Last Wednesday we had the opportunity to observe an old time cattle round up. My cousin's husband is an old time, honest-to-goodness cowboy and they have lived in the West for over 50 years. The ranch that he worked on for many years was recently sold and he retired. When a ranch is sold, the cattle are sold with it but since they are out on the range, they have to be rounded up and counted and identified. The ranch consists of four pastures and covers over 20,000 acres, most of it Forest Service land. The cattle are rounded up by driving them from horseback. These aren't your ordinary dairy cows. They are beef cattle and have been on their own out on the range and can dangerous if approached on foot. In addition, there are several bulls present in the herd.
This guy was part of the herd and was separated from the rest when they were put in the corral. He stayed about a hundred yards away the whole time waiting to get his cows back, but he didn't give us any trouble.
The cows and calves are contained in a corral complex so that they can be processed in small groups.
After the cattle were in the corral, it was time for lunch. My cousin had left the house at 3:00 am and they were all on the range by 5:00 am. They had already worked all day the day before, putting in a 12 hour day. Lunch was brought out from the ranch house by four wheeler. They had sandwiches and salad and fruit and lots of water and Gatorade to drink.
While this was happening, the horses stood waiting patiently by. A day's work is tiring for the horses and the riders choose a fresh mount each day, letting the others rest.
Most of the horses have names. Many times the horse carries the name of the man who sold it. So, there's a horse by the name of Bud because that was the previous owner's name.
This horse is Goldie, because of her color.
And this is Rainbow. A little girl named this horse and when she was asked why she named him Rainbow she replied " 'cause I like rainbows".
After lunch, the cowboys, there were about 8 of them, moved the cattle from pen to pen. They lined them up in a chute and guided them into a device which held them still so their ear tag could be read, they were given two different innoculations and the hair at the tip of their tail was trimmed off square. This allowed the cowboys to see at glance which cows had been processed and which hadn't.
In a few hours it was over and we left the dust and the noise behind and followed a jeep trail back out of the ranch. There just is no good way to travel the back country. This area is littered with volcanic rock. The horses have to pick their way through it and it's almost impossible to drive anything, even a four wheeler, across it. The roads wash out when the rains come so it's like trying to drive down a dry creek bed.
It was a long day but a really unique experience. I took lots of pictures so that my cousin can look back on his Last Roundup.
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