I worked for a man named Curtis Clark one time. He was a short fat man, talked kind of rough, and was hard-headed. But you couldn't help but like him. He, along with Ronnie Straton, had 1,515 head of grazing yearlin's turned out on a place called Northridge about 2,800 acres total.
Anyway, my job was to ride and doctor these cattle. I had two horses, Champ, a sorrel, and Major, a gray. I would ride and check these cattle every day, six or seven days a week, eight to 10 hours a day.
One day, I was riding along and spotted this yearlin' about half sick, so I decided to doctor her (they were all heifers on this place). So I rope her and trip her and jump off my horse to tie her down. When I get to her, she tries to get up, so I jump down on her neck to hold her. There was a lot of old ragweeds around that were dry big-stemmed weeds. Anyway, I jobbed one of them in my eye as I was jumping on this heifer.
I went ahead and tied her and doctored her. I could not see out of that eye, and it hurt like hell. But I was about two miles from my truck so I finished my rounds and made it back to my truck. I loaded my horse and looked at my eye in the truck mirror. I had jobbed that ragweed stick in the side of my eyeball. It stuck in my eye near the corner and had a piece stickin' out of my eye about the size of a .22 bullet head. My wife wanted me to go to the doctor, but my vision was back so I didn't go, but my eye hurt for a long while.
Another
time, Richard Harris and Steve Jetton had a contract on grazin'
some Mexican steers. They had them about a year, shipped out,
and had a few stragglers left over, so they was catchin' them.
I went along one day to help.
Steve had roped this one big steer and dragged him to the trailer. I don't remember if I or Richard put the second rope on him, but someone did and I got off my horse to run the rope through the trailer so's we could load him.
Anyway, I tied my horse, a big App named Joe, to the side of the trailer close to the back and grabbed the rope and started up in the trailer when Steve hollered, "LOOK OUT, JOHNNIE!"
I turned, and there was that big steer right in my face doing 62 miles per hour. That steer hit me under my chin and split it wide open. He knocked me up under Joe and was doin' his best to hook me, while Joe was doin' his best not to step on me. And I'm here to tell you Joe wasn't doin' too good a job.
Anyway, Steve pulled the steer off me. The reason the steer hit me is because Steve gave the steer too much rope.
So I jumped up and grabbed the second rope and started back in the trailer when Mr. Harris said, "Give me that rope. You're hurt."
So he took the rope, and I got over to the side, felt my chin, and discovered I could actually rub the bone. Richard seen me doin' that and said, "Get your nasty hand out of there and let's go get it sewed up."
So we went to the doctor, and while I was waitin', I spit out a jaw tooth that the steer knocked out. The doctor put 12 stitches in my chin, and we went back and finished out the day catchin' those steers that were left.
Richard also said if he was ever in a bar-room fight, he wanted me on his side because, if I could take a hit like that steer gave me and come back, then no one could knock me out.
Another time, I had just sold my truck and trailer. Mr. Sonny Stinstein called and said he had a sick cow. It was only about two and a half miles down to the pasture where the cow was. I saddled up the gray mare and lit out.
When I got there, Mr. Sonny was on his 4-wheeler and said he would show me the cow. We got out there, and I cut the cow out and took to her. I was just about to rope her when she turned left, stumbled, and fell right in front of my horse. We were runnin' wide open, and she fell just far enough in front of my horse that, when she tried to jump the cow, we hit her instead.
When we did, we went head over heels and end over end. When the dust cleared, my horse was standin' up. I was on the ground with the rope all around my legs. I was tied on to my saddle hard and fast, and I knew if that mare was to take off, I was in trouble.
Well, she didn't, and I kicked loose, got up, jumped back
on her, and still caught the cow. It scared Mr. Sonny. He thought
I was hurt bad. I didn't tell him but I broke some ribs on my
left side. I rode the mare back home, and it was tough with those
ribs hurtin', but I made it okay. I'm just glad my horse wasn't
hurt.
