Welcome to the West as I see it

Several generations of cowboys in my family have been initiated to dining on calf fries FIRST at the branding corral –cooked on the burner. Seems the kids get hungry early so they quickly learn on how to cook up a little mid-morning snack to tide them over to dinner time.

My column this week was about a local rancher doing a little turkey herding. You just can’t make this stuff up. Photo is of a few of the turkeys before they were dispatched to the other end of the ranch.

Cowboy lore falls to new low
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

© 2007 Julie Carter

With the stealth of a Ninja fighter, the cowboy eased his way around the end of a 20-foot stock trailer, hunkering his tall frame down far enough to stay out of sight of his prey.

With deadly precision he, in the flash of time it took for a single thought, slammed the gate closed and his job was done. The last turkey hen was loaded.

There was to be a June wedding in the yard at the ranch. That same yard also happened to be home to a flock of wild turkeys, a few of which had been relocated there some years back. Now their numbers were tripled.

These big birds roosted in the cottonwoods, perched on the vehicles, decimated the flower garden and left unpleasant reminders of their recent presence.

So a turkey relocation program was “hatched” by the head cowboy.

This same man plans a major cattle working in a matter of hours but this project would take at least two weeks. With careful cunning, he began baiting the turkeys into the trailer by trailing feed down the length of it.

When the time came that he could get a few captured, which sounds easier than it was because as soon as they’d see him they’d fly out, he’d shut the gate and haul them to a grove of cottonwoods at the south end of the ranch.

This took three trips for 14 turkeys. The last trip was for a lone rebel bird who refused to be captured, inspiring a new level of a stalking-capture mode.

I missed the photo opportunity of the year – a cowboy hauling one turkey in a 20-foot gooseneck trailer.

While it truly needed to be done, the very idea of it takes the cowboy image to a new low.

On the upside, it certainly has been fodder for moments of hilarity as the tale has been told and retold.

During a recent discussion of the turkey-herding incident, it was mentioned the turkeys had returned to their first home one night last week. The return just happened to coincide with the arrival of a new grandchild whose parents also reside at the ranch.

While the incident could seem somewhat mystical and the oh’s and ah’s momentarily sustained the coincidence, the reality was hard and cold. It was pointed out these were notoriously dumb drown-in-a-rainstorm turkeys – not baby-delivering storks.

In looking for a, perhaps, positive use for the turkeys besides Thanksgiving dinner and turkey sandwiches, it was suggested that they be painted white. And if a process of launching them could be engineered, they then could be used at the wedding instead of white doves.

The suggestion brought a look on the bride-to-be’s face that could only be interpreted to mean this wouldn’t happen in her lifetime.

Another response to the jovial turkey herding story came from an Albuquerque friend of the turkey herder. He wrote:

The Gobblers Shuda Went to Town

Darn bro…

I heard u was a turkey man.

A turkey man what am!

U shuda brung dem

turkeys to ‘querque

We’d a put’um in a pot

an eat’um onda spot.

Yup…them turkey’s uda

stayed right here in ‘querque

Okay, it’s not Whitman or Emerson but it is funny all things considered.

The next story I’m waiting for is the response of the saddle horses when they are asked to get in that same trailer. Horses are funny about loading up in trailers that have hauled anything other than a horse or a cow. Try loading one after a hog hauling.

The trap

Waiting at the fire

A big one to flank

Bringin’ em slow

When Waylon and Willie made the song, “Momma Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” there were already generations of cowboys behind them and several more ahead of them.

The advice, while not wrong, didn’t slow down the numbers of babies growing up to be cowboys.

With each generation of little cowboys comes a time to turn them loose on the world.

Each generation of mothers prays a little harder that their cowboys (and cowgirls) are prepared for what lies ahead.

In the realm of youth and high school rodeo, the journey, at times, seems endless.

Then one day the last rodeo is on the schedule, the trailer is loaded for the last time and those cowboys’ and cowgirls’ names are called by a rodeo announcer one last time.

A coming-of-age for them is brought on not by a graduation ceremony but by the last trip through a rodeo arena as a high school competitor.

Friendships and kinships formed over many years from toddler events to serious high school competition stand in danger of erosion by miles and time that had not been a barrier as long as there was “next year.”

The excitement of a “job well done” by parents is touched on the peripheral by concern that these dedicated, focused young athletes will be able to continue in a positive forward direction in the world of young adulthood.

The “kids” see a blur of activity at the end of their senior year with the completion of academics along with their high school rodeo careers.

Anticipation and optimism erupt in high energy and the eternal belief that life is only going to get better forever.

Like the hands of time, nothing stops the natural progression of the momma’s babies growing up and making their way into the world.

However, from my perch high on a fence post with my camera and from my keyboard that year after year has recorded their progress like a school-marm with a grade book; I can tell you with certainty that the world needs more kids just like them.

These hard-working, dedicated young athletes we call high school cowboys and cowgirls are polite, caring, giving individuals who would rather help each other win than take the honors all for themselves.

Over the miles and the years, they become family to each other and share in the wins and the losses, no matter which way the scales tip with either.

I do recognize it did not happen all by itself. There are legions of parents out there who cared enough to be there.

For some, they simply passed on the joy of the competition they themselves once enjoyed.

For others, they signed on because a kid desired to be part of it and the parents didn’t have to look far to see the advantages of it.

No matter the reason, it was the hands-on raising of a child offered by years of supervised weekends of family support that formed a young adult that will independently enter the next phase of life a little worldlier than most.

It will be a few years before this round of graduates will fully understand the work, effort and sacrifices made by their parents to make it all possible, but parents don’t do it for that reason anyway. They just do the best they know how to do and for rodeo America, this was it.

God bless those senior competitors who gave it their all right down to the last slam of the gate.

May your journey beyond this arena make an even better mark on the world than the one you left behind.

©2007 Julie Carter

Rodeo season is in full swing and as summer cracks open, cowboys will be running hard up and down the highways trying to get to as many performances as they can –chasing points and gold buckle dreams.

This past weekend was the last regular rodeo on the New Mexico High School Rodeo circuit. It was held in Mescalero, New Mexico on the Mescalero Reservation. It is probably one of the prettiest places to rodeo in New Mexico except maybe Red Rock State Park in Gallup.

High school rodeo is so much fun for me to watch, photograph and write about. I cover it for the newspaper (Ruidoso News) giving the numerous youth from our County credit for their achievements. Our county, per capita, seems to have the largest number of winning high school rodeo competitors than anywhere in the state. And for the most part, they graduate and go on to do quite well in college and professional rodeo.

Last year’s national high school barrel racing champion was from here in Lincoln County — Jordan Muncy –and she’s on a roll again this year winning eight all -around titles this season and still has the finals to go. She competes in five events –barrel racing, goat tying, breakaway roping, team roping and pole bending. It looks like she will qualify for nationals in all events except the team roping. (to qualify she must be in the top four of the standings in the event)

Jordan Muncy :

May 5 was the annual Smokey Bear Days event in Capitan, New Mexico, home of the beloved icon of wildfire prevention. Smokey did his thing in a parade complete with horse-drawn wagons, riders, fire engines and kids on bicycles. Then Smokey spent the day passing out Smokey Bear hugs to young and old alike.  There seemed to be plenty of hugs to go around.

Visitors from all over the country come to visit the home of this timeless bear –and it is fun to see the little ones, wide-eyed and in awe along with many a gray-haired senior who was at one time,obviously a young wide-eyed Smokey Bear fan, all posing for photo-ops with Smokey.