It’s been really hot here again today, even at 7 o’clock this morning it was close to 70 degrees. We sat out on the patio first thing, eating breakfast and keeping cool from the slight breeze blowing through the park.

Then around mid morning we headed over the arena to watch the ranch dogs performing, and they were amazing; their names were Cutter and Meg and they herded cattle and sheep respectively. They are both Kelpies, which is an Australian breed that is a cross between a Border Collie, a Terrier (Manchester I think he said), and a dingo. It was really cool to watch, and I think the dogs could have gotten the job done without their masters, as they both needed very little instruction. Meg does competitions and Cutter only works on the ranch here; it was easy to see Cutter felt right at home cos half way through the herding of the cattle he took a time out to go take a dip in the water trough. Then when his performance was over he took another dunk to cool off – can’t really blame him, as it was super hot, the sheep were panting under their wool coats.

After the dogs came the bull-bucking demo. They have several young bulls here that they get prepared for rodeos and such; even at 2 years old they were some big boys. They didn’t have actually riders today as they are too young, they use remote control dummies that they can be released off their backs whenever the wrangler wants to, to simulate a rider; they work their way up to 8 seconds as the bulls get older and stronger. It was a really good demonstration.

Mike: The dogs were amazing and so was the dummy! (not talking about Becc)