A Late Merry Christmas and Early Happy New Year!

We hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season, filled with good food, great fun, and wonderful family and friends. With luck, Santa brought you all that asked for!

We had a great Christmas, with get togethers with family, friends and neighbors. I have to say that getting spoiled for Christmas is definitely something I could get used to. Aside from one scare of a near paralyzed dog and especially all of us missing dad I don't think we could have asked for much better.

This month we've been steadily busy with the barn, teaching lessons and selling horses and our Seize The Deal ad brought us many new clients. We finally said goodbye to Cutter, Buttermilk, Cookie, Blue, and most regrettably for me, Quill, he served me well and I am missing him terribly. Buck is also leaving any day now and we will be out of all this past year's ranch rodeo mounts. We plan on taking Amish and Badger to next year's ranch rodeos so instead of a team of buckskins it will now be team roans!

Our 2011 calendar is fast filling up! Look for us and our horses at the BLS Horse Sales throughout the year, the Top Notch Ranch Horse Sale in Cody, WY in front of the Irma in May, the Real Ranch Horse Association Sale, the NILE Gold Buckle Sale in Billings and other horse & ranch horse sales along the way. Check back for calendar updates to see where we'll be.

Happy New Year, Happy Trails, and Thank You for a Wonderful 2010!

New Stock!

Winter has finally come and we are experiencing it in full force. We missed our trip to Twin Bridges to spend Thanksgiving with family there, then on to Sun Valley, Idaho for a "hoe down" party at my sister and brother-in-law's, complete with Hoe Down Wine! All to be blamed on severe weather conditions and snowy and icy roads. Then with over a foot of new snow last Sunday and a blowing wind the roads to home were dang near impassable. Drifts were bad and as high as the pickup windows in some spots. It only took the county two days to finally get the road cleared, meanwhile worked on my own yard and drive with the tractor. We are free to travel for now anyway as the wind has not stopped yet and snow is still moving. At least there plenty of 4 wheel drives at the house to get out to feed the cows and down to the barn to ride!


Since we stayed the holiday weekend in town we were able to snatch up some new additions! We now have the cutest little buckskin horse who is bred out of this world and the sweetest brown filly I have fallen in love with.


Meet Filena & Banjo:

This is Casono San Bartender, a 5 year old brown/bay filly. She is cute and fancy and she is nothing but a sweetheart. She's been used mainly for moving cattle and wrangling horses but she is no stranger to the rope end of things and can pull and turn and face. She is one of the smoothest gaited horses we've had the pleasure of owning. She is easy going and great to be around both on and off the ground. She is not pushy and very willing to please. Her pedigree should speak for itself.
www.allbreedpedigree.com/casono+san+bartender

Here is Hickorys Golden Chex. This little horse is about as cute as they come and full of personality. He is so dang much fun to ride! He is big horse heart in a just a little smaller package. He'd make any kid a perfect partner or he'd be great for a smaller adult. He's been ridden in and outside of the arena, through the hills and on gathers. At just 4 years old he is ready to go anywhere you want. One look at him and you can see why he appealed to us. He is a true buttermilk buckskin with some dappling. A real handy little guy with a pedigree to boot!
www.allbreedpedigree.com/hickorys+golden+chex

I also picked up a little palomino I dubbed Henry, dad being the gun nut he was Henry is my version on the yellow or golden boy. He is a shy one and will get to hang out with the Doc O' Dynamite colt as soon as he gets enough groceries in him.

New Horses All Around....

Despite our best efforts at selling anything rideable on the place (with the exception of the Badger of course!) our horse numbers are not depleting as it seems they should. Thanks in large part to our keen sense of a great buy when we see one! Yes, we did sell Hank, Magic, Tex & one of the "wild" horses at the BLS October sale, Roman was snatched up at the NILE Ranch Horse Sale, Cutter, Buttermilk, and Quill will all be sharing a new home in Canada and I had to say goodbye to Billy & Decker after they spent the past 8 years with me, but we did acquire some new blood in to the program in the midst of all of that.

September brought us "Pitch" a 2 year old Ely filly Cliff was dead set on, she is the blackest of black and not a stitch of white on her save for the whites of her eyes, and a Doc O' Dynamite bay horse colt, I am a sucker for those little bays, who we have dubbed "Ruger". From Billy's new home I now have "Rooster", a 3 year old sorrel loaded with chrome and "Watson" a really nice moving 6 year old bald faced sorrel overo with a lot of size. Check out all their pedigrees:

"Pitch": http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/mas+doc+prescription

"Ruger": http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/trashed+in+texas

"Rooster": http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cp+smoken+royal+son

"Watson": http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/cp+gunsmoke+leo

We also acquired " Tres' "from Ed & Roz, a great big 16+ hand 6 year old red dun gelding who we seem to be fighting over. I used him to help some neighbors ship and fell in love with him even though he was still very fresh and we discovered he does not yet ride double (either that or does not like two girls clambering up his sides!) not in the least bit his fault, but Cliff stole him away to help some other neighbors ship and he was perfect all day. Since Quill is going on to greener pastures he may just end up being my next go to horse.... ;) .... but he is for sale and would make anyone a a real nice using horse. He's been roped off, can travel those big circles or turn this big guy in to your next barrel horse. He's definitely a head turner. Take a look at his pedigree, you'll find he's bred to do just about anything you ask him to.

"Tres'": http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/tresserd+trix+cee

Up & coming in training I have "Cricket" - half horse, half pony and she is really coming along nice. I have just a handful of rides on her including two outside rides and nothing seems to phase this little wonder. The only incident so far was a small fit in the hay field because she did not want to leave the other horses, all the while Cliff laughing at me and my struggle with her, I'm sure I looked like one of those little kids you see at sale yards, legs a'workin as fast as they will go fighting with their ponies to go in the right direction, she got over it though! Broke her in to a lope and aside from the closeness to the ground could not even tell I was on a pony. She is such a smooth little ride and man, can she travel too! You'd never know half of her genetics lean more towards the stunted side, she has a gait like any normal sized horse and is pretty catty to boot! My plans to sell her in Feb. are becoming more and more hindered each time I get on her. I am aching to take her to the spring brandings, I'm certain she can show up any of those big leggy horses on dragging calves. We will see! Cliff assures me the novelty of a pony will wear off and that I will be too embarrassed to use her. I say nay, nay! Or rather, neigh, neigh.... :) She will be making her way down to our training barn for some winter workouts. Springtime will tell what this little mighty horse can do!

Then there's "Lasca", my little Dry Doc/Driftwood filly. She's gotten her turn under the saddle as well. Got her second and third real rides on and she did just beautiful. I have big plans for this filly, she is really starting to take off and grow. She is starting to move her feet and she has a real nice feel to her. She made a few little jumps but I am confident that if that is as hard as she ever bucks I can keep 'er covered! If not I will do my best to "not weaken" however she does not come across as one who's apt to swallow her head so I think I'm pretty safe. If I can ever get over selecting Badger as my top outside horse I believe she will be next in line, I don't think that will hurt his feelings any either, he seems very happy just being fat.

Cliff's getting more and more horses and colts in at the barn to start and ride for clients, it's a wonder we can fit in time for anything else. With the outside horses in for training aside from our personal ponies and just added to that a big Percheron gelding, this should be fun! Count in the horses on the waiting list, the two mustang weanlings we just got in to work with, the pending clinics and we are looking at quite a busy winter!

Lots have happened in Cliff's and I first year partnership together, but we are keeping busy with the horses, cows, clinics and dogs.

The mustang weanlings

The Percheron gelding

Little Blue's first passenger!

Cliff working one of the 'wild' horses

A Letter From Jared:

We recently had the opportunity to semi-host some amazing people who in light of their super busy schedule, and our own crazy schedule as well were able to come for a visit and experience a little bit of Montana. Elisa, Kira & Jared, thanks for letting us share with you the things that are so important to us, we had a great time and hope to see you again very soon!

Jared sent us some amazing pictures he took of some of our horses (and dogs) along with a short note, we thought they were all worth sharing!

Cliff and Jodie,

I wanted to follow up with you both (sorry it wasn’t any sooner) to tell you how great it was to meet you both and to thank you for everything you did for us while we were there. It was a trip I never imagined I’d take and to come home having gained some valuable equine lessons and confidence and meeting some great people I am truly grateful… So thank you.

Please let me know if this reaches you as I have a number of pictures I’d like to send you.

P.S. Kira says hi!

Thanks again,

JARED C.

New Puppies and Pink Dogs.

After the past week where everything seemed to be going wrong and I had preceded to get myself in the middle of a series of what seemed to be neverending wrecks my best dog must've known the perfect thing to turn things around.... puppies!
I set up the whelping box just in time. Zip is a proud new mamma to six little squirming scraps of wonderment.
On my way home from my "town" job last night, Brett, who has been visiting and staying at the house the past few days, called me up to inform me of the first new addition to the household. By the time I got home there were two and by 8 a.m. the next morning Zip was snuggling with 6 new babies, one which has already been claimed by Brett - but we may have to fight over her because she is my pick as well! I have an appointment with my cousin who is a vet tech to get rid of the wagging tails. After much convincing Brett has agreed also that "his" pup did not need to keep her tail either. So Iwill have at most, 5 Hangin Tree pups available and ready in time for Christmas if anyone is interested.

Meanwhile, Cliff was out of town teaching a clinic in Vermont, which I hear went wonderfully, but since I had to stay home and hold down the fort, and keep the hunters at bay on opening day, I decided to play a little trick on ol' Cliffie. No, I did not come home with another pony, although I could have had I decided to head to town and watch the sale and I would have if there weren't so many wrecks to contend with on the homefront... I gave his dog a bath. Not such a bad thing really. His Border Collie had a tail full of 'burs and beggar's lice all through her coat, but she needed something to give her a little extra pizazz. After her shampoo job, why not add something a little more stylish.... I had just the thing.... PINK dog dye! Well, "Pop Star Pink" really. And nothing boasts your manhood quite like having a pink stock dog.

Doesn't she look great? We all thought so. I took her to the neighbors to help ship and she made quite an impression, and with hunting season in full swing she is sure to avoid any mishap! Well, Cliff was not so much in agreement. He was in awe over his pink dog. That's what happens when you go out of town! He is slowly adjusting to the idea and image of a fluorescent pink puppy and the fact that it does wash out eventually after a few baths he is not so mad anymore. Needless to say there are no more trips planned anytime soon where I have to dog sit!

Our Facility & Winter Series Clinics.

We are getting ready for the snow to start falling, luckily we won't have to ride in it all winter! Too bad our big round pen isn't indoors as well though! We are geared up and making a schedule for taking on training horses and colts as well as putting together a clinic schedule.

Don't miss out on our Winter Series Horsemanship Clinics where together with Doyle Parker we are offering a series of 4 clinics throughout the winter months to establish and work on better horsemanship skills. Each clinic will be a refresh of the previous and then advance on to the next level. We will go over Colt Starting, Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced Horsemanship. Come ride with us and learn how to build a braver horse using traditional vaquero & natural methods to establish a solid foundation between horse & rider.

The clinics will cover but are not limited to :

Colt Starting from the Ground Up
Levels of Pressure
Colts’ First Ride
Round Pen & Ground Work
Desensitizing
Trailering & Loading
Behavior Problems
Bucking, Spooking & Rearing
Softening & Flexion
How Position As A Rider Affects The Horse

The clinic dates & pricing are as follows:

Nov. 13th & 14th, 2010 • Dec. 11th & 12th, 2010 • Jan. 8th & 9th, 2011 • Feb 12th & 13th, 2011

$300.00 per Clinic per Entry covers 2 day clinic weekend

Sign Up and Prepay for 2 Clinics Save $50.00!

Sign up and prepay for 3 Clinics Save $75.00!

Best Value: Sign Up and Prepay for all 4 Clinics Save $150.00!

$25.00 DISCOUNT FOR EVERY ENTERED REFFERAL!

Spectator Fee $25.00/day or $35.00 weekend

* All colts entering in the colt starting portion of this clinic series must be entered in the first (Nov.) clinic. Colts must be halter broke and broke to lead.

Call or email for more info or entry forms - limited sign up availabilty!

bluecreekqh@aol.com

406-861-2266

406-425-3216

CASPERS DOUBLE - aka "Decker" gets a new home!

I sent Decker off Sunday to a new home in Livingston. Congratulations Cody, Tiffany, Ella, Sonner, & Maverick! Hope you all enjoy him. He has a geat new family and we are confident he will fit in nicely with them! His future now holds hunting trips and giggling little girls and we think that is perfect for him! He is already missed as you just don't run across a horse with that much personality everyday. It was a hard decision to make but it was also hard to have such a great horse with no job for him. Just remember though, if he ever needs to he is always welcome to come back home! Thanks guys, take good care of my big guy!

CASPERS DOUBLE aka "Decker"

Meet Decker. He is Mr. Personality. I got this horse as a 3 year old and have been in love with him ever since. He was started and then put to use on the ranch. Ive packed him and had him on wagon trains and used him all over on the ranch. Safe for anyone to ride and has a lot of size to him. He's the first one up to you in the pasture and has a tendency to want to get in to everything. Just a big loveable kinda guy. He's got a blaze, a set of stockings and his buckskin color changes with the season from a light creamy color to a brilliant gold.
Really don't want to see him go but he has a lot of years still left in him and I just hate to see him sit idle. He saddles up the same everytime whether you let him sit for a year or take him out every day. There is no wearing him down and he can drag calves all day. Call us if you're interested or have any questions about this nice, solid gelding. He deserves to go to a great home!

Check out his pedigree:
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/caspers+double

Evening rides and a horse sale weekend!

Last night was such a beautiful evening we took the opportunity to go for a little ride... nothing new for Cliff but for me after being in town for most of the day it was nice a break. Cliff took out one of the horses we have in the sale this weekend and I opted for my favorite little horse. I have not used Badger all summer and to say he has summered well would be an understatement. He had a little hump in his back but with all the extra weight he's packin' it did not take much to get that out. Yes, he was back in full Badger mode, ears pinnin' - attitude and all..... I really do like that horse.

Along with the dogs, only about half of them really (we are dog sitting for a good friend) Cliff took out Magic. A nice, big, gray 4 year old we've had for a little while. He did great and is really looking good. Cliff has done a wonderful job with him. We got back to the barn and someone had forgotten to chain the gate on the corral and all the colts got out.... ok, it was me :) but to my defense it was not chained when I went in there. We had horses mixed all together and grazing the hayfield, the stud, mares, colts, geldings, and two that needed doctoring all hanging out together. This is where Cliff had to put ol' Magic to work. They got the job done, horses turned out, we got the stud sorted off and everyone was happy. Magic will leave us tomorrow so we say good-bye to him along with a few others. Hopefully this time we don't come home with more horses than we left with, as is the case most times. If you're in town come say hello, and check out what we've got for sale! Along with Magic (who is Hip #14), we will also be showing Hank, a great big 7 year old 16+ hand bay AQHA gelding (Hip #292), and Tex a big 4 year old AQHA rose gray gelding (Hip #316) All three of these horses are in the catalog so check em' out!
http://www.billingslivestock.com/Horse_Sales/PDFs/horsecatalog.pdf

HANK

TEX

NILE: Sale Horses, Ranch Horse Competition & Ranch Rodeo

Well, it is that time of year and NILE is fast creeping upon us. We will have the opportunity to really promote and and show off what our horses are capable of. We will be using sale horses as our selected mounts in the NILE Ranch Rodeo Finals on Oct 12th, and will be showcasing some of them in the NILE Ranch Horse competition on the 13th. If interested please stop by while you're in town and see what theses horses can do! We also will have three of our higher end horses in the Gold Buckle Sale. Don't pass up the opportunity to own one of these great geldings!

HAIDAS PEPPER STAR

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/haidas+pepper+star

KING SUGS TARDY

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/kings+sugs+tardy

SPARKLIN ROMAN

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/sparklin+roman

We Are Sellin' Horses!

Congratulations Heidi & Justin on your purchase of Dirty Diesel! Despite the heat last Saturday Heidi & Justin came out to try some of our horses but it seems there was just one that stood out from the rest. Even though we picked a few out that we thought would have suited their needs I think Heidi already had her mind made up, it seemed she feel instantly in love with Diesel, and who wouldn't? He has the class and eye appeal not every horse can possess, not to mention he handles like a dream. Thanks Heidi & Justin, we hope you enjoy him!

Johnnie found a new home with Gary and we're so glad he's gone to someone who will use him. This is a nice 5 year old flashy palomino with chrome to boot who we hope to see up and coming in the team roping world. Thanks again Gary, we think you made a nice pick!

Blue Creek Quarter Horses & ...... Ponies?

While Cliff's away Jody will.... buy ponies? Well I just couldn't help myself! So yes, we are now in the pony business. I picked up this little 3 year old Quarter/Pony cross last weekend, she stands at a whopping 14 hands tall and is now my new project. She has a lot of bone, a nice kind eye, and comes in the neatest shade of brown almost grulla and almost a dark dun color. We will see if I can make a nice little using horse out of her. If this venture goes well we hope to be able to offer more of this type of smaller using horse in the future that is more suited for kids and ladies.

We will keep you updated on her progress, as of yet it has been raining non-stop since she's gotten home so there has not been a real good chance to work with her. She still needs a name though so if you have any great suggestions we'd love to hear them!

Livingston & Malta Ranch Rodeos

Driving home from Malta and our boys were a little more than tired!

Guess they shouldn't have celebrated so hard after the rodeo!




We had two ranch rodeos this past week, one in Livingston on the 5th and one in Malta on the 7th. We've had to do some shuffling around on our actual team members due to haying and harvesting but we have made due and had the opportunity to ride with some amazing people.


Thursday night in Livingston we found that even though you try your hardest everyone comes across hard luck, this is where we ran in to ours! Billy Buchannan substituted for Charlie on our team, then it was still Cliff, Jim Bob and I. We had three bronc rides on our team aside from the ranch bronc Cliff had to get on, luckily everyone got 'em covered. We placed in a couple events, the Wild Cow Milking and the Bronc Riding, both of our stronger events but not enough to put us in the money :( We made some stupid mistakes in others but all in all we had a good time and came home unscathed.


Saturday we loaded up & headed to Malta with two new members, Pat Heminger and Jake Heyneman replaced Charlie & Jim Bob, so with half a new crew, 7 dogs and 5 horses we headed out. We got there, (barely) and were the clear underdogs, as we had the only girl (me) competing and the only one still in high school competing and since none of us had all ridden together before we were a little green as far as the team was concerned.


We sold in the calcutta for $25 while the hometown teams all were around the $200 range - clearly we were being under-estimated... so what did we do? We went out & rocked the place winning the first three events - Team Branding, Team Trailer Loading, and the Ranch Bronc Riding and placed no lower than 4th in the other 2 events, Wild Cow Milking & Team Doctoring. Being the only team to place in every event we schooled the competition and wound up winning the whole deal which guaranteed us a spot in the NILE Ranch Rodeo Finals this fall, we also secured the Top Hand Award and just missed the honors of Top Horse. Thanks in large part to Pat's roping skills and Cliff's bronc riding! The hometown teams were not so impressed but luck just happened to fall in our laps that day... well, luck thrown on top of skill of course!


Cliff and Pat both entered the Ranch Bronc Riding after the rodeo, both made nice rides but the payout was for first place only. Videos to follow as soon as I can fugure out how to upload them from my ipod!


This weekend will be the first annual Vern Bakker Memorial Ranch Rodeo, hopefully we can do the name well but we will see!
Come out if you're in town and enjoy the show! It's for a good cause and should be a great time!

"Billy" - APHA SHUTOUT SHAMROCK - has a new home!

Well, Billy is heading off to his new home soon and I am getting two more in place of him from his new owner and Cliff is taking on one more to ride from the same people, the cavvy is supposed to be diminishing, not growing! No doubt this big colorful guy will be missed around here by everyone… including Zip! But he is going on to a great home where I know he will be well taken care of and will live out the rest of years grass fat and happy, which he so deserves! I've had Billy for almost 10 years and he’s stayed as solid of a horse you’d find anywhere. His new job will consist of mostly just being a horse and occasionally being ridden by a lady who as a result of a ranch accident needs something she can completely trust, Billy fits the bill beautifully! He’s going in to good hands now but is welcome back home any time if he needs retired.

A Day of Rest!

Hope everyone had as wonderful a weekend as we did! Despite the break downs finally got all the hay cut & baled (still have yet to stack it though!) Cliff's dad flew in from NY to stay for a few days and we had bbq for our friends, family and neighbors who've been so great and such a huge help to us over the past few months, especially during the haying season, special thanks to the Cooper & Lee families! We ate great food, shot a case of shotgun shells at some clay pigeons went through a few boxes of targets and ended the night with some guitar & mandolin pickin' - despite the short lived rain storm, which was a nice break from the heat, everyone had a great time. Hope we can do it again soon! Maybe after harvesting is over. Now it's back to a work week, putting a new roof on my folks' house, riding horses and trying not to pass out from the heat!

We have two ranch rodeos this week so check back for updates and pics!