Are you a good bull or a bad bull?

I had a great day today giving attention to both teams. Dale brought home a sled as payment for plowing a neighbors horse farm. It needs some work, a pole and some bridle chains for days like today. I put my older beef team on the new sled just to see how it pulls, it will be a fun new addition. After that we made a cross country ski path with the stoneboat, we should all sleep well tonight.

Then I took my young shorthorns out and worked on driving them from behind, they did surprisingly well for our first time. We hitched to tire for a bit and then made our way back to where I yoke them. We had to make a few extra turns until we were able to pass the path to their paddock without a lean towards the gate. I stopped them about 10′ in front of the tie rings and was just thinking about unhitching the tire when I heard the cussing start.

Old Bozo the leggy Hereford bull decided to show his athleticism for the first time ever and jumped the single strand of hot wire that keeps all the beef in. No hot heifer on the other side, no food, nothing but the lane way down to the house and dooryard where we were. Dale was hot on his tail, not sure how he was going to stop a bull that never before used a gear above first low.

With whip in hand I ran for the lane way. Bozo was half way down and I went right at him with that cheap little buggy whip. Now being a gentleman this poor guy has never been rough handled by us, and had no idea what I was doing running at him snapping a whip. Like a reining horse he slid on his haunches and rolled back up that lane in second gear, Dale yielded the right of way to him and shut the wire and the gate behind him. Between the aggressive whip handling and the dog barking, a moment too late as usual, I didn’t know what to expect when I got back to the boys waiting to be unhitched.

I quietly looked around the corner of the garage to see what they were up to. Bull calves have their heads up chewing cud, and they haven’t moved a foot, thank goodness. I guess all that practice standing around at NEAPFD rubbed off on them in a good way:)

Erika