Today, The Cows Won

Sunday April 6 2014

We got this cow-moving thing down. (Maybe not the fence-fixin' so much, but definitely the cow-moving.)

A rancher's cows have taken up residence on our upper 200 acres (and Connie's 40 acres) this spring - and why wouldn't they? Abundant grass and water, a 'nursery' to have their babies and raise them in safety, while the BLM land they're supposed to be on is scanty with feed, and the water is a long way away.

We've fixed some fence (over and over - the barbed wire is very old and not cow-sharp, and therefore not much of a deterrent), but once a week or so, after the cows either hop the fence or bust through it (calves just slither right through), Connie saddles up Tiger, and I saddle up Dudley again (sometimes Steph joins us on the ATV), and we moooooove the cows back on up the 200 and out the gate back onto BLM land. Last time there was a bull in with them, and he obediently mooooooooved out with his harem.


We'd gotten good at it. I don't know if Dudley's done this before, or if he's instinctively just a smart cow horse (he's smart at everything else). Tiger's getting brave and smart on cows too, with all the mooing and hollering and "HYAH!"ing; and even the cows have been getting smart. Last time they obediently mooooved along steadily in single file, up the crick much of the way before they let us turn them up the hill, and moooooove them on out the gate.


Today was that time of the week again. We saddled up Dudley and Tiger again, and today Sarah and Krusty joined us to mooooooove 30-40 cows out again. It was Sarah's first cattle drive.

The cows and calves were harder to drive this time, as if they'd get bogged down in quicksand along the way. They'd mush up into a pile like a freeway traffic jam, then they'd split up and down and left and right, scatter back down in the crick, break away back up in the tall sagebrush.


Long about the time we finally got them pushed up 195 acres and turned toward the gate, we saw the problem. The bull did not want his harem to leave paradise this time.

We 3 cowgirls and cowhorses pushed the cows and calves on one side, while on the other side the bull was busy running the line pushing them back toward us. The cows didn't know who to be more worried about - 3 brave and strong cow horses and 3 hollerin' bawlin' cowgirls, or one big bull that was getting madder and madder at them.

We cowgirls perceived we were no match for a mad bull, and we sure didn't want to get him mad at us, too. And since we're some pretty smart cowgirls, we admitted when we were whooped.

So we gave up. The bull and cows stayed on the upper 200. We rode home.


The cows won this round. Might be time to quit pretending and call the Real Cowboys and Real Cowhorses and Real Cowdogs in on the job.

Da Bull

December 28 2013

Every winter, we get a stray bull or two who wanders on down our canyon and either gets stuck, or decides he likes it with us, rather than heading on down onto his own ranch. I don't mess with bulls anymore. I leave them to the cowboys.

And anyway, just by watching this bull, I could tell I didn't want to be anywhere close to him. I perched my binoculars on a fence post and stared at him for 15 minutes until he turned his head just right (he never took his eyes off me) so I could just read his ear tags/numbers. Then we called the right cowboys to come get their bull.

Here's a short photo narrative of the adventure.

Content Bull


Suspicious Bull


BullCatcher #1


BullCatcher #2


The Jig is Up Bull


Wary Bull


Chagrinned Bull


Herded Bull

Bull with Other Ideas


Pissed Off Bull


Pissed Off Bull and Cowdogs


Charging Bull


Caught Bull


They rather easily caught this one - compared to another one I watched - though it was more Luck than Easy that got him in the trailer without too much of a fight.

Gruffy the Bull

Wednesday January 16 2013

A much tamer version of Bull Evacuation occurred with Gruffy. Unlike Fluffy's frenetic, forceful, and somewhat humiliating removal from the Owyhee Spa, the cowboys gently (if such a word can be associated with a bull) drove Gruffy off the Owyhee Spa acreage, over the ridge into the next drainage, and on down to his proper winter home.

The Party's Over for Fluffy (Part II)

Wednesday December 19 2012

(Part I is here.)

Fluffy's head flew up from the pile of hay he was munching in his luxurious Owyhee Spa pasture accommodations fit for a king, and his eyes grew wider in suspicion as the big silver box limousine rattled up the dirt road. 

When it came to a stop and spit out horses and cowboys, he knew the jig was up.

"I named him Fluffy," I told rancher Rawl and his 2 boys, as Rawl slipped the bridle onto his cow horse Rusty's head.

  

"Fluffy." Rawl grunted. "Let's see how 'fluffy' he is in a minute." Rawl and one of his boys swung up on their cow horses, 

slipping the nooses on their ropes as they rode through the gate into Fluffy's pasture, sizing up the situation, eager cow dogs at their heels.

The formerly quiet, pensive Fluffy quickly morphed into the feral, wily state most range bulls will become when the cowboys and ropes come out. 

He headed straight away for the brush and trees along the crick. It took the third cowboy (the rig driver) on foot to flush Fluffy out and down the fence, where the 2 horses and riders lit off after him. 

A few twirls of the lariat, 

and Rawl set the rope on him beautifully, right around his thick neck. 

That somewhat enraged Fluffy.

Now, when you have a rope separating an 800 pound bull versus an 800 pound cow horse, the bull's going to have the advantage, because he's low to the ground and 800 pounds of muscle and steel and mad and mean. And a bull always goes wherever a bull wants to go, whether he's a naive 2-year-old or not, and in this case, it was right through the fence. Either Rawl didn't get a good dally, or didn't try, or the horse didn't get set well, because when that bull hit the end of the rope, neither the horse nor the rope nor the barbed wire fence made a dent in Fluffy's escape momentum. 

Rawl's rope went with Fluffy, through the fence and down the road (Rawl kept all his fingers). The other young cowboy and his horse were already flying back through the pasture, 

and out the gate, and down the road after Fluffy with a cow dog on his heels.

Rawl and Rusty followed hot on their heels, 

and the driver cowboy slammed Fluffy's limousine gate and hopped in the truck, screeching and bumping down the road in pursuit.

Fluffy made his way into another neighbor's pasture down the crick, and the cowboys followed. After some evasive bull tactics of crashing blindly through brush, and burying his head in it trying to escape his new world, Cowboy #2  got another rope on him, 

Rawl managed to get his original rope back 

and threw another loop on Fluffy's front leg.

It took 2 strong cow horses heading and pulling, and 4 or 5 cow dogs heeling and biting bull tail 

to convince Fluffy that he wanted to dance his way to the silver limousine now waiting for him in the pasture. 

Once there, they let Fluffy stand and calm down a bit, 

while Rawl's rope was carefully passed to the foot cowboy at the trailer, who took the rope inside the trailer, and passed it back out to Rawl and Rusty on the outside.

Same was done with Cowboy #2's rope, while a cow dog kept Fluffy's attention diverted.

And they started reeling him in.

Fluffy was, for all practical purposes, winched by the cowboys on horseback into the trailer, 

with a little cattle prod encouragement from behind from the foot cowboy, 

and the door was slammed on Fluffy's freedom.

And so the Party ended for Fluffy the bull. Maybe one winter when he's free out on the range again, and the snow starts to come down, he'll remember the morning he wandered down from the Owyhee mountains onto the Owhyee Spa, and the couple of idyllic days he spent here before he had to go and grow up.