A Grateful Reflection
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This week was my last week on the ranch, and I couldn’t believe it had come so quickly. Ten weeks seemed like such a long time, but it felt like just yesterday I was unpacking all of my bags and settling into my new place, and now I’m already packing it all back up again. Over the past ten weeks, I have learned so much new, valuable information about animals, farming, and life on the ranch in general. I’ve had so many new experiences and I feel that my character has grown, as I’ve had the time to reflect upon what kind of person I want to be in this world.
My last week was spent doing the tasks that I’ve learned how to do over the course of the summer. Fixing fence, feeding the animals, and riding the horses were among the most frequent tasks I completed. At the beginning of the week, we moved the yearling sheep across the highway and into another pasture. I’ve grown to really appreciate sheep, especially moving them, as I find it much easier than cows. I’ve learned that moving animals of any kind requires a lot of patience and communication. The highway patrol helped us block traffic off of the highway so that we could move the sheep across without causing too large of a disturbance. The highway patrol coming out to help with moving the sheep really highlighted the importance of community involvement in ranching, as it is usually a group effort.
The sheep dogs that we have been training over the course of the summer were scheduled for surgeries to get spayed this week. After taking them to the vet, I realized how hard it is to control activity for a working dog. The dogs are supposed to have a week of downtime with limited activity, including no running or jumping. I have experience with small animal veterinary care, as I worked in a small animal clinic for most of my high school years and have repeated the same post-operation instructions numerous times. Although this time, as I was reading the brochure provided after the surgery on post-operative care, I now saw it from a different point of view. If these dogs were inside as house pets, it would be a lot easier to monitor and maintain their activity level. However, these dogs live outside with the sheep, away from the house, and are really only checked on when fed. This made me wonder how these post-operative instructions could be modified for working dogs, and what that would look like.
I got the chance to ride the horses a few times this week. I told my host at the beginning of this summer that I wanted to get more familiar and comfortable with the entire process of tacking up and handling horses. By now, I feel confident when saddling my horse as I’ve learned the names of different parts of tack, and now know how they work and where they go. Once I became more comfortable being able to tack up, I began to enjoy riding the horses and found that they are much more useful than an ATV when trying to observe animal behavior, as the animals usually allow a horse to get closer than an outfit with a large and loud motor.
Looking back on my last week, I’m really thankful for everything this summer has given me. I’ve learned so much, not just about animals and ranch work, but also about what I’m capable of and what kind of person I want to be. I spent this final week doing the same kinds of things I’ve been doing all summer, but it felt different knowing it was the last time. Riding horses, moving sheep, fixing fence, it all reminded me how far I’ve come since that first week. I came here hoping to get some hands-on experience, and I’m leaving with that and so much more. This place, and the people in it, have really made an impact on me.
Submitted by: Sydney Farley
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
