This calf's momma died from complications from calving. We are bottle feeding him for a little while until someone can take care of him.
Emily pushed steers to the catch pen for us while we roped. She loves riding whenever she can.
Will, Jackee, and August came down for the holidays and he is such a cutie, and we enjoy having a little baby around again. Emily loves helping take care of him and keeping him entertained.
Since we have extra help, we have been working lots and lots of cattle. We sprayed cattle for ticks, and worked all the calves.
It was such hard work, we had to stop and take a little nap.
Quinn spraying cattle for ticks.
Gavin, riding Roy. He loves riding Strawberry, but gets excited when he has the opportunity to ride some of the bigger, younger horses.
the bulls got together and started fighting, then we couldn't break them up. Gavin wasn't so sure he wanted to get very close.
We decided now would be a great time to introduce Peaches to dragging calves to the fire. She is scared to death of cattle and watches them very carefully. We find this funny since she has the most amazing cutting horse bloodlines, but I don't think she ever saw a cow before we bought her. Since we have had her she has been surrounded by cattle, but she still acts as though they might try to eat her. We rode her all day gathering cattle, so by the time we were dragging calves we thought she would be nice and tired. Quinn hopped on her and into the herd they went. Quinn would rope a calf, turn and face her to head to the fire, and the rope would brush her butt. Being surrounded by cattle in such tight quarters already had Peaches very nervous, so when the momma cows followed the calves to the fire, Peaches thought they were coming after her. At one point, Quinn and Peaches were up in a corner of the pen and Quinn had calf roped and was trying to get out of the corner. A few cows darted behind Peaches, and she threw her head back hitting Quinn directly in the nose. The next thing we saw was Quinn lying on the ground yelling a string of profanities at my sweet little Peaches. We thought that his nose might have been broken, but it turned out to just be really sore. Quinn was able to get back on and drag more calves that day, and then the two days after. She did better and better each day, and by the third day of dragging calves, she looked like a pro. Quinn is also feeling much better:)
Gavin is our official vaccinator. He did really good the first day we worked calves with just an ordinary syringe. On the third day of working calves we switched him over to a gun syringe, and after working about 40 calves, someone noticed we hadn't had to refill the syringe yet. Gavin wasn't used to the trigger and didn't know it had to be squeezed really hard. Lots of calves only had part of their vaccination this year.
The pups went along with us for some of the working, they are still learning and it was fun wathcing them take in all the new experiences.
I know you are probably thinking, not another post of them riding and working calves, but this is kinda what we are always doing, so that is why there are lots of posts of this kind of thing. Besides, there are more cattle and calves to be worked in the next couple of days, so there are more pictures to come.
Emily went along with us and she is such an awesome little cowgirl. She does a really great job staying with us and pushing cattle. For those of you who have ever gone along to gather cattle, you know what kind of hard riding is required. There is lots of brush and lots of running involved, so she has to be able to keep up with us and she makes me proud. It won't be long and Cade will be out there with us too, then we will have the whole family with us when we gather.
