Moo-ve!

So long time no see hey guys?  I assure you I haven't gone this long without riding, just without writing.  As a little update I had a session with one of the most referred horsewomen I know in the area: Marian Ryan.  She came and watched me ride Tango and gave me some really good advice.  The thing I loved was she didn't at once, even when Tango wasn't cooperating, get upset or excited.  Also I have been riding bareback lately because I found out that I tore something in my knee when I came off Tango a while back, and I have to admit that Western saddles aren't the easiest on the knees.
Anyways to the point of my blog. The most exciting thing happened today.  My darling sister, Dana, drove me out to the Randal's so I could go riding (that's not the exciting part).  When I got there I saw that some men had their cows there and were preg testing or something or other in the cow squish (I know that's not what its called but to my great dismay I didn't grow up on a farm).  I watched them for a while and then went to catch Tango.
He was being silly today in the fact that, again, he did not really want to get caught.  I took some oats out to Razz and Brown, I do that every time I ride now just so they won't feel left out, and was trying to lead Tango back to the barn with the rest of the oats in my pail. However he seemed to be convinced that he should stay and watch the other two horses eat.  I told him however that I found watching others eat a most unattractive habit and that he should stop being ridiculous and come with me.
When he refused to follow me I resorted to desperate measures...... I walked all the way back to the barn (which is like twenty feet) and got his halter.  As I was on my way back to tie him up he decided he was going to run away. So The Redneck ran in a circle around me, stopped, and ran the other way. I let him run around me (I mean I just stood in the middle he was only tiring himself out) until he got the point that I wasn't in the mood to play tag.
Finally he stood still for me to put his halter on.  Deciding that he didn't get to eat oats until after he worked because of his inconsiderate actions towards my laziness I went and got the longe whip.  We walked down to the round pen, after a quick hesitation over whether I should or not - I mean I didn't want to make the hiefers uncomfortable during their preg tests by being there.  I took off his lead rope and pushed him around the circle for a while before he stopped, licked his lips and looked at me. I turned and he followed me to the edge of the pen.
Setting down the longe whip I position Tango so that I could use the fence to clamber on.  I know, I know, a good cowgirl can swing up, but I am pretty heavy (150 pounds of pure muscle) and I am also kind of lazy, sometimes.  So I climbed up the fence and got on Tango. We walked around the roundpen a bit, chased the cat, Blue, and then stood and watched the men with the hiefers.
After a while a man (I later learned his name was Slim, I know I met a real cowboy named Slim!) who was standing there said hi, and I said hi back. He watched me on Tango and commented, "You got that horse pretty broke."
"Well he was pretty broke when I bought him." I answered politely.
"He a cow horse?" He asked curiously.
"Yup" I answered before riding Tango over to where his lead rope was hanging on the fence.  Grabbing it I leaned forward and clipped it to his halter and tied it so they made makeshift reins.   Backing him up I then pushed him with my leg over to where the man was leaning on the gate.
He pet him for a while and then said, "Well when Bruce is done over there you can round those cows up over there and push them down the alleyway and through that gate."
With wide eyes I looked at him and then watched as he opened the gate. I tried to say I wasn't really sure that was a good idea but he assured me that it would all be fine.  So I walked out the gate and down the alleyway. I was a little nervous because a lot of cowhorses will get excited around cows.  However Tango just perked his ears in a way that you could just imagine him saying "Cows!"
Then he calmly walked through the small herd while I took deep breaths on his back in an attempt to relax.  Whenever a cow refused to move forward he would just stop, put his nose on her butt (haha what a brown-noser), before taking another step forward as if to say, "Excuse me Madame Bessie but you're in my way." Finally we got behind then and pushed them forward.  As we tried to get them away from the end of the alleyway I encouraged them along with a couple of come on, gits, and let's go's.
It was fun, although it was only at a walk, and it didn't take me all that long to relax.  And I don't know if you have ever gotten this feeling before but as I was moving them out to their proper pastures I could help but feel that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. That someday I was destined to be a rancher, a cowgirl, with my cowhorse, and maybe even a trusty old cowdog.  Wow that's a lot of "cow's".  Maybe I'll even have myself a cowboy, depends on if I can find one who can keep up.
So I got to move cows, or as they like to say to eachother: Moooooo-ve!