September 15th

Saturday, September 15th, 2018

It was a hot one, but a good one.

Paul and I spent the day at a tree sale on the ranch with some friends, and a day spent with good friends is always the best kind of day.

September 27th

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

It’s pack up and head back day, and I am so sad about that.

Seven days in Utah, but it just doesn’t feel like enough. We could have easily been here for days more and had plenty to do. That just means we’ll have to plan another trip back out here right?

Loads don’t look great for this evening, which is when we’d hoped to fly out. However, a flight tomorrow late afternoon has 75 open seats so instead of fighting the loads, we’re going to sit it out in St George overnight and head down to Vegas in the morning. Break up our drive into two chunks.

So once we established that, we decided to take our time in leaving the ranch this morning. We got up, made coffee, went up for breakfast, and decided to make our way back to the corrals to check it out. More on the backside of the ranch, it was a small bit of a walk to get there. Once we did, we saw that they were loading up a group to take on the normal ride, so we sat and watched.

They moved out and we found ourselves standing at the arena fence enjoying the view. One of the Wranglers walked up to us, introduced himself, and started talking with us. We mentioned that we had gone on the outback ride the day before, and there was an instant change in his demeanor. Evidently, that was all he needed to confirm our knowledge of horses.

He invited us back into to barn/corral/arena area and at one point even told us that we should come by that night and have a beer with everybody (sounded like so much fun gol darn it!), and that was when I told Paul that I was headed back to the room to grab my camera bag.

I hustled, but it still probably took me about 7-8 minutes round trip, and when I got back I couldn’t find Paul. Cory, the Wrangler, was moving hay in the arena for the steers, so I worked my way that direction. That’s when I saw that Paul was also in the arena, and was roping on a dummy. I was gone for maaaaybe 10 minutes, and he’s already in the arena roping with the guy running gates for him!

Figures.

That face was his “is this actually happening, this is awesome” face haha.

While Paul was being social butterfly Paul, I went to meet the horses.

With 30 head of horses, they rotate through them, so a few are left back at the barn during each ride. I made good friends with the “big bay” who came to the fence while these two sweeties groomed each other non-stop.

On our way out, we passed by the tack room and the light was too pretty to pass up. When you have a lot of horses, you have a lot of tack.