This article is found on page 6 of the Summer 2003 issue. My son, Chance, and I rode out to check on pairs one day. Chance had been workin' in some very rough country, up in the Badlands of North Dakota that summer. He was in a camp deal, but the camp was a chuck wagon, and he had a range tepee to sleep in. The feller that he was workin' for would come out and ride with him every couple days and help him out and kinda show him the country. The fact that Chance was only sixteen years old might have had something to do with the boss keepin' a pretty close eye on him. Maybe he felt that he ought to check and see if the young man was doin' what he ought to be doin'.
The job only lasted about a month, but Chance learned a lot and had quite a few new and exciting experiences that he was always tellin' me about. He had a semi-green horse that he had been ridin' some while he was up there. He'd went through some fairly wild deals on this colt and sure wasn't too impressed with my gentle ol' horses. I guess he figured that the ol' man hadn't ever seen anything very wild or that I'd never been in any rough country. Kids seem to think kinda like that at about his age.
As we rode along through our nice, gentle, rolling hills, Chance didn't seem to be too impressed with the cow/calf pairs I was runnin' that summer. They acted kinda tame to him. Nuthin' like them wise ol' brushy cows he'd been ridin' after. 'Bout that time, we found a calf that was lame and needed to have a shot of get-better medicine. (If them vaccine companies ain't gonna give me no free vaccine, I'm darned if I'll advertise for them).
We got our ropes down, and I took in after this 400-pound lame calf. I've found, over the years, that if you run a critter who had foot rot a ways, the exercise seems to help as much as the shot. It also makes them easier to deal with after you've caught them, and it tends to make a poor roper like me get a little better shot at ketchin'. Your horses sure get to where they'll track real good, too. They really hate to see you miss and have to chase on that much farther.
I got this calf lined out, and my ol' horse put me right on him. So I just reaches out and give him a necklace. I had been startin' to get a might irritated at Chance's remarks about my age and ability, so it sure felt good to prove to him I could rope one when I wanted to. Even if it was an accident. Chance set in to ketch the hind feet, and, wouldn't you know it, he missed bigger than hell!
I grinned and started givin' him some advice about what he was doin' wrong -tryin' to help him out and maybe teach him a little from my vast and superior store of knowledge about horsemanship, cowboyin', and ropin'. He didn't seem to be real impressed with the advice or my knowledge.
After a few missed shots, this calf must have got a little upset at all of the attention he was gettin' as he took to my horse, Woody, and went to tryin' to hook him in the side. Woody didn't seem to appreciate that very much, so we jumped out and went to pullin' this calf along a little faster. I was encouragin' Chance to get this somewhat-upset calf caught. Real loud! Chance must have remembered how to throw a heel trap about then or maybe just got lucky, but he finally got this calf roped by one hind foot.
About that time, the calf let out a beller and the mama cow, who had been stayin' right close and watchin' all this, decided that maybe she better get involved and save her baby from these mean, ol' dreadful things that was hurtin' him. She went to tryin' to hook Chance's horse, which made the horse kinda forget he was supposed to be plumb broke to death. He went to hoggin' around, and Chance did manage to keep track of his horse, his rope, and the calf and still do a pretty good job of gettin' away from the cow. But she was pretty persistent.
I dropped my rope to the ground, took my romal off from my reins, and used it for a quirt on that ol' cow. I run her off a ways and then trotted back to doctor the calf. As soon as I got there, the calf bellered again, and here came his mama, again.
I wasn't about to get afoot around her, so I took to her again, and, this time, I run her a little farther and impressed upon her the fact that she might be better off to just watch us from a distance.
I loped back to the calf and hurried up and gave him his get-better shot and jerked the rope off of his head. Chance had him dallied up pretty short and stretched out on the ground. He could just reach down and jerk the rope off of the foot without havin' to get off of his horse. That made me feel better cuz I didn't want to try and outrun this somewhat-upset calf after takin' the foot rope off and then try to get on my horse and away. Besides, my horse don't seem to understand that when I'm in a hurry, he's supposed to just stand there and let me run up to him and let me get on. Then he can get the hell out of there!
When the calf was loose, he and his mama threw nines in their tails and left on high. We coiled up our ropes and went to see if any more cattle needed our attention. Chance got pretty quiet and never said too much the rest of the ride. And you know, Chance ain't commented on these real gentle cows, since!
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