The Muench Bunch

Astro is a powerhouse of a horse. He has a ton of speed and energy. He is flighty and spooks easily. He has been quite a challenge for Jayden to ride. When she rides him he is like a locomotive and seems to get faster and faster. His head ends up high and his feet get to moving high, faster and faster. Her barrel racing had not been going well and was starting to get worse. He has been a lot of horse for her to handle. She has worked and worked with him. Mark, Jayden, and I came to the conclusion that maybe Astro just isn't a good fit and maybe it is time to move on. IT felt like she gave him her all. She put so much time and effort into him and continually had problems. It just didnt seem like they were getting anywhere. We contacted Diana, who we bought him from and she was more than willing to help us in whatever way we needed to. The plan was to take him back to her in OK  on the way to Jayden's college. She would take him and try to help us sell him. It wasn't an easy

Jayden's little horse Tiny did not have the outcome we had hoped for. Here is a bit of history... we picked Tiny up from Georgia Sutton's ranch in South Dakota 2016, a horse given to Jayden through the young horse development program. She was selected to have the horse and had to work with him over the course of a year and show him as a yearling. Looking back to his early days, he was supposed to be 6 months, a weanling, when we got him in November. In January when our vet came to vaccinate, he didn't even have his 6 month molars yet. He was weaned too early. Jayden worked with the little horse, halter broke him and took him to the county fair in July 2017. He was difficult to work with, stubborn in a round pen and wouldnt move it. He was dull to any pressure and didnt have a very nice disposition. At the fair, she had him in halter, in hand trail,  and costume class. He was always very small for his age, hence the name Tiny. After fair, she worked with him more by lunging

Jaydens last week of camp as a horse leader was for a group of high school girls called Rough Riders. She got to help lead and instruct the girls down at the Dayton arena. The day was focusing on barrels and poles with the girls. Jayden took Astro and Joker to demo and explain. It was her moment to shine and she did an excellent job showing the girls how to run the pattern. Of course on camp horses with inexperienced riders, it wasn't always pretty. I went down with Luke to watch for part of the time. Jayden does a great job in the role of instructing. I think it is one of her God given gifts and I know she can use it throughout her life. It was a hard summer working with Hidden Acres, all the hours, and work for little pay,  but in the end, I know she learned some things and took away things as well.

Monday we headed to Lake Okoboji for a little summer getaway. Mark referred to it as Jayden's vacation. She has really wanted to go to Okoboji for  a couple years and he said we would go for her.  One last family vacation before she goes off to college so far away. We got to our "Cabin" in the late afternoon. It was on the cool side for being at a lake, in the lower 70's. We just came off the hottest week of the year , so normally we would welcome the cool down, however at the lake you need it to be hot. We got settled in our cabin, which was a very roomie house with two stories, two and a half bathroom, three bedroom home. It was perfect for us. Being in a hotel room just about makes us crazy. It was great to have our own space. We went to Mark's favorite eating place, Tweeters, for dinner. We happened to open a door in our resort that led to the garage and saw an awesome corvette! the door was supposed to be locked and we weren't supposed to know it was ther

The county fair started on Tuesday with judging day. This was the first year Jayden wasn't part of the fair, so it felt different not having her along. Judging went extremely slow, some of the judges took forever and the kids would be in line over an hour. Grandma met us and always likes to watch everything going on. She gets anxious and cant sit still. I tell her every year she should be a judge, but she says she cant sit still. I still hope she will, she would enjoy it. Jake took 3 photos, two sunset and one of his Chevy truck. He got all blue ribbons. He also took a display project teaching about the benefits of vertical tillage. He learned a lot while doing the project and has been running the Salford the past two springs. His project was held back and will go on to the state fair! Luke had 5 photos, two were photos he took for Jayden's business, one kitten photo, and a couple farm photos. He had two held back , the kitten received a purple ribbon. Luke had a 4H communicati

Rodeo 4th of July..... For the past 4 years, I have gone to the rodeos in Leon and Bloomfield with Jayden. They are rodeos over the 4th of July, part of Cowboy Christmas. These two rodeos are our favorites and we go and stay for both nights. This year Jayden entered Leon on the 4th and Bloomfield on the 5th. It has been a tradition we have kept to a similar routine each time. Meet up with the Nelson family and hit Leon first then Bloomfied, see my college roommate Heidi, eat at her Cafe in the morning, and see relatives in Bloomfield. Each year is similar yet different. This year Jayden drove the entire trip hauling the big Bloomer trailer. She handles the trailer better than I do. We left home at 1:30 and had set up camp by 4. Ace had his own pen and we got the A/C up and running. Just this week, Jayden helped Tony change the oil and fuel filter in the generator after it quit running at the Lake City rodeo. Jayden ended up having to haul the trailer by herself to Des Moines at 7am one

While Jayden and I were off at the rodeos for the 4th of July, Mark took the boys to the Williams celebration. Mark isnt a fan of the williams celebration, maybe because it is the same thing year after year and after so many years he is tired of it. He only went becasue the boys wanted to go and Luke wanted to stay with Grandparents. He stayed for the parade then went on home. Luke went onto the park and the afternoon activities. On his own, he entered himself in a pedal tractor pull and won it! He won a large trophy for the boys age 11/12. So cool!