My Top Five Cattle

My five favorite cattle of all time, only one makes the list because of anything useful…

#5 – Cow 122

The old girl never has a bull calf but she’s put every single one of her heifers into the top end of the replacement pen.

#4 – Grobbe Bull

He was a well-muscled Simmental bull that had just a touch of a mean streak to him.

He was also the first and only mature bull I’ve ever ridden.  While we were supposed to be messing with the “show heifers” (really nothing more than commercial type Brangus heifers with papers) one summer, we got on a bull riding kick to break up the boredom.  After we got tired of the cow from #3, we turned our attention to getting a real bull in the pen to ride.

The lead up the squeeze chute had a release that if you used your imagination worked as a bucking chute.  The problem was that it also had a bar going straight across the top of it.  The one time my brother tried to ride him he reared back in the ‘chute’ and hit his head on the bar.

When I later tried to ride him, I learned from our previous mistake and made sure I stayed low.  I did actually get out of the chute but not for long.  He didn’t get much air but did buck enough to throw me off and cause me to hit my head hard enough to black out for a few seconds.

He also threw my dad off a horse (the last time he’s ever been on a horse) when he got old and mean.  Whether that moves him up or down the list depends on when you ask me.

#3 – Buddy

A twin bull calf that kicked off and was my first bottle calf.

If you had a bottle calf when you were a little kid, that should be more than enough of an explanation.  If you didn’t, I’m sorry that your parents didn’t love you.

#2 – Blue

My first show heifer and the only cow I actually saddle broke.  It got to the point that I could rig a halter and ride her around the pen like a green broke horse.  She was actually the heifer we were supposed to be working with during #4 and #1.

It wasn’t until she stopped bucking when we’d try to ride her that I decided the foolishness from #4 was a good idea.

#1 – Blue’s Friend

Blue’s friend was a heifer we purchased alongside #3 from this list.  She was mean but not quite fast enough to catch a 12-year-old kid.  My brother and I made a game we called “bull fight” where we’d put her in the big working pen and kept score by seeing who could get her to charge and tap her on the forehead the most times.  In hindsight it was simultaneously one of the dumbest and best ideas I ever had as a kid.

If you haven’t figured out yet that it isn't a good idea to tell your two young sons to “go work with the show heifer” when you leave them at home during the summer, I don’t know what to tell you.