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It snowed, snowed, and then snowed some more.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

No Such Thing As A Normal Day!

Harley
Ok folks this is a wild story that will be certain to make you laugh, I wasn't laughing at the time but I am sure that if I was a by stander it would have looked pretty funny!!

Clay sends me this message -'Go get the cows back off of Meadow Creek and watch out for the wild bull' - Wild bull pretty much says it all, right!! Well I was thinking one of the old Herford, red and white, very easy to see from a distance, wild bulls. Roger and I had just gathered the upper part of Meadow Creek together, so I tell him to wait and hold them while I zip down to the lower part to get the cows. I was riding Harley and he has learned how to gallop, but zipping and Harley are two words that really don't go well together.

As we go through the gate I see the cows take off and I was thinking, 'Man I hope Harley can catch up to them'! Not that I was doubting his skill, but his speed was in question. Harley is a pretty good horse, he is still classified as a colt and all colts are STUPID and unpredictable to say the least. We are running full out and Harley notices some pipe laying beside the road, instead of shying (like most horses would do), oh no not Harley, he puts on the brakes and skids to a stop to look at it!! I was expecting him to jump side ways but not stop, so yes I was almost threw off over his head and before I could get myself back in the saddle he takes off in his all out gallop again. It somehow managed to regather myself in the saddle and get my focus back on the cows which had now regained their lead in this race to the opening in the newly built pipe fence to get them turned around. This is when I happened to notice that the cow in front was pretty bulky and stocky - OH CRAP THE BULL!!

Well I could tell that we were going to meet head on in the corner, and I now knew exactly which bull this was. He has a scar in the center of his forehead and a few target marks on his chest from our meetings last year. This very large Herford-Angus inbred and this bull is mean and completely crazy, that's why he has so many scars on him. He must have 10 lives just like a cat. Last year all I had was my 22 and he didn't have very much respect for it, it must have felt like a deer fly bite to him, but this year I am a bit bigger on my sting but it only has a short 2 inch barrel, so the range isn't the same. Harley is way to stupid to know that he is just about to get flattened, so I baled off. Yep that's right, at a full our run I jumped off the horse and took cover behind a grease wood bush. Now I have to hand it to Rusty because he quickly figured out that something was really wrong with this situation and he bravely went out and turned the bull just enough to distract him, so I pulled out my pistol and took aim at his chest - again. I was shaking so bad that I had to say to myself, 'you better get your crap together here!!'

Now another thing that I don't like to tell people is that I don't know my right from my left, but I can tell you that I figured out which eye was my right eye and I stood there facing this raging wild bull, and I took a deep breath and fired. He dropped and slid to within about 25 feet of me and the dogs, then he gets back up and was snorting and bellering towards me, so I fired again. He stopped and turned and was trying to run off....I fired again, this one must have hit him in the hind leg because he hit the ground again......and then he gets back up and limps off!!! I only carry 3 rounds in my pistol because I don't want it to go off accidentally and shoot me somewhere important because I just tuck it in the front of my jeans, so I just stood there and was very thankful that he was leaving! I was thinking that now I knew how the young Indian kid felt on Dances With Wolves when the buffalo was charging towards him, can you say HOLY CRAP THIS IS GOING TO HURT!!!

When all the dust had settled, I looked to see where Harley had made it to. Harley was standing about 10 feet behind me, and he had a look of gratitude on his face. I guess he had finally figured out that this was not a typical cow, maybe it was the all the noise that the bull was making as he was charging towards us.

I then realized that I was shaking again, and I am not to proud to tell you that I was scared to death. I would rather take on a bear any day than one of those wild bulls. I don't know if he lived or not, but I did get the rest of the cows stopped and turned around and started back towards the gate. Roger finally came looking for me and he asked me what was wrong, I told him, 'well I found that bull, he was the same one that would charge us up Kelly Canyon last year, and he hasn't gotten any friendlier!' Then he asks me, 'why were there skid marks in the road?', I replied, 'Harley needed to stop and look at the pipe.'

It wasn't until I went to get back on Harley that I noticed that he was shaking just as badly as I was, maybe this will make him think about things a little better. Sure hope so, cause this could have turned out very ugly if that bull would have gotten to Harley and I.

2 comments:

  1. Wow, I'm glad you are okay!!! I checked in to see what you've been up to, since I've been camping so much lately that I've missed all the facebook updates:) Your life is never boring! PS-this is Kim Barton...I can only figure out how to post a comment under "anonymous"..:)

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