Tag, I'm It!

Okay, so about three weeks ago now, I was "tagged" by both 'City Girl Turned Country Girl' at A&MD Ranch and 'Growing up a Country Girl' at Livin' It Up Country. The deal is this:

Post your tenth photo that you downloaded into photo folder or picaso and blog about it. Then tag 5 others to do the same.

Well, since I don't use picaso, and I have oh, about 50 photo folders, I had to improvise a little bit. So, I selected the very first photo folder on my desktop and picked the 10th photo out of it. Here ya go:

My handsome cowboy and his equally handsome new horse. This is the first trail ride Cowboy H took Crow out on since having him at our boarding ranch. You may remember that Cowboy H had ridden Crow several times elsewhere before we actually owned him. The evening was just beautiful. The blue of the sky and green of the grass were amazingly vibrant. The photo is completely untouched; the colors really were that bright. It ended up being a pretty nice "first" ride.

And so, I have to tag a few of you now, most of you whom have probably already been tagged by others I'm sure. I pick:

Choleesa at Choleesa's World
The Desert Rose at JessesDesertRose
Stephanie at Momma's Soapbox
Cousin B at She Who Rides Many Ponies

I'm only tagging four, because I really want to tag Pony Girl, who apparently QUIT this blogging thing. So, in mourning, I'm leaving an empty spot for her and Pony Girl Rides Again.

P.S. Maria decidedly approves of Crow, if judged by her, ahem, forward behavior towards him on our ride. Seriously, she was rubbing herself all over the poor guy. Yes, I have a hussy of a horse.

P.P.S. Sorry for not linking to all the blogs I mentioned, but its midnight, I have to get up at 6 am and I think you all know who each other is. If not, all the blogs can be found on my side bar.

Feel The Love

Last night Cowboy H asked me to email him two photos.

One of him and Crow.

The other of him and Hank.

I obliged and asked if he needed full res images or if I could send him smaller, email-friendly versions.

He responded, "Um, I don't know. I want to use them as the background for my desktop, so whatever you think."

At first, my heart melted. Awww, how sweet, he wants photos of his horse and his dog at work, I thought.

Then, something clicked inside my head.

"HEY! You want photos of your dog and your horse, but what about YOUR WIFE!?!?"

And the punk that he is, just smirked and laughed at me.

Talk about feeling the love.

This One's For Pony Girl

When I introduced Crow last week, Pony Girl had the audacity to leave a comment along the lines of "I don't believe Cowboy H's feet DON'T hang below his horse's belly!" Can you believe her? I know, huh? Seriously.

So, PG, this one's for you.

I'll try to get some more photos of Cowboy H and Crow up in the next few days. In the meantime, I'm also working on the photos (and post) from the ride with DR, as well as a post on how I ride with my Big Girl Camera.

Hooked

Cowboy H this morning: "Do we have any carrots?"

"Yeah, they're in the fridge. But they need to be either washed or peeled for human consumption.

"Oh, that's okay. I just want to take one to Crow when I go see him today.

I know, huh. I know.

New Kid On The Block

He's here! He's here! The new guy has arrived!

On Sunday, The Desert Rose and two other friends hauled out from the desert to ride with us. They also made a special delivery.

This would be the outlaw, Crow, or better yet, Dirty Chicken, as he is registered. Those of you who follow The Desert Rose may have heard of him. Born and broke in South Dakota, AQHA registered and heavily foundation-bred, he is one heck of a horse. If you can ride him.

While continually bucking people off during his training, it was discovered that he could work and track a cow like no other. In an effort to wear the horse down enough to be ridden, they roped 60-70 head off him a day. He still holds a little grudge towards humans for that.

Cowboy H even dressed up for the occasion.

He was eventually brought to California, and became the top roping horse for Cowboy H's old boss. Occasionally he was used as a guide horse for the stables' trail rides, which is how Cowboy H got to know him. Cowboy H actually rode him quite a bit, and has always loved him. Even after the ankle-breaking incident, he still loves him.

But, Cowboy H also knows that he can never be fully trusted. As he puts it, "Crow is a rattlesnake." Everyone who has ridden him (except me!) has not only been bucked off, but had a bone broken in the process. (In everyone else's defense, I only rode him once, and the trail we rode was so rough that there was never an opportunity to screw around. So, I kinda cheated. ;))

After much fussing and picture taking, Cowboy H led Crow out to the big pasture where he will be living.

We had a big ride to get going on, otherwise we would have spent a little more time with him before turning him out.

Plus the poor guy was a little freaked out by all the commotion. For as wicked as this horse can be to a rider, he is really just a big wienie. While leading him to the pasture, Cowboy H mentioned "I have a feeling poor old Crow's going to be at the bottom of the food chain".

Sure enough, when we returned from our ride, there he was all alone, crying out for Cowboy H.

Now, you may (or should) be asking yourself, "Why would you want such a horse?". First, he was free. Secondly, sometimes the pull a horse has on a man cannot be explained. Third, Cowboy H's feet will no longer hang below his horse's belly.

Cowboy H put his first ride (in 4 years) on him yesterday. I will have the pictures up in the next few days.

So, what do you think of our new guy? Would you have taken him??