Branding

Larry called and invited me to his branding. Dix was not feeling well so she stayed home while I drove up and offered my services. I heard a youngster ask Larry if this was his ranch, and his reply was he owned 10% and a guy named Obama owns the rest. There were plenty of holders, and branders, and taggers and shot givers, and so I got my usual gate keeper slot. It's an easy job but crucial because if a calf bolts out of the pen, and he doesn't trample the branding crew, he is nearly impossible to glean out of the processed calves and their mammas. I was relieved that there appeared to be only about 75 head huddled together in the pen, but that was deceptive. The more the doggies get culled out, the more they spread out, more calves seem to appear. The actual count was over 200.
From my unique position I could notice the Doppler effect as the horse and cowboy dragged the bawling calves past me. The babies had a high pitched "mwaaaah" wail being drug towards me, but as they pass, the frequency drops down to a mature "muuuuu". It takes real concentration to remember horse and riders are coming in from behind me as I am playing mind games with the calves who are toying with the idea of making a break for it. One horse had enough of dragging heavy calves and ejected his heavier Cowboy Joe. It was a scary 4-second ride bucking amongst the branding teams with the rope tangling with horse and calves. Nobody got hurt except Cowboy Joe's lip. He did remount right then and there and pulled a couple more calves out to teach his young horse a valuable lesson. Things were uneventful for awhile until we were down to the last six calves. One momma cow broke the monotony by heaving up a couple sections of fence panels, I guess in a rescue attempt. I saw the rancher's son make a very athletic jump over the panels to stem the makings of a stampede.