Escapees, Mama’s poor babies

I took off yesterday so Mama and I could load the three steers we needed to get to market and deliver them to the stock sale in Wichita Falls.  Getting the fat things into the stock trailer proved a bigger challenge than I had anticipated.  I had positioned the trailer the night before so I would not have that added frustration the morning we needed to load.

What I did not realize was that as I was positioning the trailer the horses were wandering through the garden area to the open front yard. I had looked for them when I opened the drive-through gate into the calf lot but did not see them. I assumed they were in the pasture where we normally keep them. I did not even think to look at the garden.

When I realized they were out I called to them and walked over to the hog building where we keep their feed hoping to entice them to come back for a tasty snack. Jazz was not interested and Misty seemed confused by being on the opposite side of the fence. As soon as Jazz found the road he threw his head back, raised his tail and took off with wicked determination. I began to pray that they would not head toward the highway and to my great relief they turned up Paddack Road.

I found them two houses down but did not even try to get hold of them. I simply drove back to the farm and continued to pray for help. I had already called Mama who was coming home from delivering Jake to the airport. She, in turn, called Wes to see if he was still in Bowie. As I got up from praying I looked out and the horses were at the end of the road to the farm moving toward the highway.

As I called out to them Rosie started barking and the steers started bawling. I watched the horses raise their heads and turn their ears to the familiar sounds and start a very slow walk toward me. I hurried down the far fence of the front pastures and crossed over to come up behind them so I could steer them up the road.

Misty walked right into the calf lot and I closed the gate since Jazz was in no hurry to follow. As I stood and watched Jazz trying to decide if he wanted to go join Misty, Wes pulled up. He had hold of Jazz in a couple minutes and walked him into the lot where he needed to be. Wes explained to me that when a horse gets out they know they are being bad but are thrilled at the newfound freedom. Rarely do they go very far. They dislike unfamiliar things and places but they can be more disrespectful than an unruly child. I need to work with Jazz to get him to respect me. Then I will be able to handle him better.

Back to the steers; Mama knows the three by name though I have never seen the need to remember them, but one of the three loaded very quickly and we put him in the front of the stock trailer and closed him in. The other two were not so eager to get onboard. I think the most difficult one will be some time in recovering from the bruising I put on his flanks as I tried to convince him to keep moving forward in the chute. All in all, it took only about thirty minutes to get them onboard but I was a sweaty mess as we pulled the loaded trailer away from the loading ramp.

Unloading them was very easy. We were in and out at the sale barn in less than thirty minutes. The three were put in a pen with some Holstein steers roughly the same size; although ours were  a good deal taller. Mama called out to them and they turned and started bawling – “Take us home! We’ll be good!”

Mama was very sad for her babies, but that is why we raised them – so they would be good...meat.