Every year, we drive part of our cow herd cross country about 6 miles from our Wabaunsee Ranch to our west ranch, which is known as the British Ranch. It's a fund raiser for Big Brothers/Big Sisters and folks pay a fee to help with the drive, go on a trail ride and enjoy a BBQ. It's great fun. Next year, we're going to add a trail walk/run in order to increase participation. Watch for more information!
Joe Carpenter & Brandon Fuller lead the herd as we head down the road 6 miles for the west part of the ranch. We have about 200 pairs behind them.
Laura Cate (gray shirt & horse), Anna (blue shirt & flea-bit gray) and I (on the bay) push the tail end of the babies with the assistance of a father-daughter team from KC (both in red) who donated to BB/BS in order to join us on the drive. They did a great job and had a lot of fun. (Stephanie Jacques photo)
In this photo and the next, we're pretty spread out and have made the turn to the final leg. In past years, this field has been in alfalfa and wheat and cows can do a lot of damage, so it is imperative we keep them out. This year it was last year's cane so we let them cut the corner.
Pairing the herd so that moms or babies don't try to go back to the last place they were together (6 miles back!). I've been relegated to Peanut, my daughter's horse who was giving her a lot of trouble. He made me work all day. When the meadowlark flew up under his belly a little while after this, I thought I was done. You'd have thought he'd have been too tired to cause much of a fuss at this point. Of course it didn't help that Brandon thought Peanut's spookiness was funny and spent quite a bit of his time taking advantage of that. (Stephanie Jacques photo)
We've got the cows on the British Ranch now and have paired them up. Now we take the riders across the British Ranch about 4 miles and head for the creek-side BBQ. Everyone seems to really enjoy this part of the ride. No roads; only grass as far as the eye can see.
Brandon Fuller on a ridge top. We're going to try to reshoot this one this summer.
Joe Carpenter & Blazer, a real good, all around ranch horse.
Brandon & his 5 year old gelding, Smokey. This horse is one of the prettiest movers I've seen in some time. Brandon's done a nice job with him.
Daughter Anna enjoys the creek and a hot dog after a long day in the saddle.
Roy Crenshaw, our friend, neighbor and the BB/BS director (and driving force behind the drive) obligingly laughs at one of my lame jokes. It's not in his job description, but he does it out of pity for me.