In memory of Barr, Burley, Kenneth, John, and Tadd, The Toularosa Basin cowboys.
While living in Alamogordo, I was privileged to know and watch some real cowboys work. These older gentlemen had grown up on horse back, working cattle all their lives. They were retired ranchers that had moved into town to be nearer to their grandkids and great grandkids. All but Barr, was widowers. During the spring I would go out to their ranches and help with the spring roundup. 12 to 16 hour days in the saddle, with little rest. Hot, dusty, backbreaking work. While on BarrÂ’s ranch we ran across a Brahma cow with a little calf. Barr had a couple of Brahma bulls running loose on his range. BarrÂ’s son wanted to bring the little Brahma calf in, Barr had me turn it loose after we branded it. Barr said if you did not handle them too rough, they were usually pretty gentle when grown, he did not want that little fellow to develop bad habits. He had told me not to castrate any Brahma calves we ran across. Danny, BarrÂ’s son slipped a rope on it after I turned it loose, and drug it to the holding pen anyway. When we finished roundup Barr wanted to bring in a dozen calves to use for training some young colts for roping. We loaded all the calves in the holding pens and brought them into town. When Barr discovered the little Brahma he blew up, too late they were in town.
About a week later, Ed the fellow that lived next door brought a young colt over to work with. The colt had been trained to ride; now they were working on training him to rope. After a couple of days the colt was coming along pretty good, he was catching on to backing up and holding the rope tight like he was supposed to. Well early on Saturday morning Danny drove the little Brahma calf into the pen. Ed laughed, yelled at Danny next time give him a real calf, not a stunted one. Danny hit the calf with a piece of rope and he took off. The young colt cleared the chute fine. The rope was cast and the catch was made. ThatÂ’s when the problems started. The little calf already knew what was going to happen when he hit the end of the rope running, so he stopped. The horse stopped, and the cowboy hit the ground. The horse stood there kind of confused. The calf turned and faced the horse, that little beast put his nose to the ground, and then started throwing dirt over his back with his front hoofs. The cowboy started laughing, everyone on the fence started laughing. Here was this little Brahma calf that did not weigh 100 lbs, trying to look mean and tough. While the cowboy was doubled over with laughter the little sucker charged. The calf went right by the cowboy, and went for the horse. The rope came loose about this time. The young colt was not too sure what he was supposed to do about this new development, so he stood his ground. Little calf went right between his front legs, and then butted up as hard as he could into the horseÂ’s belly. That was it, young colt could not take any more of this, colt panicked, reared up and went over backwards. Little calf kept butting him as he went down. When the horse went to get up the little calf would run at his head, the horse in a panic would try to get his head away and fall over again. It took five or six tries before the horse could get to his feet. Then the little calf would not give up the attack. The calf chased the horse across the arena. Meantime the cowboy owner just stood there in disbelief watching. Horse in a panic tried to jump the arena fence, people scattered everywhere. Horse only got half way across and came down on the fence. Horse kept kicking with his hind feet till he succeeded in getting across the fence. Horse fell on his shoulder on the far side of the fence injuring his shoulder. Horse got up and disappeared down the street toward town. Little calf then took out after the cowboy. That little sucker knocked Ed flat twice before we could get a couple of ropes on him and get him stretched out.
Outcome, horse was caught in downtown Alamogordo several hours later. Horse was ruined for roping, could not get him near a calf after that. It took months before his shoulder healed. 80 year old Barr chased 50 year old Danny for an hour, “gonna whup you boy” I believe the old man would have too if he could have caught him. Little Brahma, ruled the roost, for 6 months. Got so mean no one could go into the pens without him going after them. So we turned him into hamburger, once he got a little weight on him. He was too dangerous to keep around.
