A Monday Ride

Dad had some cattle work needing to be done and Mom headed to town to play the piano for a children's program, so we did the cattle work yesterday.

We went to our pasture and caught the horses, rode bare-back up to the house, and saddled before leaving.  Once reaching the pens, we moved some gates around to be able to sort once the cattle were penned.  After that, Dad hauled us to a gate where we three kids mounted and began gathering the cows and bulls.

We are taught to count when we move or do something with the cows, so we counted a few times before heading them to the watering tank.  We mostly got different numbers each time, but once in a while we reached the right amount.  We moved the cattle across the pasture and Dad met us half way through.  We sorted some to sell and keep, and took a herd to meet up with some other cattle.  They fought for a while and we moved them to the pens where we had moved the gates. 

I help Dad sort different girls (cows) and Big J. and Little J. handled the gates.  One time we almost had a dilemma, but we worked it out; our gate runners were great and we worked together.  After finishing shorting, we counted then mounted and pushed the girls back to their pasture.  We headed home when we had finished the little touches such as closing gates, and had checked the goats. 

Mom had gotten home and had made up wonderful hamburgers for dinner.  The weather got to where it looked like it was going to rain, big clouds built up and the wind grew harder.  I went out to water my goat and take pictures.  Before long, Dad, Big J., and I were headed to move some heifers.  We drove a little ways and mounted.  We got sprinkled on for a little while but it stopped.  The heifers moved nicely, but they have been moved over a lot of miles!  We finished up and drove home.  When we put the horses up we found my goat with her babies and took care of them for a little bit. 

It was a nice day and the horses did great like always, plus we got an air freshener rain.   : )