Irish at Work

It is interesting to watch Irish help us move cattle. Sometimes he is right on target -

Irish.......

Doesn't it look like this dog is giving me the "evil blue eye"?

Ten Things to Know When Moving Cattle

1. Know where you are taking the cattle and/or the general direction
2. Keep your eyes on the cattle and pay attention
3. As you begin gathering don't get in front of anyone elses cows
4. Don't crowd or rush the cattle but keep them moving
5. Do not leave any cows, bulls or calves behind - there are a few exceptions!
6. Keep your horse at a walk unless you need to move faster to take care of a situation
7. Since your horse walks faster than cows at times it is necessary to stop your horse
8. DO NOT run your horse at the cattle unless there is a reason
9. Count the cows, count the cows, count the cows
10. And most importantly be gentle with the cattle they are your livelihood

Next Step

The babies have fallen behind so we may stop for 20 to 40 minutes and hopefully they will pair up. You must "hold" the cows in place usually around a water source (note the two cowboys in the distanc in the holding pattern). The trick is not to let them walk past the water source and once some of them have had a sip of water they may decide its time to move on and we have to keep holding them in place. There is an art to all this - you can't crowd them and they've got to have enough room to find their babies. As they pair up it gets quieter but of course not all of them pair up. More to follow..

Babies Falling Behind......

You may be thinking what cute babies and yes they are but this situation with the babies falling behind their mommas can become a recipe for disaster. Inevitable this happens because the mommas walk faster. As one baby gets nervous, like anything else they will "feed" off each other and more of them will become nervous. Then that one baby will decide I need to go back and find my momma. Calves will go back to the place they last sucked. You try to keep the calves pushed up in the herd and hope their mommas will come back for them and they will pair up. This day all went well and no calves turned back. Tomorrow I'll share another tip when it comes to moving pairs - I am a big believer in knowledge for everyone!

IKE

Ike is a really sweet horse. I've only ridden him a few times - he is sooo wide and a bit taller than Dudley that it is hard for me to get on him. Pure quarter horse. One day he was out in the large pen (I sometimes refer to it as the arena - east coast English rider that I was) doing rollbacks with Studley Dudley. Ike just stood there and watched and watched and watched. Probably thinking how many times is she going to run back and forth down the side of the fence come to a screeching halt and do a 180 and run back in the other direction. But Ike stood there and watched and watched and watched - so much so that when I finished with Dudley I threw my saddle on Ike to see if he wanted to do a few rollbacks. After warming him up a bit it was obvious that IKE preferred being the roll back spectator and not the roll back participant!

Smokin & Jokin

So, which photo do you like better? Any cigar smokers out there?

Assessing the Situation....

Yes, those black dots on the other side of the hill are cows - one may think they have a little mountain goat blood in them! I told them to come down immediately and find their babies or we would take the babies hostage - sure enough they came down off the hill and ran up the canyon! Dudley was none too pleased about having to go down the mountain but at least he didn't have to go up the other side!