Well, 2014 is upon us. I find myself wondering what this year will bring. 2013 brought some big changes to our ranching lifestyle. The purchase of Hancock Silver Tonka, dividing our cattle herd from my dad's and additional land was bought. It was such a late and wet spring it made calving tough. It was a good thing our horse barn didn't have permanent stalls so we could pull the corral panels and let the cattle in the barn to calve. We were lucky to only lose one calf. The ranchers in the west had a much tougher year than we had here and I still send my thoughts & prayers to them daily.
A knee injury in June limited my training and riding time for the summer months. I tore my PCL and did some other cartilage damage. I'll be having that scoped in the next few weeks and hopefully that will be healed and allow me to get back to running and training the horses. As of right now they say I should be riding by early February again. We have two 3-year olds and one 4-year old that need some work done. I'm hoping to get the coming 4-year old to an indoor arena this winter yet for some additional saddle time. We didn't have any foals this last spring, but in 2014 we are hoping to have five. Four of them will be out of Hancock Silver Tonka. I'm planning on getting to some jackpot barrel races as well this year and trying my hand at that.
Mitch got back into doing some calf roping in 2013 and competed in a few PRCA rodeos. We are looking forward to having some roping cattle this year and attending some more jackpot ropings. Our arena is finally ready and the boxes were finished in early November. We'll be able to do some more practicing at home and getting the horses in shape for competition as well.
We have some big dreams ahead of us yet, and we are hoping that 2014 will bring us the opportunities to make some more of them come true. So far it's brought us snow and cold, but what else can we expect from January in Wisconsin?
A knee injury in June limited my training and riding time for the summer months. I tore my PCL and did some other cartilage damage. I'll be having that scoped in the next few weeks and hopefully that will be healed and allow me to get back to running and training the horses. As of right now they say I should be riding by early February again. We have two 3-year olds and one 4-year old that need some work done. I'm hoping to get the coming 4-year old to an indoor arena this winter yet for some additional saddle time. We didn't have any foals this last spring, but in 2014 we are hoping to have five. Four of them will be out of Hancock Silver Tonka. I'm planning on getting to some jackpot barrel races as well this year and trying my hand at that.
Mitch got back into doing some calf roping in 2013 and competed in a few PRCA rodeos. We are looking forward to having some roping cattle this year and attending some more jackpot ropings. Our arena is finally ready and the boxes were finished in early November. We'll be able to do some more practicing at home and getting the horses in shape for competition as well.
We have some big dreams ahead of us yet, and we are hoping that 2014 will bring us the opportunities to make some more of them come true. So far it's brought us snow and cold, but what else can we expect from January in Wisconsin?