After Monday's high wore off, I was sore as I've ever been. I couldn't even open my hands Tuesday morning. By evening, I was seriously considering not going the next day. But, I had agreed to be there, and saddled up anyway. I drove an hour & a half, and blazed the whole way.
First to arrive, the owners & their hired hand weren't even saddled up, yet. The old patriarch came out of the big ranch house, but didn't say anything. A couple neighbors came. Then the rest of the dayworkers trickled in. Each, in turn, gave a firm handshake, and introduced themselves.
When the last kid beared down on my hand, and offered up a long winded introduction, including his family, what highschool he'd dropped out of, what two horses he'd brought & who was paying him to ride them... On and on. I could not take it. But, I told him my name, and that he'd have to excuse me. Told him I'd had too much coffee. In reality, he had literally squeezed the p*ss out of me.
Doing my best to keep up appearances, I mounted up right away, before anyone noticed how stiff & sore I really was. When I tipped my hat to the owner's bride, I was careful not to actually show the top of my head. Instead of socializing, I opted to go warm up my horse.
I recognized several horses, as I looked around. I've never been good at remembering people, but a horse, I never forget. I had sold six of the horses that were in the pen. So, most of these guys probably already knew who I am.
When the work began, the hired hand was trying to sort the calves, from the cows. His big ol' roan took up most of the gate, but the calves were just squirting by him on both sides. So, my little gold mare & I took over. She was born & bred for that task. Just business, as usual for us, diving & sliding back and forth. Kinda like a hockey goalie, stopping 285 pucks, rapid fire. I had taken over, and you could see the relief in the faces of the young owner & his bride. And, I'd loosened up a bit.
Once the fires were lit, I relied on muscle memory to flank the first set. I hit a good rhythm, and didn't struggle, at all. I roped the second set. my little mare showed some real finesse, giving me perfect position for shot after shot. Then, I flanked for two more sets. The final set was last year's late calves. They were big, some over 500 pounds. Even with the smallest horse, I was asked to rope, again. One neighbor and myself put on a show. By the end, I was reaching out 40 to fifty feet, to steal shots at these big calves. The old patriarch had branded every calf, without saying a damn thing. But even he was hooting n hollering.
When all was done, the young bride came up to pay me. She gave me full day's cowboy wage, $100. She thanked me, her and the owner said they'd definitely have more work for me. Also said they really liked my horses, and they would be in the market for next year's colt crop.
As we strolled up the hill, to eat lunch, the neighbor asked where I'd learned to use my long rope. (I use a 70' rope, while most use ropes half that.) Come to find out, we had worked for different divisions of the same ranch, back in the mid 90's. The young owner & bride looked at each other, for a minute, obviously shocked.
The neighbor, and I swapped stories about a few places we'd worked, life on the chuck wagon.. "back in my wilder days", kinda thing. I mentioned that I'd flanked calves in the very same pen we'd used that day, back in '94. I had came with my Dad, on my day off. I was working at a feedyard, and my Dad was working for their neighbor. The old patriarch, (with his hearing aids finally working, away from the bawling cows,) finally piped up, laughing. "That "skinny kid" you hired from the last branding, is the same kid I hired, when you were still in diapers!" Turned out the young bride is heiress to a pretty good sized ranch. The young owner had married the rancher's granddaughter, and they were taking over.
I'd pulled it off. Clean shaven, with my hat on, not a one of them would've guessed I was over 25, much less 40. I hadn't allowed my age to prevent me from getting back in the game. The neighbor asked me to cancel on a previous branding engagement, for his.
Old farts for the win!