Spring is here. The grass is starting to grow. The trees are blooming. More importantly, branding time is here. The babies are almost all born and ready to go. Our cattle are divided into calving groups and spread across several pastures. Last week, the heifer pasture was all calved out and ready to be worked. Kirk and I put in a few calls and rounded up some help and we were ready to go.Saturday turned out to be a perfect day. It had rained on Thursday night into Friday morning. Before we could bring the heifer pasture down we needed to move some first calf heifers out of the way. Kirk and I were going to move them on Friday, but the creek was now up and them babies are hard enough to get across when it's down so we decided to wait until Saturday.
As I said, the babies are always a problem when moving pairs, especially with first time mothers leading them. Our crew did well though. I had to run the feedwagon first thing and move a group of yearlings to another pasture so I had to watch helplessly from the tractor. After a little cussing, a lot of running, and a horse that decided he would rather go for a swim than work Kirk, my brother Ty, a friend Jay, and Shorty got the heifer pairs moved. I brought the yearlings across and we were set to bring the pairs down from the heifer pasture.
The rest of the day went smooth. We had no problems bringing the mommas and the new crop of calves on their first move. Experienced mothers tend to lend to this. The working pens were pretty dry considering the rain Thursday night. There were still a few bogs so Kirk worked the gate and I sorted the cows off horseback. I have to brag on my horse. Despite me, she's turned out pretty good. She's getting fun to ride. Don't worry though Tim, I won't camp on her.
We got the babies worked and headed to town for lunch. We thought about working the cows first, but hopping on a horse with a full belly is not ideal. Some ground work to let the chicken fried steak settle a bit is a wise choice.
The cows were run through and paired up with their bawling babies. Reunited and it feels so good. We let them settle a bit and did a count to make sure all is well. Jay and Ty needed to go soon, so we let the pairs sit and rode south and took 72 fall cows to the north end of the ranch. We split them into two pastures and headed back to headquarters. Jay, Shorty, and Ty had to leave so Kirk and I were left to run the freshly worked pairs down south. We ran them under the turnpike and to their new home with no problem and called it a day. I always love it when a plan comes together.
I think I need to add to the “horse taking a swim” part of the story. When I arrived at Tailgate early in the morning and saw a nervous horse tied to the rail; I figured that was the one I was going to be riding. Sure enough, I was right. It was going to be Rusty’s first ride for the season (I believe only his second season), but I had ridden him last year and he did great.
ReplyDeleteSo, I mounted up and started to work him around a little and he could hardly stand still. This was my first clue of the pleasurable ride that lay ahead. Our first job was to move a group a cow-calf pairs from the pasture back to the pens. There was only one small problem; a creek ran between the pairs and the pens. Trying to push those calves across that creek was about like trying to force a claustrophobic into a crowded room. They scattered in all directions.
By this point, Rusty had made his disapproval of the situation perfectly clear by several episodes of bucking and the tossing of his head. Yes, I stayed on. After a short discussion with Rusty, we continued. Meanwhile, Kirk and Jay are attempting to bring some sort of order back into our organized chaos. In an attempt to be of some use to Kirk and Jay in their endeavors, I started after a calf that was moving along the creek.
The shortest path to cut off that calf was through a water hole. It didn’t look very deep; maybe a foot in the middle. Last year I had taken Rusty through some pretty rough terrain and thought a foot-deep water hole would be no challenge. Keeping an eye on the calf, I started to move through the water. Then, without warning, the foot deep water hole became a four foot water hole. Rusty sank past his chest.
Feeling bad that I had put the young horse in this situation, my attention left the calf and went to an attempt to guide Rusty out of the hole. Then, without a moment’s notice, Rusty fell over onto his side trapping my left leg underneath of him and pulling me into the water. Just when I thought the situation could not get worse, I saw the deadly eyes of an alligator drawing closer (alright, I admit that was not true, but Kirk said it would really add to the story). Anyway, the truth is, this was not a four foot hole, but only a foot at most, just as I had expected. Rusty decided half way through that he needed to lie down. After realizing that the darn horse was not in danger, I politely asked him to get off my leg.
With a boot full of water and feeling a little irritated, I climbed back on and we did get those pairs across. Oddly enough, after that moment the move went pretty well. All Rusty needed was a little swim and lucky for me, I was invited, too. More excitement did come later, but that’s a different story.
I must say that Rusty and Ty finally did become friends and we only have Ty out when we have cold backed horses that need there first ride.
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