Rodeo Mom Weekend

by Lisa Woodland

This is an example of rodeo being a lifestyle not just a sport.

My husband left town for the weekend and left me and boys home to care for our small farm. He hadn't been gone more than 6 hours when everything started to fall apart. The boys had some friends over and they were roping and tying goats and being boys. Pretty soon I hear a huge commotion outside and went to see that my husbands big rope horse was out tromping on my grass and through my garden. This was an even bigger problem since it had just rained making the ground really soft now I have big hoof prints in my grass and through my garden. I think most of the vegetables survived however, the carrots did not. After getting the horse put away and things taken care of I went in to fix dinner.

The boys were feeding animals and playing. I fed the kids and then went out to check on the animals and make sure everything was OK only to find that the steers and the appaloosa pony had changed corrals and the pony was cleaning up the grain from the show steer. Huge problem and this is where if you are a new rodeo mom you need to pay close attention. There are ingredients in the show steer grain that can be very harmful to horses. So I panic start yelling for help and moving animals. The other problem that can be very deadly for the show steers is they were cleaning up the horses hay. Too much leafy alfa will make steers bloat.

Lesson number one is to make sure you know what feed goes to which animals. This can save you more heart ache down the road The small bales stacked to the ceiling are horse hay they are grass alfalfa the large bales on the sides in front are oat hay for the show steers. This is very important to know because the hay for the show steers is not good for the horses and the other way around.

This photo is the show steer grain if you look closely it has a lot to it. The photo on the right is just oats for horses. Even though both grains are similar it is very important to make sure you are feeding the right grain to the right animals. This can be a little overwhelming but just make sure everything has a place and container and then label them if you need to. This will help everyone stay on the same page you can even label the containers with the names of which animals they go to and on that label list how much they get how many times per day. Some older horses get joint supplement and conditioners where the younger horses get different supplements. What ever it is make sure things are labeled and safe for which horse or animal you are feeding.

The rest of the evening was uneventful how ever the next day turned out to be as eventful I will save that story for another post but concluded with the next night before going to bed, I made the rounds and found all of the animals properly fed and safely tucked in. The kids were bathing and getting ready for bed when we discovered the basement had flooded. With all of the rains from the week the floor drains in my basement back filled leaving me a mess. So lesson number two as much as you love to have a break from those rodeo dads it really isn’t worth it if you are the one staying home. So next time I am leaving and my husband is staying home.