Catching Wild Cattle

Bah ha ha ha!!!!

I love that story, that's pretty western!

My only experience with running stuff down on the road actually happened about 2 weeks ago. My friend has a little roping arena at her house, hubby got into the booze and told her if she fixed it up, we would buy some steers. So she took it to heart hired a welder and got it finished. Hubby was gone, and I don't know anyone down here really so I tells her to go pick some steers up and I will give her the money for them. She goes and gets some fresh steers...really fresh..never been worked horseback which we find out. We go over to her house and we are going to start breaking them in....this is all new to me because I am not a team roper. We needed to put them through the stripping chute, run them up the alley and to the chute. Well since they have never been worked horseback they are running around with their heads up and a big kink in their tail. Well we get to running around hubby asks" how many steers do you count" I says "nine" he says "how many did she get?" I says "dont know"....we's supposed to have 10. After running them around getting them roped we see that they can push up underneath a panel and get out through the draw. We have 3 escapees out in the pasture. We go out to get them and start to put them back in the arena...I am out in the brush plugging the hole so they can't get back out with the cows...I am on a colt. I can't see whats going on...all of a sudden a hear air horns on a semi and people hitting their brakes. The steers jumped the fence onto a four lane hwy. So by the time I get around the arena and out the gate, the steers, hubby and friend are headed down the road towards town. My colt has never been on pavement and doesnt know what it it is...let a lone the tar they put on the road to seal cracks looks like big snakes...finally I get him across two lanes and I am headed down the median in a not so hot pursuit. There are tires, potato chip bags peices of fenders, you name it is on that road. So my colt blows snot on every single piece of garbage and starts to crowhop...about that time someone drives by and honks their horn....makes for a long trip down a short road. By time I catch up, the steers jumped a cattle guard on a driveway and headed into the woods. We track them through the woods for a while and its dark. We hear cows balling off in the distance so we are guessing that tomorrow morning that is where they will probably end up...or find their way home. Tomorrow is another day.

The next day they show up at the neighbors in with their yearlings and a bunch of horses. So we all pile in the Gator and go take a look at what our options are. We put the horses up and decide to see if we can get them penned and loaded into the trailer. 2 steers are out with the horses and 1 is with the other yearlings. Well they are fine if your footback, and follow our friend in to a pen witha sack of range cubes!!! Now that is some East Texas cowboying at its best! The yearlings with other steer are in a chain link back yard with the gate missing. So I am standing in the hole to keep them from running into the woods. The house is empty except for about 100 cats living in it and you can smell the cat **** and piss standing 100 foot outside of the house....I am standing way too close...I am hacking an gagging..it is all I can do to keep down my bacon and eggs. Finally hubby brings horse over and ropes the steer and drags him out and I can breathe again...another breakfast saved. Hubby gets the steer on a short rope and he has to drag him around the side of the house to front because we can't get a truck and trailer back there. It is a maze of old satelitte dishes, lawn chairs, propane tanks...whatever, you name it, it was there and all amongst the trees. Steer is mad, wrapps himself a round a tree. I am on foot and go to grab his tail to pull him back around the tree and slip in the wet leaves, steer decides to cow kick me at the same time...I am rolling around on the ground like I am in a drunken stupor and the steer is trying to rub my face in the dirt, thank God he doesnt really know how to use horns and hubby has him tight. Husband is laughing at me and I am mad, tell husband to go get bent, he threatens to slide rope...ok you win.

Finally get everyone loaded in the trailer and back to the arena...needless to say them three got roped....a lot...

Also thinking I am going to try a Catahoula puppy. I think when we move home, I will get one and try it out. There has been times when **** gets balled up in the willows on the river and thick brush that would be pretty handy.

I tried to find the card of that guy who had them pups the other weekend. He claimed, and might of been blowing smoke up my butt, that the dog the pups were by was a $20,000 catch dog and out of their bitch. But he was only selling them pups for $200. So I am kinda thinking he was full of crap. I was selling my no name dogs for about $300 and shipped some out on airplane. He told me the name of the dog and I can't remember because it didn't mean anything to me. But he was out of MO.

If you were picking out a puppy, what do you look for?

Was the guy's name Hoyt Ferguson? He has some good ones and his stud won some big baying competitions. One of our bitches come from them. They're good, but $20,000 sounds far-fetched. We ship our puppies on planes too. I'll pm you more about it

Hell, I can't remember. That is why I was trying to find his card. The guy was from somewhere by Paris, TX. He was down for Canton First Monday selling puppies. And we were looking through dog alley. If figure if his dogs were that nice, he wouldn't have to come down here to sell them. All I ever had to do was put the word out, or Craigslist and they were gone before I had them weaned. He had a male I kind of liked, but he had a pink mouth, It is probably a wives tale but all my dogs have black mouths.

PM me about your paint pony...

Oh, ok. I read that wrong. I thought the guy who had the pups also owned the expensive dogs. Still could've been out of Hoyt's dog. If he was that valuable, he's probably a competition dog. Also probably a hog dog, which they penalize for biting if I'm not mistaken. I'm kinda out of my element on that, so don't take that as the gospel.

Small world, my in-laws have a place down there and they go to the Canton sale. I think they picked up a Black-Mouth Cur for us there a couple years ago

I notice a lot of guys around here have them Cur dogs.
The only experience I ever had with them was years back I took a job in Oklahoma starting some colts and cowboying. This guy was a FL. Cracker and had a pile of Cur dogs. He had lease ground and cows scattered everywhere.

We would go to move cows and use them dogs. It was so different than I was used to. Them cows would turn around and fight the dogs. Just let the dogs do their thing and move the rest of the cows. Once she got off the fight she would come running back to the herd. Well after we would get everything moved/sorted..whatever. It seemed like it took twice as long to get dogs caught up. It just seemed like a lot of trouble for what I could get done on a broke horse and one good dog. Perhaps his dogs or methods were not the best, or I just don't understand the method...

If your not already a member you guys should go to "Working ranch horses and cowdogs" on facebook. AC if you do facebook just PM me your name and I'll add you. Cowchick77 if your not already a member then I'll add you.

I was driving down a frontage road of the freeway that runs past the ranch the other day when I saw a horse tied to the fence and two almost brand new dodge pickups chasing a cow up and down the off ramp to the freeway. I stopped to see if I could help and the guy that had been riding the horse asked if I had any wire cutters. Being the fine cowboy that I am of course I had a pair. I was curious why he wanted to cut the fence untill I realized that our government in all it's wisdom built a fence and installed a cattleguard but didn't put a gate in. Once a cow is on the freeway there is no way for her to get out.

The "cowboys" in the 50,000 dollar trucks finally managed to turn the cow around and literally shove her through the hole in the fence. The guy climbed back on his horse that I would describe as a sheepherder horse. It could go forward and maybe back and turn around only slightly sharper than you could turn around 1000 head of sheep. The cow still wouldn't cross the line lines painted on the road and after nearly wrecking both trucks they let her go down the frontage road and continued on with the rest of thier cattle. They had about 40 head and I counted one rider on a horse and seven pickups herding these cows. For what they burned in diesel fuel they could have hired about five real cowboys to move them (assuming there are actually five real cowboys around here). I wish I would have had a horse with me. Even with my modest roping skills I could have caught the cow and drug her through the fence and back to the herd at much less cost and aggrivation.

Cowchick, That sounds similar to a time I went coyote hunting with some guys. Really thought I'd learn something about using dogs. We hunted for 3 hours and chased dogs for 4 hours. I mean chased them with 4 wheel drive trucks. It was ridiculous. They didn't listen a lick, and when we finally caught them, they'd jump all over you and wouldn't load in the pickup. Had to lift them and throw them in and they were 80 or 90 pound Walkers. I'm sure most guys that run hunting dogs aren't that way, but I was not impressed

ha ha ha... I have been on a couple of those deals, more "cowboys" than cows and still can't get it done right!

A long time ago I was living in Oregon and the neighbors called and asked if we wanted to help turn his cows out on the permit. So we trot across the field the next morning to help him out. We were greeted by 25 people horseback, 50 cows and 4 bulls....oh my. He had just put the bulls with them that morning and of course they were on the fight with each other. So we start pushing everything up the hill... the bulls are fighting and everyone scatters. So everytime I have to crash into them, get one out and chase him off so they quit. We get to the gate off the ranch onto the permit and two bulls go to fight through the gate, a girl freaks out and runs her horse through a fence...basically it was a couple of people moving cows, me breaking up fighting bulls and everyone else was on a trail ride..good times. We get to the top to turn everything loose, and they get off, build a fire and sing Kum bay ya. I politely said goodbye to my neighbor put up my coat collar and trotted home....

Two years ago I worked for a cattle association and when one of the permittees came to turn out his cows there was a bigger herd of horses than there was cows. It was quite a dude operation. I had to put a shoe on one guys horse and saddle another guys. Another bunch of guys had a horse that kept wanting to lay down when the rider tried to mount. I finally convinced them to take the saddle off and I was shocked at how thin the horse was. I let it be known to them that they were not welcome to come with me if they rode that horse. Several other folks backed me and the guy with that horse stayed at the trailer. Every time this permitee brought help it was kids and rank dudes. I really dreaded the few times that I had to ride with his "crew".