(Continued from page 28)
pastur
es, loading the trail-weary, sore-footed bulls into the horse trailer, all in weather
that can be sun, heat and dust one hour, thunderstorms and wind the next. Many sum-
mer days are sun-up to sundown, checking cattle in every mountain draw and canyon,
getting roaming cattle out of the neighbor’s pastures, and vice-versa. Fall work for our
dogs means trailing those same cow herds back down the mountain, hopefully before
snow flies, then sorting steer and heifer pairs into different pastures, and later gathering
each large herd and driving the cattle to the corral, where calves are sorted off the
mother cows for weaning. The weaned calves are turned out after a few days and their
pasture is ridden at least twice a day, looking for sick calves, herding them to the best
grass so they will be fat for our buyer when shipping day comes.
Shipping day we gather over 1200 weaned calves at once and march them into the cor-
ral, and thanks to our dogs, usually without any excitement! They help us fill the corrals
and push the calves up the alley to be sorted once again by the buyer, weighed and then
loaded onto waiting semi-trucks. Winter months are a bit slower, lots of rides on the
feed truck and just holding cattle inside the pasture gate while we drive through, but
there are always those windy, 30 below zero days when cattle that have ventured to high
on the slopes during a storm need to be driven back down towards the feed ground that
the dogs continue to earn their keep.
Everyone in our family can tell many stories of how cow work would not have gotten
done if it had not been for our faithful, hardworking dogs. I once had to move 450 cow/
calf pairs 12 miles with no other help than 4 of our dogs and my kids who were 3 and 5
at the time while my husband and brother were off in the neighbor’s pastures looking
for strays. The man who drove by us on his way up the mountain to fish had his mouth
dropped open in amazement at the cattle trailing contently along with just one crazy
(Continued on page 30)
SPOTLIGHT on Dogs with Jobs
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