Working Ranch Blog

Ramrod by Brett Haas
Jan. 27 2012, 1:47 AM

So I get chores done this morning and I’m in the process of hanging a gate and I get a call from the boss. “You wanna play cowboy this afternoon?”

“I do a pretty darn good impression, so why not?” I replied.

There was one of our bred heifers in with some cows up in a pasture that got left behind. We had a fella coming tomorrow to look at what we have left, so he wanted them all there. Hmmm, work on fence or go ride my horse and fetch a cow? It was a tough decision.

I have to admit there was a part of me that was hoping to find an easy job for the afternoon. I’ve been fighting sinus headaches all week, but when it comes to horseback and cattle work, I gotta be pretty sick to say no.

We got a new horse, Felix, a few months back. Kirk said this was a pretty gentle heifer so I thought this might be a good opportunity to take him out and be able to take my time. After all, the heifer was bred so nice and easy would be the goal for moving her.

As I said I wasn’t feeling too great so I took a long lunch and laid down for a bit. I didn’t get in for lunch until 1 p.m. so by the time I got out the afternoon was getting long on me. I wasn’t too worried though. It was only a couple miles up to her so I thought I had plenty of time.

Of course the key word there was ‘thought’. This heifer must have been pretty happy with these older cows because she was herd bound and down. Normally, this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but one of Felix’s flaws is that he gets kind of worried about running with a cow and has a tendency to blow right past ‘em. He has been doing better, but you still got to work with him on it. Of course, he had a little work left to be done on him and needless to say, this heifer on this horse was going to be a challenge.

I had already decided that because this heifer was springing coupled with me being on a young horse that likes to run away from a job, I was just going to take it easy and if I didn’t get her, I would just get my older mare tomorrow and try her again.

After a bit I knew I wasn’t gonna cut her out, so I took a different approach that Ron Gill mentioned at a stewardship and Stockmanship event last year. I simply followed her. When she moved away from the herd I backed off a bit and let her know she got the right answer. There were plenty of trees and brush for her to hide in, but Felix and I held in there. Soon she started away from the herd and I just let her go. She didn’t quite go to the gate and we had to take another backwoods detour, but she was getting the idea.

Soon we were moving towards the gate and out we went. She tried going back again, but soon decided that no tree would get rid of me, so I guess she figured it was easier to do what I wanted.

Another gate was down and she was traveling nice and straight. It was getting nice and dark though, so I wandered how much longer I could keep track of her. As we approached a creek, the trees drowned out much of the remaining light, but we got through o.k.

We were on the home stretch now so it was decision time. Do I try and cross the road in the dark or just wait until tomorrow? She was traveling well and my night vision was kicking in so I decided to try it. I was afraid if I left her in the pasture we were in, she might attract the bulls to the east that only had a single wire electric fence containing them powered by a solar charger none the less.

I called my wife and had her block the road in the mini-van. We got her through the first gate without a hitch and headed in the right direction down the road. We had about a couple hundred yard walk until the next gate going south and into the big meadow where she would be safe to spend the night. My wife got in front of her and was set to block for me. I gave her a ring and asked her to turn off her headlights as they were blinding us. She had her hazards on so the van was plenty visible.

We were about halfway there when my wife mentioned a car was coming. I said that wasn’t a problem. We cross cows on this road a lot and were used to cars waiting on us. I hung up with my wife and saw the car coming. She was about fifty feet from me and I could hear that she had no intention of slowing down. She was going way too fast. I knew she saw me as she proceeded to the middle of the road. I almost turned my horse in front of her, but glad I decided to wave my arms instead, because she whizzed on by me without a pause.

I knew what happened next was inevitable. The heifer’s back end went up on the hood and I was worried that this gal was gonna push that heifer right into my wife. She (my wife) had a better view of the whole deal. She said the driver froze up and never even hit the brakes until she had pushed the heifer a good five feet. Thankfully, the agile heifer stayed on her feet and didn’t roll on over the hood.

I caught up to the wreck as quick as I could. The woman rolled down her window and surprisingly said, “I didn’t expect that.” I calmly as expected (which wasn’t really calm or expected given what just happened) asked her if she even saw me “doing the pigeon” atop my mount? She said she did. I didn’t have time to ask the next obvious question of why in the @#$% didn’t you slow down, but I could see my wife was doing her best to get the heifer through the gate so I decided I better help. I asked speed racer if she was alright as I rode off to help, only to have her pull on around my wife and I and, yes she did, leave.

“Hey! That’s o.k. We’re fine!” I yelled as she zoomed off. The last I remember when you get into a wreck, you exchange some information, but I guess the gal figured Old Bossy didn’t have any insurance. Either that or speed racer didn’t which is the more likely case.

My wife and I got the heifer in the pasture and could see that she had a bad limp, but I was pretty sure here leg wasn’t broke. I saw the car leaving and was watching which way it turned. She headed south, so I called the boss and he lived that direction, but he wasn’t home. I told him the story. I didn’t get the license plate, but only a vague description of what I though to be a dark grey early 90’s or late 80’s Honda civic. I suppose I should have called the sheriff as soon as it happened, but I honestly expected the lady to not speed off. My focus was on my wife and the heifer.

The boss told me not too worry about it as there was nothing that could be done anymore tonight and that we would look at her in the a.m. I asked him if there was anything else I could do. “Go home and write a blog.” Good advice now that I have a whole new meaning for the word “ramrod”.

You got any (really it’s true this time) stories of cows and cars? Tell ‘em to me at thekansascowboy36@gmail.com or tweet ‘em to me at Twitter or friend me on Facebook.