After dinner cattle round up

I planned to do the cattle round up with C7 and Q6, but at the last minute Q6 decided not to do it, so we sent C7 in with another family. Q6 hung out on the hitching post and under a tree.

This was C7 in her hat and jeans (and dress, of course), getting ready to go. She had decorated her hat, although she did not want me to photograph it on her head, for some reason. You'll also notice the position of her hands ... she was forever yanking up the jeans because they kept falling down.

 

And here she is on Destiny, the horse.

Videos coming up of C7 riding that horse. She was up penning the cattle (the owners and wranglers drove the cows up, mostly, and then the visitors penned them) but really wanted to go down to get some cattle. OK, I said, you are in charge of your horse, go do it. So ... she did! Mostly the action is fairly low key, but this was C7's 3rd time on a horse. I think she did fine. No fear at all.

Just after she gets on the horse:

Penning the cow. You can see Destiny is a spirited horse!

A little action.

And C7 attempting to go get those cows! Smack smack smack she tried to make that horse move!!

And an extra photo of C7, L8, and Q6.

First horse rides

I did a bad job of getting pictures of Q6 on a horse. I thought I'd have more chances. But I didn't.

After breakfast we fed the horses carrots.

All the girls sat on the fence so we could take a photo ... seconds after this  next one the fence broke and the girls tumbled to the ground! Whoops! Luckily the fence rails are free; the ranch collects the mill ends from the local lumber mill.

First thing we had to do was a lesson for Q6. Because of her age she had to take a lesson, and it did her good. Actually, it did ME good to watch the lesson, because I was able to get some information about riding  western and reminders from the orientation the night before. Riding Western seems all to be about staying on  verses staying on with style that you do in English. No posting! Brilliant.

When the time came for our first trail ride we all had a brief lesson in the corral, but the girls all were unable to control their horses. The result was they all stayed in the corral for a lesson, and everybody else went on a trail ride on the blue trail. While we were out the owner of the ranch said that she'd have been fine taking just Q6 with us, because Lightning, Q6's horse, would have followed the owner's horse slavishly. But the sheer number of girls without riding experience made it dangerous.

The girls were disappointed they were stuck in the corral, and I don't blame them; it was hot.

That afternoon, however, we took another trail ride and the girls were able to take a modified trail ride on the blue trail while the rest of use went on the green trail, which was steeper. The cousins loved that!

Next up: Cow penning!

Dude Ranch

Drive drive drive more than 8 hours in the car and we arrived in Tennessee, just 15 minutes early. So we waited at the gate of the French Broad River Outpost Dude Ranch.

And we took some photos while waiting. I love these.

 

Eventually, though, they let us in. And this is the first view of the ranch we have. We stayed in the bit with the red roof, on the 2nd floor. Our room faced the mountain (West?) so we had a nice dark room in the mornings. The balcony here was accessible for everybody on the floor, though, so we could hang out there (when it wasn't too hot). I'm surprised there are no horses in this picture, actually.

Once you got out on the balcony you saw this:

 

That is a really big view ... basically 2 panoramas, back to back, hills to the left and right. We were lucky with weather, the thunderstorms rumbled through, but skirted our valley the days we were there. We heard a lot of rumbles, but saw little rain.

Tomorrow: our first time on horses!

C7 LOVES plums!

Cousins in the pool

I never got a photo of the girls in the salt-water pool in Wildwood Crest. Loved this pool! But here is one with C1 with her cast on. S was napping or something. Babies. ;)

jeans

You have not seen C7 in jeans since before she was 2. After that time, she really decided she didn't like jeans. Here is one of the last photos of her in jeans, learning to walk in Montana. Yes, barefoot, as she still is.

But today, we went out and bought jeans. Not for any aesthetic reason, but because we needed them for the upcoming trip to the dude ranch in TN. You need to wear jeans to ride the horses. So, I managed to buy her a pair, and a cute shirt to go with it. Here is the absolute worst photos I could take of her as she attempts to unbutton and put a dress back on.

 

But, look, she's wearing jeans!!!

July 6, 2012

Q6 passed her swim test -- she now can swim in the deep end of the pool! She got her swim band to prove it!

To get the swim band you need to swim the width of the pool back and forth (this is basically across 6 swim lanes. How wide is that?) then tread water for 30 seconds. Q failed the first time ( the lifeguard thought she had touched the bottom ) so she did it right again and passed. Yipee!