All in a days work

Yesterday was anything but typical, but at the same time, maybe the unexpected is to be expected.
Brian left about 5:30 am on horseback with Jesse to herd some of the new yearlings into a field further up the valley. Those of you that know horses will find his experience amusing. He was riding Casper, known to be a fairly agreeable horse, but doesn't get ridden very often, and never ridden before by Brian. After saddling up and heading out, Brian says that horse did everything he asked him to do only after arguing with him and trying to do the exact opposite. All morning, as they were heading away from the barns, Casper just didn't cooperate. For Brian, after years of being the guy on the jobsite who knew exactly how to make things happen, it was a humbling morning. Funny thing though, the moment they turned around and headed back towards the barn, Casper was a different horse. Brian couldn't hardly get him to slow down. Casper knew where home was, and he was headed back.

Once they were back at the ranch, we found out there were 2 more trucks of yearlings coming, but we didn't know when. They were supposed to be here by noon, but at 1:00 we'd heard nothing. Brian received the assignment of watching for the trucks, and letting everyone know when they arrived. However, we can't see or hardly hear the trucks from our trailer, so we had to sit in the cookhouse and watch for them. Remember, there is no heat in the cookhouse. We wrapped up in our sleeping bag and sat watching a video on the laptop while we waited, and waited. We had to go take the laundry down off the line when it started to snow, and we waited a little more. Finally the trucks arrived about 4:00 p.m.
These yearlings were a little different than the others, they still had to be branded and given vaccinations. Once the guys were in full swing of their processing routine, I walked down the road to the corrals to watch. I could smell the branding from hundreds of yards away. Getting closer though, I was surprised at how little the cows protested. Unfortunately, somewhere in the process one of the cowboys got a needle stick with a needle that was supposed to go into a cow. It is pretty potent stuff and he was out of there in seconds, ran to his truck and started the 1 1/2 hour drive to the emergency room. The med he was exposed to has been known to cause cardiac arrest in humans, so he wasn't stopping to talk about it. I found out this morning that all is well. He must have not got enough to cause any reaction.

Knuckle has also had her exposure to ranch life a little more in depth after yesterday. We have been trying to keep her away from the new yearlings and the corrals not knowing how she would react, and not wanting her to bark and cause any issues with the cows. Sometimes we have closed her in the trailer or the cookhouse, but earlier this week I was successful at getting her to "stay", at the cookhouse porch until I got back. Yesterday, I thought I'd try that again. She would stay until I was out of sight, then she'd move forward a little bit and stay again, everytime I looked back she was sitting watching me, but sitting in a different place. She ended up following me all the way to the corrals ( in her sneaky way) but I finally got her to sit and stay in a nice grassy spot while I walked around to check in on Brian. I thought all was well, when all of a sudden I saw a dark brown yearling running through the group of cows that was smaller than the rest. Knuckle had easily squeezed under the bottom fence post and was running like crazy through the corrals, her ears whipped back, a big smile on her face. I think she really just wanted to be like the other dogs! Nothing incidental happened, she didn't even bark at the cows. She just finally ran up to me after going through each corral with a look on her like "see mom, I can do it too!" This last photo is standing with my back to the corrals, looking down the road towards the barns and the ranch house (behind the barns)