Coyotes Are Out Of Control

This morning started out with a coyote coming right in to try and attack my German Shepherd.  Pretty stupid coyote. I guess in defense of the coyote, my female shepherd, Bella, is in season.  My 3.5 pound male Yorkie is also in love with her right now. Now that would be a crazy cross. It started a conversation about coyotes while we were watching the sun come up.  

This year has not been good for our calf crop.  A few weeks ago, we branded and castrated our calves.  Steers bring more money at the sales yard.  There  were only 2 calves that were castrated and then turned out in the big field with the other cows and calves. Apparently the smell of blood brought in coyotes.  They killed one the first night.  Now that calf was pretty small and a little weak. The cow was a pretty gentle cow that was also broke to dogs.  But when my husband went back the next day they had killed the other calf.  He was just sick.  He's a cautious man and if he had any idea they would take down the bigger calf,  he never would have left them out there.  

Coyotes are getting really out of control up here.  They have no predators.  The only thing keeping there numbers down is this drought. They have less food.  But that is exactly what is making them more aggressive,  I always think it is so sad when I see posters up for a "lost" cat or dog.  We, pretty much, know what that means. I had forgotten about the time they almost got hold of my husbands cow dogs.

In the area above Huntington Lake in the Sierras is BLM land.  A corporation had the permit to run cattle on that land for years. They had there own cowboys that had to gather the cows and calves and bring them out before the weather turned  bad in the fall. Otherwise they would be trapped in the snow and probably die.  Well at the end of the gather they were still "out quite a few". They hadn't found them all.  They hired Coleman with his dogs and a few other good cow men that also brought their dogs to find the rest, the "tail end cattle".  This is some pretty rough country and you really have to know the permit area or you can get lost up there.  

Coleman came upon a big yearling  about 1000 pounds.  He and his dogs chased that steer down into a canyon at the headwaters of the San Joaquin river.  It was so brushy and rough that he was lucky to have caught that steer. He got it roped and tied down and went back to get another cowboy to help bring this steer out.  On the way a pack of coyotes tried to attack his dogs.  The dogs got up under the horse, risking being trampled.  The coyotes just kept taking a run at them.  Coleman took his rope and kept beating the coyotes back and yelling until they finally retreated.  He moved out and ran into his brother who had heard some of the commotion.  They rode back to the calf.  One got a rope on his neck and one got a rope on a hind foot and they brought that calf out.

I don't remember hearing that story before, but he didn't always tell me the bad stuff until a while after it happens so I don't get too crazy over this stuff.  There isn't much that he does that surprises me any more.

This is Coleman and Speedy, one of the best dogs he's ever had.  We lost Speedy this year to a stroke.  The day he died he went out with Coleman to move some cattle.  He stopped at a trough along the way and didn't seem to want to move.  Coleman picked him up and took him back to the barn on the four-wheeler.  He ran to the house for some  aspirin, but by the time he got back down to the barn he was gone.  We've really missed that dog this summer.

Night Rider

It's 5:00 AM and my husband just came through the doors. "I just finished riding those two new
horses and our colt", he said.
"What, it's pitch black still", I said.
He went on to explain to me what he was up to.

He had been pretty quiet the night before.  This is never a good sign.  That meant he was stewing about something.  I chose not to ask what was going on.  You know they say "ignorance is bliss".  I like bliss.  I have learned a cowboy stewing is like a General planning his troop's maneuvers.  So he apparently came up with the plan he put into action in the wee hours of the morning.

All three young horses had some sort of issues, from a horse trainer outlook.  The youngest one is just a spitfire that can jump right out from underneath him.  The mare is not real fond of "listening" to his feet.  The oldest just needed to settle down.

He rode the same basic pattern with all three.  He took them one at a time at a trot straight out from the barn into a huge field.  Now these are not flat fields.  These are fields with scrub brush, oak trees, rises and drops and squirrel holes too.  There is a dirt dam above a very dry pond.  Once he had them on top of the dam he turned them around each direction several times.  They really "listened" to him in the dark, since they had to trust him.

So I asked, because I just can't help myself, "couldn't they fall down the bank?"
He responded, "they will if they don't do what I'm telling them."

AGHHH why do I ask?

He went on this morning to tell me a great story.  His dad, Joe, was a colt breaker for Simon-Newman, one of the largest cattle operations in the central valley of California in the late 40's through early 60's.  They had a string of colts that would need to get broke in a hurry,  Joe would get a lot done in a short time by riding those young horses out in the dark.

Joe always told Coleman's mom, Gloria, when to expect him back.  One night he hadn't shown up, so Gloria took a lantern and went out to find him.  She found him lying underneath a horse in a sandy dry river bottom.  I can just imagine her panic.  The horse couldn't get up and Joe was trapped.  She dug underneath Joe and got his knife out of his pocket and cut the latigo holding the saddle.  The horse was able to get up and freed Joe.  He wasn't hurt badly and went on the next day to do it all over again.

"Gee thanks for telling me that great story, You know your mom was a lot tougher than me", I said.

"No",  he said. "I know you would come looking for me if I didn't show up for morning coffee."

That has always been a code for us.  You don't deviate from the expected without telling each other.  If you're going to be late, we tell each other or get the word home.  You leave a message with what field or what highway you'll be traveling.

He reminded me of when we first started dating.  I came up to meet him at his ranch  for a date. When I arrived he was not there.  This was very uncharacteristic since he's always early for everything.  There was a halter hanging from the tie rack, a missing saddle, and the dogs were gone. It was just about dark and I hadn't ridden in these hills but once or twice. So I went and caught a broke horse and got ready to go looking.  Just as I started down the trail from the barn in the complete dark,  he came over the hill.

"I had never had anyone come looking for me", he said.  "That's when I knew you were the one."