching.) Jer and I felt so bad this was a horse that we had brought with us that Jer was training. Jer has never had a single problem with her, she must not have been a fan of guys named Ben. Jer and I both felt really bad that Ben kept getting dumped, but he just kept climbing on.

This was a new experience for me, I have always used a calf table. So Mariah taught me how to flank the calves. This poor calf was so new that it still had it's ambilical cord.