To introduce my thread, this is where I will be posting things I do with my horses and my show calves. I have some shows for the calves coming up and playdays starting after that, so this should be continuous for a while. The weather right now is terrible, so my updates will be sporadic since I can't work with most of my animals in the mud. I don't have indoor areas big enough to work in, so pretty much everything I do is in fair weather. Today, we had around 6 inches of rain, so it is going to be sloppy for at least a few days, likely until after my show this weekend. Anyways, on to introducing the animals.

The horses:

Blossom- AQHA 17 y/o mare. Does a little of everything western. Palomino dun. Rides in any way you ask her to ride, including english, western, bareback, bridleless, with the halter, hackamore, and pretty much any bit. Doesn't practice much. Runs a 9 on stakes and won the horsemanship and stakes classes at the fair in fall. Can be ridden down the road away from her foal without so much as a glance back. Will also sort cows and loves it. Tracks anything I point her at and will slide stop and cut when cows are involved.

.

Leilani- AQHA 6 y/o mare. Blossom's daughter. Red dun. Loping barrels and before poles. Rides nice and doesn't mind deep water. Has a lot of go. Runs 11 seconds on flags. Behaves nicely away from home. I can lean off her to pick up barrels the wind knocks over and carry barrels the wind rolls across the pasture. Working on her handle mostly and occasional barrel practice.

.

Quasar - AQHA yearling stud. Blossom's son. Palomino. Halter broke, ties, picks up feet, stands for his blanket, and is annoyingly friendly. Will pick up all 4 feet without being held or tied up. Already over 13.2 and was only born in April 2019. He'll be the first stallion I show and compete with, hopefully in the barrel pen, but maybe ranch riding or boxing.

.

Chic- quarter pony 2 y/o filly. Green broke. Light buckskin paint. Doesn't, buck, doesn't spook, very tame, pretty smart, and does a little bit of showmanship. Doesn't really react to flags, blankets, tarps, vehicles, loud noises, or other horses. Super quiet and easy to work with.

.

SP - AQHA 5 y/o mare. Frosted buckskin. Was told she is broke and will spin and sliding stop. She badly foundered in summer. Purchased her in December and she is much more sound than she was. She is still not sound enough to get on, but she is getting around the pasture without limping and has gained a lot of weight. She needs maintenance on the feet and a little better manners, so she is included despite not getting as much attention as some of them do.

.

.

The calves:

Delphi- September 2018 reg. Red Angus heifer. Halter broke, stick trained, shown a little, pretty fat, and very sassy. She can be hard to catch, but is very easy to handle after she is caught. She shows in a few days on Saturday.

.

Denarii- March 2019 reg. Red Poll heifer. Halter broke, started on stick training, easy going, and very sweet. Fairly easy to catch, especially with cubes. Shows the same day as Delphi.

.

Discord- March 2019 beefmaster/shorthorn steer. Beautiful dark red. Sort of halter broke, stick broke, super fluffy, hard to catch, and weighs around 800lbs. Working on having him walk better on the halter and practically retraining him. Hoping he reaches 900 by the last day of February.

.

Drizzle- July 2019 Chi/Angus/Shorthorn steer. Black brindle. Leads, hasn't met the stick yet, very sweet, easy to catch, and super hairy. He needs to be stuck trained and lead a little better before he shows in mid February, but that shouldn't be an issue. He's smart and easily motivated by food.

.

There are others, but these are the only large animals I'm working with much right now. I'll post about what I do with them when I make it out to work with them. I have plans to clip the heifers on Thursday, so will probably type something up that evening. Until then, I hope they don't get horribly muddy.

The last two days have been hectic, especially today. After school yesterday, I rode Leilani. The goal was to work on her neckreining, which is slowly but surely improving. I got her to trot some slow circles with her head low and not try to suddenly take off. We worked a little on opening gates, stopping, and backing. Spent about an hour total.

As soon as I finished unsaddling her, my ag teacher arrived to drop off a blower and a grooming chute so I could fit my heifers for tomorrow's show. My neighbor arrived at the same time to deliver hay, so my teacher unloaded the stuff while I opened gates and was gone by the time my neighbor left. Dragging that chute around the house to the backyard sucked. It was missing a wheel and weighed at least 200 pounds. I got it assembled pretty easily and ended the night by feeding.

Today, the cows were upset, so I looked across the road and found that Discord was out. Chased him in. Couldn't find Delphi. Got Blossom and went on a bareback trot around the neighbor looking for the fat heifer. I finally saw her in our other cow pasture. Delphi was fighting with some of the pregnant cows. She needed to be brought back to eat her breakfast, but she's hard to catch, so I stayed on Blossom to get her. I'm glad I did. It was practically a reined cowhorse class to get that heifer chased into the barn where the gate was. She eventually made it back where she was supposed to be, but she was openly disgusted with me.

After the battle with Delphi and feeding breakfast, we went to Lowers to get a hose connector to give the heifers a warm bath. Picked up some grain on the way home and a little bit of food. Got out my heifers' papers and drove 30 minutes away to the show for the paper check in and to get my cards. We looked around at the cattle, talked to some familiar people, and booked it home. Got gas in the truck so we wouldn't have to worry about that in the morning. I set up the blower and clippers, tied up the heifers in the backyard, which is where my sheep live, and got to work.

Delphi was angry throughout the entire ordeal. Angry about the bath, pissing mad about the blower, and trying to tear the chute apart about the clippers. She has been exposed to all of this before and never had any problems. I think she's still made about the cutting practice this morning. She ended up clipped, foaming at the mouth in anger, and back in the barn for the night. Denarii was much better behaved for her grooming. This was her first time with any grooming other than combing, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well she acted. She mooed a bit, but stood very well for the drying and clipping. She got to join Delphi in being locked in for the night. We bedded a large stall with shavings so that they would stay clean and be easy to catch in the morning. They're showing out of the trailer tomorrow since there is limited barn space, so the goal is to minimize prep time for tomorrow. I'm excited to see them compared to other show cows since these are the first two papered beef heifers I'm showing. I'll post an update after the show tomorrow, hopefully including pictures.

In the last few days, I mostly prepared for incoming severe weather. Discord got clipped on Sunday since we plan to take back the grooming chute once it's dry enough to get it to the truck. He behaved surprisingly well throughout his bath, blow drying,and clipping despite having decided to kick me in the ones when I caught him. Drizzle didn't know what to think of him when Discord rejoined the herd. Him and the heifers looked upset that their friend had such a different looking face without all the hair.

Monday was another day that I didn't do much. I rode Chic around a little and did some bareback walking and trotting. Only rode her for a few minutes because I needed to put blankets on the horses and the temperature was dropping fast. Most of them were in the barn, which made putting blankets on pretty easy. After Blossom for her blanket on, I caught her and used her as my "blanket taxi," which is where I throw a few folded blankets across her back and lead her to the horses they go on so I don't have to carry them. She does this all the time and is great for it. Once all the blankets were on, I rode her around the pasture for a quick fence check before she was free to go.

When we were feeding tonight, I was watching SP and got to thinking about how she had been walking pretty normally for the last couple weeks. I saw her trot around because they were all excited to get their grain, and after seeing her moving without looking sore at all, I've decided to saddle her up once the ground dries up. I don't plan on getting on her, just seeing what she thinks of my saddle and how she handles the extra 50 lbs of tack I use. I'm relieved by how well she's moving and how much better her feet look than when we got her. We plan to breed her in April and give her pretty much until next fall before we do much more than lead her around and tack her up. The goal is for her to grow an entirely new set of feet before we ride her if we ever do.

As for the show Saturday, it actually didn't go bad. Both of my heifers won their classes and Denarii was reserve breed champion continental AOB. I found out that she has a super loud voice as well. They had to stop speaking when announcing the class placing a few times because she can scream louder than their speakers. Delphi was pretty well behaved during her class, set right up, held her head high, and actually moved forward when I asked her to, so I was proud of that angry heifer. I saw a lot of beautiful cattle, including a 236 lbs mini Hereford prospect steer.

I'm having difficulties with getting pictures, so I'll post those if I come across a website that will work. Until then, I'll just do my best to write you guys a picture.

Well done with your heifers! I show my sheep so I know how much work goes into this, and reserve breed champion is amazing!

I'll keep listening up for updates! :D

Omg @Flipperruby30 you show sheep I just had my 2 show lambs.

My local livestock show was a couple of weeks ago. I showed 3 cows, 2 sheep, and a goat. Here's how my little monsters did.

.

My southdown ewe, Anadarko, was breed champion. She didn't stand much of a chance for grand breeding ewe because she just wasn't as fat as the others. She would have been heavier, but she and my wether were attacked by dogs the day after Christmas and she spent a couple of weeks limping and looking sad. She did get pain killers and antibiotics and had several puncture wounds in her back legs scrubbed up and cleaned. She has recovered fine, but she had lost weight and only just gained back to normal. She wasn't super overweight like the others, which is why she didn't do great.

.

My wether, a little crossbred wool thing, won his class. He just turned 4 months old and was about 73 pounds at the show. He wasn't as fat as I wanted him to be either due to the stress of having the tips of his ears chewed off. He was also treated and recovered well, but it had a big impact on the little guy. He was very sweet and we'll behaved throughout the experience. The judge said he had a solid frame, but was just greener than the others, which isn't surprising when they are 3 times his age.

.

My goat, a boer/lamancha doe, won her class. She was lighter muscled than almost every other goat there, but she was very structurally sound. The goat that won grand was an absolute unit that I was proud to lose to. My tan pinto elf eared thing decided to start screaming at the end of the day, which sounds like someone is being killed and freaked everyone out the first time you head it.

.

Speaking of screamers, Denarii was pretty quiet for most of the day, but when the just was talking about her, she started crying louder than the speakers. She was breed champ as the only Red Poll. The judge said she was nice and long, had good feet and legs, and a nice topline, and was feminine. She just needed a bit more power and depth, which I agree with. She was pretty nice to handle it you don't count the crying.

.

Delphi was giving me a moderate amount of attitude all day. She was snotty and wanted to shake her head and walk ahead of me. She acted alright in the ring, just wasn't as nice as she had been last summer. She was breed champ Red Angus. The judge said she was very powerful and had great depth and length, but she walks funny on her hind legs. I had noticed that when she started getting really fat, she had started walking off, so that was my conformation that she was walking a little different. He said her front 1/3 was great, but that she needed to be a bit smoother overall. She at least set up for me and didn't scream.

.

Grand and res. Grand breeding heifer went to the same kid. He had a slightly over 2 year old simmental that was just plain obese and a yearling maintainer that was following in her footsteps. I could see why the fattest heifer and the sort of similar looking one would win, but I think the judge would have dropped that simmental if he had asked anyone how other their cows were. He didn't ask anyone anything about their cows, which I think would have put him in favor of the maintainer over the sim, or he may have chosen the maine, the limo, or one of mine, all of which were younger. After all, these are breeding animals, and a 2 year old cow should have had a calf already if she weighs 1300 pounds.

.

Discord was a bit harder to handle than the heifers. I had to stay slightly ahead of him the entire time. He stood reluctantly and set up alright once I got him to stand still. The judge said he was very sound, and excellent balance, and was an overall complete calf. If he could have changed anything about him, he would have given Discord a wider pin set and just a little bit of extra power throughout. Discord was grand prospect steer, which was awesome, but leaving the ring was the worst second moment of the day. He tried to boot ahead of me, so I let him take a little circle to calm down. He powered through that circle and found a soft spot in the ending between him and the smooth concrete. His feet slid right out from under him and he went down. He was up again within 5 seconds, but I was floored. We had new ag teachers this year, and they're worse than the old ones at everything. They decided to put down less bedding this spring, making a thinner layer between the animals and the concrete, and Discord decided to step right on through it.

.

Delphi also had a little accident. When she left the ring, and tried to step ahead of me. She usually corrects easily and stops when I stop, so I just stopped. She crossed her front feet due to turning slightly toward me. Her inside foot went right through the bedding. She not only slipped, but fell forward into the panel on the ring. I petted her because it wasn't her fault, but that was still something that shouldn't have happened. Somehow, though, I didn't have the worst cow accident. That would go to the boy with the sim and the maine. His steer, a Salers, got loose from him when he went in for grand market steer. As soon as the judge said he was reserve, that big steer turned and jumped away. His dad ran in and caught the steer, yelled "ROCKY!! BAD!!" and dragging him back to the tie out.

.

It was an interesting and hectic day. I having done much with my horses, though I did get in SP for about 5 minutes a few days ago. I found that she will slowly spin both ways. I need to trim her feet over the weekend. She was very good and had no problem with me getting on bareback.

.

Tomorrow, I'm touch up shearing the sheep again clipping a different goat. The day after that is the county sheep/goat show. Thursday is cow show day, where I will bring in little Drizzle as my 4th calf. Then, Friday is the livestock judging contest. The premium sale is either Friday or Saturday, and I'm really hoping in make it, but I doubt any of my market animals will place high enough. Even still, I plan to go do my best and try to get the best out of my animals.