REAL Cowboys

[MoKelly]

You needed a few with horns like this one as an intimidation factor..........View attachment 689627

Wow. Texas should be jealous! Great picture.

MoKelly

 

[tallyho8]

While I would not call myself a real cowboy, I have worked with cattle enough to have quite a bit of experience with them. A rancher not far from us had a large herd of cattle and quite a bit of property that he leased. To save money by not hiring a bunch of hands to work his cattle, each year he would call up my saddle club for help. Being mainly a bunch of "dudes" everyone was thrilled to help round up cattle without even having to pay anything.

We would round them up, herd them to the pens, where we would put them through the squeeze chutes to worm them and separate them into different pens. The new calves would be branded and then the bull calves would be castrated. The speed at which they were castrated using only a regular sharp kitchen knife (no stainless steel) was amazing and that they usually all survived it was even more amazing.

The experience made many of us and our horses pretty good at cutting before we even knew what cutting was. Reading a cows mind by watching his slight movements while herding them taught us how to keep the cattle going in the right direction. Being in swampy territory we also learned which stuck cattle to pull out and which ones it was best to use a bullet on because it was to late to save them.

The old rancher would read our horses backs after we finished and unsaddled and tell us which of us were saddled properly and which ones needed different types or sizes of saddles to keep our horses working to the best of their abilities. He could spot a good cow horse almost immediately while they were still tied to the trailer and tell us how much better he was then the rest of them and was always right. He was in his 80s on our last roundup and could still outride the majority of us.

 

[Bearsixty7]

..Spring branding should be an experience all city folks get to watch. They would have to provide their own "barf buckets".

LOL! it's not that bad! Branded many head in my youth, My brother and I had our own brand and my Dad and Uncle had the same initials so they shared an iron and just had different locations on the cattle. We would use a paint brush and brush mineral oil on the brand afterwards. I even harvested a few "Rocky Mountain Oysters" and even tried them after we cooked them, never became a fan. I've injected several shots and pushed down many deworming bolus. Not only worked our cattle but helped work cattle for 3 uncles and a few of dads friends. I've even had to reach in and help get a calf or two delivered. Miss the farm life, maybe will get back into it very small time when I retire.

 

[grsthegreat]

LOL! it's not that bad! Branded many head in my youth, My brother and I had our own brand and my Dad and Uncle had the same initials so they shared an iron and just had different locations on the cattle. We would use a paint brush and brush mineral oil on the brand afterwards. I even harvested a few "Rocky Mountain Oysters" and even tried them after we cooked them, never became a fan. I've injected several shots and pushed down many deworming bolus. Not only worked our cattle but helped work cattle for 3 uncles and a few of dads friends. I've even had to reach in and help get a calf or two delivered. Miss the farm life, maybe will get back into it very small time when I retire.

naaaa. dont miss it at all. muddy , sloppy work. ive pulled so many calves over the years i never want to do it again. Horses, for the most part, like and respect a good owner. Cattle for the most part hate our guts. been cow kicked so many time...i forget. even after helping a cow deliver a calf that was so stuck the cow nearly died. the cow got up and kicked me. they deserve to be made into hamburger patties.

 

[bindian]

Wow. Texas should be jealous! Great picture.

MoKelly

Nope. This is one ranch near Willis, Texas.

My Dad was a genuine Texas Cowboy.

He was raised on farm in the Texas Panhandle. That is a pearl handle 38 revolver on his hip.

They raised Greyhounds to run down coyotes. He would run trap lines before school. The whole school knew when he caught a shunk. The teacher sent him home and told him to run his trap line in the evenings.
I don't have horses today, but my brother and I had 4 horses between us while growing up. When I was 12, we rode to the store everyday during the summer and on Saturdays during school.
Me a few years ago.

I got to go on my first round up and branding when I turned 9. Branding just stinks and cutting boar hogs is not my favorite past time. We would ride the calves in the corral. Life on the farm was never boring.
hugs, Brandi

 

[STx]

My cousin’s husband was a cowboy at the Double-Arrow in Calvert, Tx. They lived on a 2,000 acreish pasture, there were 5 other pastures with cowboys living on them. I spent the summer working that ranch when I was 16, it was a good time. They did a roundup while I was there, I rode with them and helped move calves through the pens, branding was done with an electric iron. Afterwards there was a big party with a craps table, I won enough to buy a registered Beagle.

 

[redman135]

deserteagle71, the trouble with moving cattle or sheep on the road these days is there are so few people left who know how to navigate through stock.

 

[Streetcar]

naaaa. dont miss it at all. muddy , sloppy work. ive pulled so many calves over the years i never want to do it again. Horses, for the most part, like and respect a good owner. Cattle for the most part hate our guts. been cow kicked so many time...i forget. even after helping a cow deliver a calf that was so stuck the cow nearly died. the cow got up and kicked me. they deserve to be made into hamburger patties.

I had more problems with the horses than I ever did with the cattle. Horses were mean and did some stupid things that got them hurt

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Nope. This is one ranch near Willis, Texas. View attachment 689672
My Dad was a genuine Texas Cowboy. View attachment 689676View attachment 689679 He was raised on farm in the Texas Panhandle. That is a pearl handle 38 revolver on his hip.View attachment 689674 They raised Greyhounds to run down coyotes. He would run trap lines before school. The whole school knew when he caught a shunk. The teacher sent him home and told him to run his trap line in the evenings.
I don't have horses today, but my brother and I had 4 horses between us while growing up. When I was 12, we rode to the store everyday during the summer and on Saturdays during school.
Me a few years ago.View attachment 689681View attachment 689682
I got to go on my first round up and branding when I turned 9. Branding just stinks and cutting boar hogs is not my favorite past time. We would ride the calves in the corral. Life on the farm was never boring.
hugs, Brandi

I'm partial to pretty blondes from Texas, Brandi. I married one from East Texas over 50 years ago. In fact, the day before we were married, we rode double on her pretty Palomino, "Taffy". She was a PK and barrel racer, though not a rancher's daughter.

 

[Username Taken]

Florida is First in Cattle

Florida became first home for beef cattle in U.S. and maintains ranching tradition.

www.farmflavor.com

 

[cqaigy2]

These stories are great! They bring back memories. Love the pictures and the ones of Brandi's cowboy Dad. I forgot to mention, i was not much of a roper. I was a decent healer but for some reason, getting a rope over the head seemed to be much more difficult for me.

 

[oosik]

Great stories and golden memories. I was raised in Omak, WA. Cattle ranches, sheep ranches and apples. Everything to do with livestock was done atop a horse.

 

[bindian]

Photo is of what they did when (in Grandpa's day) the cowboying was done............

After all, it was a working farm too.
hugs, Brandi

 

[grsthegreat]

They used mules.... they keep their brains together better. Keeping my 2 working together is hard enough

 

[bindian]

My cousin used to train mules. Said he would rather be on a mule than a horse.
hugs, Brandi

 

[dragoneggs]

I grew up in suburbia knowing basically nothing about farm life. My ex took me as a very young man right after we got married to Ipswich, South Dakota to meet her dad's family.

Timing was good (bad) as the first morning upon waking up, I got enlisted to do some ranching. Well, I got thrown in deep to de-horn, de-nut, brand, inject something in the ear and whatever else there was. Don't think I have ever worked harder in a day!

Day two, I was feeling pretty sore but a little more confident around the cattle. My uncle in law had a couple young cattle (old calves) get loose and we jumped in his pickup and went flying down the field to catch up with them.

I don't know what got into me but when we got up to one the jailbrakers, I suddenly jumped out of the bed of the pickup and wrestled it to the ground. In reality, I sort of just landed on him and he went down like a sack of potatoes. I was pretty proud of myself.

Funniest thing happened though... my uncle was so surprised at my action, he jumped out of the driver's seat to basically say 'what the hell are you doing?'. Meanwhile the pickup never came to a stop and continued down the field. He didn't have time to get too mad at me... he had to go chase down his truck! We laughed so hard that night telling the story to the women.

 

[bindian]

I remember my Uncle "breaking" in his future son in law like that. Everyone was laughing around the branding iron fire.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Wagtail]

I know that a lot of the stories are reminiscent but my understanding is that modern branding is done via liquid nitrogen.

At least that's how it's done for horses here in Aus.

 

[Streetcar]

How many of us have ever met a real cowboy? I'm surrounded by ranchers. They raise cattle and do all those necessary things. Down south of me - very near the old town of Ewan - is a family with two daughters. Both are around 45. They can throw down a spring calf for branding like you and I could handle a large teddy bear. They get up in the morning, saddle up a horse and ride out - to work. And the way these women can ride - would make John Wayne blush. I've only met the both of them a couple times. They are current in the social graces but seldom have time for chit-chat or other non-productive activities. For them the day starts/ends with all business and it's most usually riding a horse. This is a life they have ch

How many of us have ever met a real cowboy? I'm surrounded by ranchers. They raise cattle and do all those necessary things. Down south of me - very near the old town of Ewan - is a family with two daughters. Both are around 45. They can throw down a spring calf for branding like you and I could handle a large teddy bear. They get up in the morning, saddle up a horse and ride out - to work. And the way these women can ride - would make John Wayne blush. I've only met the both of them a couple times. They are current in the social graces but seldom have time for chit-chat or other non-productive activities. For them the day starts/ends with all business and it's most usually riding a horse. This is a life they have chosen - it can be a hard life but apparently they enjoy it. I have a great deal of respect for these two women.

In Ohio I never remembered seeing a branded cow

 

[cqaigy2]

My cousin used to train mules. Said he would rather be on a mule than a horse.
hugs, Brandi

Reminds me of a friend i would go hunting with. He had mules, i was very impressed with them especially on steep narrow trails. Those mules were rock steady, didn't flinch when shooting.