Lead On

Cowboy is quit the cook! He made buffalo pot roast on Saturday night, and cinnamon rolls from scratch for breakfast yesterday with the most amazing buffalo and moose burger chili for dinner. I myself made some moose meatballs and spaghetti last week, after discovering the huge freezer full of game meat that he has. What he and his friends and family don't kill, he gets from semi-truck accidents that his brother cleans up in Montana. Once food is in an accident, they can't sell it again, so his family must all have well stocked freezers. He has a bunch of stuff that was going to a Chinese restaurant in there now, scallops, pork, and pot stickers.

He played a CD from his friend's country band on Saturday night and we started dancing to the song "Lead On" that cowboy use to sing in clubs I guess. He twirled me around the kitchen, and I couldn't stop thinking how cute he was as I was in his strong arms. We then watched the movie "Silverado" together that he recorded from the satellite earlier that day.

On Sunday, he declared that it was warm enough to ride Alice his brown and white horse, see her picture here. She is the only one who keeps shoes on all winter to keep her hoofs from splitting. He whistled for the horses and gave them some mid-day hay. Big Brown came running at a gallop when he realized he was getting another meal. The other three strolled across the field at a leisurely pace. He surprised Alice when he pulled her out of the barn, the other horses giving us curious looks. He tied her to the horse trailer, put her saddle on, and clipped her mane so the bridle didn't rub against it. I could feel the love he had for his horse as her brushed her and talked to her, while she looked a little nervous at Ranger (see pic here) who was making circles around her.

Cowboy and Alice took off riding while I took pictures (coming in a later post), Ranger following them in every direction that they went. The rolling grass hills framed Cowboy and Alice beautifully as they rode. Then Cowboy put Alice in the round training pin so that I could ride her. She looked confused to be in there, since she hasn't seen one for years. I got on her and she kept looking to Cowboy to rescue her from the strange woman who has only been feeding her for a week. She kept going to the door as I tried to remember how to ride a horse, her eyes telling Cowboy to get me off of her. Eventually I convinced her to go in circles around the pin, switching directions that she was walking every so often. I made tight cirlces pulling her reins in either direction, learned how to stop her and make her back up by pulling hard on them. Then I asked Cowboy, who had been watching, how to make her go faster. He said to kick her sides a few more times and we took off. Alice started talking to the other horses who were all watching the spectacle from the nearby fence line, with Baby Girl, her daughter, talking back to her the most. We called it a day, Alice covered in sweat, and she got a huge bucket of oats as a reward while Big Brown watched and protested. I loved it, even though my legs hurt today. I can't wait to ride again.