Bring on the WATER!!

After a hot day of competition, this boy was ready for a shower! We got such a kick out of watching him play!!

Big Belt Buckles

Here are the winners of the buckle run! This team is an example of a professional teaming up with a novice and making it work! The guy wearing the ball cap is a horse-trainer and the other cowboy has only been penning/sorting for a couple of years. The woman on the right, is a breast cancer survivor. She & her husband, the cowboy on the left, donated the buckles.

Ranch Sorting Buckle Run

This was the biggest part of our fund-raising weekend. 30 riders each paid $30 for 3 chances to win a fancy belt buckle. Our cattle provider donated the use of the cattle for this class, so all of the proceeds went to the charity! I've posted a couple of photos of 2-man ranch sorting before, but I wanted you to be able to see the whole scene. So, I took a deep breath, climbed up to the judge's stand and stood on the very edge, with only a 2X4 keeping me from falling a long way down. (The things I'll do for a photo!)

Anyway, here you can see the 'figure-8' that we set up with metal fence panels. The gate at the bottom is where the riders go in; the cattle come in from the other side. They are bunched into the further pen and the riders have to sort them out numerically into the closest pen, without letting out the 2 blank cows. They take turns riding into the herd and guarding the gate. The judges are on either side of the gate, clicking a stop watch as each cow runs out. The team that won sorted out all 10 cows in 66.66 seconds!! It was amazing to watch and I'll upload the video as soon as I can.

Normally, riders sign up for their rides with friends. To add to the drama, we made this class a draw class, meaning their names were all put into a bucket and drawn randomly to make up the teams. (That was my job yesterday!) Some people ended up riding with a stranger, some with a person they didn't really like, and some beginners got paired up with professionals. It made for some very interesting teamwork, because believe me, they ALL wanted those buckles. The really fun part is seeing riders pushing their limits, forgetting their nerves and riding harder and faster than they knew that they could, trying to WIN!

Tomorrow you'll meet the winners, and our very own survivor.....

Who's next?

This cow is waiting patiently for the team to cut out the next cow to join him down at this end of the arena. The cowgirl on the left is riding into the herd after the correct cow, while the cowboys fan out the rest of the herd by walking their horses sideways across the arena. Once the majority of the cattle have been moved away, she will be able to safely (without any extra cows) cut out another #6 for them to pen, hopefully before they run out of time.

Cow Pony

You've heard the phrase "Attitude is everything", right? Well, this little pony personifies it! She's smaller than most of our cows and yet she's amazing at Ranch Sorting. She's not the least bit worried about heading into the herd (Unlike some of our big horses!) and the cows always do exactly what she tells them to do. Her little legs move so quickly that they are blurry and it's awesome to watch her work the cows.

The woman on the right hand side of this photo is the judge. She is positioned right over the gate that each cow has to be driven out of, in order. As each cow exits the pen, she clicks the lap timer on her stopwatch. The team that gets the most cows out, in the shortest amount of time is the winning team. If however, a cow that is not in chronological order should slip out of the gate, she is right where she can see it, and she will raise her orange flag and disqualify that team.

Weekend Cowgirl

The nice thing about team penning is that you can forget your normal life for a few days and pretend to be a cowboy/girl. My friend seemed so contemplative here though, that I wondered what she was thinking about. As soon as she saw me, she lamented that she hadn't been smiling for the photo. I told her it made for a nice image and I refused to take another one. What do you think?

Homecoming Queen/Penning Princess

Sorry about the lack of posts over the weekend - I was at a team penning event and forgot the USB cable to my camera, so I had no way to upload images and get them posted to my blog, even though I did have a computer & Internet connection. Today you get a bonus - 3 posts!

You've seen the cowgirl on the right here and here, but this week, our 'Penning Princess' was crowned 'Homecoming Queen' of her high school! We are all so thrilled for her, although we missed her Saturday night when she had to go to the Homecoming Dance, and missed our evening festivities. She is such a sweet girl - she always has a smile on her face. This photo was taken Saturday morning after her team won the Open Sorting class. The woman on the left is her mother and the cowboy in the middle is her cousin. Congratulations!!

Please excuse me for a moment, but I'm going to pat myself on the back here - a photo that I took in July of the cowboy in this picture, is on the cover of the October 2008 issue of The Horse's Maine, a local equestrian paper!!!!!! You can see the image over here on my personal blog...

Teamwork

These two riders are working together to get this cow out of the herd and down to the pen...

Highs & Lows

After the day I had yesterday, this was the best way to recover - 2nd place in the Novice Division at the team penning at the Windsor Fair!! YEEEEEE HAAAA!!!!!!!

Maine State Flag Carrier

Okay, this is the last photo from last weekend's CMTPA Team Penning and Ranch Sorting Extravaganza! If you would like to see more, please check out my Morning Call Ranch Photography website - there is a link over there on the right. Tomorrow we'll head back to West Paris! Wait 'til you see what I have in store for you... ;-)

I just had to share this image with you - I don't know what it is about this photo, but it really intrigues me. The angle...the lighting...the wind...her expression...something...I'm anxious to read your comments...or maybe it's just me?

Hay is for horses...

The hay bags are almost as tall as the cowgirl! Can you see how intently the horses are watching her? They are anxiously awaiting her arrival with their snack!!

4th of July Parade

Our team penning club was asked to ride in the Turner (about 1/2 hour East of West Paris) 4th of July Parade. My husband took the camera, so today I get to make a cameo appearance on my blog! Can you pick me out of this group of riders? I was so happy to be there - it has always been one of my dreams to ride in a parade!

Pen 'em!!

This is when team penning gets really exciting! At this point tensions are running high and getting those cows into the pen can either be 'picture perfect', as you see here, or one of those riders could be positioned just a little bit off and the cows can run right back to the herd and avoid that little pen! I liked this picture because it really shows all the positions that the 3 team members must take in order to get those 3 cows through that 12 foot gate:

The Palomino is "sweeping", or running around the end of the arena, pushing the cows towards the pen. She has to be able to read how the cows are reacting to her presence - if she hurries them, they could very well rush past the other riders; if she goes too slow, they lose precious seconds on the clock.

The rider on the other side of the pen is in the "hole". There is an alleyway on the other side of the pen, which the cows know gives them a straight shot right back to the herd. That rider needs to block the cows, generally by making a lot of noise, and if the cows really pressure her, by riding forward slightly, encouraging them towards the pen and away from the hole.

The rider on this side of the gate is on the "wing". His job is to keep the cows from doing a circle in front of the pen when the sweep pushes them, and then as they go past him, to join the sweep rider in rushing them into the pen.

Overhead you can see the judge, timekeeper and announcer. The judge is holding up a flag that she will drop when the riders enter the gate of the pen behind the cows, raise their arms and call for time. At that point the timekeeper will stop the timer.

Sound complicated?? It sure can be!! You never know what those pesky cows are gonna do!! ;-)

Pretty Palomino

Here is another shot from Saturday's Team Penning event in Leeds - about 45 minutes from West Paris. This rider drove down with a bunch of family & friends from Quebec! They told us that it takes them approximately 6 hours. They are super friendly and we had a really good time penning with them! We are looking forward to seeing them again in August.

FYI A Palomino is a horse of this coloration - golden with a white mane & tail. They occur in many different breeds of horses.

Cowgirl Up!

Here's a photo that I took at the team penning event that I photographed on Saturday. This girl sure knows how to ride hard on the cows!