Texas Goes Cowboy

The beauty about being Catholic is that everyone is family. The fun part of that is meeting new members. Carson Kitaf is a seminarian for the Diocese of Fort Worth in Texas. Being from a rodeo family, he reached out to me seeking some advice on how to handle seminary. I shared with him some stories from the road and we've kept in touch ever since. Now that school is out for the summer, he took a little vacation through Wyoming and stopped to see me along the way. 

We started out by running the mission circuit. Three Masses in seven hours, spread over 220 miles. We moved our last Mass up so the People of God could more fully enjoy Memorial Day weekend. 

With the extra time, Carson and I ran up to Boni and Jason Kuhbacher's ranch north of Biddle Montana, to get a jump on the following day's branding and enjoy a little camp out. 

After hobbling the horses for the night, 

We got a campfire going. This fire pit was made by the 6th grade class at JPII Catholic School with the help of Ms. Abby Deprey. It was auctioned off at the annual spring fundraiser and purchased by Ryan and Alissa McGrath who in turn gave it to me. Thank y'all so much! We will do our best to enjoy it.  

Once we got a good bed of coals going, we put a grate over it and started cooking some LB T-bones. 

Mighty fine. 

Then we set up camp. Carson went with a tent. 

While I opted to sleep in the nose of my trailer. 

After a good night's sleep, we were saddled and at the first branding site by 7am. 

Once all the cowboys arrived, Jason gave us our marching orders. 

So we hit the trail to go gather the critters. Carson rode Ole Reliable. 

While I managed Mollie the Mare. 

Pretty picturesque. 

After the different bunches were gathered, we started the stampede. 

Being no stranger to this game, Carson fell right in. 

Once penned up, the boys kicked out the cows. 

But before the fire was started, we had a little breakfast break with Boni’s infamous breakfast burritos. 

Then got to work. Sam and his dad jumped right into action.

So did Carson. 

After getting calf wrestling down, Jason sent him into the pen to rope. Good work. 

After Carson got Chief warmed up, I jumped in. 

Snagging a handful. 

And dragging them to the fire. 

Happy campers. 

We branded at three different spots. Breaking down the corral each time and moving it to the next one. Thank God for high school kids. 

Up here is what I call professional brandings. There is one opening into the corral and the wrestlers stand on each side of it. As a calf is drug through the gate, the next wrestlers in line run to it. 

Ideally, the calf is double hocked, roped by both hind legs. With the brand going on the left side, the guy or girl on the right goes for the tail and the one on the left goes for the rope. 

With a choreographed flip, the wrestler on the tail then grabs the front leg. 

Once down, they kneel on the neck and fold the front leg back on itself. This really makes the calf lie still. 

The guy on the rope goes for the hind quarter. To hold it tight, he strings out the upper leg with a good grip and pushes the lower leg in with his foot. Works good. When it comes to wrestling calves, it's not the size of the man in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the man. 

The roping styles in the branding pen are varied, as well as the saddle horns cowboys use. Most common is a smaller horn with rubber around it. One dally around and the rope stays tight.

Another style is a slick horn. These are usually bigger and require an extra dally or two. But when done right, they allow the rope to slide if the rider wants to let off some slack. I'll just say, they take an extra set of skills to use well. 

By 3pm we were all done. 

And headed back to the ranch to dine. 

Definitely not disappointed. 

This could quite possibly be my favorite day of the year. Any time I can spend horseback and chase a cow or two, I'm a happy man. Put roping and wrestling calves on top of that, then life is good. This year was extra special because I had a Texas Catholic Cowboy riding along side me. Fun time. Keep up the Good work, pal. The world could use more Catholic Cowboys. And the Church could really use some more cowboy priests!

Call Him Dad

The Solemnity of Holy Trinity is the Feast of the Father.

           https://youtu.be/59yihZfAqNA         

Sacking Out

Now that the spring rains have subsided, Paul and I were able to get back to working Red. After a three or four week hiatus, he really never missed a beat. Needing to keep him going, we took the next step before saddling, which is sacking out. This pretty simple step, really pays dividends in the long run. 

 

The basic goal is to desensitize him to a plastic bag. It's about as loud and scary of an object as you can easily come up with. Always good to let him see and sniff what you are introducing to him. 

Once he knows it's not a rattlesnake, then rub it on him so he gets a feel for it. 

Next, we tied it to a whip so we can bang it all around him. Before we get to that point, it's good to walk around with it in the air so he how the bag behaves. When introducing this we always put ourselves between him and the scary object. Beings he trusts us, he'll come to trust that the plastic bag all over him isn't that big of deal. 

Then let him sense it again. This time it is floating in the air, which is new. 

Now we start to wave it all around him. Doing so catches all the different peripheries of a horse's scope. 

Then we can start to rub it all over him, desensitizing him to the random scary object. Red really took it well. But if a horse dances while you brush him with it, just keep going until he decides that it really isn't anything to be scared about and just stands still. 

Once he stands, rub the stop you were banging on to reinforce that he did what you wanted him to do.  

By doing this on his back, we are basically throwing a saddle blanket on. 

The beauty of this tactic is that you can rub on parts of his body from a safe distance, like his hind quarters.

And his rear hocks.

And the ever sensitive flank area. He did good. 

You just can't do enough random actions with the sack. Here we are swinging a rope off of him. 

What this produces is a gentle horse. 

Good stuff. We want to keep going and get a saddle on him, but we don't want to skip important steps in the process. Sacking him out pays it forward, both in the training process and with the scary objects that arise years down the road. It really is simple, but very effective. Like the whole training process, this is a new step that we've introduced, but we don't leave it behind. We'll be bringing it back from time to time. That being said, a saddle is not too far in the future. 

Good Conscience

We all have a conscience, we just need to well form it.

           https://youtu.be/661ucYkSGGI         

Virtue

Virtue is when we are in control of our passions.

           https://youtu.be/NrrqCqauRhc         

Mother of the Church

 Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!

           https://youtu.be/uY7s9p3zifk         

Bobsled

The day Dad was born, Grandpa signed on a ranch near Big Trails WY, south of Ten Sleep. Along with the place came an old horse drawn bobsled. With the use of teams being pretty well gone by then, Grandpa welded on a tongue, put a hay rack on it, and drug it around with a tractor. Eventually it just became impractical to use, so it got parked on the fence line for the next 40 years. With no one living at the ranch, Dad didn't want to see it disappear. So he and Luke brought the running gear home to the farm in the mid 90's. After I got to playing with horses at my first assignment at St. Stephens, on the Wind River Indian Reservation from 2016-2019, Grandpa asked if we'd get it fixed up. So we did. 

Finished product, December 2017. 

I was looking for a project that winter, so Dad piled together the old running gear and hauled it up to me. 

Once we got it strung out, it didn't look quite as bad. Amazingly all the parts were there. The biggest problem was that the skis were rotted out. 

So we pressure washed it and drug it in my little shop to come up with a game plan. 

The old skis were one-piece and steam bent. With that not going to happen, we devised a plan to laminate them. We ripped a bunch of old rough-cut 2" wide fir into 3/16" strips. Then built a jig that followed the inside contour of the old skis. One by on we laid a strip down on a bed of glue and tack nailed it the the bottom board. Once it was at the desired height, we clamped it down and let it dry. After a day of drying we cut it off and repeated the same steps for all four skis. 

Then sanded them down and cut them to length.

With the skis in tact, it gave us encouragement to the take on the rest of the gear. Piecing it together and understanding all the components was a fun puzzle. The most challenging part was firming up the tongue that attached the two riggings. The old wood was real loose and a bit rotten. So we took some strap iron and bolted the top and bottom together, and the length of the tongue as well. 

There was no original deck that we knew of, so we set out to make it a buckboard style. Simple 2x4" frame work with some rough cut flooring. 

Used the same material for the sides and ends. Wagon boxes like this just set on the running gear. Not having any suspension to speak of, they need to be able to move up and down as the running gear flexes over the terrain. 

Coming up with the right seat was a challenge. But like always, the Lord provided. Sr. Teresa and I used to go visit a neat gal named June out in Fort Washakie. One day while leaving her house I spotted this old seat sitting in the tall grass. Inquiring about it, she gladly donated it to our cause. God rest your soul, June. 

It cleaned up well and fit perfect. Dad made a simple cushion for it. 

Then we drug it out and oiled it up. Looked tough and ready for work again.

To celebrate, we borrowed a team of Belgian horses and hauled kids around for our annual St. Stephens sleigh day on December 26th. Fun ride. 

With a change of assignment in 2019, we brought the bobsled home and parked it on the hill. It weathered fine, but sure did grey up. 

I was pleased to see that the skis were holding together. 

So we brought it in to freshen it up. With a little help, the grey came right off. 

Still stands strong. 

Of course we had to rebrand it.

Then put a fresh coat of linseed oil on it. I find this trick to work super well. Get as siphon nozzle attachment for your air compressor, and dunk the hose into a can of oil. Makes for an easy and effective mode of application. 

Better. 

So we pulled it out. 

And parked it back on the hill.

Great heirloom. Carries with it good memories, both past and present. It'd be fun to pull it again someday, but teams are getting hard to come by. I enjoyed driving it, but probably enjoyed the challenge of fixing it up more. I'm thankful for Dad bringing it home and Grandpa wanting to get it going again. Treasures like this need to be displayed, if not used. Not sure if bobsleds represent a simpler time, but definitely a tougher time. No heated steering wheel here. If you needed to go to town in the winter back then, you and your horses better be ready. You can get there, but you better have a buffalo rug and some hot rocks at your feet. Good stuff. 

Spirit of Truth

The disciples spoke the universal language of truth.

           https://youtu.be/AoFFUrh9Cno