Playing Around in the Pacific Northwest Submitted by Jillian Santi Our first outing of the year was in March to the NW Horse Fair and Expo in Albany, Oregon. I took both Starwars TOF and Starshine TOF. They were great and I had quite a few children clamber aboard Star, who has always been so good with little ones. This was the start to a very fun 2017 with the Haflingers. The previous summer, in 2016, I won the Novice Division of the Ranch Horse Challenge in Ellensburg, Washington, with Starwars TOF. 2017, I would have to participate in the Open Division, which included actually roping a live cow. Some of these cows are upwards of 700 lbs. and I felt twenty-year-old Star shouldn’t
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have to be trying to drag one around. And even though I had never roped a live cow, nor had my mom’s very laid-back trail Haflinger, Ner TSH, aka Nemo, he was taller, heavier, and younger. So why not? At 14, he’d never had a rope thrown from him nor chased a cow. I also knew for Nemo to be competitive, pony boot camp was going to be a requirement; i.e., some good conditioning. So two weeks before the Challenge, I started practicing roping a dummy cow head, and Nemo slimmed down and sped up. In between, the Ranch holding the Ranch Horse Challenge competition was also doing a clinic. I figured Nemo needed to at least see a real live cow in person before the actual competition. At the clinic, he was as good
as gold. Nothing phased him and he seemed to like cow cutting, though he lacked Star’s speed. Finally the cows were let loose for roping. It was like a rodeo. A herd of nine pretty wild Corriente and Longhorn-cross steers tore around the arena, with cowboys chasing madly after trying to rope the ornery critters. After a bit of watching, I figured I might as well try. Nemo, to my surprise, had some speed and despite no understanding, took me right up on a cow. I missed, and missed again, and again…. but then it happened! My rope went around a cow’s horns and I dallied. Nemo sat back as I stopped him and I waited to see what his reaction would be when the cow hit the end of the rope. Of course, being Nemo, his reaction was spot on…. he
