Yesterday, we wrapped up another session. It was an interesting session, a bit different from what we've been doing the past few years. Usually, our guests are young women on gap year breaks but this time we had two moms with their kids and two other ladies travelling alone. We had some struggles but we also had a lot of fun and I learned a lot from it. I think everyone challenged themselves and did a lot of new stuff. It was fun to see how people changed over the course of a week (or two). Unfortunately the weather in the first week wasn't too great, it rained a lot and the corrals turned into mudpools that rivalled the ones in Yellowstone. We still managed to do a lot though and planned our activities around the weather. One morning we were doing lessons in the arena when a terrible hailstorm almost washed us down the hill. It's crazy how quickly streams can appear where previously the ground had been as dry as a desert. We decided to spend the afternoon at the Hotsprings to warm up and had a lovely cook-out in the park, one of my favorite places. Heleen and I spotted some baby turtles in the river and we went to see the nearby herd of bison, riding in the bed of Paul's truck. Those bison looked huge when we were driving right next to them, without car windows to protect us!
Unfortunately Heleen left at the end of that week, her four weeks at Horseworks have flown by! We had a lot of fun adventures. My favorite was the dayride we went on together, exploring a path through the hills I had never been on before. It was a beautiful route with amazing views and I felt so relaxed after it (that lasted for about five minutes). It was just very nice to spend some time together. Paul also left that day, he had been here for a week to help me out with the group. Before he drove back to Washington, he tried to teach me poker in a sushi restaurant, even the waitress joined in the game! I couldn't stop laughing when he told the cook his Japanese was wrong and the sushi wasn't prepared in the proper Japanese way. 
In the second week, the weather cleared up and it dried up enough to go to Cowcamp! It's always one of the highlights of the session so I was glad we could go. This time I actually slept outside, next to the campfire, all night. No rain and nobody screaming 'snake' in the middle of the night (looking at you Kaylyn :P). There was also a beautiful full moon that night.
We did a lot of work with the cows this week as well. One of the calves hadn't been nursing so we had to milk the cow a few times a day to get the milk going and help him drink. I brought another cow in all by myself on one of our recently retrained horses Curly. Laura started riding her again this spring and I've been taking her on short rides to get some miles on her. She is doing great, still a bit insecure but very calm, and she did great with the cow. The cow certainly didn't make it easy so I'm really proud we managed to get her and the calve to the ranch by ourselves (with a little help of Alissa who opened the gates). Both moms and babies are doing well now!
I've also been working with Missy a lot, with the help of Heleen and Stephanie. Remember I started training her last year? She has made so much progress. Last year I had to keep her in a corral with a long rope on her halter to be able to catch her, now she comes up to me when they are all out on the property. She is a lot calmer and really good with most of the groundwork we do. At the moment we are working on putting weight on her back while she is walking. She is perfectly fine when I lean over her back while she is standing still but when I try to make her walk like that she freaks out. It's certainly a challenge to back her but she is a quick study and I'm convinced we'll get there. She definitely teaches me a lot about training!
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