All Mixed Up

All I'm going to say is that somebody broke the cardinal ranching rule, if you open a gate, close it! We've all been there. But this gate left open caused some the neighbor's cows to get in on Jack's nice green regrowth. No problem, Chief to the rescue. 

I became aware of the situation yesterday afternoon. So with a free couple hours this afternoon, my Indian pony and I took off to right the situation. 

Probably eight head of purple tags were mixed in with our white tags. 

As soon as we set out, Hank showed up to get in on the action. Let's ride. 

Birds of a feather flock together. I wanted to get this deal straightened out before all the cows buddied up. With everybody still being new, the purple tags wanted to hang together. So we just started picking them out of the herd and they bunched up and headed west. They knew they were in the wrong pasture, so we just headed them for the trees they came from. 

I had all the help I could handle as we left the rest of the cows. 

Go home girls! Even though they knew where to go, they were hesitant. 

So they made a run for it. I felt like we were in an Indian relay race, as Chief and I galloped after them bareback. A lot smoother than a trot. 

One thing about cowboys, they don't quit. Once gathered back up, we headed for the trees once again.   

We had to get them to cross the canal. Best to make it their decision. It's all about pressure. Too much and they'll bolt. Not enough and they'll turn the wrong way. 

Just got them over the canal and headed through the gate, when my two equine companions decided to make a run for the salt block and messed the whole thing up!

All but one went through the gate. This is a worse scenario than if all of them didn't go through. Fortunately, she just paralleled the rest of the bunch from the other side of the fence. 

So we ran ahead and took down some fence crossing the canal. 

Then eased in from behind. Just enough pressure to let them all know we were there. 

Once we got to the end of the line, mom took the bait. 

And walked through our opening. 

Once we put the fence back up, we met the girls at the gate left open that they came through. 

Once opened and got behind, they walked right through. 

And stay out! 

Good work, pal.

Back to normal.

Alls well that ends well. I enjoy a good challenge. Sometimes I think the Lord throws them my way just for the fun of it! I'll take it. What fun would ranching be if you didn't have mix up every once in a while? We live and we learn. If there's a moral to this story at all, if you open a gate, close it! Ranch on.