Jered Getting ready to go My kids, Nick and Hannah, and I showed up at Dan and Virginia's ranch a little late, like usual. We were coming to help bring the cows to the mountain pasture for the summer. Everybody else was already there, so we went to the house to see what the plan for the day is. As you walk inside the house you enter directly into the big ranch kitchen. It was packed w/ people. Dan and his son Josh were sitting at the table, a high school buddy of Josh's, Deb and two of her kids, Evan and Katie, Lee, an older cowboy who regularly hired out to different ranchers for the day, were there, drinking coffee and helping themselves to Virginia's delicious sweet rolls. Nate and MaeCile had also come to help, w/ a kid, Jered, from Harvard College, who had come to learn to be a cowboy for the summer, and a couple of other guests who were there for the week. After greeting everyone, and getting introduced to the folks we didn't know, I tried to keep Nick from eating the entire cookie sheet of sweet rolls while listening to Dan line out the Plan. "Why don't you turn your extra horses into the corral w/ ours. Nate is going to bring the bunch after we get the cows going at Wagonhound Creek." "Ok. I just brought two extra's. They shouldn't be too much trouble." I filled my coffee cup at the stove. Virginia was standing by the table that was stacked w/ food for the day. "What do you want for your lunch? Roast Beef, Ham or Salami?" Virginia asked Nick. "Roast Beef." he answered. "And you?" she asked Hannah as she started preparing his lunch, and putting it into a little baggie to go. Hannah wanted Ham, and when I was asked I wanted Salami. While folks were visiting, Virginia kept asking for preferrences and preparing the little lunch baggies, a couple of sandwiches made w/ home made bread, home backed cookies, a handful of chips, and a bottle of juice. When she handed mine to me, I said "Gosh, Virginia, these sandwiches are huge. I won't have to eat for a week." The best part about helping Dan and Virginia was the food. She is an excellent cook, and everything you eat is home made and prepared w/ love, and you end up eating so much that you have to diet for weeks after to get your girlish figure back. Dan was watching her progress, and when she got to the last one, Jered, he pushed back from the table and started packing the rest of the food into a cooler to load into a truck. Deb and her kids, my kids and me, who had all helped Dan and Virginia for years, took our cue and started packing things up too. She asked Jered what he wanted for his sandwich meat, and we heard him answer "Do you happen to have any turkey?" She just looked at him for a minute, not quite knowing what to answer. I don't think she'd ever run into anyone that didn't like what she had to offer. Finally she just blurted out "In the freezer." We all busted out laughing. Deb wasn't gonna miss her chance to raz the kid. "Don't worry, Jered. We can always get it and chop a piece off." Knowing that Virginia had been cooking and preparing since 2 in the morning, I added "The freezer is downstairs, around the corner by the back wall of the basement. She'll pack the rest of your baggie, while you go get it. Josh'll show you where the ax is." Which sent everyone into even more laughter. The poor kid. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into for the summer. WagonHound Creek Gathering up the cattle at Wagonhound took the cool part of the morning. There were about 250 head of mother cows and their calves, and they had spent a good part of the spring close to the ranch where Dan could keep an eye on them while they had their calves. About a month earlier we had branded and vaccinated them. Now they had to walk for a week up to their high mountain pasture next to the Arapaho Indian Reservation. We would follow the Owl Creek Drainage almost to it's beginning, crossing many other ranches, and letting the cattle graze along the way. We gathered up the cattle at WagonHound Creek and brought them over the mountain into Rock Creek over the course of the day. Once we had them all together, we had to head them out a gate and up a pass. The way this works is that the folks who know where they are going have to be at the head of the bunch, while the folks who what they are doing will be on the sides towards they back to help the folks who are new to cattle and are relegated to the back. That put Josh and me in the lead, seeins Dan would count the cows out the gate. Deb and Lee would be on the sides, along w/ her son Evan, while the kids and the city slickers would be in the back, w/ MaeCile. Nate had taken Jered w/ him to bring the horses later, and Virginia would drive the cook wagon, a cobbled together camper. I had a couple of good dogs, who were usually very reliable... especially around me. But once Dan counted about a third of the cows thru the gate, I knew I had to head them into the right direction, so I cut thru the gate w/ the cows, telling my dogs to stay w/ my son Nick. Later I found out, that my big lead dog had gone into overdrive. Nick hadn't been able to call him back or to slow him down, and the dog mashed those cows thru the gate faster than Dan could count. Oh great, what a wonderful start to a long week. We got the cows to their nite rest in the early evening, plenty of time to set up camp, rest and relax. Now all that we needed were Nate and Jered w/ the rest of the horses. We wanted to unsaddle our horses and turn them into the bunch so they could rest and eat. Dan had gone back to the main ranch for the day, as he had hay to put up. We waited and waited for the horses, getting more and more worried. I had already ridden my horse over to a watering spot and let him drink as much as he wanted, while others held the herd and let them find their calves, settle and graze. The watering spot was a ways away, and when I rode up to different folks to suggest they water their horses, some declined, thinking that Nate and the horse bunch would soon show up. While we waited and worried a little more, Maecile told us a little bit about Jered. That he was in his first year at Harvard, that he was the son of an old personal friend, who wanted the kid to grow up a little more, that he'd ridden his first horse just the day before. I unsaddled my colt, so that he could get as much rest as possible. He would be a very tired puppy at the end of the week. I looked around at who had watered their horses, and found that I was the only one that knew the country. Finally, I couldn't take worrying any more. Anything can happen around horses, even w/ a hand as experienced as ole Nate. I was going back to look for him and Jered. As I went to resaddle my horse, someone hollered "There they are!" I turned around just in time to see the herd of horses spilling over the ridge and down the mountain. Then behind the horses, we could see two riders coming, one behind the other. Thank God, everyone was ok. As we watched to see if there might've been injuries or lameness, we noticed the horses never changing positions. They kept traveling one right behind the other. “Why are they traveling like that?” Deb asked me. “It kinda looks like he’s leading the other horse.” I said. “He ain’t leading him. You can see he’s got both hands on the reins.” “Does Nate have that kid tied to his saddle horn?” “Noooo... he wouldn’t do that...” “You wouldn’t think so.” I hollered at Nick and Josh “You guys wanna help me take the bunch from Nate?” and tightened the cinch on my horse. “I think he does have him tied to his saddle horn.” Deb said. I just shook my head and got on my horse and rode out to meet the horses. Nick and Josh joined me, and I waved at Nate to go to camp. We had the horses. As Nate turned off towards camp, I could see that he really did have the kid tied to the saddle horn. I was busy settling the horses, so I didn’t see Nate and Jered come to a halt at the cook wagon, where Jered fell out of the saddle, and laid on the ground, crying in agony. The poor kid hadn’t realized how much riding he would have to do while wrangling a bunch of horses. Many of these horses didn’t know each other and kept wanting to break off into their own groups. Nate had to do some serious, aggressive riding to get the 25 head to tie into a cohesive bunch. One or two horses would break off and try to take out on their own, while the main bunch would try to take off for what ever parts they wanted to go to. Nate tried to leave Jered to keep control of the main herd, while he would race after the trouble makers to push them back w/ the bunch. But Jered decided after about an hour that this was more riding than he was capable of, and just quit. He got off his horse and sat down on the ground. But they were too far away from any turnback point, and Jered would have to either walk the rest of the way into camp or ride. Being from back east and not familiar w/ the Wyoming Mountains, he was not capable of walking and safely getting there, or even keeping on the general trail so he could later be found. The risk of him getting lost was just too great. So Nate, an old hand from way back, and I mean wayyyyy back, had told him to get back on his horse. He had then taken a piece of string and tied the kids legs under his horse’s belly, and taken another piece of string and tied the horse to his saddle horn. The alternative... taking the kid home... would’ve left the horses on their own in the wide open Wyoming Mountains. They would’ve broke into different bunches, and it would’ve taken us days to find them again. Some may never have been found. To add insult to injury, Jered was surrounded by kids who were not only much younger than him, but had also been raised on horses. Kids who had been taught that if you cried, you better meant that you were dying, or at least had something broken, or were in other serious need of a doctor. Kids who had struggled thru heat, drought, snow and rain, never allowed to complain, only to care about the cattle that is our livelyhood. Hey Kid, you wanted to know what it was like to be a cowboy... crossing river Leaving for more clients cow jumping out at vets getting bucket off into cactus run away w/ team Blue Anglo Arab Nick staying to work Nick Sam running off. Buckles guarding the water