CATCHING TRAUMATIZED COWS

We thought it would be an easy roundup, but we were wrong. The reason? We hadn’t considered the traumatic life experiences of our cows. We bought two cows from a neighbor four months ago and pastured them on my brother’s 20-acre property. They seemed calm, even letting me walk right up to them. With winter approaching, it was time to move them to our ranch. This was a chance to act like real cowboys. Although we don’t know how to rope, how hard could it be for four riders to get just two cows into a trailer? As soon as we started to approach them, we could tell something was wrong. Each time we started riding toward them, they began frantically running. After two hours, we finally caught them, embarrassed by our pathetic performance.

The reason they were so difficult to catch became evident the following day when we talked to the previous owner. He told us they were raised as rodeo roping calves. Anyone who has watched a rodeo can imagine how traumatic it must be for a calf to be chased around an arena by huge horses and then suddenly clotheslined by a lasso rope. No wonder they panicked and took off as soon as they saw us on our horses.

The lesson here is obvious. Know your people. Understand the life experiences that have shaped them. Get off your high horse and relate to them on their level. If we had done this with our cows and had simply walked up to them on foot, we probably could have had them in the trailer in under ten minutes.