Rent-a-Cowpoke: The "C" Team

Sunday March 15 2015

A day after the historic Joyce Ranch roped and branded their calves with the skilled "A" team of Owyhee cowboys and cowgirls (post coming soon), it was the "C" team that helped move another rancher Don's cows out onto the range.

We weren't quite "F" students/riders; we definitely weren't the "A" team; but we were the solid "C" team (as in, the up-the-Crick team).

Don, plus 7 of us Crick people moved 50-60 head of cows with calves a couple of miles (most of it with a fence to help guide the cows on one side), across a highway, and into another pasture closer to the mountains. (And it was a southwest Idaho highway on a Sunday, with not too much traffic.) One horse and rider were first timers. One rider was a first timer on 25-year-old Krusty, who's been to France and Dubai, so he can do anything. I rode The Dude, who was much better behaved this time than last time.

There were no bucking fiascos, no lost calves, and no riders got lost: the "C" team did not fare too badly.

We were good enough that Don fed us lunch at the end.

Don, guiding his herd of somewhat rank angus cows (well, rank if they're squeezed in chutes for branding and vaccinations!)



Connie on Saruq, who would rather be off galloping somewhere. He's sneering here at the cows.



First-timer Abe on old-timer Krusty.


That's Rocky and half-Arab half-mustang Calvin on the left. Rocky's from up-the-Crick too, but he's from lower-upper, and he's more experienced than most of us cowpokes.


Threading the needle - squeezing the herd through the final gate.


Carol on August, Regina and Mufasa, and Don on his horse, surveying a job well done.

Rent-A-Cowgirl

Friday April 25 2014

Since we've been getting a lot of practice this spring mooooving cows off our upper acres, when the local Owyhee ranchers needed help gathering and driving their cows, we Rent-A-Cowgirls volunteered.

Connie sat astride her Grandson of the Black Stallion Finneas, and I rode tall (and wide) on The Dude. We joined 15-20 Real Cowboys and Cowgirls, riding out into the sagebrush and splitting up to gather a hundred or so head of cattle, pushing them together and driving them up to an awaiting corral for some branding and sorting before turning them loose in the next higher pasture.


Finneas spent much of the morning ignoring the cows but, more importantly, trying to win the ride, sweating and fretting and covering a lot of extra ground. The Dude spent his morning getting more fretful, as the cattle spread out in a half-mile mooing bawling long line, and as the calves shot back escaping behind the line and the cowboys took off at a gallop to retrieve them, and as Finneas occasionally disappeared over a hill out of sight to go let off some steam.


Once the cows bunched up at a fence corner and gate, and Dudley got to squeeze together with a line of cowhorses and move in close on the cows, that's when he found his comfort zone, being big and bold and bossy, throwing the Stink Eye at the cows and charging at them to get them moving onward. The bellowing cows and hollering cowboys and cowgirls and barking cow-leg-biting cowdogs didn't bother The Dude a bit, and he threw his own snorts in for good measure to scare them.


Once the herd was corralled, the ranch owners lit the fire and heated up the branding irons, the Real Cowboys and Cowgirls roped and branded the "slick" calves;



and after a cowboy lunch the fun began: sorting a dozen dry cows from the herd.


Wisely, Connie and I did not join the sorting. That was where the real cowboying came in, where you see those rodeo competition events really put into practice. It was fast and furious - it took a strong and imperturbable horse and rider to cut a mad cow out of a swirling bawling herd, and a coordinated effort from several other riders to keep that cow moving to the other end of the corral. "You can't outrun a cow," one of the cowboys said - but that didn't stop them from trying. The skill of the cutting horse facing a dancing cow was apparent. One particularly cantankerous cow took 8 cowboys and cowhorses, driving her, literally leaning on her and shoving her along, doubling back to chase her down when she slipped back through holes in the line, a neck rope to pull and a butt rope to shove - and 10 minutes to finally get her across the corral into an adjoining pen.

Those riders and horses knew what they were doing. It was clear from the beginning that we Rent-A-Cowgirls and  our Quasi-Cowhorses would have been way out of our league, in the way, getting dumped or run over. We were happy to watch from the sidelines in awe.

So if you're an Owyhee rancher that needs an extra Cowgirl or two for the day, we're rent-able. We probably won't disgrace ourselves (i.e. we probably won't fall off or get lost), and we might help moooove some cows, and we know when to stay out of the way and admire the professionals doing their thing.

Here are a couple of short videos from the day:
Gathering cows

[link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZY1oQgkAGI&feature=youtu.be]

Pushing cows

[link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tet6mkX7rtg&feature=youtu.be]

Waiting on cows to filter into the corral

[link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q_Pr9cacUo&feature=youtu.be]

Sorting cows

[the white face, white-legged horse is a mustang, an awesome cowhorse]
[link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRdTqBp3YxI&feature=youtu.be]

Sorting cows



[link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_jN_D-PGbg&feature=youtu.be]

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.

Punching Cows

Saturday March 16 2013

Originally, a 'cowpuncher' referred to a man prodding or punching a walking steak (i.e. beef cow) with an iron-spiked pole up a chute into a railroad car bound for slaughter. Eventually, 'cowpuncher' came to mean cowboys in general, and cowpunching referred to the work cowboys do.

But I know now why they really call it Punching Cows.

When your horse wants the sloooooow moooooo-ving tired little calves to get along, he punches them in the butt. Sometimes he bites them in the butt to hurry them along.

Jose punched this little calf along the wash on our cattle drive today. More on this adventure soon!

[video here]


or link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek275B-hSWQ&feature=youtu.be

Gather

Monday October 18 2010

The cowboys and cowgirls gather in Diamond Basin after sunrise. They unload their cowponies and cowdogs and head up into the foothills of the Owyhees. The cows are scattered from here to Silver City and beyond.

This first Gather is the easiest. They get the cows they can see in this big valley and up the sides of the hills. The next times they have to start looking for the cows. "It'll take from now till Thanksgiving to get them all!" a cowboy says. He's not kidding.

The fall weather is mild, the sun and dust golden. The cows bellow as they move on down out of the higher country, headed for winter on the ranch in the warmer Snake River valley, with the cowboys and cowgirls flanking and pushing them along.

Silence falls over Diamond Basin. Dust settles in the hoofprints in the sand.