Horse or 4-wheeler

[3waycross]

A fella can do almost anything on a 4 Wheeler that he can on a horse, except rope a calf, and I don't rope that well anymore anyway.

My attorney father-in-law thought he could tie the end of a rope off to the handle bars on the 4-wheeler, rope a calf, set the park break, and doctor it as it needed it. He successfully completed steps 1, 2, and 3, but the 400 lb calf was healthly enough to pull the 4-wheeler across the pasture and ended up in the bottom of a big ditch. Neddless to say he never tried that again.

I use a Polaris Ranger for nearly every fence and cattle checking job. A bale of alfalfa gets the cows to me.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brute 23]

That is what I like about the Mule, I call them up with feed and then get behind the stragglers. Keep'em all moving.

 

[grubbie]

We use a four wheeler with a bag of cake, cows follow the wife anywhere. I keep em pushed up from behind with a motorcycle. I can cut real good on the bike when needed, four wheeler wont turn fast enough. Grew up workin cows horseback. I miss it, but lots faster with the bike. Not much terrain it won't handle either, but you gotta be willing to ride it like you stole it. I would probably still have horses if I had the time, just the nostalgia of it if nothing else. But for now, horses would be just another chore to do. What's funny, our cows are used to the machines, unload horses in front of them and they stampede!

 

[Brute 23]

We use a four wheeler with a bag of cake, cows follow the wife anywhere. I keep em pushed up from behind with a motorcycle. I can cut real good on the bike when needed, four wheeler wont turn fast enough.

Depends what kind of four wheeler you have. :mrgreen: My old Brute Force with the SRA would could plant a front tire in one spot and turn. YOu need lots of motor, some wide tires to slide on, and a little body english. :lol2:

I went head to head with some buddies hourse back and they couldn't compete. They would have killed those horses.

The benefit to horses is pushing and seperating in pens, terrain you can't drive, or if you have to rope some.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

Nice quote. One of my favorite movies.

We've got horses and don't have a 4 wheeler. We use the horses some for cattle work, but I use a bucket of cubes more than the horses.

I like to ride around the fences on the horse and check for downed trees/limbs. Also like to ride slow through the pasture to check on grass/weeds. And you can sure notice a lot about your cattle when you ride real slow through them on a horse.

What else do you use your horses for? Doctor off of them? I haven't learned to rope. I'm afraid I've waited too late in life to begin that.

Tell you what, I got a kick out of all of the reply's about this post because everyone has such different reasons for their choice. We don't doctor off of our horses but we teach them not to be afraid of the rope. I use a rope quite a bit around the place and I have saddle bags to pack anything I need to work on. Every spring I'll throw on a hand saw and branch pruner and go out and trim anything off of the fence, replace wire if necessary, insulators, etc. I think a person notices more on a horse because they aren't in such a gal dang hurry. Seems like my whole life is one big hurry until I ride, then it all slows down. We have a tractor to do tasks that require mechanization, like spraying, but all cattle work is off horses, fence checking, evaluating pasture rotation, looking for damage after strong storms, etc.
My in laws' pasture has a creek that splits it in half and there is no way a 4 wheeler would be able to cross it. In some spots it's only three feet wide, but belly deep on a tall horse. In the three places to cross on a horse, there are so many large rocks we give the horses their heads and let them pick their own way through. In one spot it's so close my wife will jump from one side to the other side at a full tilt, which was quite concerning when we first started dating.
I agree that cattle aren't as spooked by horses and tend to respect horses better. Horses and cattle dogs will get the job done any time.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

I have to chuckle when people say they work cattle on foot, don't take it personally though. When my wife and I first started dating we were helping her folks move cows out of the lot to the chute to be vacc'd, K-Mar tagged, and poured to go out to pasture. We were on horses and her father and bro-in-law were on foot with knee boots on slipping and sliding getting stuck in a winter's worth of mud and maure. I have tried to work cattle on foot also, but I always tend to be running around chasing that one ol' stubborn cow who won't go through the gate and has the others up in a frenzy. With horses that one stubborn cow always thinks twice. I'll see her stop and kinda look back, I'll take one step forward or to the side and she kinda mosies on through. I'm a horseman through and through.

 

[bigbull338]

working cattle on horseback is fine till you run into a bull that dont like horses.have a friend that uses horses to work cattle.an he brought in a new bull.an he was in the saddle when the bull was unloaded.an the bull walked right out of the trailer an slammed his horse in the chest with his head.he was so madd he told them to load the bull up an sale him.

 

[ArrowHBrand]

We've never had bulls be aggressive to our horses, but we've had them not pay any attention to them. With those bulls we'd just concentrate on moving the cows and he'd always come trailing behind his ladies. We've also had bulls that were terrified of the horses when unloaded and one even got out and took a swim in a spring swollen river.

 

[Calman]

I just use a for wheeler,don't even own a horse. But when I really need a horse I just call my neighbor,a young man that trains cutting horses.He jumps at the chance to make one of those horses preform for me.

Cal

 

[Anonymous]

Wasn;t that what you referred to as your senior year?

Nope. Made it all the way to 8th, that would be considered post-graduate level in MO!

Went to Kroger's last week on the way to work. Wife was nosing thru the receipt last night and noticed they gave me the senior citizen discount! I'm 31!

Oh Tightwad! lol :lol2: I get it now. Didn't they get a new bank not too long ago??

 

[Iowa-angus]

We use 4-wheelers, pickups, and sometimes tractors, and for doing feed we use our skidloader

 

[iowahawkeyes]

I throw a punkin or two out and the girls come running. I'll use a 4 wheeler to carry a bag of creep feed out.