A normal day at Winning Ways

In the wintertime the life at Winning Ways has more chores than in summer. There are yearlings to feed and water bowls to check every morning. The calves need many buckets (20 Liter size) of oats every day. The cows and horses need hay every couple days – that means hauling hay, spreading the hay bales in the pastures and cutting the string around the bales. When it is not too cold we can go for a ride, but when it is below -20 ºC it is just to cold for you and your horse. The days in the winter are short – usually we work between 9 am and 5 pm (it’s dark for 16.5 hours at the end of December). In the evening we have lots of time to read, surf the internet and bake cakes. But we never know how the day will be, before it is over...

Springtime is the busiest time at Winning Ways, it means calving season. From April through June we have to go out many times a day to check cows. We start at 6 am and then in approximately 4 hours we have to check the cows again. We want to know if there are any new calves, any cows in labor or any cow or calf in trouble. If there is a presentation problem we have to help the cow to deliver her calf. In between we have to check fences, move hay or cows, cut strings, help the riding students and train horses. Sometimes, when the cow dies or doesn’t have milk, we have to feed calves with a bottle. Some cows don’t accept their babies immediately, then we have to take care of both cow and calf and bring them together in a small pen. After a couple of days most of the cows take good care of the calves. But we never know how the day will be, before it is over…

In the summertime we work a bit less with cows but more with the horses and tools to fix fences and buildings around the yard. The cows and calves are out in the summer pasture. We check them every couple days and move them into new paddocks and make sure they have enough water. The bulls get to visit the cow herds in the middle of July and then we must keep an eye of them as well. Summer Camps with many students here at the ranch keep both the horses and the volunteers and coaches very busy.  Trail rides through the pasture and around the Lake are enjoyed by volunteers and the public.  Unfortunately the deer, moose, bears and cows like to damage the fence and we have to replace posts, staple the barb wire and cut trees which have fallen on the fence. Summer time is the time of Rodeos and Chuckwagon Races. You get lots of chances here in Saskatchewan and Alberta to see real Cowboys in action. When it is hot then we go to the Park for swimming, boating or fishing or down to the Lake to canoe. But we never know how the day will be, before it is over…

 Fall means the return of children to their class rooms and many riding students come for lessons until it is too cold to ride outside. In the fall the cows and calves need to be moved to fresh grass every few days. When we want to bring the herds back to the main ranch, we chase them down the road  on horseback in a cattle drive. With some help from friends and volunteers this is an easy job to do. Later we vaccinate the calves and later still we wean them. When we separate the calves from their mothers, the calves have to learn to eat hay and oats. We have to keep a very close eye on the calves to ensure none of them get sick. There are auction sales every week in the fall where the ranchers sell their cows and calves and hope they get a good price.  Volunteers with Work/Travel visas frequently earn some money working at the Livestock Sales Stockyards. When the weather starts to get colder and if we have no snow, we might have to chop holes in the ice every day so that the cows can get a drink. But we never know how the day will be, before it is over…

And when the day is over, we sit together and tell stories about ranch life. And parts of the stories are more true than others…