Wintertime trail drive... pic heavy

[milkmaid]

Scenery first... yes it's cold out here.

Our weather Monday... -12'F at 5am, with the windchill it was around -25'F, we were in the saddle by 7:30am.

Group of cows, I'm just holding them 'til the rest of the group arrives.

My bronc... and no I don't know what I was thinking either. Evidently he's been taught to ground tie.

Just a bit chilly this mornin'

Starting down the road... I've always wanted to be one of those cowboys that takes up the whole road and stops traffic :lol2:

On the highway

Horses in a pasture next to the road

Watering the cows at the creek about 3pm

We arrived at their night pasture about 5pm and overnighted them, started again at 8:30am this morning. Still around -15'F.

Horses along the road

Two studs in another pasture

Cows heading down the road

We put them in the corral around 1:15pm... my hoss is played out, no surprise! We really needed one horse to gather cows, one to trail yesterday, and another to trail today. Covered about 20 miles total on the roads, but that'd be as the car drives, not as the rider goes back and forth to move lazy bovines. My bronc's getting Bute tonight and plenty of grain!

 

[john250]

Thanks for that. I assure you we don't see that around here.

 

[donnaIL]

Don't see that her either..do you have free range there? I guess the cows know whats going on and the old ones keep the others in line, plus looks like most of the land on the sides is fenced...do you get wild ones that try to take a run for it? Enjoyed the pics and scenery...so nice to see so much open space.

 

[Brute 23]

Awesome, great pics. Your a better hand than I would have been.

 

[cypressfarms]

MM,

I envy your sense of adventure. The pics look great as usual. Not one black cow in the bunch, imagine that!

 

[Nesikep]

Very nice pics...

I see you kept a cattle truck nearby too! (the pic of the cows drinking)

 

[1982vett]

MM,

I envy your sense of adventure. The pics look great as usual. Not one black cow in the bunch, imagine that!

Almost no black cows in the bunch

 

[Wewild]

Those are refreshing photo's.

Thanks. That would be impossible here.

 

[milkmaid]

Cypress-- there's maybe 1-2% of the herd that's black, all compliments of the neighbors' bull. Maybe 5 whitefaced cattle in the group too. Otherwise they're all red.

Donna-- there's free range here in WY; nearly every ramp to the highways has a cattle guard on them because of it. These cows do know the drill, they've been over this trail every winter, so that helps. There are a few wilder ones in the bunch, but none that tried anything too crazy... "independent thinkers" aren't too popular. And once the herd has covered a few miles they're more interested in grazing while they move, LOL.

Nesikep-- that cattle truck just happened be going over the bridge when I took the pic, thought it was too amusing not to post that picture. Cows, horses, and humans had no choice but to keep going on this trail drive. We didn't have any alternative options. I did get off a few times and walk to keep the circulation flowing in my feet and give my horse a break, but we were always moving forward. Horses were sure glad to see the trailers at the end of the day when we'd turned the cows out!

 

[Nesikep]

I'd nearly say there are hardly any red ones in there either :lol: ... a lot look like charolais influence with the lighter color fur... though I will say that could be frost as well, seeing the horse's nose, that's a definite possibility

 

[larryshoat]

Neat pics MM, so different than around here . Thanks for sharing .

Larry

 

[kenny thomas]

Where are the trees you must hide behind on such a journey?

 

[Jim62]

Looks exciting. Could even be fun (but, not at -15).

I'd be scared to try the hiding behind the tree thang at -15...........

 

[mnmtranching]

Good work, reminds me of some good old days in Montana.

 

[Joy of Texas]

Oh wow,great pictures. I haven't had to move cattle like that for years. We only had to move ours about 10 miles. And it wasn't that cold...burr

 

[MistyMorning]

To be honest I only got about half way through the pics. (dial-up) but I really wanted to see these and those that I did see were fantastic. Thanks mm for sharing them and if I can get on high speed in the near future, I am for sure going to look at the rest.

How did the saddle work out for you and your pony?

 

[alacattleman]

good place to find out if your horse is cold backed.....thanks for the pictures thats what its all about

 

[bigbull338]

thanks for posting the trail herd pics.i enjoyed them very much.

 

[L Weir]

Do you participate in this drive every year? Nice pictures.

 

[Rustler9]

great pics, wouldn't mind doing that although I'm not a fan of cold weather