Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Making the best of a trip to WalMart

When I head out to town, town = Belen, New Mexico, population 7,000. It has all the necessities: gas station, feed store, post office, tire store. And of course, it has the ubiquitous WalMart. It used to have a real grocery store, which went out of business when Wally came to town. Belen's claim to fame is as the third largest train depot in the U.S.

For me, the cool part of Belen is smack dab across the street from the WalMart. So on Saturday, Smooch and I left WalMart with our truckload of groceries and headed right on over to the Valencia County Sheriff's Posse grounds. There's always something going on that involves horses or cows or both, and this day it was a team roping.



We got the perfect parking spot right at the rail so that Smooch wouldn't miss a thing.



See, Smooch? That dog has a job, too. She keeps the cattle moving through the chute.



No, thanks. I like my job as co-pilot and chief truck security officer.



No cows were harmed in the making of this team roping. They all wore these cute little horn protectors.


I wasn't much interested in the actual roping because these two horses were far more entertaining. See the Palomino on the left, with the nicely coiled lariat on his saddle? Now watch the Paint on the right throw a loop over his head.





I think the Palomino realizes he's going to get in big trouble for getting his rope all tangled and decides turnabout is fair play. He grabs onto the Paint's lead rope and decides to untie her.


Note the hand-crafted lead rope, braided with loving care out of baling twine. Us country folk are all about recycling.

About this time, my co-pilot reminded me that we needed to get the groceries home, and thus ended our adventure to town.

21 comments:

  1. That is so funny! I can just hear the palomino, "Oh you think that's funny? Watch this!" That is a good way to cheer you up after boring old grocery shopping :-)

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  2. I have fond memories of living in NM. Thanks for the pics!

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  3. Lol, that's so much fun! A trip to Walmart AND some roping! Can't be better than that!
    Love the twine lead rope. Yep, we've got a few of those, lol. Recycling, lol, you bet.
    Give Smooch a smooch for us.

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  4. That's pretty cute. I guess they were bored waiting for their turn and decided to amuse themselves. What a fun thing to do after shopping, wish there was stuff like that around here.

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  5. wonderful photos and great horse stories love it!

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  6. Those horses are a riot! Something tells me they've met before.

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  7. That my kind of trip to WalMart! Ugh, I hate that store... But if there were some team roping going on across the street, I might be more inclined to go! :)

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  8. Ugh...sorry that there are no more grocery stores for you to shop in. I never go to Wal-Mart! Around here they are dirty and disgusting, but there are plenty of other choices for me out there, so not to worry!! :)

    When you said you weren't interested in the actual roping, I thought you were going to say that it was because of the good looking cowboys, not because of the horses...lol!!!

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  9. I love animals and your blog is a lot of fun to discover and learn about your world there. New Mexico was always where i thought I'd run away to if I ever ran away. Likely I won't be running away by my age now but it's fun to read about someone who moved to her dream

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  10. Wonderful trip to town. Except for Wallyworld.
    Friends were recently looking for a horse and we drove 3 hrs away to look at one, well she didnt work. But, on the way back to the interstate we passed an arena where some folks were getting ready to rope. We stopped, and the girls got out to go ask them if they knew any horses for sale.(as long as we were there we thought, "why not") Sure, one Cowboy says, he proceeds to put his beer down load his dog in the back of friends truck and hope in with four horse crazy females LOL he took us to look at a horse, but the owners werent home, it was hunting season sigh, so we had to return our "cowboy" LOL We call it, the day we kidnapped a cowboy, he was kinda cute too LOL.

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  11. So cute, love the photos! That palomino is gorgeous!

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  12. What fun! ...for Smooch, you, and those sneaky horses!

    Smooch's distant cousin Marly is jealous of the action ...and the sunshine! She's gotta settle for couch wrestling!

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  13. I only wish my trips to Wally World could be so interesting and such fun! Yep, Wally is truly boring (out in the middle of nowhere in an old hayfield), BUT their prices are incredibly low and in these times that's what matters, to me anyway.

    Lovin' Smooch, as always!!!

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  14. Great photos and Smooch is pretty smart. Being co-pilot and security dog is probably a lot better job than herding smelly cows who, at any given time, can be pretty cranky.

    Dan

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  15. If anyone knows how to do that leadropes made out of bailing twine, I'd like instructions!! =D

    Aren't they a pair of characters!

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  16. what comical horses. And I love your sense of humor, that you noticed them and caught them on camera.
    I really enjoy your blog. Happy New Year to you, Smooch, and the entire gang. :o)

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  17. I agree with Mickey up here...
    Its cool that you noticed this! :)
    Lovely pics as always!!
    I am sooo loving the animals!!!

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  18. How fun for you and Smooch after dismal Walmart!
    I got my George and Alan Calender today- it is darling!

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  19. Great series of photos, the horses antics are funny but Smooch gets my vote again for stealing the show :)

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  20. Too funny. Horses are so smart.

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  21. Great trip to town!! Our town is about the same size as yours...maybe a few hundred people less...but, we haven't made it to Wal-Mart yet...thank goodness! I just want a Bi-Mart and I'll be one happy girl.

    How you always get these great series of shots is amazing to me...you have patience and a good idea of what might happen that's worth waiting for.

    I had a client come pick up her horse after 3 months of training and she'd forgot her halter and lead...we grabbed a handful of bailing twine strands and proceeded to braid a halter and lead for her to get her horse home with...bailing twine and wire are an essential part of rural life!

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