Saddled Up A Colt

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This week was a lot shorter on account of going to drill for the National Guard, but no less eventful than those that came before it. With our final branding coming up, we had to get everything sorted and ready for that, and we had to ensure the hay fields were clear of bales in time for the cattle to move into them after the branding.

Monday was a lot of prep work. We pushed our north herd, which consists of 260 pairs, into a smaller pasture where we were going to set up our branding trap, which would make the gather significantly easier and smoother come Wednesday.
This was a big learning experience for me because I was on a colt for the day. The colt I was saddled with is a pretty laid-back horse (and a really good option for a beginner whose saddle is better built for the mountains than for cold-backed broncs), and she was one that I had already ridden before. The difference between Monday and the days prior, though, was that I would strike out completely on my own, with no older horse to build off of. Essentially what this boiled down to was fighting for her to keep moving straight and away from the other horses, which severely hampered my effectiveness. Fortunately, Pierson would pop in from time to time with tips and helped me realize that you can’t always be nice with young horses and politely ask for movement through little motions. Sometimes you’ve just gotta snap the reins and make them move and do it with some force — that’s why they wear a hackamore, anyhow.

Despite my limited availability, we did make it through the gather and got most of the cattle to stick — Pierson and Cade would go back in a couple of days to clean everything up, and we’d be set. Later that day, we moved the yearlings toward the pens, where we gave them all pre-breeding vaccinations, which was a process that was significantly quicker than I expected.

Tuesday brought on a full day of stacking hay, which was nothing new.

Wednesday was the branding itself. This time, I got to stick around for the whole event, which meant wrestling and roping in spades. We went through over 250 calves, which is to say that by round three my hands were as raw as raw gets. I had some trouble initially getting heels caught, but with some guidance from the cowboys around I started snaring calves a lot more often and eventually was doing much better. I do need to work on what comes after catching a calf — I’m rocking some nasty rope burn from stopping my horse and hyper fixating on catching the rope sliding off my horn with my hands rather than using my horse to follow the calf and dally once he was in a good spot. Those are things that come with time, though, and I’ll get there as I go along, as long as I’m paying attention and making the effort.

Thursday was my last day for the week, and it was more stacking hay, which went fairly smoothly. Cade came out to help on the back half, and we got it done fairly quickly.

My big take aways for the week are two-fold—riding colts is an active experience that requires way more concentration on the horse than riding an older animal. Because of this, you will not move cattle near so well on days that you’re riding a colt, and that’s to be expected—you don’t suck, you didn’t not pull your weight, you just had to fight a 900-pound animal for every step. Getting to the cattle and then back to the trailer is achievement enough, most days.

My second take away is that I’m not entirely sold on head and heel branding, I think. There’s a lot going on with them, and it feels like a lot of potential for injury. Snatch and drags tend to be a little more relaxed, with fewer moving pieces (even more so if you have a Nordfork). I’m sure my opinion will change as I get better at cowboying and learn how and where to pay attention to what’s needed, but for now, while I’m still learning, head and heels feel like a lot. That said, a quick way to learn to swim is to just jump in, so I’ve learned to take that caution with a grain of salt. I guess we’ll see what the future brings—until then, I’ve got some rope burn to doctor.

Submitted by: Leigh Stockton
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team