Horses Horses Horses...

5/16/09
Daniel's cousins walked Alexander around on the pony at their house/ranch last week. They give horseback riding lessons and compete in vaulting, which I understand is gymnastics on a moving horse. We'd been talking about going over there all year, and we finally made it. I should have at least let Lincoln sit in the saddle for a picture, but I didn't think of it. Well, I guess we'll have to go back! Amanda, maybe we could take your kids, too, since you know the girls now.


Lincoln looks really interested in Alexander's helmet. He actually loved the horses, as you'll see in a few pictures.


Check out my boy riding a real horse! Well, a Shetland Pony.


Love the smile.


Lincoln's hand, right before it went into the horse's nostril.

Singing Cowboy/girl Guitars

Alexander and I made these guitars for the "Singing Cowboy" section of the Wild West theme. This was our last big cowboy activity we did before finally moving on to pioneers (though I think we'll never be able to really say we've ended our "cowboy school" as Alexander calls it).

We cut up some large cardboard boxes to make three guitars: one for Alexander, Lincoln, and me. Alexander only did a little of the cutting, in case you were worried.

Alexander was better skilled at cutting the duct tape he picked out with Daniel at the hardware store, though even that proved to be sticky. Ha ha. Actually, he was really good at taping the guitars together. We had a lot of fun making them.

Like all the singing cowboy's quitars, ours had to bear some great western graphics.


Alexander's: That dark figure is himself as a cowboy, lassoing the smiling cattle and/or horses you see scattered around. You may be able to spot his nickname "Ale" among the coils of the very long lariat.

Mine: Dreaming of Daniel (in his Sheriff Woody costume).

Lincoln's!

We put strings on the guitars, following an online tutorial for making cereal box guitars. The strings are stretchy cord for making beaded bracelets. With some effort the guitars can be tuned and played, but we're not very skilled in that area. I was hoping Uncle Mark would help out there. We ran out of cord before we did Lincoln's, and still never got to it, even after buying more cord.  This picture was taken after we reinforced the bendy necks with narrow wooden dowels.

And now for a special treat! Another video of my awful singing! Please stop groaning, it's rude. I just wanted to show them in action. We're just strumming, not trying any chords or anything remotely complicated. Notice Alexander's "wah wah wahs."

The New Chisholm Trail Song

Here is a video of Alexander and me singing our new verses to the Old Chisholm Trail song. You may recognize some of Alexander's favorite phrases that we hear a dozen times per day: "All day long," "Of course," and "Bigger than you've never seen before." I suppose our verses are more about a round up than a trail drive, but we've got round ups on the brain.

I'll write the words to the song below. Sadie and Amanda (and anyone else, I suppose), let me know if you would like me to email you the audio recording to add to your cowboy music collection.

I should add that (supposedly) there were over 150 verses to the original song. Cowboys used to sing it along the trail, making up their own verses. That is why we decided to write our own version.






The Old Chisholm Trail Song
Verses by Alexander and Brittany Henage
January 21, 2009

We want to have fun - rounding up the cattle
It's so - much - fun to ride in a saddle
(chorus:)
Come a ti yi yippy, yippy yay, yippy yay,
Come a ti yi yippy, yippy yay

Champion is the name of my bucking bronco horse*
I love to ride him all - day - long, of course
(chorus)

The longhorn cattle run all over - the - land
So I've gotta mark them with - the Horseshoe Ranch** brand
(chorus)

I tie up three legs and the calf says "moo!"
Gonna brand him with the red - hot- iron horseshoe
(chorus)

I lasso all the cattle with my rope, rope, rope
Then I have to wash my hands with soap, soap, soap
(chorus)

I like to make biscuits and eat - some - more
At the biggest chuck wagon that you've never seen before
(chorus)

We go in the middle of the Old Chisholm Trail
We go to take the cattle to the new train rail
(chorus)

The End
*Champion was Gene Autry's horse, who Alexander named his rocking horse after. Gene Autry is the current favorite celebrity of our household. Daniel only just today realized Gene was a man.

**Alexander made up the Horseshoe Ranch himself while we were writing the song. I'm not sure where that came from. We named our own "ranch" the "Medium Fantastic Family Corral at the Happy Henage Ranch" at the beginning of the year (Alexander wanted Medium Fantastic Family and I wanted Happy Henage, so we combined them).