More Branding

Well we are almost done branding season, I think we got two more left, one next Monday and the other I'm not sure they have a date yet but it will be after that.  On Saturday I headed over early (I had to get up at 5, which is way to early for my liking) to the ranch where I used to work.  I wasn't sure which horse to take, I kinda wanted to take Dinero, but caught Razz cause she was right by the gate and Dinero was about 1/4 mile away.  Since it was early although the sun was up I didn't want to walk that far.  Neil didn't round up, so I went and picked up a neighbor and we were on the gathering crew for the day. As I was riding out there, I realized it was Razz's first branding, it was good for her, lots of standing around saddled and waiting then riding then waiting again.

We started rounding up around 7 and got them in and sorted and then had breakfast and waited for everyone else to show up then we headed out to gather the second bunch.  This was a little bigger field and so took a little longer and we left a couple behind.  One was just born, still wet, and the other was kinda sick, Razz was standing right over the calf and it wouldn't get up so we left it behind too.  Once we got them in and sorted, we were waiting again for the rest of the crew.  They headed out and treated the calf after we had them all in.

The last bunch we went to gather and we walked out the gate and the cows saw us and headed for the gate before we got to the far end of the field, so we had to hurry up and catch up to the cows before they all went through the gate and came back.  Probly the easiest gather ever!  Nothing like cows getting themselves into the corrals. 

We had lunch then and waited again for the crew.  This time we stuck around but had nothing to do, so this is where I got lots of pictures.  I took a short video that kinda shows what's all involved and how quick it is.

There were a lot of people there because of the gathering crew and the branding crew so it was nice to get to visit with some people I don't see all that often.  Razz and I come accross her first dead animal.  She didn't know what to think of that and we got within 30 feet of the cow, so that's close enough.  Any closer and they smell too bad anyways. 

She sure likes that chasing cows.  I made her do a rollback after a cow that had turned back and we stopped and I could almost see the wheels in her head thinking it's the same as in the arena, just a lot bigger.  I hope it transfers over that we do the indoor stuff for a reason and its all the same no matter if its in or out.

Oh and the one lady I used to work for at the branding said she found my blog and was reading it, how cool!  I tell everyone about it, but seems like there are so many people who have no idea what a blog is until they read it a while.