Unless you’ve lived on a ranch, are a bull fighter, a bull rider, or a rodeo clown, most of you will never experience the raw exhilaration fear that comes from having a bull blow snot at you, get a little on the hook, and discover, he’s not bluffing.
That is exactly what happened to me the afternoon of branding. All the calves had been branded. Most of the help had gone to the house to eat, which left just a few of us at the barn. One of the things we’d done that morning while we worked our cows, was sort off the bulls that had managed to escape their pasture, and get in with the cows. We don’t like to turn our bulls out until July 4- in fact, we don’t even own any bulls, because well, they’re a lot of trouble. So we lease them. Kinda like you lease a car. Seriously.
They fight.
Seriously- they’re like high school boys- full of testosterone with no idea what to do with it!
And some of them don’t mind showing off how handsome they are.
Yes, #26, you’re a good-lookin’ fella!
Oh wow. I’ve really digressed. Our bulls are here early this year, and as such they’re escaping. So when we brought the cows in, we sorted off two of the escapees, and that evening, we needed to put the bulls into a pen together, one that is more escape-proof. Kelsey and I got one moved, and I stepped to the hip of another bull- #1458, who proceeded to turn to me, and run at me, and blow snot at me. Needless to say, I couldn’t get away fast enough. And then I fell down in my haste to escape the wrath of this 2000lb beast. I managed to get away with nary a scratch, but next time, I’ll be paying a little more attention to whether or not he’s a little on the hook!
Here’s the bad boy in person:
Yes, I’m talking about you, Grouchy.
Don’t look at me in that tone of voice!
It’s just another day on the ranch.
XO
[ad#Google Adsense][ad#Google Adsense]
man bulls always look so mean! Glad you managed to escape that incident without getting hurt!
Been there! A few years ago we bought a couple black bulls and the day we brought them home I went in to throw them a bit of hay and one of them put the run on me, thankfully I just made it to the gate and scrambled up it with a bull inches from my behind! You can’t trust them worth a lick!
Yikes! That is not a fun position to find oneself in. Glad ya made it out of there.
I’m always leary of those big boys, but I did get myself knocked down by one of my favorite cows. My ex-husband had bought a bunch of nice Gelbvieh cross cows from a neighbor of his and there was one red cow that I got particularly fond of over the winter. She would let me walk up and scratch her all over. Kind of a big pet.
When we started calving, my husband and I took turns checking and that one morning I jumped in the pen and started to walk through everything. Not even thinking, I walked up to my favorite cow and reached out to scratch her…and then I noticed she had calved. That fact hit me about the same time she did. Thankfully, they calve early in ND and I was bundled up, cause that big old girl rolled me but good.
Luckily for me, she knocked me in the direction of the fence, so I just sort of crawled out of the corral. That old bag was on the hook. Took about a week before we could even get her calf tagged and she was pretty snorty the whole time she was mothering that calf. Weaned calves and within a week, she was back to being a big pet. Needless to say, I was a lot more careful around her after that-LOL.
We’ve recently discovered we have a hook-ey cow, and both me and the cowboy’s daughter have asked him to take her to the sale. Most all of our cows are gentle- not let you walk up and rub them gentle, but nice to be around, quiet, work well through the chute, and move well when you trail them. All of them but this ONE! Glad you’re ok. I was really pissed about the whole situation until Zach told me to just be thankful he didn’t run me over. Good point!
As a high school teacher, I loved your analogy with the teen boys.
And #`1458 dies have that bad boy /handsome thing going for him.
I bet he was thinking…man I sure wish the girl cows could of saw me do that, they would be swooning for me! I’m a bad-ass, oh yeah!!
Glad you didn’t get hurt!
I’m sure he was, Heather! That made me laugh. He really does believe he’s tough. And you know, he is absolutely tougher than me! So I guess he’s right!
I found this very entertaining – life on the ranch! I have scary memories of 2 black baldy cows that used to chase every calving season 😉