Magnus helping Daddy fly the Learjet 45
Petting one of the pretty strawberry roans at the ranch.
One of the many cute babies!
At the Fort Worth zoo.
Checking out a display at the zoo.
The lions kindly posed for me, per my request. =)
Magnus finally got to see a real live giraffe! His books were as close as he'd ever come.
Daddy and Magnus with some of the pretty SLR cutting horses.
Magnus helped me make friends with the two year old's.
One of Magnus' favorite things on the ranch! The golf cart. He was good at steering it too!
Daddy took Magnus for a trot on one of the ranch's "using horses".
The newborn foals were such sleepy-heads!
We found this poor fellow along the road (beer and all!).♪ He put the bottle to his head and pulled the trigger. ♫
Checking out the daily cattle drive in cow-town.
Dining on BBQ in Stockyards Station.
At the Stockyards Rodeo - Magnus loved it!
I love this picture of my boys on the ranch pony! Magnus really enjoyed this ride.Normally Magnus and I don't get to go on trips with Joe, but the owner of the Learjet (also the owner of Slate River Ranch!) generously allowed us to go on a week-long trip to his ranch at Weatherford, TX! They put us up in the large house there, so we had the "comforts of home", plus a golf cart to ride around on. =) We got to enjoy the ranch at the perfect time, since now is when they do their breeding/foaling. We didn't catch any foals being born, but the activities at the breeding barn were interesting to watch! Discovery channel material, to be sure, but really neat. They use "surrogate" broodmares for a lot of the foals so they can save their cutting mares for competition, and they do all the implantation, etc. right there on the farm. We took video for all of our friends to see, so just come on over and be enlightened! We took Magnus to the Fort Worth Zoo one day, as he'd never had the pleasure of such entertainment, and we enjoyed other local events like the cutting horse competition, Stockyard Station (a bit touristy, but hey... that's what we were!), the rodeo and of course some shopping at the western stores! Joe and I both agreed that the "cowboy culture" out there sure leaves Virginia with much to be desired! The people were great and all drove trucks... with horse trailers following close behind. It was a very relaxing visit, lots of fun, and by the time our week was up we were ready to come home to our own little farm. Check out the ranch website sometime: www.slateriverranch.com. It's truly a beautiful place!
