Californian Cowboy: 8/24/11

Today was another exhausting day. We went out to the south pasture and wrangled about 500 head. We only moved them one pasture over, but they were pairs, so they were a complete handful. Pairs is a term to describe a herd which consists of moms, calfs, and a few bulls to keep everyone in line. Understandably, the mothers want to be with their calfs (with in 50 feet of them), and the calfs freak out when they lose their mothers and vice versa. The drive was going really well in the beginning, until the pairs started to become separated. When a calf gets separated from its mother, it tends to want to instinctively go back to the place which it last saw its mother, which in this case was about two miles behind our destination gate. We were only about a half a mile from the gate when the calf started to hang back looking for their mothers. The calfs slowly built up, until they felt enough confidence in their numbers to make a run for it. Calfs are really fast and take a ton of effort to wrangle, so as a result we tacked on another two hours of our ride just getting them back. They get frightened really easily and take off in all directions, making it tough to get them all back together.

The upside to this however, was that I got to take brutus into a full run for the first time. I estimate that to be about 30-35 mph. We were hauling ass to say the least. It was so fun. I feel so comfortable and stable on brutus, and he rarely trips or falters. Great horse. I know we will have a long and fulfilling future together here on the ranch.

After that ordeal brutus was really tired and refused to even trot, no matter how hard I kicked him or whipped him. This ended up being a good thing, because Kerstein and I got put on post up duty while the other three went to fetch some stragglers. It was some real good bonding time for brutus and I, standing there in the 94 degree heat for an hour. I gave him half my carrot.

After that, you can probably guess what I did. Laid some pipe baby. We got home around 1:30, I ate lunch, and went directly to the pipeline. Stewart was nice enough to keep chugging on the trencher, while Kerstein, Aden, and I went and picked up another flat of pipe, laid it, and glued it.

Today Michael taught me a ton about how to manage cattle while wrangling. I learned the “triangle method” which is a method to get the herd moving when they decide to stop. You ride with them at an angle going away from the herd, then cut back toward the herd and move against their trailing direction while moving at an angle into them. This head on and into direction makes them move quicker in the direction you want. Its a bit counter intuitive, moving in the direction their not, makes them move faster in the direction you want. I also learned how to make a round-a-bout loop around a fleeting calf to pressure it to stop, and then slowly creep toward it, applying pressure to make it return to the herd. I learned how to perform a sitting trot and a posting trot, which are two different ways to move with the horse in the saddle while trotting. I find posting to be more fun and a bit more comfortable on brutus, because his trot is somewhat violent compared to the other horses. This is due to his long stride and less fluid trot. His gallop however, is sooo comfortable. If I get the chance ill gallop him for sure because its faster, more fun, and much more comfortable, but it tires him out much faster. Speaking of which, I also learned how to distribute the horses energy throughout a ride. The longer the ride, the less aggressive riding tactics, because faster movements tire out the horse quicker, and they will tend to become less responsive to kicks, whips, and giddy-ups.

It was a great day, a ton of fun running fast in the pasture chasing stray calfs. Even though riding hard like that is extremely wearing on the body, the adrenaline rushes keep you going. Tomorrow should be a bit more relaxed, as were not riding and I get an extra hour of sleep. We have a group of workshop students coming in to learn about native prairie grasses, and we are throwing a bbq for them tomorrow night which should be fun. I never knew we do plant workshops like these here on the ranch, and am going to ask if I can get in on all up coming ones.

Bed time my friends. Here are the pictures from the day. Enjoy.

The boots, all lined up ready to go for a long day of riding.

Stewart and I stretching out our sore bodies, getting prepared for our third day in a row.

Facing off with some frightened calfs. Gotta learn how to babysit these pups while their moms are no where to be found! As you can tell, they find safety in numbers.