Gtyyup and her Man
Darling and I decided to go for a drive Friday morning. She had a four day weekend, the sun was shining, and really...what better way to spend it than driving ten hours in a car? Yeah, okay, well we could have been riding. But hey, in our defense, it'd been nearly six months since we'd been 'home on the range', and with our summer months booked until August, well...it just couldn't be helped!
We were halfway there when I called our friend, Andi, to see what she was up to this weekend. Seemed there was a high desert cutting going on, so after a good night's sleep we drove up to Dry Creek Ranch where we surprised Karen of Life On The Rough String. Though we'd never met in person, I was able to pick her out of the crowd pretty easily. I thought I recognized her from her self portrait in Sunday Stills, and I was pretty certain that was Colt she was perched upon. Of course, once I spotted the backside of her saddle there was no question left as to who she was.
Karen wasn't competing that day, but working turnback and getting Colt used to the goings on of a competition. Wendy, however, was. Who's Wendy? She's one of the BLM wranglers. Among the string of Quarter Horses she and her husband brought up to ride was Houdini.
We were halfway there when I called our friend, Andi, to see what she was up to this weekend. Seemed there was a high desert cutting going on, so after a good night's sleep we drove up to Dry Creek Ranch where we surprised Karen of Life On The Rough String. Though we'd never met in person, I was able to pick her out of the crowd pretty easily. I thought I recognized her from her self portrait in Sunday Stills, and I was pretty certain that was Colt she was perched upon. Of course, once I spotted the backside of her saddle there was no question left as to who she was.
Karen wasn't competing that day, but working turnback and getting Colt used to the goings on of a competition. Wendy, however, was. Who's Wendy? She's one of the BLM wranglers. Among the string of Quarter Horses she and her husband brought up to ride was Houdini.
Houdini is a big, stout mustang gelding from Warm Springs. Wendy uses him at the corrals, plus does women's rodeo (roping, I believe) and obviously cutting. On Saturday, they won two of the three classes they entered.
Andi had told us she'd seen a herd of spotted butts going over the hill on her way up into the Steens early Saturday morning, but despite our attempts at locating them that afternoon, we seemed destined to go home without even a glimpse. Making our way back down the long, dusty road I caught a flash of something way out in the distance, barely visible with the naked eye. I pulled out the camera and it's 70-300 lens, using it as a spotting scope. Darling and I took turns peering through it, unsure if what we were seeing were just shadows and sunlight upon the sage or Appaloosas in the distance. The only way we would know for sure was to snap a photo and enlarge it on the computer screen once we returned home...
4 comments:
Is that a cliffhanger?? Did you see any spotted rumps? Are there wild horses out there w/Appaloosa markings? I've seen pinto, but no Appaloosas.
That is so cool you met Karen! It looks so beautiful there in the high desert! I would love to live there.
That's no fair... you can't leave us hanging for too long!
I have never been to a cutting competitions, looks like fun, and that's so cool that a mustang was there and competing!
Beautiful landscape!! That cutting horse looks magnificent--nice, muscular build. If you hadn't said it was a Mustang, I would have guessed it at a well-bred Quarter Horse. Looking forward to what you saw through that lens!
What a great trip! And to surprise Karen, that is so neat!
Can't wait to see what you spotted!
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