Cattle wreck at the sale barn and the hijinks was being led by a snot blowing, slobbering, mad bull with blood in his eyes and a hump on his shoulders! The pen was just barely big enough for him to back way up into the corner, crouch down, spring up and clear the top rail of iron. He emptied out the working alley in a nanosecond and, if cattle could cheer, I am sure they would have. Looked like a prison break for all the world!
Stampedes are dangerous things and especially where folks are walking around and down highways in five o'clock traffic. There were several cowboys mounted and they were trying to head them off, but some of the horses were green broke and so were about half of the men who were mounted. You can handle a horse pretty good in a sale barn setup but the wide open world is slightly different.
One of the greener horses broke in two and the feller blew a stirrup, so every jump the bronc made the stirrup leather slapped his side. He thought he should buck a little higher each time. A seasoned rider on a good horse did make it to the front of the bull and manage to turn him back to the north.
That old bull was fat and soft. He appeared to have been penned up and grained, waiting for breeding season on his place. Of course he was stout and mad, making a diversity in his abilities, but full out speed had about winded him. The rest of the herd sorta fell in behind, except for a couple of calves that are naturally stupid at their age.
I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that folks in the area are surely out of touch with the land. The stopped traffic had piled up considerably and, instead of sitting quietly and letting the cowboys do their jobs, almost all of the horns were tooting. Someone needs to explain that action to me. What causes grown up people to do things like that?
I wasn't there to sell or buy, just curious about the prices and enjoying the atmosphere. I do like to visit and I know about all the cattlemen in the area. This is a good place to live and be in my kind of business. My close relative believes this is loafing but you never know what I might learn that would make a huge difference in our business.
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, doing what you enjoy for a living is sure better than being wealthy and doing what makes you miserable. I don't rightly know or hob-knob with any wealthy folks, but I know a good many happy fellers and we were in that middle income group a few years ago! We are all accustomed to beans and we still have some beef. And pies aren't a high dollar item around here, so we are poor but happy! All except the fellers who still owned the cattle that ran off 20 pounds in the break out!
Think seriously about the breeds of bulls you purchase!
Bill is the pen name used by the Gravette-area author of this weekly column. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 01/27/2016