Feb. 27. Kitty and Texas Longhorn calf !

What kind of secrets do you think they share? Flower, our barn kitty is talking to one of our last year's Texas Longhorn calves. The calves are very curious and like to check everything our. Flower is very careful with those bigger animals, although she loves to hunt for mice within the hay bales. It is always interesting to see how our animals interact. Cattle within their herd or with the horses across the fence. The horses with each other, or what they do, if the see an unknown animal. Years back, our neighbour got Alpacas, and our horses got very nervous and excited, only for a couple of hours, until they confirmed, that new animal specie is not a prey animal.

The temperatures dropped again to a winter normal cold here in Alberta. The animals, domestic and wild, can be glad to still have plenty of winter coat. Past night it dropped to - 25. With sun in the forecast, the day temperature will go up to -5 and feel even warmer in the direct sun.

Feb. 20. Running Horses !

Our horses on the pasture. A bit of fresh snow, just enough to make it look pretty, but not too much to make it hard for the animals. We drove our pick up truck onto the field and while one of us is driving, Marty scoops down hay. The horses were on the far end of the pasture, so they came to the sound of the truck. In the back ground is Ram mountain, this mountain is straight West of Rocky Mountain House.
Today is Family Day in Canada, so we all get another extra day off. Wishing you a great day and a good start to the new week !

Feb. 13. Kiowa !

Kiowa are the indigenous people of the great Plains. A fitting name for our painted girl.
Kiowa has been with us for 18 years now ! And she is a wonderful riding horse for us or for our guests. Kiowa is very reliable and experienced. She loves to do her work. Her personality makes her an agile, quick and responsive horse. Riding her, makes you think, she is still a six years old, she is so wonderful lively.
Although she has been such a trustworthy all around ranch horse for many years now, the start was interesting. We bought her as a nine months old and didn't realise, that she had no contact with people before that, being born and growing up on big pastures. So at first we couldn't even touch her, but after weeks of lots of visiting and sitting with her and her friend Dakota, she gained trust in us and we were able to halter her up. A year later, when we started to get her used to the saddle, she was already so relaxed with us, that it wasn't a big deal for her to get used to being saddled up and to cary a rider.

Feb. 6. Horseback riding in February !

Saturday was such a wonderful sunny and warm winter day. We enjoyed riding Kiowa and Cheyenne through winter scenery as well as early spring landscapes. The top photo was taken on a snow covered pasture, it felt like winter and the snow got deeper on some shaded spots. Later we rode on the Southwest facing big pasture, where all the snow was gone, it sure was an interesting combination. Lucky for us, that the pastures for our horses and cattle are almost snow free, it sure makes it easier to feed hay and they are not very eager to run to the hay, as they might do, if the weather is very cold with plenty of snow.