Awww~how sweet!

Caught them sharing a moment after she ran "Dragon" through the sale last Saturday!

Daddy and his "Baby Girl!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "WILLIS"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "WILLIS!!"
"Willis" turns 4 years old today. Born Decked Out Bueno on March 14, 2005. Sire~Seeking Our Star, Dam~Cragers Poco Mary. On the top side he has Dude Wimp Bar Deck, Miss Nifty Zipper, Dark Moon Chic, King Wimp Wickee, Go Zipper, Miss Nifty Bars. On the bottom side he has HQH Poco Joe, Poco Marabel, Poco Papacita, Divides Cinder Ann, Poco Bueno 2 and Miss Marabel. Him and "Angel" are half brother and sister~same Sire different Dams. We bought him from Stoney and Leah Burke of Burke Quarter Horses in Frankston, Texas. He is currently in training to become a heading horse, but I want to make him a all around horse as well. So he gets hauled everywhere to every kind of event. Exposure is so good on a young horse. He has been a pleasure to ride and I'm learning alot about training colts. I have high hopes for this horse and think in a couple of years we will be a force to be reckoned with!

March Play Day first time jumping~did a great job and didn't knock it over! Woo Hoo!

Every time after I ride he will roll!

Self portrait! He still has such a baby face!

Tracking and roping practice!

Waiting his turn at the March Play Day

RIDING AND ROPING TIME...................

On Thursday we took "Willis" over to our good friend Jim Fuller's house for him to look at. Wanted to get his opinion on how his was coming along and want I needed to work on. He is a calf horse trainer and a NFR Qualifier and I love picking his brain! Him and his family are such blessings to us. He had me just ride him around and warm him up and then track the donkey. I then got to track a few steers around and do some slow box work. Overall he thinks he is coming along fine and gave me some things to work on. Need to work on his speed (walking out of the box and then making him get to the steer~drive him to the steer, working on his rate before you turn left, tweaking his handle. Everything else he said I had been doing was positive and he is looking good for his age. He thinks in a couple of years he is going to be a great head horse. I truly value his opinion and all his years of knowledge.

Today we loaded up "Roo", "Willis", "Angel" & "Pedro" and went down to the pen to get in some practice. It was a great day! Hubby on "Roo" going after "Pedro" I just missed Pedro kicking out and taking off!

Me riding "Roo". I also rode "Willis" and "Angel" as well. Hubby always has me to rope off all the horses. He says it'll help you rope better. Don't get used to just one horse. It makes alot of sense, as each horse is different.

We came and home and re saddled "Angel" with Savannah's saddle, I went and picked her up and then we got in some practice with her. I rode "Roo" and we did barrels, poles and just riding in the pasture. This is the first time she has ridden her in awhile. She went through a spell for about 6 months when she didn't want to ride. We didn't push her and she has decided she wants to do her rodeos again this year. Our church is starting a series March~June and then her RCRA rodeo series will start in August~December. We are excited she is wanting to start riding again. Our rule is we'll haul you, but you have to keep your horse exercised and practice. She started off walking and then she was trotting the patterns! Way to go Savannah!

""PESKY'S" STORY (aka Old Man)

Here is "Pesky" (aka Old Man)! Name "Pesky Red Sonny" born on April 6, 1982. Sire~Red Sonny Dee, Dam~Pesky Lou. Hubby bought him for $1,200 when he was a 8 year old to use as a heading horse.

He team roped off him and used him for day working off of. Here is his story, which will overlap with how hubby and I started dating. I meet hubby for the first time when him and his cousin brought in his cousin's horse to the clinic where I worked. A few weeks later I went with a friend to a roping practice and saw hubby there roping. My friend was having trouble with his roping horse and hubby was going to ride the horse for him. He asked me to cool down "Pesky" for him. I climbed on and he whispered something in his ear. Later I found out he told the "Old Man to take care of me." How sweet!

When I left there I didn't think I would ever see him again. But the next week he brought in his old mare to have her wolf teeth out and her teeth floated. Said Hi and went about our business. We kept the mare for a couple of days and then he came back to pick her up. We just hit it off and started talking. I'll never forget when he left that today, my boss, came to me and said he is a great guy and I would give you my blessing to date him! That was how Grady was, such a caring man. He has since last his battle with cancer. He is greatly missed by all the cattle people, there isn't another cow vet like him around.

So anyway, that weekend was the Jacksonville rodeo and who do you think was there roping in it? Hubby and the "Old Man!" He told me that I came up to him and asked if I could ride his horse! I didn't remember that! :O We started dating and eventually married and I would warm up and cool down his horse at roping's! ( that was the extent of my riding~until the last four years!) Some of them things were marathon roping's!

Skip forward to when little cowgirl was born. She has been riding since she was born. And he was her first horse and such a great babysitter. As you can see in the picture above, she loved her "Old Man!" And he loved her! There is one time in particular that he and my mare saved her life. We were working some calves and she was in the pen with us, she was sitting on him and he and Angel were tied to the fence. We were dragging calves to the fire and me and hubby both were taking our turns on the ground. A guy roped a calf and drug it out and for some reason he stepped off his horse, which comes to find out is a green roping horse, and when that calf put pressure on the horse off he went. He was running around the pen dragging the calf. He hit the side of Pesky and knocked Savannah off between the two of them. They both looked down and saw her and moved over the top of her to protect her from the horse and calf.

We both got there and she was okay, thank goodness! If they hadn't covered her up, who knows what could of happened. One of our good friends looked at hubby and said you know that horse is priceless. Yes we do, he has taken care of her through her learning and her first couple of years of play days and rodeos. He is a bomb proof horse! One thing I wished I could of done on him is roped off him. I would love to back him in the box and head one with him! He was awesome in the box and such power. He is diffidently a one of a kind and there will never be another one like him. He has been fully retired for the last 2 years and will continue to live out his retirement here. I know I don't even want to thank about losing him, it will be a bad day around here. I do know he will be taken care off until he passes on, he deserves that. I won't let him suffer, we owe him that. I'm having a hard time finishing this with out crying. I do know we are blessed to have such a special horse and I thank God for him everyday. He just means so much to hubby, me and little cowgirl. Thanks "Pesky" for all the years with you and too many, many more together. We love you!

**About the pictures: I had tons of pictures of him and tried to go through and pick just a few! Here is alittle bit about each one:

• The top one is just a head shot I took one day in our pasture
• The next one is one of my favorites, it is framed in our den~it was at a roping
• Roping at a friends house New Years day
• The next one is framed as well in our den it is the last time hubby roped with his dear friend Steve Douglas before he was killed in a truck wreck.
• Savannah hugging him, she has always done this and walked around him, under him, etc. etc.
• Savannah at her rodeo pushing cattle on him~she was always noticed for being so little on such a big horse! He is all of 16" 1!
• Savannah riding him after a sorting at the church.

Great song

The other day on the way to church a song came on the radio and hubby said I dedicate this song to you! It is on my play list the first song. It is called "Don't Think I Can't Love You" by Jake Owens. If you haven't heard it yet, crank up your sound and listen to it! I'm blessed to have a husband that does love me and I know I'm rich! Money isn't everything and this song is a great reminder. Of the greatest riches you can have is LOVE! I wish you all to have all the riches and love in the lives. Remember, be thankful and cherish it! Hope you all are having a great weekend!

I leave you with one of my favorite pics of him and Savannah!

NEWS updates & more...........

**Edited on 10/11/08** Here are the prizes I won, expect the check from our Women's Ranch Rodeo. At this time I am choosing not to say a whole lot about the reason behind taking it off. Mrs. Mom I feel a PSA coming on, but will refrain at this time, since I'm so livid! Some people really need to find better things to do with there time, instead of finding such trivial items on my blog to throw a fit about!

Okay I know I have been MIA on posting this week! LOL! Been busy! Last Sunday we had our Women's Ranch Rodeo at our church. Had a great time and got to meet a fellow blogger! Woo Hoo! Got to meet The Wife from Gizzards & Calf Fries! She is super sweet gal and I was blessed to have met her! I had wanted to get our picture together and never got my camera out of the truck! UGH! I rode on 2 teams and did real well! My team B & W Cattle Co. placed 3rd and won the handmade stirrups and money! And my 2nd team Buckshot Cattle Co. placed 6th and won the hay bag. It was a great day filled with fellowship and tons of fun! Looking forward to next year! Hope to have pictures from the rodeo this next week and get them posted.

I'm a Aunt again! My sister had her little girl on 10/3/08 at 1:18 a.m. She was 8 # 5 oz., 20 1/1 inches long and her name is Priscilla Lynn Jordan. She and baby are doing well. Can't wait to see pictures of her! That makes 7 kiddos and 2 adults=9 total!

Hubby is gone this morning to his first team roping on "Roo." I'm so excited for him and nervous at the same time! Hoping him and "Roo" do well! I'm very proud of him already on how he has taken his time getting "Roo" ready. You can rush things, but you pay for it in the end! Then he is in a ranch rodeo this evening at our church. So another busy weekend!

WE MADE IT!

We made it through Ike! We lost power yesterday about 1:30 and it didn't come back on till 8:30 or so last night. We played cards, read and had some great family time! We even had a picnic on the floor! The good thing about where we live is we have natural gas, so I could still cook and we still had the water. I would say the wind gusts got to around 60 mph, they were bad, we really aren't' sure what they were. We did loose 1/2 of our barn, the feed room half. So during the storm we were out there picking up feed and getting panels around it so the horses wouldn't get in there. The horses thankfully were not up in the barn at the time it happened. Thank goodness! We also have numerous branches, limbs all over the place. Hubby just called me into the den and on the news it was saying Troup was hit pretty hard, tons of huge trees down and Harry's Building Supply got it's roof torn right off. Thankfully none of the limbs, roofs had hit any other people, homes, etc. We were really blessed that it was just our barn and not worse. It is such a scary thing when you think about it. God sure did protect us and our animals. I'm glad to start hearing from you all that was in the path of Ike. Praying that everyone is safe and look forward to catching up with you all. We are planning on going to 2nd service this morning, we have ALOT to be thankful for. We also need to lift up all the many people that Ike affected.