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How Electricity Plays a Role in the Life of a Working Cowboy
This one goes out to my new girlfriends Velvet and Rumpley-Ann. (Kinda makes me wish I weren't gelded!)
Okay, picture a hot Summer morning in the Texas Panhandle. The wind is blowing about 25 miles per hour, as always. It's August, and we're turning out 150 head of heifers onto grass pasture. Today there are three cowboys. (Hey Velvet, I'm the best looking horse there, if I may say so myself!) So anyway, we trailer over to the pasture, about 30 miles from home, at the crack of dawn. The truck gets there, he backs up to the portable chute, and the cows start coming off the truck.
Now, the way we usually introduce the cows to the pasture is we take them all the way around the pasture (this particular pasture is about 600 acres). The pasture is fenced with a single strand of electric fence wire... and yes! It's hot!! We take the cows all the way around the fence so they'll know where the fence is, then finally to water, 'cause they're pretty thirsty by then. Then we let them settle down, we watch them and graze for a couple of hours, then trailer up and go home. Sometimes it goes smooth. Sometimes...
This particular day, one cowboy was on the outside of the fence to discourage any of the more ornery cows from running through the fence. The other two, one of which was mine, were inside the pasture pushing the cows around the fenceline. One cowboy rides drag, behind the cows pushing them, while the other one rides out along the side, keeping the cows close to the fence so they see where it is. I was on the side on this particular day, and you should have seen me dancing and working those cows, keeping them in line!
It starts off okay, but after about 20 yards, the cows start to run. I knew it was going to happen, it almost always does. So I was ready for them! You have to get to the first corner before the cows, 'cause if you don't they'll run right through the fence, and then it's Whoopie Ki Yi!! So I dashed down the side of the herd (about 50 yards out from them... if you run too close to them, they REALLY stampede) The idea was to get ahead of them and slow down the leaders. So I'm dodging prairie dog holes, jumping rocks, mane and tail flying in the wind, and I make it just in time! The first corner is the most important one. Usually we get the run out of the cows by then. USUALLY. Not this time. They broke and ran up the fenceline again. We got them slowed down. We made the third turn, and the cowboys thought they were home free. They should have known better!
As the cows made the third turn, half of the herd doubled back into the rest, and about 20 of them broke through the fence! Luckily we had a cowboy on the outside to keep them from taking off. I made my cowboy look good by circling the rest of the herd, in order to keep them all together. Then I suggested to my cowboy (Natural Horsemanship works both ways) that he get off and let the fence down so the rebels could get back into the pasture. I ground-tied while he crossed over the fence on foot to guide the cows back into the pasture while the outside cowboy pushed them. This plan was working great, as the rebels were single-filing it across the fence and back into the pasture. Dad crossed over the fence and started to come to me before the last cow made it across. Rule number 1... NEVER trust a cow!. The last cow got tangled up in the hot-wire fence, and popped the insulator right off the post. The wire caught Dad right behind the knees, and knocked him to the ground! Now Dad is a pretty stout feller, and it takes quite a bit of force to knock him down, but the cow had the wire on his chest and was running full bore.
So Dad hits the ground and starts crawling for all he's worth, that electric fence riding up from behind his knees to his Hiney, shocking him all the way. Funniest thing I ever saw! I laughed like you wouldn't believe when I found out the wire hadn't cut his leg, and he was okay. Well, the long and short of it is that nobody got hurt, and we got the cows settled down okay. We were all dusty and tired and the water tank sure looked good at the end of the morning!
Maye next time I'll tell you about our big blizzard last winter.
Just another day in the life of a working cow-horse that loves his job.
Shakespeare
Email: tbgraef@fivearea.com
