Feedin' up with Jane

We don't call it "feeding up"....but one of my besties from down south does - and it always makes me smile (and yes, she calls shopping carts "buggies", too!). We just call it feeding or doing chores. But regardless of what you call it, it's been my responsibility this week.

My little brother (who normally does the feeding at my mom's house with all the horses and rodeo livestock) is living it up in St Tite at the Festival Western de St Tite, which is his all-time favorite rodeo and last a full week. It's in the French part of Canada, so he has no idea what they are saying, but that sure doesn't stop him from having a great time! He's up there steer wrestling:

This is my "little" brother steer wrestling at St Tite in 2008

Normally, when he's on the road rodeoing or working as an equine dentist, my Old Man does chores for him. But HE's spending the week in Pittsburg at a sales meeting for work. Guess who that leaves in charge? Yep - me!

That's the main reason I've been exhausted (and therefore whiney) this week. Feeding the sheep and Reckless the horse at our house is no big deal. The hour and a half to two hour feeding of the rodeo livestock at my mom's house is another matter—especially when you try to juggle that with getting the kids off to school, getting your hours in at the office, picking Baby Boy up from preschool and/or the babysitter, getting Bubby off the bus, picking Sissy up from her after-school program, soccer games, tumbling class, dinner, laundry, homework....well, I'm sure my whining gives you the idea.

There are a lot of farmers and ranchers like us who work outside the home and don't have hired help. We do it because we love it, despite the amount of hard work involved! So I wanted to give you a look at what "feeding up" is like for us.

Our family owns and operates a rodeo stock contracting company. We raise our own bucking horses and bulls. Usually we rent the timed event cattle for our rodeos, but this year we have a pen of steer wrestling steers, too. And, we have some riding horses at well. Those are all down at my mom's house. We also have sheep and a horse for the Old Man at our house (named Reckless - but it's supposed to help him Wreck Less when riding, get it?). I've already written about doing chores at MY house, so here's what's involved in evening chores at my mom's house:

First, I pick up Baby Boy - either from the sitter or his preschool. I need a supervisor. Then, I head to the barn to load up the feed.

We have several groups of stock that all get fed separately in separate areas - and the feed has to be carried to each one:

• Silent Scope (our PBR retiree) and some of our young bulls
• Bucking horses
• Kids' riding horses
• Stud horse, mares and colts (also bucking horses)
• Bucking bulls, cows and calves
• Bucking bulls (same as above, but they also get fed separately)
• Weaned colts

So first, I try to sneak the feed into 'Scope and his cronies - because it's easier and a shorter distance to carry their 50# bag of feed if I can get through the gate and get it into their tubs without them noticing me instead of going through the trouble of penning them separately - 'cuz I'm not crazy enough to want to go toe to toe with a pen of bulls and argue with them about where their feed is going and when they can have it. I feed earlier than my brother - so this plan worked well the first 2 days - but by day 3 (when I decided to document my experience) they had caught on to my efforts in subterfuge.

This is Silent Scope bucking at one of our rodeos.
Yep, that's his foot in front of that cowboy's face. My dad is in the flag shirt.

So, I carried their feed to the gate I wanted to take it into and then tried to fool them by carrying another bag to the other end of their dry lot, shaking it around and making a lot of noise so they would think I was feeding them there. Then I hustled back to my other gate to try to slip the feed in there. They weren't buying.

Silent Scope in retirement with some of our young bulls.
See the feed tubs they are surrounding? That's where I'm supposed to put their feed.

So, I give up on that for a while and instead head up the arena where we feed most of the bulls and cows and most of the horses. Rodeo horses and bulls are not tame pets. They like walking on the wild side—that's why they do what they do. They don't get individual stalls and pens, but they do get fed in our arena with plenty of space and plenty of feed tubs.

Recycled feed tubs! The large size let 2-3 horses or bulls eat at each tub with ease.

 I can drive the feed to the arena, but I still have to carry the 50# bags one at a time around the arena dividing it up between the tubs. The stock knows when it's dinner time....

The bucking horses and bulls and mama cows wait patiently for their dinner.

From about 300 acres, by the time the feed is in the arena, they are all waiting at the gate. Feeding regularly gives us a chance to inspect each of the animals, notice if any are missing (like a cow that might be off giving birth somewhere on the farm), note any injuries (yep, they jockey for dominance and pecking order just like any other animal and can fight with each other, too, which can result in scrapes, scratches, cute & bruises in addition to "normal" injuries) and it gives them lots of experience being handled. I can honestly say that our bucking stock handles better than a lot of other rodeo livestock I've seen, and the stage for that handling gets set at home from the time they are babies moving through pens and gates with their mommas until they make their first foray into the arena on their own.

Oh, and besides being supervised by Baby Boy, I have some other help, too:

Meet Gus, the laziest stock dog in the world.

Once I get the feed out, I head back down to the other pen with Scope and his cronies again to see if they've given up and moved away from my gate and feed tubs.

"Where's my feed, woman?"

No dice. They stalk me all along the fence. So it's back up to the arena to let in the bulls, cows and bucking horses. Now for the most part, they are all waiting at the gate. But there are some with diva-like qualities that like to make a red-carpet entrance on their own, so I let them in the back way..

"Yes, I deserve special treatment, but I don't like your camera, you crazy paparazzi!"

The rest of the horses and bulls are waiting patiently at the correct gate for dinner to be served...

I especially love when the bucking horses stand like this listening
to Sissy sing while she rides her horse Sparkplug in the arena.
It's usually their after-dinner music.

 Even the big bulls wait patiently for their turn..

"How much longer until my table is ready?"

"Wow, the food must really be good here! Look at the crowd!"

"Move back, youngsters! Big Mama is coming through first!"

 We have our arena divided in two parts - one for the bulls and cows to eat in and one for the horses to eat in. They've had enough practice, that when I open the gates, they almost sort themselves into the right part of the arena. See how good handling helps? They just make their own way, bulls and cows through the little gate to the far end of the arena, horses to the front, while I stand behind the gate and out of their way...

"Excuse me, Mr. Bull, I know you're in a hurry, but could you please
let me in to MY side of the arena? I'm hungry and the food is on the table!"

This set of bucking horses is mostly geldings (castrated males) with a few mares..the stud keeps most of the mares in his own little harem separately.  The kids' horses (Sparkplug & Beavis) hang out with this set of bucking horses, so they meet me at the gate to be let into another lot for a special serving of senior horse feed. Once everyone is happily munching away and all the gates are closed, I head over to feed the stud Goose and his harem of bucking mares and colts. They get their feed in the same type of tubs, just a different lot...

Goose and one of his mares enjoy a lovely dinner for two.

"Mmmmm...delicious! My compliments to the chef!"

 Lucky for me, their lot is right next to the lot 'Scope and his cronies are in. They are finally distracted enough for me to feed them THEIR 50# of feed without them being on top of me. But thy DO hear the feed hit the tubs and make tracks my way, so I hustle back through the gate in a hurry!

Then it's halftime - I head back to my house while they all eat to pick Bubby up from the bus...

With Bubby AND Baby Boy in tow, we then head to the barn to feed and water the colts who are being weaned. Their bucket is little, so I let Bubby carry it and run the water because he likes playing with the hose. And to be honest, I'm about wore out.

Once the horses and the bulls are done eating, it's time to move them around a bit. I turn the horses out the same way they came in and give this little baby some love in the process...

I know - not a good pic, but he wouldn't back away enough for me to get a better one!

 Actually, the baby wanted SO MUCH attention that this night he didn't want to leave! Mama and the rest of the horses were long gone and he was following me around the arena until I literally PUSHED him across the arena and out the gate so I could feed the bulls their second course!

"Did someone say something about a second course?"

 Even though the bulls, cows and calves are all fed together, the bulls get another feeding. Once everyone is done eating, they work their way up to the gate where I sort them off from the cows and let them eat a second helping of bull feed in the half of the arena where the horses just ate.
 Again, they really do a pretty good job of almost sorting themselves...although there ARE a few COWS that they to push their way through for dessert as well.

Once that's done, we let the rest of the cows out, open the gate so the bulls can leave the arena when they are done eating, turn Beavis & Sparkplug out, make sure all the gates are shut and head to the house.

Gus & Bubby think they've done a hard day's work!

And THAT, my friends, is why I'm been grumpy, exhausted and whiney all week. AND why I'm looking forward to the Old Man's return - well, that and the fact that I want him to take the trash out.

:)