Started out with roping on the ground and then onto the horses. We started with a 6 year-old gelding (Jimbo) that was "started" over a year ago and has not been touched since. Bob started by roping him and getting him to turn his hind-quarters. Next Tony worked Jimbo in a halter getting more bends and turns from him. Then comes Wrangler Dave... rope the right hind leg - HA! I won't tell you how many times I missed but I did catch Jimbo by the hind leg... now the battle started. I had to hold him until he "softened" and gave the leg to me. It did not take too long but there were some anxious moments on my part and I suspect Jimbo's too. That took us up to lunch.
After lunch it was time to saddle up and rope the real cattle... no more skinny cows today. We roped heads and feet. By roping the front and hind leg on the same side of a calf we were able to lay a 700 pound calf down so gently it was unbelievable . We were also able to "hog-tie" (shouldn't that be calf-tie?
) the calf so it could be doctored if needed. One of the most dangerous times is after you are finished with the calf and the cowboy has to get back on his horse without being in a wreck. Well, Bob showed us another trick that I would not have believed had I not seen it myself... he rocked that calf on it's back until it went to sleep. It took about a minute and a half for it to fall asleep. Bob took the ropes off the calf's legs, mounted his horse and about 5 minutes later the calf got up as if nothing happened - unbelievable!
Temperature = 53 (tonight it is going down to 20)
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