August 26 , 2010
Another Summer
Another summer at the Alvord has ended. Both months were over-full at times with short term visitors. No injuries this time thank God, everybody stayed sound other than a few rope burns, skinned knuckles and a few sore muscles. The month of June felt more like April with cooler temperatures and above average rain. That made us miss a few days branding because it was too wet, but the way it worked out we ended up branding as many calves in July as we did in June.
Each group was there to rope around 1500 head of calves. We had one student decide to stay the second month so that meant around 3000 calves for her, Jen, and myself. It always amazes me how much these people improve compared to a lot of people on ranches I've worked around.
The difference is the students have made sacrifices to come and learn and make great efforts to advance themselves, while a lot of ranch people have a lot of other things on their plate and to occupy their time. But this shows when a person is dedicated to learn and not just get a job done, they can make great strides. I admire the try in these people, I admire their achievements, sometimes I'm even envious of their achievements and it motivates me to spend more time and effort to improve myself. I guess we can all learn something from each other, (like to get your lazy butt out of the rut we get in).
After the Alvord we went to the Nevada All Around where Jen and I showed some horses, (again- learning experience). Jen and her little stud looked great, and that's not only my opinion, the judges marked her to win the saddle by a healthy margin. We don't need to say much about my horses except they showed like I have been buckarooing or giving clinics on them. When they were asked to rev up, well we didn't have our homework done, I'll just leave it at that and we can talk about Jennifer's show. My Granddad would tell us "its not always what you know but who you know," at least I'm associated with a winner.
After the show the next morning my daughter and I were off to France, where we had three clinics, then to Switzerland for three more, then to Czech Republic for two. It is interesting to see the variety of horses, maybe I just don't get out enough in the states, but I see a lot of different breeds in Europe.
The roping and cow working clinics are difficult, by the time I say what they need to do to react to the cow it is too late and by the time it goes through the interpreter its time to be doing something else. But I guess even though it may not be as good of situation as I would like, it is better than not getting the experience at all.
When traveling to these far away places, people ask if we get to play tourist at all. The answer is very little if any, for two reasons, first, it is interesting to me to see the different cultures and history and we can learn this from the people we are around without paying for the commercial version. Second, I have only experienced what may be considered a vacation where you get away from your normal life and enjoy something different once or twice. I guess I'm blessed, I don't have to leave what I do to enjoy myself. I enjoy the livestock and the ranching lifestyle. What may be considered a vacation is not a vacation at all to me. If I'm away for too long I just think about getting back to do what I do most the time.
I say if I had all the money to do whatever I wanted, I would be doing the same thing- Just not work as hard doing it.
June 20, 2010
Testimony
As you know if you have been to this area of my website there are several testimonials on different people's experiences at our schools or clinics. Well if you read down through very many of them you will see they are all pretty much one sided, they talk about what a good experience they had or how much they got out of it, yada, yada, yada. Of course nobody wants to write anything negative, I guess maybe they think all I want to hear is good stuff.
But anyway I want to tell you another side, what I see, and what my opinion is of them. We get all levels of abilities at the colt schools and the Alvord Ranch schools. Some make me wonder in the first week if they had any clue what they are in for, or what the heck they were thinking. Some are good enough hands they could, or are, capable of making a living a horseback. But what never ceases to amaze me is how many of these people, (the biggest percent of you know who you are) when they first come make me shake my head and wonder how I’m supposed to pull them through, then actually, by the end of the month I really don’t want to see them leave.
But the reason is, I believe, is not that I am a great teacher, there’s plenty of people to dispute that, but the people that are willing to commit a whole month, and many times more than one, often stepping way out of their comfort zone, and for many struggle financially to make it all happen, are obviously very committed to get something from the experience in spite of me.
I guess I teach as I learned to the greater extent; a lot of experience, a little information, then a lot more experience.
Most everyone hasn’t come for pampering or praise, (good thing cuz that’s not one of my strong points,) they are ready to roll their sleeves up and get the most out of it. As a result every month there are people that I would, and have, had stick around a little longer. People that if I was in a position that I needed to hire them I would, or refer them to other employment.
Last summer we had several students that didn’t know how to coil a rope properly, and by the end of the month were dragging their share of calves along with everyone else. Some that weren't sure if they could make it on their own out of sight out on a circle.
I guess the thing I admire about these people is their try. With few exceptions they didn’t come for a get-a-way, to escape from work or life, but perhaps they find what this type of life and work have to offer. There is something about the nature of this that brings out the best in people and it’s very rewarding to me to watch these people develop their skills, their self confidence, and the gratification of a job well done.
I can only expose them to some examples and opportunities, and the rest needs to come from within them. I’ve been around people in this line of work my whole life that haven't progressed as much in years as those people do in a month. These people have the passion and the commitment. They have what it takes, they have made the sacrifices to come and take home what they can.
I just wanted you all to know how much admiration I have for what you’ve done. I’ve often thought if I had all the money to do whatever I wanted, I would keep doing what I’m doing, but for the love of it not the money. I would surround myself with people that had a passion to learn the skills that I love, horses, roping and handling cattle.
March 9, 2010
The Ray Hunt Tribute - Thoughts and Photos
A year ago Carolyn and I began discussing how to go about organizing something to help her liquidate some of the tack Ray had acquired for their retirement. In order for that to happen, there would need to be a big enough crowd to have an opportunity to market at fair price some of the tack that Ray had collected.
In order to draw spectators, we needed to have a worth while show so if we could give them a good demonstration with some of Rays’ students, a nice dinner with entertainment and the opportunity to purchase some gear from Rays personal collection. That should attract some people.
We wanted to provide the participants with something beyond the opportunity to pay tribute to Ray, so we put one of Rays’ Harwood saddles, a couple of tickets and an item of Rays’ personal tack to each of the participants along with the chance to display their talents.
As for the colt that I had, he could have went either way. But with my experience of contract colt starting around the country, keeping mental notes on different pedigrees of horses paid off. I don’t hear very well and luckily as I was walking across the round pen to that horse for the first time, I heard them announce his pedigree. They were horses that I am familiar with and had learned that they took a slightly different approach than the majority of horses that I work with. This little guy was true to form. He wasn’t as soft as a lot of horses can get but with a little more patience, he was very tolerant.
I had discussed with Carolyn, my interest in using a horse to start my colt and she basically shot me down. At first I went around with my lower lip hanging down but I decided that I needed to support Carolyn on this and even though I wanted to demonstrate what I thought was important in what I learned from Ray, it was more important to be supportive. As you can guess I was happy the second day when Carolyn asked me if I would get on my horse and help out some of the participants that were having trouble. So I got my way after all! I really enjoyed the challenge of helping the horses through some of their troubled spots and helping the other participants.
After signing what seemed like 10,000 posters and having the opportunity to visit with spectators, the majority of participants and Carolyn, I believe the goals were met. A lot of the spectators were very pleased with what they saw and the atmosphere they experienced throughout the weekend. Many made reference to wanting to see something like this again.
The participants that I talked to seemed to be happy just to help out and felt honored to be there. My personal feeling was that after all the things that Ray did for me through the years, I would hope that he would appreciate my helping Carolyn in return.
As for Carolyn, I know she had her ups and downs through the weekend, but all in all, I think she was honored by the support and help she had to put it on and was pleased with how it all came off.
I was very honored to be a part of this event. I was very proud of the grandkids and I believe Ray would have been too.
February 10, 2010
On The Road In Brazil
On the road with Martin Black…… I am happy to say that we are now off the road for a few months, it is so wonderful to sleep in the same bed for more than 3-5 nights in a row. I often awake wondering what bed I am in, for that matter, what country am I in? After a recent concussion 
while starting colts, I hope I will still be able to recall that information when the need arises.
So what have we been up to for the last couple months? Well we headed to Brazil after another month at the Alvord helping out with the fall work of weaning calves and processing cows. Martin is back in full swing, promptly roping a bull that was not inclined to leave his cows for the winter and tying him down by himself. It wasn’t the same bull that broke his leg, but I’m sure there was somesatisfaction in it.
So then on to Brazil, we had the privilege of taking 4 of our most adventurous students with us and we spent a week at Cabana Libra, a purebred Brahman operation near Campo Grande (Central Brazil in Mato Grosso do Sul state). Andrés Sobalvarro, a good friend of ours that runs Cabana Libra and who spent a month with us last year at the Alvord was our host. We spent our days moving cattle, sorting, roping and doctoring calves Great Basin style, only in grass up to your horses’ belly. It was very enjoyable to see the buckaroo style at work in Brazil, but also enjoy the culture of the area.
We then set off on a road trip to South Brazil, stopping along the way at the Iguacu or Iguassu Falls, located on the Brazil, Argentine and Paraguay border, there are 275 falls formed by a large canyon at the mouth of the Iguassu River -- Unbelievable! You don’t see water like that in the Great Basin.
Then on to Andres’ good friend, Francisco Martins Bastos, (Uruguaiana - city, Rio Grande Sul- state, Cabanha do Barulho- ranch). His family has been breeding and raising Criolo horses in Southern Brazil for over 100 years and he is as passionate about the Gaucho tradition as Martin is about the Vaquero tradition. Here we were fortunate enough to all ride out with the Gauchos and see their tradition at work. Francisco’s horses show at a very high level in both Brazil and Argentina and Martin was given the privilege of riding a mare that placed second in the golden bit show, the biggest show for the criolo breed. We spent 4 days there, they would show us the 
Gaucho method and Martin would share with them his methods. They roped cattle, started colts, and demonstrated the “Paleteadas” which is a sport that starts out a little like steer wrestling, but instead of dropping down on the animal, they “squash” it between the two horses, sometimes pinning it in mid air. It was used when they had big ranches and a lot of cattle, and they needed to sort one out of the herd and send it off in one direction, for example when they where selecting the fat cattle from the herd to be sent to slaughter.
I think it this was a very rich experience for everyone.
We then caught the midnight bus to Buenos Aires where we would spend a day site seeing and shopping before catching another bus…. (I know what you are thinking! I thought the same thing, but the buses there are quite roomy and comfortable and were 100 times better than the plane ride over there!)
To San Antonio de Areco which is quaint little town about 2 hrs from Buenos Aires where a lot of the top rawhide braiders and silver smiths can be found. We were lucky enough to have the connections that we could meet up with Armando Deferrari whom you might have seen in “Western Horseman” or “Range Magazine”, featured as one of the top braiders in the world. He is an outstanding individual and a generous host as he spent three days showing us around. This area is also rich in Gaucho tradition and gear which we very much enjoyed.
We then traveled back to Buenos Aires, spent an afternoon at a large expo of Artisans which was some of the most wonderful hand-made things you could imagine. From jewelry, braiding, clothes, dishes, musical instruments, furniture, just about anything you could think of. The last day we went 
to one of the Semi-Finals Polo matches where we were able to witness the top Polo players in the World! The two Argentine teams playing, Ellerstina, a 40 goal team and Pilara, a 37 goal team, the perfect way to end your trip to South America and we are planning on another trip next fall.
Check out photos from Canada and Brazil.
October 18, 2009
The Recovery
Well, most of you are probably curious as to how the recovery has gone….. After a month of spending 23 out of 24 hours a day flat on my back, I was able to start getting around, very slowly at first of course but it felt a lot better than being on my back with my leg in the air. I cancelled my trip to Europe unfortunately and I apologize to all the folks there that worked so hard to organize it and had planned to attend, I just didn’t think I could take the whole ordeal that early on. So other than getting out to help the students that were still here in the school the month of July, my first actual event was the end of August, a clinic in Jennifer’s home town of Lund, Nevada where we did an A-pen and roping clinic which I refereed from the bed of the pickup with my microphone. That went quite well and about the 9th of September, after the Elko fair, we headed to Canada for another A-pen and Rodea Branding clinic. This being the first time I have been on a horse since the 11th of July, it didn’t feel to bad actually, it was a lot better than sitting in a chair and all went well unless my horse stopped and turned quick with a cow because it was painful to brace on that right stirrup. Each day got better and after 4 days of easy riding, I was ready to give the colt-starting at Redwater a go.
Things were going pretty good the first day, Mike Goyins and I were roping the colts by a hind leg, then the guys would flag them and saddle them. All was well that is until one of the colts that was saddled, went to bucking around the pen and came between me and the horse I had roped, then came right around me again, wrapping my saddle horse up in the rope. I had one brief opportunity to turn the rope loose and grab it off the horse on the way by but I missed and so my only option was to ride it out. Luckily things didn’t get too violent and everything unraveled and we finished out the day of saddling and getting on 28 head. The next day, my leg was pretty sore from where the bucking colt had run into it during the commotion and so I decided to sit with the girls in the stands that day and Jennifer and Mike went through and helped the riders get the second ride on 28 of the outside horses and then finished out roping hind a leg and saddling the other 20 head of first ride horses.
I would have to say, it was a whole new experience and I learned a lot from the sidelines coaching Jen and Mike through the process, I was like a pup on a chain wanting to get in there and help out, but I think it was even more educational for everyone there because I talked a lot more about the whole process than when I’m doing it myself. Mike and Jen learned a lot, even though they were a little nervous working at that pace but they did fine and all the riders stayed safe and progressed nicely. Out of around 200 rides in the first five days on 48 head of colts, only about 8 times anything bucked and three of those were on an older horse that had been previously started unsuccessfully, we found out later. Many thanks to Blair and Tammy and the crew in Redwater for an always enjoyable time.
After that, we headed to Colorado to start working on the new Roping Dvd we filmed this summer at the Alvord. The first weekend, Jen showed her Hickory in the “Worlds Greatest” Versatility Ranch Horse Show that I was originally going to compete in but after seeing it, I’m glad I had a good excuse. Way too many patterns to remember but she got through everything clean and represented us very well.
So, back to the Dvd, Emily and I both agree this is going to be the best Dvd ever!!! Its got great roping, great scenery, brand new music, good information, humor, stories and of course bloopers. If you don’t believe me, buy it and see for yourself!
August 20, 2009
The Bull on my Leg
We have all heard of someone’s bull story, or pulling your leg, well this is what the bull done to my leg.
Of all the exciting, dramatic things that have happened to me that ended relatively quiet that could have ended as a complete disaster, this wasn’t one of them. Even though the ingredients was all there none of them played out anywhere to their potential.
People assume as many colts as I start that I must end up with al lot of injuries. Matter of fact a common remark is, “That must be dangerous.” or “That must be hard work.” My reply and belief is, “Not if you do it right.” Call it luck or skill but I have only acquired minor injuries while starting colts, handling tough horses, or wild or tough cattle. The reason, aside from some dumb luck and God’s hand protecting me, is that experience has taught me when the potential for danger is greater and when I need to keep my guard up.
I have only had less than a handful of injuries that have kept me from getting out of bed the next morning, and they have all been from older trusting horses and situations not unusual to what might be done in the normal line of duty.
On July 11, 2009 at the Alvord Ranch we were gathering cattle for a branding. As we got close to the place we were going to hold the cattle to brand we noticed some extra cattle we didn’t want to mix with. So a couple of us went ahead to move the cattle. As we got to them they went to a gate and Joe went around to the right to open the gate. I went around to the left to stop the cattle and push them back to the gate. As I rode into them to turn them around I was watching the closest cows to the gate, there were some Charlaois bulls close to me I noticed in my peripheral vision. The bulls had been traveling along like they were buddied-up as they moved toward the gate.
As I rode to stop the lead and turn them around the bull closest to me moved suddenly away from me and toward the other bull. I believe the other bull took the action as a threat and assumed a fighting position in defense. My bull automatically assumed a fighting position but they were both standing about six feet apart.
I did not believe under the circumstances that anymore would come of it and stayed focused on getting the lead cows started toward the gate. I was walking into the herd with the barb wire fence five feet to my left and the bull’s rump not much farther to my right. As I went behind him I said something to get their attention and continued down the fence.
Now I don’t know what kind of bull (you know) took place there, one minute they were pals the next they were doing another game. Maybe they were playing maybe they were serious, maybe it was all just a big misunderstanding of body language. All I know is things got real serious for me. The bull quickly backed into the side of my horse pushing us into the fence. Joe said at one point we were about four feet on the other side of the fence line when the bull turned and left me. The top wire was on my thigh and that’s probably what kept us from tipping over and going down.
Things were happening fast and I only remember certain points, the bull pushing us sideways, looking down seeing barbwires under both my stirrups with my horse perpendicular with the fence, the horse bucking and lunging to go through the fence. Call it instinct, intuition, fear of the unknown, but I learned to ride bucking horses from falling off in the lava rocks miles from camp with no one to catch your horse when I was a young. You learn to reach inside of yourself and find things you didn’t know you had. With the barbwire, the bull, getting tangled and stomped, kicked, and struck, I knew the safest place was to stay in the saddle no matter what it took so that’s what I did. I could feel his hind legs were hung up so I took the left rein and turned him so he would turn around and go back out the other side of the fence. After it felt we were clear of the fence and he was still bucking I couldn’t see any excuse for that, which is something he does do sometimes, so I started getting in his way by lifting on a rein popping him when his head went down. I can understand if the bull twisted my leg and shoved my spur in him, and I would have turned his head loose to let him get away from the wreck. But he does have a tendency to over dramatize things and buck in situations that l a lot of horses could be a bit more tolerant.
As usual he doesn’t like that and after four or five jumps he stood still. It was at this point I shifted in the saddle and a pain in my leg became noticeable. Like incidents before I figured I just needed to get some air and let the leg get some circulation, and when Joe rode over and asked if I was o.k. that’s what I told him I needed.
After a few seconds the pain was making me dizzy so I took my foot out of the stirrup to try to find some relief. As my foot got out of the stirrup it felt like it stretched a few inches lower and I really had to focus not to pass out. When I tried to put my foot back in the stirrup and I felt the bones popping against each other I realized it was broke, a few minutes of air and circulation wasn’t going to make it go away.
200 yards from the branding trap, two miles from Headquarters, and 200 miles from a doctor, doesn’t give you much choice but to suck it up and try to go on. After riding partway to the trap, resting to get a deep breath every so far, I got to a spot that a 4x4 vehicle could come get me to take me to Headquarters. After some ice, pillows, coolers and things to make a nest in the back of a pick-up we headed to the hospital. After getting there we found out there were other trauma cases ahead of me so I was a low priority. The bull hit me about 8:30 a.m. we were on the road leaving headquarters by 9:30 a.m., at the hospital by 12:30p.m. X-rayed by 5:30 p.m., doctor seen me and moved me to a room by 6:30p.m. Never did here how the “high priority patients” made it, “just put the broken legged cowboy over there, we’ll get to him before we go home.”
When it was all said and done, they took me to surgery the next morning sliced my knee open slid my kneecap over, drove a rod down the center of my shin bone (tibia) to line the top and bottom of the bone in place and screwed them to the rod to hold them. About four inches of the center shattered and blew out and just grinds around until it finally fuses back in place. The fibula was broke just below the knee and it set itself and quit moving in less than a week.
Apparently what actually happened, piecing what the doctor said and what Joe seen happen was the bull twisted my foot around backwards then hit me in the shin with all the twist on the bone shattering the tibia in a spiral fracture, and breaking the fibula once. Ten to twelve weeks recovery, not sure if that means kicking one in the belly or just getting off crutches. I guess we will find out.
I must say I’m truly thankful that things didn’t turn out any worse than they did, I could have bucked off, or the horse fell and the bull stomp all over me, there was a shod horse kicking, striking, and bucking, in the middle of four strands of barbed wire and steel “T” posts. I am truly grateful to the Lord for coming away as good as I did.
July 13, 2009
The Alvord Experience Marina and Doug Tweed May, 2009
I recently turned 50. Looking back on my life in a “Bucket List” moment I realized that most of my childhood dreams had been realized; some had come easily, others by hard work. There was one little dream however that remained unfulfilled.
Growing up in Switzerland, I spent my childhood mucking barn stalls in exchange for riding lessons. My friends and I were trained to ride in the traditional English or “Military” tradition. I loved riding and I was devoted to the horse. Working horses in the arena I often dreamed of riding with the “cowboys”; not the movie cowboys but the real deal cowboys. I wanted to ride with the wranglers that worked hard, rode all day, got dirty and thirsty and went to bed looking forward to getting up in the morning and doing it all again.
Serendipity brought me to America and let me marry a man who shared my interest in horses and horsemanship.
As happens often in our lives, Doug and I felt the same impulse pulling us toward new possibilities. Neither of us had ever ridden in a western saddle, owned a cowboy hat or worked a cow from horse back. After a short discussion, we decided to postpone a horse camping trip we had planned in Northern California and instead found ourselves packing for a trip to the Alvord.
Our rig was packed with two new wide brimmed hats, boots, borrowed chaps, lariats and a parting gift from an old buckaroo friend of ours; Ian Tyson’s CD “All The Good Uns” (this item provided the perfect sound track for our week). As we drove deeper into the Great Basin, we realized that we were in unfamiliar territory. The pine, fir and cedar trees common in our Sierra landscape were replaced by high dessert sage brush, unfamiliar shrubs and a barren, rocky geology.
The Alvord Ranch Experience is not for sissies. This is not a "dude ranch" oriented to tourists. This is a place to experience the day to day life of a working cattle ranch and to be guided through the work by very experienced and talented horse and stockmen. I could spend a lot of time describing in detail all of the various jobs we did during the week; sorting cows and calves, helping with branding a newly arrived load of cows, cutting cows and calves out of the rodear, gathering and trailing cows from one field to another. I could also go on and on about the breakthroughs we have had with our own horses since returning with new insights from our time with Martin and Jen. But I would rather tell you what my husband and I really learned.
We learned that there are still people living in the Great Basin carrying on traditions that have been passed from generation to generation with great skill and pride. We learned what a good ranch horse feels like under saddle if you can manage to get out of his way and let him do what he was trained to do. We learned that if you watch Martin Black working cows in the rodear you will soon realize that there is a world of nuance, finesse and feel that have gone into making him who he is – a horseman and stockman extraordinaire. We learned that ranch work starts early goes late and has a rhythm of its’ own. It is wonderfully dirty, dangerous, and fulfilling work.
During the week we spent at the Alvord, the stories told by Martin and Jen were the real lessons. They were the stories of their lives; growing up fast with incredible responsibilities at a young age. They rose to their responsibilities and embraced the way of life that was put before them.
We are a few months removed from our week at the Alvord. There is rarely a day that goes by that we don’t talk about that week. The best part of the experience is that we became friends with two great human beings – Jennifer and Martin Black. Oh yes and also that we did not wait until our next life to do it.
June 10, 2009
From the Journal of Horsemanship School Student Ben Moxon from Great Britian
— Day nineteen Read the Entire Journal Here
Today I gave the anxious black horse his third ride. We started the day preparing some of the colts we have been riding to go back home, or at least for their owners to see them. They're basically good riding horses now, if maybe a little green, and very easy to get on with so I think their owner will be happy with what they have.
Then it was time for the chunky black horse from last week to have his third ride and guess whose turn it was to sit up there...
Martin was working him to start with in a slightly unusual way, having roped one of his hind feet. Because he has done a lot of "groundwork" that involved teaching him to run away from people and nothing else that we could see, he was tending to see running away as a default behaviour. Martin used the leg rope as a way to pull him up and get him thinking about stopping. After throwing himself around a bit the horse got the idea.
I needed some schooling on the saddling side of things and so did he so Martin took the opportunity to get me to put the saddle on about ten times, pointing out how I can swing it better, get a better line, land it more comfortably and so on. Once that was done to Martin's satisfaction we cinched up and Martin worked him some more, at first in the round pen and then out in the arena around it, letting him find the end of the rope and learn to stop and getting some of the bucks out.
Then it was time to get on...
Is that trepidation in my face? I guess if Martin says its safe...
Leaning over the saddle, patting the other side- he's anxious about things moving from his left eye to his right, so we didn't want any problems there.
"If he goes, it will feel like a bungie- lean back, push back on the saddle horn, hold your rope like you're doing curls and he'll hit the end of my rope and stop."
Yup, definitely didn't get all the bucks out before. So anyway, after a while he stopped needing to run and started to get used to me being there, I practiced swinging the lead over his head from side to side, moving in the saddle, petting him and generally getting him accustomed to me being there. We were into a bit of a routine after a while and I was able to relax...
That's strange, I appear to be getting back on him. No idea why that would be, although there are donuts involved and a few minor bruises.
We got going again and he did really well, so I got off.
Now Fred had been going on about laying horses down for the last few weeks and he was asking Martin how it was done, so Martin demonstrated with the horse I had been riding and with grey Pete, who hadn't really had any Martin time prior to ditching Jake yesterday and clearly needed some. He started by hobbling one front leg and then explained that the horse needs to lower their head and let their wither drop and then to back up so they can sit down. I have heard a lot of things about laying horses down but never seen it done and it was very interesting, and maybe different to what I thought. Martin explained that it didn't really matter if the horse actually did lie down, as long as they were ready to. He doesn't think it's a case where the horse believes they are going to die, they just follow a direction and they start to realise that they can do it without being threatened. It took a long time for the horse to back up, but once he did, down he went:
And this was what I found really interesting:
The horse stayed lying down. He was still lying down while Martin laid down the grey horse. They both kept lying down for another ten minutes or so while Martin talked to us, occasionally sitting up and looking around and then lying back down. Martin talked about setting things up so your idea becomes the horse's idea and this really was that principle in action- these horses were lying down as though it was a comfy and relaxing bed. In fact Pierre, who didn't go off to lunch with the rest of us, said the black horse was still lying there an hour later, dozing happily, and only got up just before we returned.
February 10, 2009
A good friend of mine that I buckarooed with in Nevada on different ranches, has wanted to get me on a pair of skis ever since I got him on a colt about 30 yrs ago.
He was a good buckaroo but an expert skier, instructor, ski patrol, heli-ski guide, done it all, what ever all that is. He had also rode enough tough horses on cold mornings that he wasn’t totally incompetent on a colt the first saddling until I took everything off its head so he wouldn’t be pulling on them. I guess that’s what gave him this vengeance.
I was always interested in skiing, done some skating, hooky bobbing, plenty of experience with snow, so it can’t be too tough. He had told me skiing is just like I ride; stay balanced with more weight on you outside foot. He said I would be a natural….Now I can see it was all part of his ploy to build my confidence then watch me suffer.
Anyway, my family, some friends and my “personal instructor” all took to the slope. We started on the infamous “bunny hill” because most of us either hadn’t skied at all or just a time or two. Usually when ranches get lots of snow in the desert it means lots of work, not more play time, so none of us had much experience.
Well it didn’t take long to outgrow the bunny hill with all those little kids going slow, with their folks skiing backwards in front of them coaxing them along. I was way past that point, and I only fell once. Then waiting in line to get back on the lift… too much waiting around and too much slow stuff! How about something a little more challenging!
So, off to the Bear Chair we go, we get to the lift and start riding up over the slope we will be coming down. It’s a lot steeper than the bunny hill. We keep climbing and climbing….its a lot longer than the bunny hill. Oh yeah, and it is on Christmas break so there is a lot of people whizzing around down there. It then occurred to me that those people went slow on the bunny hill because they are suppose to go slow on the bunny hill, when the slope is long and steep…its so people can go fast.
Well, I’m starting to think this is a bigger transition than what I expected….what would it be like to ride the chair back down the mountain? Can you do that, bail out at the bottom?? I hadn’t noticed if that would actually work.
But it’s not that far from your ass to the ground and I’ve had plenty of practice hitting the ground from the time I was very young. After all, it’s not like coming off a horse that’s given you a lot of elevation then landing in a rock pile with some momentum. Besides my kids are with me I can’t be chicken, so I’m a sport and jump off the chair at the top of the “Bear” whatever.
It’s these humbling experiences that teach me patience when I’m telling someone in one of my schools for the 59th time to “keep your weight on the outside, don’t lean, or turn their head loose!” I knew what I was supposed to do, there just wasn’t enough time to process my thoughts and act on them. The slope was steep, too many people to dodge and they were all trying to go down when I’m trying not to! I’m trying to go across so I don’t get going too fast. I would be waiting on one side, then, when there was a break in the action, I would push off for the other side. On a good go, if I didn’t hit too many bumps or get distracted trying to dodge one of those wizzer byers, I could reach the edge then fall before I went over it. It was so steep, if I would turn and go down I would be going 40 mph in seconds. So instead, I would lean back where I couldn’t turn, lean to the up-hill side and fall, over and over again. It was a good reality check for me to appreciate what people are going through when they are on a colt and I tell them not to pull on them, “just relax and go with them.”
It’s that involuntary reaction…the pucker factor that takes over and makes you do what you know your not suppose to do! About 45 falls later, I finally made it to the bottom. So back to the Bunny hill I would go to work on the necessary skills to survive my next trip outside the round pen.
On the way up the chair lift I was looking down at the dreaded Bear run and there was a girl sitting on her butt with her skis out to the side of her just pushing herself along down the slope, dragging her poles behind. After having just experienced the exact same feeling I yelled “I know exactly how you feel!” But she was too ticked to acknowledge my words of encouragement-- I wasn’t that bad, at least I kept my sense of humor.
When we got off the lift, there was a trail that just had a gradual grade that took us back to the Bunny Hill. It was great! All the little kids were gone so we didn’t have to dodge them and we had the bunny hill to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon.
I know I shouldn’t get over confident, but I think it’s fair to say that I mastered ……the 
bunny hill by the end of the day.
If I get a chance, and I want to try to make it happen, I would like to go back. But next time spend a few days and hopefully I can get enough experience and confidence to not be worried about the speed and all the people. Just dodge through them with all the speed the slope will allow, all the way from the TOP…. to the bottom…….. of the bunny hill!
November 25, 2008
With all the offshoots of ranch roping (and if we trace it all back, it did originate on the ranches before cattle were brought to the corrals), for quite sometime, I thought the original style of roping practiced on the ranch should be preserved somehow.
Rodeo had its affect on roping, then the competition's for Working Ranch Cowboys came along in more recent years because Rodeo didn’t represent the original style of roping done on the ranch. But then as with any competition, we need rules and judges and stop watches. If we have etiquette and respect for a job well done, we really shouldn’t need rules, judges or keeping track of time.
Such is the way at a good branding. Anybody and everybody their can be a judge of how well you rope. If you are thoughtful of the people you are working with and respectful of them, the cattle and the horses, there shouldn’t need to be any rules. When you try to be efficient, not hurrying, but not wasting time, we shouldn’t need a clock. It takes the time it takes. Spectators many times don’t appreciate things like this, they don’t understand the work it takes to develop the intuition and skill working with stock and people around you.
To try to give some insight to some of the original ranch roping without a stop watch, with you being your own judge, and at the same time making an effort to preserve the traditional part of ranch style roping we made an attempt to record this on a DVD.
We had close to 3000 calves to brand last summer while at the Alvord Ranch in Southeastern Oregon, one of only a handful of ranches that just throw their cattle together wherever its close and handy and start roping calves. No taking a day to move them to a corral, no splitting the calves away from the cows to get a better shot, and yes, someone might rope a cow, but they generally only do that once and the whole point of ranch roping anyway is to be able to adjust and handle any situation! It is an outstanding chance to just rope the calves out of an open rodea as it has been done for 125 years by the real buckaroos doing a real job.
I’m not going to say this is exactly like it used to be, because every generation that passes will testify that “its not like it used to be and never will be,” but I can say in my travels, it is as much the way it used to be as I have come across. That is why we wanted to record and explain the details of this style while the opportunity is still present. For five days, in three different locations with several different ropers their were over 500 calves branded because we just started filming as we were doing a job instead of staging a movie. The camera people were learning where to get the best shot and not be in the way of the job, there were no chances to say “cut! can you do that exact same thing again over here?” They just went with the flow and tried to be on top of all the action. Sometimes a camera wasn’t working or the camera was focused on the wrong thing and as a result we lost a lot of good stuff, but we also got a lot of good stuff and so that’s what we tried to bring out in the end product. After 156 hours of editing, this is what we have come up with. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!
September 19, 2008
Immediately following the last week at the Alvord, Martin was whisked away to France for 10 days worth of Ranch Roping, Cattle-working, Horsemanship, Colt-Starting and the like. The first day he had French cowboys roping and tying off on 1000 lb critters, (why waste time with the basics when you can jump in with both feet.) The clinics all went well, nobody was hurt or maimed and there are a couple students that are signing up for three months in TX so I think we can consider that a success!
Meanwhile, I stayed home so I could show my horses at the NV All-Around in Winnemucca the first weekend of August and ended up Reserve in the NV All-Around 4 event….so close, better luck next year.
Then I packed everything, turned horses out at Jordan Valley, OR and wandered my way to Missoula, MT via Cascade ID where we roped and doctored yearlings with the Davis’ and swam horses in the Payette river. I picked Martin up in Missoula where we had another highly successful A-Pen/ Versatility clinic in Arlee at Charlie Hanson’s ranch with Tammy and Patti, the two craziest sisters you ever met as our host. We had a lot of fun and I would venture to say everyone was excited about the improvement in their horse.
As soon as we were done, we were off to Redwater, Alberta to meet Blair and Tammy Gigian, who own the Rocking G Ranch, and were introduced to us by Don and Randee Halliday. We knew we had a lot of horses waiting there for us but not a lot of other info…. except we are suppose to be meeting 6 of our best riders from all over the world, there to help us.
Starting Line Up For TEAM ROUGHRIDERS
• Cindy “Durable” Dennis from the Land Down Under came to TX for a month last winter, was one of the chosen.
• Luis Moya, now living near Reno, NV, came to one of our clinics about 4 years ago and has helped us with colt contracts all over the US. He always keeps things rolling and everybody laughing!
• Mike Goyins, a bad-ass hunting guide/PRCA bull rider/colt-starter/and team captain wherever he goes, from Helena, MT. Came to TX for 6 weeks last winter.
• Kyle Sherriff, the soon to be PRCA bronc rider, who has spent the last two winters with us in TX and the chicks dig him.
• Kyla Prunty, the most sought after cowboy-girl I know, is in partners with her sister and Grandmother on their family’s ranch in Northern NV where they used to raise bucking horses for rodeos, so you know she’s forked and can get by a rough one.
• Andrew Doust, is also from the Land Down-under and spent the month of July with us at the Alvord roping and branding 1000 head of calves, quite a feat for an Aussie!
So that was the crew we had organized and when we all got there, we met Corey, Jess and Buddy from Canada who after a few days caught right up and were a handy addition to the team.
Starting Line Up For TEAM HORSE
70 head of everything from A-Z and 2-14 yrs old. We had a 14 yr old mule, a warm blood, a couple of three yr old thoroughbreds on 9 quarts of grain, a 7 yr old stud recently cut but barely halter broke, and it trickled down from there. Most of these horses were bigger than our saddle horses and 3/4s of them were not halter broke, but they were colorful!
We had 6 horses we brought up to work on which turned out to barely be enough horse power to get through that first week.
The first day, Friday the 15th, we saddled and rode 28 head. The second day we did the first 28 plus another 12 head to equal 40 horses. We then spent 2 days on all those and on the 5th day started another 20 head. By the next weekend, Sat. the 23rd, all 60 horses were being caught, saddled and ridden out in the big arena. Pretty Amazing!
Western Horseman editor AJ Mangum came up the last weekend to see the last ten started for a public demonstration and to interview Blair and Duncan, who was also one of the breeders that contributed 30 head to the “Team Horse” roster and helped to bring us up there.
By Tuesday the 26th they were tracking cattle on the colts and in the next few days would be roping on the majority that would go on to be ranch horses, and finally finishing up on Friday, the 29th.
Out of the 70 plus a few head, there was one horse that had a hernia which acted up and we left him till next year but all the others were riding quiet and a lot of them ready to do a job at the end of 15 days.
It was a huge success and fun was had by all. Blair treated us great and was so happy that we have already scheduled for next August and 100 head of horses, which means we are going to have to add a few more to Team Roughrider!
July 29, 2008
I often tell people that "nobody learns any more at a clinic than I do." The reason is that I am watching and trying to figure out where each person is with their horse, where they need to be, and what I can do to help get them there.
After two one-week Alvord Experiences and two one-month Alvord Schools I feel we all learned a lot. We had never done the month long schools on the ranch before but with the success of the colt starting schools we have in Texas I thought we should try it.
The week-long "Experiences" were entertaining, and educational for the participants with some historical site seeing, and ranch experience. The month long "Schools" were meant to be educational, with horsemanship, roping and stockmanship.
People are interesting. Some were repeats from previous years, some were previous clinic participants, all of which would have an idea what to expect. Some people who came for the first time were wanting to sign up for next year before their week was over. Then there were the ones that left in the middle of the night after dinner the first night. Never did hear from them again, they obviously experienced something in only a few hours that they didn't want a week of.
Point being some loved it, some didn't. What I learned was that we need to better prepare our people for what to expect. Some said they received more pampering than they expected, some didn't get enough.
Some got more education than others, some obviously were more surprised than others, but in the end what I learned was something I had heard Ray say years ago "the more you learn, the more you learn there is to learn" and another one he said "It takes a lifetime to learn how to live a lifetime".
The lifestyle on a working ranch is different than other places. Your life is dictated by many variables; nature, weather, animals, adverse terrain, and other more natural elements that have shaped a culture different than what a lot of people are use to. It’s hard to prepare someone for an experience that is like no other experience they have had before.
I also learned that we will have an even better school next year at the Alvord and at the same time make it a better experience for the owners, the Davis’. We have already worked out a schedule and a structure that will make it a better learning opportunity for the students, we will have more control of the day-to-day happenings so we can create even more opportunities to improve on our cow work, roping, and horsemanship.
Although we branded over 2000 calves in the time we were there, having smaller brandings next summer would mean even more roping for the students.
All and all Jen and I enjoyed the last 3 months being in one place, with lots of roping and getting lots of quality time on our horses, and sharing all of it with our students. And of course we didn’t use up a lot of $5 diesel doing it, thank God!
May 9, 2008
As a judge for The Californios I naturally get a lot of questions about the placing of teams in the roping or contestants in the stock-horse contest, most of them are fair questions. The judging system is not like any other cow horse event and the roping like no other ranch roping event.
Basically the stock-horse event is judged primarily on the horse we would pick as the one we would most like to own based on what we see that weekend. If I am not impressed with how the horse is shown or the rider seems to be hiding something, we may pick a horse that is less flashy but seems to be more honest.
There is no penalty system, like losing a cow in the rodear, or missed loops. If the horse shows a lot of experience and ability to control a cow they will place higher than one that looks good in a certain pattern. A horse that carries the bit well and responds to it nicely will place higher than a horse that is better trained for the maneuvers but is not bridled up correctly. I am not looking for a show horse, but a good honestly made horse. On the roping, the shot executed is only part of the score. The other portion is influenced by things like how quiet they are in the rodear, how they handle the cattle on the rope and everything else that makes a run smooth and efficient. We are not looking for a fast run but equally so, we do not want to see it drawn out or the cattle stressed. The more skill and experience that is demonstrated by the contestants to make an effective and efficient run, the higher the score they receive.
April 20 , 2008
(This story starts in the January blog ... scroll down to get the whole story!)
Luckily, we would hit about 8 to 12 stop lights at one time including the yellow and orange ones we slipped through. Then, when it came time to turn right to get to the tunnel, there is another of those- PASSENGER CARS ONLY signs, so I scramble for the map and there is another way for trucks, don’t panic. I think it might be a good time to reinforce how critical it is not to make a wrong turn in this 60 ft rig because it can be quite a painful recovery process. Things are starting to look suspiciously like a traffic jam and as we near the turn, it appears that it is a 120 degree turn back to the right. Well, any of you that have driven a trailer of any size know that you have to swing a little wide when making these sort of turns. In this case we got in the middle lane, cut off the three lanes of traffic on the road we were turning onto and the three lanes of traffic from the road we were turning off of. We blocked the intersection for nearly 10 minutes waiting for the traffic to clear ahead of us. You would think we would have people honking, waving, cussing and throwing rotten vegetables at us but the strange thing was no one even seemed to notice there was a very large agricultural rig blocking their path. It was like they see this kind of idiot everyday. Since that was the case I thought it would be safe to jump out and take a few pictures of the Mad-Max Mobile in a traffic jam in NYC.
After about 45 minutes of inching along, we finally reach the tunnel, we are so close I can smell the freedom, but then a cop that’s been directing traffic, starts heading straight at us. Martin rolls down the window and sure enough he climbs up on the truck, and says “I can’t let you through here with that trailer,” Well, that just shatters my confidence in Mr. HUI, and worse than that now how are we going to get out of here? There are at least three lanes of traffic on either side of us. No worries, he just stops traffic and sends us out to the left, gives us a series of rights and lefts and sends us off to the Lincoln Tunnel. Now how much sense does that make? They are not going to let us through this tunnel, but they will the other?
But first I’ve got to figure out how to get headed back up the island. Somehow we get turned around and end up on Broadway Riverside and drive right past the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park and who knows what other famous places we didn’t even know we saw. I told Martin we should just pull over and spend the night in Central Park and then get up and ride over to the Today’s show all decked out in our buckaroo gear, but the logistics just didn’t line up since we were suppose to be riding Thoroughbreds in Virginia at 8 am, maybe next time.
Somewhere in the middle of our site-seeing, we missed the turn to the Lincoln Tunnel which I was a little skeptical of anyway, so my goal now was to get on Henry Hudson Parkway. We are following the signs to 9A and the next thing you know we are under it, down in the Industrial District or something, all I know is all of a sudden everyone and everything disappeared, it was liked we dropped into the underworld. At this point it is looking like we might have to back out about 100 yards when we see an ally off to the left that Martin can back into and get turned around. It’s a darn good thing he could do it all by himself because I wasn’t about to get out of truck and guide him out of there, I was just hoping there weren’t little gremlins crawling up the side of the trailer before we could get out of there. We turned around, figured out where we missed the turn, and made our way onto the Parkway, which, after the fact, I was informed Parkways are only for cars, well duh, the entire Manhattan Island is for PASSENGER CARS ONLY! I think we only made one more wrong turn before we got back on the Washington Bridge, then we were in New Jersey and there was a wave of relief to be back on a road that was intended for Freightliners and its only 1:30 am at least we are not in jail in NYC with our horses impounded!
We pulled into Springhill Farm about 6 am, unloaded the horses, slept for about three hours and spent the rest of the day riding over zealous Thoroughbreds.
March 11 , 2008
(This story starts in the January blog ... scroll down to get the whole story!)
Country Mice in New York City
So, as we continue along Harlem River Drive knocking over every orange barrel for two miles, I am envisioning one of two things. Either there is going to be flashing lights in our mirror at any moment after some angry New Yorker called us in for wrecking their street or, the signs that keeping flashing past us specifying, PASSENGER CARS ONLY means that this street is going to get small enough at some point that we are going to get stuck like a cow with her head in the fence and there is going to be a huge backup while all sorts of emergency vehicles are pulling on our tale trying to free us from some precarious overpass that we tried to squeeze through! Did I mention we have 7 horses and a big load of antique furniture in the trailer?
But that didn’t happen. We made it to one of the two streets this highly unaware individual who gave us directions (we’ll call him HUI for short) told us to turn on and since I was really anxious to get off this PASSENGER CAR ONLY road, I give the go ahead on the first available road, 96th street.
Well, as it turns out, 96th is only slightly narrower than the road we just turned off of and Mr. HUI didn’t mention that 96th was a narrow one way and 97th which he said we could also turn on, was a much wider four lane road. It is at this point that it occurs to me that just because it is nearly 11:30 pm, down town New York is not closed up like my good ol’ home town of Lund, Nevada population 450 would be this time of night, and here I was thinking parking would be a cinch at this late hour.
On the contrary, this place was buzzing with activity, it was very obvious we we're not going to find a 60 ft parking space anywhere. As we pass street after street that we would not be able to turn on I am hoping this isn’t going to be the end of the road for us. Finally, we come to Third Ave which is big enough to make a left go over a few blocks and make another left, and there it is! We made it, and there is actually a bus stop right there that we almost fit in so we are only blocking one lane of traffic.
Mr. HUI is actually on the ball and has all three boxes on a dolly and is heading up the side walk towards us. I wonder how he knew it was us? While Martin jumps out to load the treasures, I am planning our escape route and it looks to me like the thing to do would be to continue down Manhattan Island to the Holland Tunnel, hit I 78 via Pulaski Skyway or 9 or 1 or 22 or whatever the hec that road is that isn’t a toll road that goes straight to 78. Looks like a good idea but I better talk to a Native so I jump out, map in hand, assuming that now that Mr. HUI has seen the rig he will be a much more competent direction giver. I run my plan by him he says that will work, the Holland Tunnel or the Lincoln tunnel either one. Alrighty then, we are set, this isn’t so bad we got er’ whipped!
We jump back in the truck and off we go down Manhattan Island, after about the tenth stoplight in 100 yards I look back at the map and realize that we just left 97th street and we have to go to 1st and then some to get to the Holland Tunnel! That is approximately 100 stop lights in what 2 miles. You can drive 6 hours in Nevada, on pavement mind you, and never encounter a stop light. I’m a little worried at this point that we are never going to make it through all this stopping and going without more than a couple New Yorkees and a taxi cab being caught up in the massive Roo guard on the front of the Mad Max Mobile as Buck Brannaman so calls it!
But Martin over there is as cool as a cat like he’s done this before… either that or he is just having fun playing the Big-Rig card. I just hope these poor unsuspecting people know the rules of the Big- Rig game, but I am quickly consumed with trying to find my camera to document this adventure and leave the poor unsuspecting people to fend for themselves in the wake of the Freightliner.
To be continued...
February 23, 2008
(This story starts in the January blog ... scroll down to get the whole story!)
So, starting right off with a narrowly missed Moose mishap, I am unfortunately quite sure that things are still going to get worse before they get better and we are in for a long night! The reason I think this is because we have known for months that we were suppose to pick this art up from NYC but never really looked into the details of it.
Martin had called the number we had been given about two weeks ago and then they traded messages a couple times but we didn’t get a hold of anyone till 6:30 that night when we were leaving Maine, to let this guy know we would be there “in a few hours,” like ten o clock at night. Well, this guy (never did know his name) is out of town, so he hands it off to this other guy. Martin, calls him to get directions and ask him how far it is off the freeway and will a Freightliner and a 40’ trailer get in there, “OH Yeah,” he says, “its not far off the freeway and there are big delivery trucks down here all the time.” I had been in denial about this for some time thinking that we surely wouldn’t be going INTO NYC, that someone would meet us at a rest area or truck-stop or something practical like that, but by this point I am realizing that its too late for such an organized plan and we are in for an adventure, my only possibly consolation is that it is the middle of the night, it shouldn’t be that bad.
Martin hands me the phone so I can write down the directions, I am looking at a map of NYC as I am writing so I can be sure it makes sense, and wouldn’t you know, we are going to an Art Museum in the middle of Manhattan Island, about two blocks from Central Park! Now I’m thinking that growing up in Bruneau, Martin probably cannot even imagine what a mess this is going to be or maybe he can and simply isn’t worried about it. Who knows, but we are committed now!
So, we proceed down 95 through Boston and Providence to NYC and arrive about 10 pm on the outskirts, now we are suppose to get off on Harlem River Drive, just before the George Washington Bridge. Well this guy must only go to work traveling west to east because the exit he tells us does not exist going east to west. Before we know it we are on the George Washington Bride heading into NJ……Off to a helluva good start! We get off the first chance we get, I am on the phone with this guy and he says “just turn around and come back” Oh Yeah, we’ll just whip this puppy around here and be right back. We have to stop and ask a taxi driver how to get back on the bridge, (luckily we did or we would have never figured that out) then we have to pay a $24 toll to get back across the bridge! This time it works perfectly, there is the exit we are suppose to take, ok everything is good, we are exiting and then, when there is no way out, we see a big sign that says PASSENGER CARS ONLY
Well, as it turns out, the reason for the PASSENGER CARS ONLY, is because they are doing construction and there is only one narrow lane curving to the right, with a cement wall on the right and lots of orange barrels on the left. Well, it was either drag the horse trailer along the cement wall or start knocking over barrels, so that’s what we did, knocked over every one of those big orange barrels for about two miles. (They should move that sign so you see it before you exit.) I’m still on the phone with this guy, so I tell him, “This says passenger cars only!” and he says “how big is your truck?” Apparently he missed the description and the point of the previous conversation.
January 7, 2008
(This story starts in the January blog ... scroll down to get the whole story!)
We spent this fall on the East coast starting Thoroughbreds in Virginia and Kentucky and doing some clinics in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maine. The horses were good, the clinics were good but the return trip…… well let me start with a little background info. We had scheduled ourselves a little tight on this circle trying to fit everything in so we left Springhill Farm in Virginia, Thursday afternoon after riding colts that morning, and headed for Willow brook Farm near Harrisburg Pennsylvania and arrived at 10 pm. The clinic lasted four days and we left Monday after the clinic and headed to Connecticut, arriving at 11pm. Spent two days there, clinics by day and antique shopping by night, then left at 3 am to make it to Maine before the clinic started at 9am. After a four day clinic in Maine, we are back to the return trip, suppose to be an all nighter back to Virginia to ride Thoroughbreds the next day, oh yeah, with one little stop off in New York City!! to pickup some art willed to some friends of ours in Jordan Valley, Oregon.
So, we are leaving Maine about 6 pm on a little two lane road in a full size Freightliner, a 40 foot trailer, 7 horses and a whole load of antique furniture. Martin is looking in the mirror to his left so I assume he sees the MOOSE, coming out of the driveway, just ahead of us on the left, but he isn’t slowing down. So I start saying Moose! Moose! Moose! In an elevated but not quite alarmed voice, assuming that he will catch on and hit the brakes. Nope, he just looks at me with a puzzled look on his face. By this time the moose is in the other lane just ahead of us and still coming. So now I am elevated, alarmed and pointing, Moose! Moose! Still no reaction. Right as the moose is about to collide with the left front fender on the Freightliner, (Martin still hasn’t seen her), she turns and lopes along side us a few strides and then heads safely back into the woods having narrowly escaped an ugly encounter with a Freightliner. Martin, finally sees her as she is loping beside us but never even breaks stride. After she’s gone he looks at me and says, “I thought you wanted ice cream, like Moose tracks ice cream!” In his defense, we do stop at the ice cream stand on the corner just a few more miles down the road and get ice cream at least twice in four days we are in Maine.
Next week, Martin Black goes to New York City……in a Freightliner…….