Smiley's Bull
by Roger Allgeier illustration
by Justin Wells
We've got a little over a half section of ground south of Hudson, Colorado. It is a nice, sub-irrigated pasture that gets tall ol' wheat grass in it. You've got to keep it grazed down or it gets so tall and tough the cattle won't eat it.
Smiley is a friend of ours who was working for a feed lot. He had a side deal with the feedlot where he could run some cattle of his own, and he also furnished a lot of cattle for cuttin's and workin' cow horse competitions. For several years, Smiley had been runnin' a bunch of yearlin' heifers on our place, but this particular year he dumped a bunch of cows and calves and some big ol' fat heifers. They were actually three- or four-year-old cows that had never been bred. They were really nice.
Well, it was early June, and Smiley had put a big ol' black bull in on us, too. It was mostly an Angus bull. My neighbor on the west side, Donnie, runs less cows than we do, but he always has about three times as many bulls in his pasture as he needs. This danged ol' bull of Smiley's decided he wanted to hang out over at Donnie's, and he just wouldn't stay home. He kept gettin' across the fence there, and I'd have to go over there and bring him back.
This one morning, probably about ten o'clock, I was checkin' the cows horseback and was ridin' along that west fence, and, sure enough, that black bull was next door in Donnie's. I was riding a big ol' sorrel gelding that's a double-bred Doc Bar horse out of South Dakota. He's big for a Doc Bar. He gets a little spooked at some things, but he's a good solid horse, and I can get a lot of things done on him. His name is Jack. It was about a half mile down to the gate, so I rode Jack down there and threw that gate open, and rode in and picked the bull up. I didn't have any problem getting him through the gate and back where he belonged.
We got that bull through that gate, and he trotted down the fence. I got off and shut the gate and mounted up again. I thought, "Well, all the cows that he's supposed to be with, Smiley's cows, are at the east end of the pasture and we are at the west end and we can't see them." They were behind some willows. So I figured I'd better push the bull over to them. But that bull kept wanting to turn back, and pretty soon I could tell he was wanting to get back across that fence.
I got to pushing him pretty hard. I pushed him north, along that west fence, toward the road, but he kept trying to turn back. I figured we'd turn east, eventually, toward those cows.
Now, near our west fence, we've got kind of a spring-fed lake. It's man-made, but it's spring fed. Well, that bull turned back and headed for that lake. He got up on that dike, and I got to crowding him really hard. I got him to turn down the east end of that dam. He got around about half way, on the east side of that little lake. Then he took one look at that water and just dove into that lake!
He disappeared! He went clear to the bottom! I thought, "Oh my God! How am I gonna tell Smiley I drowned his bull?"
I waited there for a minute, trying to think what I was going to do, when pretty soon that bull just kinda bobbed to the surface. He started swimming toward the middle of the lake. He got out there and kinda swam in a little circle. He looked back to where I was and then started swimming west toward that west fence.
So I trotted Jack around the dam and just sat there and waited for the bull.
Now Jack was just kinda mildly watching those ears and nostrils come across that lake. That's all of that bull that was showing. Just ears and nostrils. That's all that Jack could see. He knew there was something there, and he was just kinda watchin' it.
Well, the bank on that west side is real steep. When that bull got to us, he charged up out of that water, like a big ol' black hippopatamus coming up out of that water. Poor ol' Jack scattered!
Jack thought the Devil had got him. I got to laughing so hard
I dang near fell off. I finally got ol' Jack gathered up, and
we trotted back and finally got that bull turned. I guess that
water tired him out and cooled him off a little. We trotted him
back around to where the cows were and got him settled down.
He pretty much stayed home then for the rest of the summer.
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