Praying Monk Ranch

2009 Season News from Amanda Haworth

December 2009

Just the beginning of December and already so much to talk about! Lynn and I went to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo! I happened to met people like Sherry Cervi, Lindsay Sears, Billy Etbauer, Cody DeMoss, as well as Tuf Cooper just to name a few.  We watched the 6th performance of the finals where Jordon Petterson took the lead and claimed the round!

While December is a slow month with temperatures getting into the negative degrees, and our ground solid frozen, its time to head indoors to the Gypo Meadows for lessons and training for the rest of the winter! And in January I will be starting dressage lessons! Very exciting!

Its Christmas just around the corner, which means our 28th annual Christmas party, Dec. 26th! All students are invited to the party! Well, until more things happen, happy holidays and until next time stay warm and ride hard! :) Cody DeMoss and myself

Lindsay Sears and myself

November 2009

Not much news for November besides no snow at the moment. We are currently searching for some new students for the winter at three different indoor facilities: Sandpoint, Bonners Ferry, and Naples. We hope to have more students with their own horses, as in the winter ours are at the ranch, not at a boarding facility. All three places does offer reasonable boarding and indoor arenas. 

We got the LQ in the barn finally before snow hits. The new tack room in the new barn is in the makings. We had a friend come out and help, he has a talent with making things and is "clever", he is pretty much awesome, so we got custom saddle racks and pad racks up! Now some shelves, cabinet, and some bridle hooks we should be good! Updated the site with new pictures, etc... maybe next year we will have a www.prayingmonkranch.com site!!

Till next time, we will keep you updated on the barrel series. Hopefully it won't be bust & people will come to the meeting. Check back for some news on it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

October 2009: UPDATED 10/30/09

BARREL RACING SERIES MEETING IS ON NOVEMBER 9, 2009, WE NEED EVERYONE TO ATTEND! 

I think that we have passed fall and went right into winter!!! Its incredibly cold out and we busted out the water heaters already! In the day it unfreezes giving the arena good footing for me to continue to ride. We have possible two races this month, one in Deer Park, WA which is a WBRA race and one in Athol, ID... its a $1000 added 4D, and with North Idahos competition up here, I feel Easy will clock a 2D time or even better step her game up and win the 1D since she has before. Easy popped a splint, so she is getting easy trail riding for 45 minutes and stall rest as well as getting wrapped every night so she doesn't get stocked up and to reduce any swelling in her leg. She is also a little sore in the hocks, I feel its good we are almost done with races this year. Next year if we run her she will be injected to see if we can help her out any.

Nordstrom is for sale! Priced at $2,000 I think its a steal and anyone should love to have a gs on Dash Ta Fame! He needs to be worked with more, & ground manners improved. 

Got the two mares from the Gleasons. They have settled in fine, however we did have a vet out because Juno beat up poor Eden. A few stitches later she will live!! Come to find out Eden also have Melanoma Cancer, so we are watching that but think its no harm to the pretty grey mare.

This is all the news I have current for now. Check back for updates on possibly training out of Gypo Meadows in Sandpoint. If I can get enough horses in training this winter to board there it will be worth the trip to drive 100+ miles every day (there and back) and thats a good $40 in gas too everyday, so one horse isn't going to cut it! Till next time, ride hard and stay warm! 

September 2009: 

September has been an exciting month so far. So many things happening! We are buying two mares from Gleason Quarter Horses in Touchet, WA. Both are AAA and very well bred race winners and producers. Shes A Royal Native is by Juno Dat Cash and has a 104 SI. She is a race winner and producer! Edens Hope has a 98 SI and produced a race winner with $40,000+ earnings.  Both mares are bred to JD Look for 2010 foals. Thank you Karen & Brad for the opportunity to own these mares, we are excited to have them in our program! 

Jim Ford, our equine dentist is showing up this month, if you need your horse done please contact us so we can get you in to see him! Not many races this month. Ran in Deer Park, WA a few times at Ride To Success Arena with Easy and she ran very consistent both times and got 2nd the first race in the $1000 novice. Hope ran in the $1,000 novice too because there were no 500 or 250 novice. She ran a clean pattern with a slight bobble on second barrel. 

August 2009:

August is a busy month for us. Rodeo season starts to wrap up as well as the barrel races. We ran at the Producers Gone Wild in Pasco, WA the first of the month as well as hit a rodeo in Davenport that same weekend. BCR She Looks Easy pulled a 3D check in the novice in Pasco, and she knocked third to place at the rodeo. Bummer! Stitch ran a 3D time in the novice at the PGW race, good for him. At the rodeo he dobbed a 2.26 to get a 3rd place check, GO TEAM PRAYING MONK RANCH!!   

Sheila from South Fork Saddlery sent me some tack sets and they are just fabulous. Sold a set and a few saddle crosses. Very nice quality stuff! Everyone loves them!  

Nordstrom and Magic are settling just fine! Nordie (as mom calls him) is cute as a button and I am sure he will sell fast next spring, he is super nice colt. 

We have a few more races this month. We have two races August 22 & 23, the first one is is CDA, we will run in the open and novice, hopefully pull a check or two. The we will run on Sunday at the rodeo in St. Maries. After St. Maries we are pretty much done with rodeos and will have about 2 more races after that. End of September we will run in the NBHA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS in Moses Lake, WA. I am getting THR Hopeful Perks (Hope) ready to run for that race. Starting TO on her in a few weeks. Pretty excited! Until next time, ride hard and turn fast~ Amanda

July 2009:  UPDATE July 21: Easy clocked a 18.66 on standard outdoor pen with ground trouble on third barrel!!! 7th race and already starting to clock! 

July had some weeks of hot weather getting into the low 90's here and 60's at night. This last week we have had nothing but rain and thunder storms. The much needed rain to help grow the pastures and the garden has soaked in fast. July was a busy month for lessons. Jet had a busy week (July 5 week) of lessons, sometimes twice a day. He held up well and taught some kids how to ride! 

I have been running Easy (BCR She Looks Easy) at limited NBHA races in Sandpoint. I am not too partial with the ground in Sandpoint, its deep and really slows a horse down. Easy won a 3D check her 5th competition run with a slip even on the third barrel. The week after that we ran again and was just out of the 2D money. But talk about consistent, she ran with in .03 seconds of her previous week run. The 2D run she had a little trouble with the ground on second barrel, but she can cover ground. We have Moses Lake Rodeo this weekend (July 12), its a big pen, so hopefully she will run hard and have tight turns. I have Stitch running some barrels in Sandpoint too. His first race out he feel hard around the first barrel, I decided to run him again that night to make sure he wasn't scared or will duck off the barrels, he ran alright, out of the 4D money. I ran him at a second race, and again very conistant, but just out of the 4D money. We will play with him now and again in Sandpoint, but we need to get breakaway going with him! 

Nahla is getting ready to get weaned off. She is big and beautiful! We are adding 2/3 more broodmares to the band since Hope didn't get bred back. We have a mare we are getting from Mary Ann Munkers, a nice Three Bars/Depth Charge mare who is a proven barrel producer! She has a Dash Ta Fame grandson at her side and a Dash Of Royal Gold in her, so we are excited for that match. I hope to pick up a Juno Dat Cash daughter infoal and a Real Easy Jet mare infoal! Hoping to really get this program going! Till next time, ride hard and turn fast!

June 2009:

The end of May was also the beginning for us! It was the beginning of the EWJRA season, and the beginning to the next chapter in my life as a high school graduate.

First off, the rodeo in Teoka, WA went well. I ran Easy (BCR She Looks Easy) at her first race ever (outside my arena) and she clocked a 19.6 on a standard with a knocked second barrel. She was a tad slow, but accuracy before speed. She did well in poles taking 3rd. Stitch did great for his first run of the new year. We missed in steer daubing, but he was calm in the box and ran well. In goat tying we had a great start then the dang goat kept moving its front leg out of the tie! We got 4th I believe.  

For June we have 3 rodeos. We missed Colfax, but will hit Ritzville and run Kalispell, MT the next two weeks. I think I will run Easy and Stitch in Kalispell at the BRN4D sanctioned race. June looks like a nice month for us, not too warm and not too cool. We look to pick up 1 or 2 broodmares and possibly a futurity prospect! 

May 2009:

Wow, well here comes summer! I can already feel it! Nahla will be 3 months here very shortly. That filly sure is a sweet pie, and loves to get attention. I can tell she has all the abilities to make it to the top! Rode THR Hopeful Perks for the first time in about 6 months (had baby) and no buck, she was fabulous. Getting excited to get her patterned again. We missed the WBRA race in Moses Lake in April, but thats ok, we hope to attend one or two Sandpoint NWBRA/NBHA races on Tuesday night before the first EWJRA rodeo in Tekoa, Washington. 

Graduation is in little less then 2 weeks. Its getting very exciting. We are picking lessons back up and I hope to gain a few students down in Sandpoint area and maybe if I have enough, go down there once a week for 5+ lessons at a local barn. I will take 1 or 2 horses for the month of June-August. So send them my way! We are for sure heading to the National Finals Rodeo this December, which I am super excited for! Wish us luck for the month of May~ And check out the mare/foal page for new pictures of ShezaFabulousPerks!

April 2009:

This month is literally half way over! Spring has sprung snow is melted and we can finally get riding. Lessons start up next month and so does rodeo season. The plans for heading to the WBRA race April 17/18 feel through, so we hope to hit a couple races beginning of May before the first EW rodeo.

Nahla is doing fabulous. She halters, leads, picks up feet, etc... and is just 2 months old. I plan to get on Hope soon and get her worked back up for either sale or for me to start running in August. Anyways, so let us know if your interested in lessons or maybe we will meet at a race somewhere!  Happy spring!

March 2009:  

Holy Cow! February flew by us very fast and hello March, which means spring is on its way! The snow is melting fast, we had a few days of nothing but high temperatures and rain and we maybe have around 6+inches left on the ground, sure beats 3+ feet! 

We came up with a name for Hopes baby, Nalia (from Lion King), but we hope her registered name will be Frenchmans Fabulous Perks. She is a cute butt! She loves scratches, lets me take her halter on and off... and just loves attention. Hope is doing well, not loosing weight and is adjusting well to Nalia and is taking great care of her baby!

Things are well on the ranch. Carly and I are learning to rope from Wendy Brondt and Suey Magnus. So we hope to add breakaway and team roping to our all around titles for this up coming season in the rodeos. At the end of this month we hope to head over to OR and finally pick up Cool from Tracy. We can't wait to get her on the ranch! :)   

February 2009:

WE WELCOMED ON THE RANCH, SHEZAFABULOUSPERKS. HOPE FOALED FEBRUARY 18, 2009 AT 5:53 PM AND GAVE BIRTH TO A HEALTHY, PALOMINO FILLY BY FRENCHMANS FABULOUS!!

Well so far Hope is about 3 days over due as I am writing this (2/16) and so we are keeping a close eye on her. Still more snow piles down and we are limited to our riding. No races this month, can't get the rig out!! I will update as soon as Hope foals or something exciting happens!  

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January 2009: 

Its the new year! and I am super excited for what lies ahead for the Praying Monk Ranch! We have a jammed pack summer! First off, THR Hopeful Perks (see our team page) is due in about a month! We are super excited for that baby to hit the ground! Next, we plan to get a barrel series going in Bonners Ferry and so we have that ahead of us, plus we have tons of building to do this summer and horse to train and mares to buy! Check back for more updates! 

Two Hats Ranch : Really nice quality barrel horses in North West www.twohatsranch.com

Weeks Ranch : Kay and Bob Weeks, Home of Dats A Frenchmans and Frenchmans Bully www.weeksranch.com

Barrel Horse World : Great marketing place for barrel horses www.barrelhorseworld.com 

Barrel Racers National 4D : Awesome association that run their own World Championships in May www.brn4d.com 

Munkers Farms: Mary Ann Munkers, 1D PRO RODEO HORSES FOR SALE! www.munkersfarms.com