Welcome to the West as I see it

Short pay and fast horses

There is an old phrase used by the cowboy set, ropin’ for short pay, which basically
means long hours of hard work for not a lot of money.

Since roping was and is just a small part of the job to be done, short pay wages covered all the work that needed done.

It was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be the case for doing the work of a cowboy.

I broke into the world of a paying cowboy job when I was 15. My brother and I hired on for a summer of riding pastures checking yearlings on a high mountain Colorado ranch, which also happened to be our home.

Since I was the oldest, I got preferential pay of fifty cents more a day than my 13-year-old brother. I was reaping in a big $5.50 a day while he had to settle for $5.

In my mind, that made me the “girl” in charge. He fell for that most of the time.

About 4,000 yearlings arrived in May and came from a much lower altitude. The ranch astures ranged in altitude from 7,500-9,500 feet or higher in some places that those ritters managed to climb.

At that altitude, cattle often develop what is called Brisket Disease, Mountain Disease, or igh Altitude Disease. The animal will develop edema in the brisket, along the neck to he jaw or the underline of the belly before it dies. Early detection is the only hope of aving them.

A daily check and count of every single animal was necessary and an accounting of the ead was a must for the record books. That was our job–to look at and count each one in ll of the pastures we were assigned, bring in the sick, and cut the brand off anything we found dead.

We would leave early, often with a sandwich rolled up in our jacket on the back of our addles, and hope to be in sometime in the afternoon before the late day rain showers.

We took turns opening gates as long as were we getting along. It wasn’t uncommon to say “we’ll meet back at this gate in an hour” and whoever got there first would go through the gate and wait on the other side, refusing to dismount and open the gate again for the late arriver.

Excellent fodder for a teen shouting match.

Looking back, I’m thinking our short pay was probably due to two things. Economics of the times was one. I think Dad was managing the ranch for about $550 a month and raising four kids on that.

The other reason I surmise was our youthful unreliability. We got the job done– eventually. However, the days were interspersed with opportunities to go for a swim in a pond if it was hot. Often there was a horse race when we were sure no one could see us facing–a forbidden sport.

And about every other day there would be a knock-down-drag-out fight over his roping everything that didn’t move and then me refusing to give him the head count since he was busy playing.

Fortunately, I rode very fast horses. It saved my life on more than one occasion.

It took all year to get here and then it was over in a week. How does that happen? I have 1,500 photos to document that a good time was had by all and next year, those same kids will be a year older and some of them, will look totally different. Braces and faces, hair and height –all turn kids into a new creature with each passing year.

I’ve done these photos for the fair for five years now. We use them in the fair book to make it a “year book” as much or more than a rule book. It has become a keep sake. We have people that were here and through life and tragedy, no longer are. We have new babies and old folks –grandparents and grandchildren.

It seems there ought to be a way to hold onto those precious life moments just a little longer –when the last pen gate closes and every one drives off, life gets too busy. We quickly sweep those treasured times under a rug to be recalled sometime later in our busy lives –or at least when next year’s fair book comes out in the late Spring.

How fast things change and just to show it, I’ll use photos for the comparison.This section could go on for more photos than I have time to dig out, but you will get the idea.

Hold on to the moment as long as you can.

In 2002, J.R. Shafer showed the Champion Market Goat –and this year, his last before heading off to college, he did it again.

2002

2007

This little cutie, Shayna Gallacher, started out showing a lambs in 2002 the lead show before she was old enough to be in 4-H–here is her “before and after:”

2007

2002

Haley Montes

2007

2002

Mathew Omness

2007

2002

Sara Rush

2007

We made it to the end — 1,500 photos later and miles and miles of walking to and fro around the fair grounds — the 2007 Lincoln County Fair is history. It was a good fair it seemed. Weather cooperated, just enough rain to cool things off but not make things miserable. Enough sunshine to call it almost hot but it wasn’t really unbearable for August in New Mexico.

The kids were happy, busy and making memories that will stay with them for life –even though, at the time, they were just having fun. There is something so basically Americana about a small county fair –and of course I’m always entertained by the people watching.

The county fair belles of the barn
By Julie Carter
Every day, sometimes twice-a-day, the livestock barns at the county fair see a
transformation that seems almost magical.
The ladies of the livestock pens transform from normal teens in a pig barn to bling-bling fashion queens headed to the show ring.

The full-house crowds that always gather around the show ring prior to the junior livestock shows at the fair are missing out on the real show that takes place in the barns in preparation for the competition.

While there are at least an equal number of male exhibitors, the transformation for them is less dramatic and more low maintenance, so for the purpose of this story, I’m telling the “girl” version.
A family testing period takes place for hours prior to “showtime.” One or both parents of an exhibitor is up to their whatevers in suds and water getting a pig, who is not known for is hygiene, fluffed, buffed and show-sheened for competition.

All this happens while the sole proprietor of the pig is putting on makeup, spraying down loose strands of hair, giving a permanent set to ringlet ponytail curls with a color-coordinated ribbon and polishing up the rhinestones on her hoop earrings and belt.

A short time before this she was simply a normal teen in a T-shirt and jeans.
While the bling-bling princesses are parading the show ring looking like runway models from a rural setting, their moms try to watch from ringside.

They aren’t hard to sort out from the crowd. They have a towel slung over one shoulder, are wearing high-top rubber boots, old jeans and a shirt splattered with water and other stuff not discussable and they carry at least one, if not two, water spray bottles.

Tendrils of their hair fall around their flushed, makeup-less faces. Anxiousness keeps them on the move with a desire to watch the competition while knowing they have yet another hog to wash before the next class of competition.

Most of these moms were once show ring darlings themselves. Those few short years of moments in the spotlight at the county fair are a distant but poignant memory.

It is now what keeps them doing what they do – passing the torch to their sons and daughters knowing the experience is more than just fun, but a solid foundation for life-long attitudes and character traits.

While Dad is often the muscle, the coach and stoic competitive instructor, Mom is the organizer, the cheerleader, the motivator and of course, in charge of all lists for all things before, during and after the fair.

Somehow in the midst of the exhaustion from the preparation to get to the fair with all the necessities for providing for a family and critters for a week away from home, they maintain the ability to smile, and smile, and smile some more.

After all, it’s County Fair week and by Saturday night there will be many who know they had a lot of fun – they will just have to rest up a couple weeks before they can recall just when it was they had fun.

And Belles of the Barn?

They start young, but the true queens are the moms who, year after year, give of themselves to raise another generation of kids who are not just about the beauty and the bling.

They know that what really counts is the beauty that comes from hard work, self-sacrifice and responsibility to other people and to their livestock.

Come to the fair and I promise, you will see what I mean.

©2007 Julie Carter

Mom and daughter in the Pig Barn

She’s cute and he’s noticed!

Best friends, even through the “braces” years

And for fun…area bankers participated in a goat milking contest. That was a real out-of-the-ordinary event for them!

I know it is only the first FULL week of August but may as well be September. The county fair will fill up this week from end to end, schools are starting this week, next and anytime thereafter. I seem to mark my seasons by events and when the county fair is over, so is summer.

A week ago, July 28, was a biggie for the county and on the cowboy end of the geography, it was celebrated in a big way. The National Day of the Cowboy was honored with a cattle roundup, biscuit and gravy breakfast, parade, and vendors and entertainers throughout the day.

On the far end of the county, was the big event for a very small town–the Corona Festival and Annual FFA Ranch Rodeo. It is one of the few remaining tastes of old fashioned fun and annually, it lives up to that reputation. The parade is small but local and full of fun stuff and people having fun.

The ranch rodeo is held in an old and very large bullwire arena –cars and pickups pulled up to the perimeter to provide seating other than the two small grandstands and the place is packed. Home area ranch teams compete for cash, buckles and other prizes. The weather was worthy of the day with only a few brief rainshowers that did little to dampen the fun.

When it was over, I sadly realized it was the last of that type of cowboy event for the “season” in this county, at least until the high school rodeo in September.  The Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium is held in Ruidoso in October, but draws a different breed of cowboy and not too many of them on horseback.

National Day of the Cowboy started early with “cowboy coffee.”

Then the roundup

Imagine trying to pen cattle with this lineup of pilgrims on the fence, cameras ready!

AND THEN THE CORONA FFA RANCH RODEO

Nose to tail in the Wild Cow Milking

She pushes and he slides –

The little ones always catch the attention of my camera! What’s a rodeo without a cowboy kid playing in the dirt along the arena fence.

And then there is always a half dozen cowboy kids with little ropes –practicing for a future “in the business.”