Finally, after weeks of dancing the rain arrived, and with it flooding, fence damage, and my neighbors cows, 75 Black Angus! The fence line had been taken down by the rushing water. We first had to locate their owner, who immediately notified us that Colorado is a fence out state, which means this is more my problem than his. Lucky me!
That was the start of a long hard day. I usually do not wrangle cows. Cows do not behave like sheep. They do not have a strong flight instinct, which means I had to get out a lounging whip, which has never touched an animal, but is does make that sound your hear in cowboy movies and on cattle drives. Luckily it worked...
... well sort of. They would stand there and look at me, then move a little. Maybe the whip did not help as much as my jumping around and yelling at them to go home? Their owner was not in a hurry to round them up, so this went on all day. They kept wanting to come over to the barn, and I had to keep shooing them away, they would then graze for a while, and then they were back again. Now why was I not on horse back starting a cattle drive? My horses have never worked cattle, they do a little dressage and jumping but they have never done a cattle drive.
My dear husband towards the end of the day arrived in the pickup and tried herding them back to their home... they came back just before dusk. Then finally their owners arrived on four wheelers herding them up and off to where they belong. Sunset was a welcome site that day.
~ Deb
*Last time in Barn Stories: Muddy Girl
