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I was a Cowboy for a while

Napajohnb
2006-01-03 20:37:34

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"Memories of a Cowboy"

It was a cold South Dakota spring morning and I pulled up the collar of my Levi jacket against the icy drizzle. I urged my reluctant horse forward and joined the boss at the edge of the cane field where the herd was hiding out. Plunging into the cane we started herding the cows and new calves toward the far end of the cane where we would gather them up to drive back to the ranch for branding.
These black cows had been out on the prairie all winter and were half wild and as my cutting horse took a sharp turn, I thought about how they would charge a man on foot, especially with these new calves and I sat a little tighter on the saddle.

About mid morning we had the cane field pretty well cleared out and began gathering up the herd to drive home. The drizzle had gone and the morning had gone from miserable to sunny warm in a few hours and my jacket was off and sleeves rolled up as we started the trip home, the house and barn a speck on the distant horizon on the open prairie. The smell of new spring grass floated on a soft breeze ad the only sounds was the sound of hooves and a soft lowing from the herd as we moved lazily along throught this beautiful, lonely landscape.

All of a sudden there was a roar and the boss' son rode up on the dirt bike that he favored for such work, worthless in the cane, of course but good enough on this open ground. We saw the stray heifer across the creek at the same time, looked at each other and the race was on.

I raced across the open ground, bent forward in the saddle at a full gallop but the bike was pulling ahead easily. We came to a ravine and the horse and I plunged down in a series of jerks and skids and I leaned back, planting my feet firmly in the stirrups and hanging on to the saddle horn with one hand and the reins with the other.

As we raced to the other side of the creek ...