Buckaroo Texan Blog

I was invited to come to the fall branding on the 3G ranch outside of Midland, Texas this past weekend.   Kate and Sam Gooding had a recently weaned group of calves to brand and work.   I arrived Friday night and got settled in for a full day of riding and roping on Saturday.  I took my most experienced horse, Button, so we could do a good job for our host and hostess. 

Saturday morning we started out in the pastures, looking for 6 head of renegade cattle that have been running loose for over a year.   Kate on her trusty steed, Ranger and I, mounted on Button rode out in search of the cattle.   The cattle had been spotted a few times, so we had a good idea where to start our search and gather.  A lot of the fences have been down in west Texas due to the vast ranging fires over the last year.   So it was easy for this group of six to be hard to find roaming in thousands of acres.   Sam sent a text that he saw them north of the windmill in the pasture we were in so off we went at a fast trot and gallop.   We found the cattle, eased up on them and headed them towards the nearest set of pens.  It was a few miles, lots of wind, and they had a big bubble.  We had to drive them from a far distance, like fifty yards or more at first.  We got them penned about noon and headed for the branding pens.

 After a water break, and arrival of the rest of the crew, we set up to brand.  We had three ropers.  Jerry Allison joined us for the branding.  Martha and Josh helped Sam with the branding pot, vaccines and wormer.   We took turns heading a calf, the other ropers would fall in to heel and whoever had not caught heels, helped with the ground work.  We all headed, heeled and worked the ground.   The calves got worked with very little stress. We got lots of good practice roping in the 20 to 30 mph gusty winds.

Sunday morning we spent driving the renegade cattle to another stronger set of pens near the highway, so they could be hauled to another pasture and joined up with another group of cattle.   The cattle were wild enough that having experienced horses that could be maneuvered one foot at a time, backwards or forwards was important to keep from having them run off.   Any pressure from the horses got their heads up looking for a place to run.   We got the cattle moved and penned.  The cattle were starting to settle some, ease around and be driven quietly by the time we made the four mile drive to the next set of pens.   What a great weekend of riding, roping, horsemanship and stockmanship practice.