Fat Horses!

About 6 years ago, I worked on a dude ranch down by Zion National Park.  I had a great time being on a horse every day. One of the memories from there really helped me tune in one of my skills.  I got alot of practice throwing my Hat.  We had about 22 head of horses that could never get enough feed.  They would constantly eat while on our rides.  This got really old for me, so I would throw my Hat under them to keep the line moving.  There was this one horse named Pinky that just didnt care about the Hat under his feet.  I had to take it a step further.  In the time I was there I became very precise about hitting him right on the ass with my Hat from 2 horses back!

I'm not gonna lie it is a helpful skill to have.  This unique talant comes in handy with stray dogs, knocking a kite out of a tree, starting a fight, the ring toss at the State Fair, and works great on small childern to keep them from touching the DVD player during the best part of Yogi Bear.  So all of you practice up because one day you will need to be on top of your game!

Old Hats

For Memory Monday I would like to tell you a little bit about one of my old Hats. I was pushing some watusi cattle with my Grandpa in tamarack trees on the river. At the time of year the tamarack were dropping their seeds, and were really sticky. Our saddle pads, coats, and felt Hats were covered in the sappy thorns.

The good thing about a broken down felt Hat in this type of country is that the brim can fold down over your ears and cheeks to protect you from the thick, sappy, thorns. The tamarack was so thick, the cows would go lay in it, and we would have to get off our horses and crawl underneath the brush to push the cows back onto the trail. As we were crawling under the tamarack we would come across dead calf carcuses that were half way eaten by cougars. After seeing these dead, half eaten calves I never wanted to get my job finished so quickly!!! I wasn't sure if I should be loud to scare the cougars, or just sneak my way through the tamarack and find the hiding cattle. Finally we were able to rope the cows and "persuade" them back to the other side of the river where they belong!

It was a good thing I was wearing one of my old Hats that day. If it weren't for that Hat, I wouldn't have the ears and cheeks I do now!! After that day, my Hat was never the same. It did it's job, and had to be retired!

JW Hat Adventure

For Memory Monday I would like to tell you about my little adventure up to JW Hats in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have been working on my quarter iron curls but decided I needed some help. So I found out who made the irons for us and saw how close they were located to us. I called JW Hats Thursday afternoon and told him I needed some help on my technique. He told me to be there the next morning and he would show me how. Kade and I drove up Friday morning and spent the day learning and building Hats with JW. Both Kade and I built some Hats from a raw state, it was sweet to go through the process.

When we were finished at JW Hats, we drove over the hill to the Burns Cowboy Shop in Park City and helped sell some Hats to a few of the skiers and people shopping in the store. I got to try on one of the "ugliest coats in the whole world!" is what my wife says, but I think it is the most spectacular piece of clothing I have EVER tried on! This coat made me feel like a King! Hmmm......King Kody.....kinda has a little ring to it, don't you think?!