Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Couple of "Those Days"

The other day I was out doing the morning chores, I'd tossed the horses their hay and gave them a quick check and before I checked the pasture horses I went to check the cows... low and behold, instead of our five little cows there were five little cows and a sixth one, much bigger! (steer actually)
He was coming in from our big horse pasture (the pasture horses are currently in the small horse pasture) with two of our little guys trailing him, our other three were following on the other side of the fence (their side of the fence!)
I went into the pen and called May Belle and Chuck in and Stranger followed them.  I circled around them, keeping an eye on Stranger in case he didn't like people and closed the pasture gate.  Got out of the pen and ran to the house to grab Pie.  He came back to the pens with me and helped me get our two sorted back into their pasture while keeping Stranger in the pen.  Turns out our two must have just pushed through from curiosity over the visitor in the pasture.  I watched the cows and when the went to give the fence a look see they jumped back after touching the wire.
After that I checked the pasture horses, fed hens & gathered eggs (yes eggs!) then went for a drive to see if I could find who owned Stranger.  I was pretty sure I knew where he came from, there's a pasture with some cattle that shares a fence line on the South side of our big pasture.  So I headed South on our road and went down the first cross road to the one house I knew was there. 
The guy came to the door and I explained why I was there, turned out it was his land but they weren't his cows.  He said he'd pass the message on to the guy running cattle on his land.  And sure enough a short while later a man came to my door and introduced himself as RT.  We walked down to the pens and yeppers, Stranger belonged to him. 
A few minutes later he was back with a stock trailer and two helpers to get Stranger loaded.  Good thing he had those helpers... it took a bit of chasing to get him in the trailer.
The next day I woke up with a dream fresh in mind, in it our cows were out and Pie & the quad and me & Voodoo had to get them back in.  Well guess what I found when I went to do chores?  Yep, cows were out.  Just in another of our pastures thank goodness but their pasture is the only one with appropriate fence for little Dexter cows.
I sprinted to the house and yelled to Pie "Cows are out!  Grab the quad, I'll grab Voodoo!" while I quickly swapped out my rubber boots for cowboy boots.
As I was hustling to the barn to grab Voodoo's halter Pie ran by, "How long til you guys are ready?"
"Five minutes!" (I hoped)
I have to say, man do I LOVE that horse!
When I got to the pasture he was on the other side of the announcer's booth, as soon as he saw me coming he met me at the gate and stuck his nose in the halter without any of his usual games.
 (you must give me "x" number of cookies before you may halter me)
I ran to the barn and he long trotted on a loose line beside me.  In the barn he stood PERFECTLY still while I ran a quick brush over him and saddled up.  Usually he's a bit fidgety, and even when he's behaving he moves around me (something I've kinda taught him to do, but it works for me)
Voodoo & I came out of the barn and I got on just as Pie came back from a quick scouting trip.  Pie held the gates while I rode through and then Voodoo was off at a long trot with the quad on his heels.  I led Pie to the gate between the pasture the Dexters were in and the one they SHOULD have been in and we got the gate unwired and open (we'd already shut off the electric).
The cows like the quad so they were heading toward the sound of it, of course they didn't want to actually come through the darn gate so Voodoo and I went in to circle them and push them through, and other than Chuck it went perfect.
Darn Chuck though, just before the gate he split off and ran down the fence away from the gate.  Voodoo was on him like a duck on a tick.  He ran down the fence, got just enough ahead of Chuck to lean his shoulder in and turn him back toward the gate.  Voodoo rolled back and ran him down to the gate and through it.  I was so proud of my boy!
The cows were running back toward the haybarn and I had to get off to help Pie get the gate back up & wired, and that was the only time Voodoo was bad.  He seemed upset that the cows he'd gathered and chased were running away from him lol
We locked the Dexters in the pen by their pasture until we could get the fence fixed.  Thank goodness it wasn't anything too bad... turned out they had ripped out the ground wire, probably by rubbing on the pole.
That was one dream I didn't need to come true ;)


5 comments:

  1. wow - wild days on the ranch! :-) Good thing you got all the cows sorted out. I love that you tacked up Voodoo and headed out and he totally knew his job. How fun!

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  2. Well at least the dream come true and Voodoo was a good pony! I love it when they know you need them and are so helpful being good when in a hurry, usually its the opposite way around.

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  3. Good Voodoo! Gotta love it going down the fence and turning those bunch quitters back.

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  4. By the way I like the new bog look and header photo.

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  5. What a good Voodoo!! Going out there and getting the cows like a pro!! Hopefully there won't be too much more excitement there!!

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Wordless Wednesday ~ new trailer!