Don't Ever Look a Spooky Cow in The Eye

I can remember the first time I ever worked a load lot of stocker calves on foot and not on the back of a horse. Oh boy, did I look stupid. Not only did I spend most of my time on the top rail of our holding pen, but I spent most of my time running to the rail!

To make matters worse, my husband, Albert, lost his temper more times than one. That didn't make the ride home much better!

It didn't take me long to figure out that the tame herd of mama cows I grew up with and the herd Albert and I spent the last few years growing were NOTHING like these hot blooded, scared, and most of the time, crazy yearlings we were buying! Nope, not at all. These kinds of calves called for eight foot high guard rail fences, steel holding pens, self latching locks, and most importantly, a person with some spidey senses to work them. I found myself being yelled at constantly---"don't look at them dammit."

Well then. How can I run from them if I can't see them??

Let's face it. I am a woman in a man's world. What woman in her right mind says, hey, I think I am going to throw away all my college education (and it's alot) and start stomping around in the mud and muck just to get yelled at? I thought I was coming home to ride horses everyday...this was not the plan... To be honest, I give it right back, the yelling didn't bother me, but what the heck kind of sense did it make to not look at the 400-500lb creature barreling toward me?

Took me awhile to gather my spidey senses. I wish I could say it came over night but it didn't. It took a late night conversation with an old livestock man at a stockyard that explained to me that spooky cows will kill you and it ain't a funny situation. They think you want to kill them and eat them, so, they just want to get away from you. They will attempt to get away from you any which way they can. They look at you to make eye contact- just ignore them and they think you can't see them-or more or less. They also work off of pressure-meaning don't look at them, just move them in the direction you want them to go. Sounds crazy, and you may not understand, but once you work some spooky cattle a few times, you'll figure out, the more you look at them, the crazier your day can get.

Brings me to a story....we once were contracted to catch and haul close to 60 head of cattle. Not so bad you say? Ha! Cattle were everywhere...mamas, babies, yearlings, steers, you name it, they had it. Welp, of course their load out chute was from the days of John Wayne in McClintock, so the back of the trailers didn't quite line up....in steps the human post. Here proves the ol' stockyard man's theory correct. There I stood between the corner post and everyone's trailers with my head down, eyes tucked under my baseball cap, trusty cattle counter in hand- to act as a human post. 3,2,1-showtime---here they come---not one single cow noticed a thing different between me and the trailer or post. Just hurry up and get on!

This theory has proven itself over and over. I wish I could say that I don't find myself frustrated with my employees when I see them trying to unload cattle or move cattle. It really just burns me up! I'll calmly remind them, "don't block the hole, don't look at them, stop talking!"

Anyhoo, that's my soapbox for today!!!