Another summer at the Alvord has ended. Both months were over-full at times with short term visitors. No injuries this time thank God, everybody stayed sound other than a few rope burns, skinned knuckles and a few sore muscles. The month of June felt more like April with cooler temperatures and above average rain. That made us miss a few days branding because it was too wet, but the way it worked out we ended up branding as many calves in July as we did in June.

Each group was there to rope around 1500 head of calves. We had one student decide to stay the second month so that meant around 3000 calves for her, Jen, and myself. It always amazes me how much these people improve compared to a lot of people on ranches I’ve worked around.

The difference is the students have made sacrifices to come and learn and make great efforts to advance themselves, while a lot of ranch people have a lot of other things on their plate and to occupy their time. But this shows when a person is dedicated to learn and not just get a job done, they can make great strides. I admire the try in these people, I admire their achievements, sometimes I’m even envious of their achievements and it motivates me to spend more time and effort to improve myself. I guess we can all learn something from each other, (like to get your lazy butt out of the rut we get in).

After the Alvord we went to the Nevada All Around where Jen and I showed some horses, (again- learning experience). Jen and her little stud looked great, and that’s not only my opinion, the judges marked her to win the saddle by a healthy margin. We don’t need to say much about my horses except they showed like I have been buckarooing or giving clinics on them. When they were asked to rev up, well we didn’t have our homework done, I’ll just leave it at that and we can talk about Jennifer’s show. My Granddad would tell us “its not always what you know but who you know,” at least I’m associated with a winner.

After the show the next morning my daughter and I were off to France, where we had three clinics, then to Switzerland for three more, then to Czech Republic for two. It is interesting to see the variety of horses, maybe I just don’t get out enough in the states, but I see a lot of different breeds in Europe.

The roping and cow working clinics are difficult, by the time I say what they need to do to react to the cow it is too late and by the time it goes through the interpreter its time to be doing something else. But I guess even though it may not be as good of situation as I would like, it is better than not getting the experience at all.

When traveling to these far away places, people ask if we get to play tourist at all. The answer is very little if any, for two reasons, first, it is interesting to me to see the different cultures and history and we can learn this from the people we are around without paying for the commercial version. Second, I have only experienced what may be considered a vacation where you get away from your normal life and enjoy something different once or twice. I guess I’m blessed, I don’t have to leave what I do to enjoy myself. I enjoy the livestock and the ranching lifestyle. What may be considered a vacation is not a vacation at all to me. If I’m away for too long I just think about getting back to do what I do most the time.

I say if I had all the money to do whatever I wanted, I would be doing the same thing- Just not work as hard doing it.