Forty years ago, this summer, was the last time I worked cows. I did it for extra money back in high school, when I thought I was ten foot tall and bulletproof. For those friends and acquaintances of mine that dont know what working cows is, Ill explain. A healthy herd requires daily maintenance of feeding, watering, giving shots, applying medicines and so forth. You get the picture. A friend recently asked for my help today in applying tags to several dozen new bull and heifer calves. This is where you attach a numbered tag to the animals ear... with an industrial strength rivet gun, basically. Keep that in the back of your mind. I show up, eager to help out a friend in need... it went straight down hill from there. There is no horse available and we have three grown men, in fairly un-good shape and a strapping young man of about 20, chasing calves around the pen for a half hour. Someone gets the bright idea to let Steve have a chance at roping one of these terrified SCUD missiles on-the-hoof. I reluctantly take the rope and start stalking a calf around the pen... one throw... miss... two throws... not even remotely close... one last try and I actually came close... to roping a fence post. Ok, next man... he finally gets one...and gives ME the end of the rope. Im like, what do I do with this. He lets go and the amusement ride begins...Im at full sprint, in boots, behind a furious 250 pound bull calf, headed toward a steel gate, with a nylon rope in my hands, and yes, no gloves. I am coming up on a steel pole sticking up out of the ground. I have the presence of mind, between thoughts of inevitable funeral plans and trying to not look like a whimpering sissy, to wrap the rope around the pole. It worked, the calf stopped dead in its tracks. The other three wrestled the calf to the ground and applied the tag. Im not one to whine about helping a friend out, but as we stared at the other three, much bigger calves, someone said, there has to be a better way to do this, and without batting an eye, I said outsource the job to cowboys!!! So friends, as easy as cowboys make this look on TV, dont be fooled, theres more to riding horses and singing trail ride songs to being a ranch hand... Terri, wheres the Bengay???
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 00:53:37 +0000
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