Getting behind but I’ll try to catch up!

Hard to believe it’s already April, but I will tell you a little bit about my year so far. For one we did a clinic in Hawaii again. We had a wonderful time there. My son Brooks and his wonderful wife Jeannie live in Hawaii, and Brooks has a boat so he took us boat hoping around the little islands and bars and so on. We had a fine time visiting and playing after work, and we also had time to visit with some old friends and do some team roping too. We roped every night after the clinic. What’s more fun then working with our cow horses all day, then roping in the early afternoon, and then cruising around in a beautiful boat in the evening. It was just a fun time. We like to go places that are interesting and fun, and this proved to be one of those spots!

 

The next spot that Kay and I chose for a clinic is Moab, Utah. The trip for Moab was sort of tough. It was around 20 hours because of blinding snow storms we drove in after we landed in Salt Lake. It took us many hours in blinding snow to get to Moab, to the beautiful Red Cliff Ranch. It was a very nice climate in that area thank goodness! The reason they call it Red Cliff is because there are pinnacles and rocks with giant holes in them. There are a lot of old Indian ruins up there also. We had a good time giving the clinic and Red Cliff Ranch is nothing but pure luxury. Red Cliff and my friend James Dixon put the clinic on. Then of course, we went back to Salt Lake and by gosh, the ski hill was calling us there. So, we took three days and compliments of Red Cliff Ranch, went to Deer Valley. I have never skied in Utah snow before but it was a spoiler! Everybody is a hero in that snow!  We had a great time - couldn’t have been any better. We stayed in a wonderful condo near the slopes, skied until we were tired each day, had lots of good food and watched lots of good movies!

 

Some other exciting news here, we’ve bred two of the fillies that I showed at the Snaffle Bit Futurity a few years back to a really good stallion by the name of Tomcat Chex. Tomcat Chex is by Highbrow Cat, and out of Miss Reed Chex, a Bueno Chex mare that I sold a long time ago for a lot of money. She is also the top money-earning producing mare in the history of National Reined Cow Horse Association. I think that cross, with the strength of the leg and hocks that the King Fritz and Bueno Chex horses have, crossed up with the stopping power of the King Fritz’s and the High Brow Cat’s, is going to be magic cross for me. So, I did breed Millie and Bella, two really nice mares that I showed and really liked, to Tomcat Chex for 2008 foals.  Millie has already foaled and somehow he ended up sorrel with socks and a big blaze, almost a Paint!  Don’t know where that came from because she’s dark and he’s dark, but no complaints from me!  If you want to learn more about the stallion you can find it here:  http://www.valleyoakranch.net/tomcatchex.htm 

 

Just got back from a great clinic in Brazil, an when I get caught up a little more I’ll tell you all about it!