Sunday, September 7, 2008

Driving Miss Daisy

The beginnings of today's adventure trace back to early last week, when a big bad bull from the local gang broke into my neighbor Sue's ranch. He plowed right through Sue's new barbed wire fence in pursuit of his true love, Daisy, on the other side. Sue's husband fixed the damaged fence, unwittingly trapping the bull inside.

Remember Daisy? She is quite the looker.



On Thursday, the bull's owner tried to extricate his bull from Sue's ranch by cutting the fence and making a temporary wire gate. He managed to chase his bull off of Sue's property, but Daisy and Sue's young steer, Lucero, slipped out as well. Sue was very agitated, to say the least. She called last night to ask if Lyle and I would help her and her daughter round up Daisy and Lucero and move them back home.

What were we thinking???

Two middle-aged cowgirl wannabes and a 9-year-old are going to ride their no-cow-experience horses out into miles of chest-high grass in the middle of snake season, locate an at-large heifer and steer, and drive them back home through a hole in the fence?

Off we went.




Those are the last of the pictures. It got pretty busy as soon as we turned off the road.

We managed to find Lucero about three quarter's of a mile from the hole in the fence. And we actually drove him down the fence line to within a quarter mile of the opening. But he took advantage of us, broke away, and headed back to where we started – over and over and over and over again. About that time, the bull's owner comes driving across the pasture in his truck. He was heading over to work on the fence that he cut, and he brought a couple of genuine cowboys with him, who were on horseback, driving Miss Daisy and her boyfriend back home. Whoohoo! Reinforcements who knew what they were doing!

Between the five of us, we were able to drive Miss Daisy, Lucero, and the big bad bull through the opening in the fence and onto Sue's ranch. Then all we had to do was drive the big bad bull back out. Turned out that was the easy part. As soon as we put a little pressure on the bull from behind, he leapt over the fence! (Think cow jumping over the moon). I had no idea they could do that!

So Sue, her daughter and I earned our cowgirl stripes today. I was very proud of us all, but particularly proud of Lyle. Once he figured out what we were trying to do, he played right along and seemed to enjoy it.

Seeing the bull leap over the fence makes me think that Lyle and I will have many more cow-working opportunities in our future. I just hope they happen on weekends when I haven't been bucking hay. 'Cause now I'm really tired.

11 comments:

  1. Linda, I love your tales. Keep 'me coming! Kudos to all you cowpokes and cowponies.
    Harmony,
    Janet & Shiloh

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  2. Oh, what fun!! You have such wonderful adventures out there. I hope you're having a relaxing glass of wine and get a restful night's sleep.

    I take it Lyle's feet are better?

    Ann

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  3. What a great adventure out of the old west. Loved the comment "driving miss daisy".

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  4. Very impressive! That sounds like quite the adventure and, on horseback with an amorous bull on the make, no less. Well done. I feel very much the lightweight compared to you, girl. You rock!

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  5. You're going to love the McLoud's Daughters TV series - I just hope you don't take off and move to the Outback after seeing it! :)

    A lot of dressage folk here have been cross-training their horses with cow-cutting trainers and finding it takes care of spook issues, etc. Once a horse can deal with cows, they can deal with anything, apparently!

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  6. What a way to spend a day! Sounds like fun, but work.

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  7. Loved the pictures that went with the story. Loved the story, too.

    Gracious! Is there anything you can NOT do? You are a real inspiration, that's for sure!

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  8. You are definitely a true cowgirl! That's how it's done!!

    Lol, and it is more exhausting being a cowgirl than you thought, huh? They don't tell you that you have to load and unload umpteen truckloads of hay, among all the other cowgirl stuff to do!!!

    You did good! I would be whining right now. I bet you're kicking back with a nice glass of wine :)

    You earned it!

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  9. Great adventure and pictures. My only cow adventure was in Canada, but it was a lot of fun.

    Dan

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  10. Rancher Woman,

    My friend, you never cease to amaze me.
    Now don't you go dreaming about cows jumping over your fences or you won't get any rest. haha!

    ~Lisa
    Laughing Orca Ranch
    New Mexico

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  11. I live these photos, when I first glanced at the I thought you were sharing really old photos! Great effect! And I'm glad everything worked out! =D

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