Gallatin Valley Horse Resource

We headed out with on our horses into the crisp November twilight to gather cow/calf pairs from the stubble fields we had moved them to for a week before weaning and shipping. I was directed to ride alone along the Yellowstone and bring anything back up into the fields. We border the Yellowstone river with cliff outcroppings dropping a thousand feet or more down to the river. My mare and I moved out trotting along the top and traveling down into the drainages and back up looking for cows. About a mile down the drainages do not go down to the river but out onto the cliffs.

The crisp November air bit at my cheeks as I dropped off my daughter at the neighbors and headed for the barn. We saddled the horses by light from the barn and loaded them into the trailer. We headed off down the road into the just waking sun. We had seven riders including myself and 14 sections to gather (its about 640 acres per section). The country is suited well for summer pasture for our cow/calf pairs with tanks spread throughout and forested hilly terrain with cliffs and outcroppings.

My grandfather-in-law has a beautiful blue Brabant draft team which he grades the driveway, feeds round bales throughout the winter, plows, uses for parades, just about everything. This year he planted ten acres of oats with his team. We arrived early yesterday morning and harnessed up the team and fired up the old McCormick thrashing machine with belts moving every which way. We traveled from shock to shock with pitchforks loading the wagon. Once the wagon was full we hitched a ride on the back of the wagon to the thrashing machine to unload.

About a month ago we were driving home from town at night and a few miles from our house we passed a dog alongside the road. Now this might sound like a normal occurrence to some, but the only dogs we see are in front of the 3 ranches we pass or in the back of a truck. My husband dropped us off and headed back to find her-he has a soft spot for dogs. It took about half an hour of coaxing until the beef jerky finally lured her in. She was covered in porcupine quills deeply embedded and they had been there for a while as they were scabbed over.

Check out the July issue of Horse and Rider- page 28 there is a great little article about www.allbreedpedigree.com , you can find out about your horses pedigree and even pictures.