Early this morning and much to my delight, I noticed extra legs in the corral of our mare, Christy Bar Chex.  Lo and behold she had given birth to her baby filly. 

Baby was already up, teetering around after mom and completely cleaned off.  The magic of warm temperatures and a beautiful full moon helped give a great impression of what life would hold for this beautiful filly.

After much deliberation, we settled on the name of Cross 9 Millie ("Millie the Fillie") after my Aunt Millie Giles whose birthday is the same day as the fillie's.

 
  

Wednesday 11-24-10, following old time ranching traditions, the Cross 9 crew gathered a large portion of our cattle and drove them to a newly developed water source in an area of the ranch that normally would get little grazing use.  This cattle drive was attended by students, friends and family members.  We split the crew into two groups.  One crew gathered the ridges and draws surrounding the first water tank and the other crew cut across country and gathered our cattle at the 1st windmill. The two crews met up with their cattle at the road leading to Sheep's Draw and from there they drove the cows another 4 miles to the new water.  It was interesting to note which cow in the herd was elected to be the "lead cow" and how that leader found and utilized old cow trails rather than following a cleared road to the destination.  Grass in this portion of the ranch is plentiful and the cattled really took their time to graze as they walked along at their own pace.  This is truly the "land of manana".  After "mothering the cattle up" at the water, the ride home with the crew was interesting too.  Listening to them jabber about their "cowmanship" skills and the stories of how their horses "filled in" for them when the cows were not cooperating was great!   All-in-all it was another great day at the Cross 9 Ranch!
                                                                                                       

November 15, 2010
This past weeks horsemanship clinic was outstanding.  Our student is from Ohio and was in awe of our beautiful state of Arizona.  Things we worked on were:

• Traveling long distances on the ranch in order to locate and drive cattle from horseback
• Learning how horsemanship really is a partnership when you are depending on your horse to pack you up and down in all kinds of terrain outside of the arena
• Roping cattle for doctoring and branding
• Checking fences and water sources
• Siteseeing all over our beautiful county of Cochise
• We even did a "re-start" of an older terrified gelding

We are very thankful for all of our students and their dedication to learning the traditional principles of horsemanship that have been handed down from generation to generation.  Bill and I have chosen to really take our time with our horses. An honest days work really teaches a horse a lot on a very deep level.  Feel free to give us a call if you would be inerested furthering your education.