Enjoying the Snow!

      Well several people have asked about how we feed the horses in the winter. You know that during the summer, the ranch has a dozen feeders full all hay every day of the best stuff we can find.  But in the winter time, free-feeding like that can cause lots of problems with the local wildlife. You can imagine feeder after feeder of green, ready hay would be a huge lure if you were a deer or elk looking for food sources during the winter months. And perhaps if it was one deer, that wouldn’t be an issue.  But when herds of a hundred elk (many close in size to some of our horses) move in to your feeding area—you’re out of luck! (And hay…and money….) It’s also dangerous for the wildlife who won’t move the herd around like they should and become dependent on a human-provided food source. We’ve had several years here at the ranch where elk move in with the horses for a few months and push them off the feeders. And that’s no good!

      So to avoid this problem with the “locals”, we drop hay daily for the herd with enough spread to give everyone lots of room to get their fill. As you can see—they can see that tractor coming!

We love these fuzzy faces!

Of course, some think it tastes better right off the tractor….

And others think it tastes best RIGHT off the tractor! (Any surprise this is Navajo? Ya…that’s what we said, too.)

And even on a chilly day—basking under a Colorado blue sky makes everyone around here smile!

That sunshine gives you cabin fever and as often as we can, we take to the mountains—

--even in the deep snow! (Anybody seen Rocky? Oh, there he is.)

The ranch dogs love when mom and day get out for a snowshoe! They also love to stop in the middle of the trail.

Like we mentioned before—the Williams Fork is still flowing strong. Often there are fishermen standing out here in their waders—now THOSE are some hardcore fishermen!

A little snow on the nose is good for the soul. (Did we lose Rocky again?)

And the fresh air and a little exercise is good for everyone!

Just another day in paradise!

A member of our ranch family recently took a plane ride around the county and caught some amazing shots from above. We had to share this gorgeous perspective of our daily views.

And here are some shots right at the ranch!

Parshall and the Williams Fork

It sure looks different in the snow, but can you pick out the familiar points?

I bet many of you can see your “house” from here!

Thanks Lisa for sharing these beautiful photos! What else can we say when the picture below says it all?

Pedicure Anyone?

      If you know horses, then you know that some of the most important parts to take care of are their feet. No feet—no horse! So here at the ranch, during the summer months, no horse goes on trail without a set of shoes to protect them from the rocks and rough terrain of the Rocky Mountains. But in the winter? It’s a whole different story. Like a sandy beach, the soft snow we get here makes for some nice footing for our guys during their time off. And since all they do for eight months is eat and hang out, all they require is a good trim about this time in February. So regardless of the weather, we head out with our farriers and try to coax a herd who hasn’t been touched in 4 months to let us catch them and mess with their feet! Lucky for us, we have some great horses. We can walk out and catch any of them, but that sure takes a lot of time.  Although we’ve done it that way in the past, this year they were in a spot where we could herd them into corrals and move them around within. It made it MUCH easier for figuring out who you had left to do! So here they are!

And as each group was finished, they wandered out to resume their eating—it’s a tough life I tell ya…

And here are our farriers Shane and JD. They are no fun whatsoever. Very serious…

Here you see JD is practicing his “Price is Right” techniques.

      Shane  has actually been associated with the ranch for like—EVER.  Years before Jerry and Cheri even owned the ranch. He wrangled, was head wrangler for a year in 2000, and took over as the farrier not long after that. You can see that even the staff get addicted to this place!  He and JD knocked out 75 horses in 2 days. After all those “pedicures”, those boys were deserving of a spa day themselves!

      We often talk to our guests about “pecking order”—the “order of ranks” so-to-speak among the herd. They get plenty of room to spread out and form their little “cliques” out at winter pasture, but get them all together and you get a little of this—yikes! Don’t stand in the way!

The peanut gallery stands and watches the show. Who knew there was such a thing as “horse gawkers”?

Let the trimming commence!

No dirt to remove—just some fluffy snow. Those are some clean feet!

Next group!

      The bosses are always out helping. Last year Cheri and JD did all the horses themselves with Cheri catching and JD trimming. How many bosses do THAT?  This year Jerry was on hand to catch, hold and check off the list.

Oh and Rocky helped too!

     Of course there is the occasional “Let me go! Let me go!” But a bit of patience and they are good to go again. We don’t force anything on our ponies. They do what we ask because they trust us and you definitely have to earn that trust!

And when they are SUPER happy—you might even get a smile!

Or a kiss…..

Hard not to love ‘em. These horses are our passion.

Back to the trim! One by one….foot by foot…..

The snow was coming down pretty hard by the time they were closing in on being done.

And here was the last one! A celebratory thumbs up from the boys!

      We release the last group and they are anxious to join their buddies. Just a couple more months and the snow will be melting and we’ll be bringing them home! It won’t be long now ‘til we’re into our 2013 season—we can’t wait!

Go run kids!