Welcome to the Ranch!

If you haven’t read Cowgirls Don’t Cry, Part One, you might want to begin with it.  Otherwise, I will continue with a story about my nine-year old daughter, Kyla.  I don’t know if living on a ranch her whole life or living in a family with four brothers has had more effect on Kyla’s life.  Regardless which circumstance was more influential on her character development, Kyla is one tough cowgirl.

Kyla with her horse, Dolly.

As a little girl, Kyla was never really interested in playing with baby dolls or house.  I think she was too busy being a big sister to her three younger brothers to want to play with a fake baby.  As soon as my husband and I teach our children how to do something, we allow them to do it with little supervision.  Kyla has been helping me clean our house for years.  She is a wonderful cook and loves to bake.  As young as five, Kyla has been occasionally surprising me with breakfast in bed or starting the pot of coffee for me in the morning if she woke up before me.

Kyla is a gem.  I could not ask for anyone better to be my daughter.  In addition to knowing how to do domestic chores, Kyla helps work cows.  She helps butcher wild hogs.  She goes fishing and never needs anyone to bait her hook or remove hooked fish.  She milks goats and bottle feeds their kids.  Kyla is really going to be some lucky man’s dream come true in many, many years to come, if I have anything to say about it.

Kyla also loves to ride horses.  She has gotten bucked off a horse once.  She slid off its back and landed on her two feet in the middle of the pen while striking a gymnastics pose.  You know what I mean, she threw her hands up in the air when she stuck her landing.  Everyone who witnessed it was quite impressed to say the least, and the people who only heard about it have their doubts that it really happened.  It did.

The other day she was riding her horse, Dolly, while Grandma Cathey was teaching Kyla to post in the saddle while Dolly trotted.  Kyla was really getting the hang of it.  The whole lesson was to teach Kyla to really learn to move with her horse.  Kyla was feeling so comfortable moving wtih Dolly that she let go of the reins.  The saddle horn held the reins for Kyla.  Anyway, she lifted her hands to her sides and lifted her head up to the sky like she was flying.  It was really a beautiful thing to see.  Horse and rider moving as one.  Rider trusting horse and having a splendid time pretending to fly.

Kyla decided to fly faster and clicked up Dolly into a lope.  However, Dolly did not want to lope and began crow hopping.  Well, Kyla’s body was still in a trot and she lost her balance.  Unfortunately for her, she was thrown right into the green metal arena fence.  “Thud!”  She did not bound to her feet this time.  When Cathey and I reached her, Kyla was still laying on the ground almost afraid to move.  She snapped at us, “Don’t touch me!”

She was able to explain that her left thigh and her entire back ached.  When she agreed to let us touch her and help her to her feet, we inspected her back.  Already a long purple bruise was appearing along her back from the small of it to the shoulder blade.  Green paint from the fence stained her brand-new white shirt.  She really hit the fence hard!

Despite her shock and soreness, Kyla wanted back on Dolly.  She rode around just to show Dolly that she was not afraid and that she was the boss.  My heart swelled with pride.  I have raised one tough daughter.  Just like Cathey, Kyla is another cowgirl who doesn’t cry.

Cathey

Living on a ranch is not for sissies.  This might not be politically correct, but it is true.  There are too many times when a person can get hurt.  We raise gentle cattle, but any bull separated from a cow in heat will become a force with which to be reckoned.  A cow separated from her calf will try anything to reunite with it.  These animals are not mean in nature, but their sheer size makes them a potential danger for people.

We were working our cattle several years ago.  My step-mom, Cathey, was working the back gate of a long chute that leads to the squeeze chute where we safely secure the animals for palpation, branding, or dehorning.  My dad thought it was the safest place to put Cathey.  She just had to open the gate before the cows were herded down the chute.  When all the cows entered the wide neck of the chute, she shut the gate.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, it was and safe, too, until our massive bull named Cactus Jack was herded into the chute.

He looked down the chute as it curves around the pen.  He lifted his head to look backwards at Cathey and the now closed gate.  Cactus Jack snorted and breathed deeply with his lips curling in the obvious sign that a cow somewhere was in heat.  Amazingly, bulls can smell if a cow is in heat as far away as five miles.  We suspect that this cow was in our herd and not on a nearby ranch.  Whatever the reason, Cactus Jack decided he was leaving the chute.  Surveying the solid wooden walls of the chute and the heavy metal gate, he determined that the gate was the most vulnerable to his attack.

Cactus Jack heaved his massive body against the gate trying to jump over it.  The thick heavy metal frame of the gate bent under his almost one ton weight.  The gate popped off its hinges and Cactus Jack ran back to the herd.  Then we saw Cathey pinned under the gate.  Everything happened so quickly that she did not have time to react.  She was completely stunned and Daddy sprung into action immediately out of fear.  Everyone thought her leg was broken at best.

Quickly and with surprising ease, Daddy lifted the gate off of his wife.  His adrenaline must have really been pumping!  He lifted her into his arms and carried her into the barn away from everyone else.  Cathey was amazingly quiet.  He stripped off her pants to look at her leg.  It had a deep cut, almost a hole, in her left thigh.  He rushed her to the nearest hospital, which is about 20 miles away.

When all was said and done, Cactus Jack did not break Cathey’s leg.  Somehow her bone remained intact.  However, her muscle was torn and the hole in her leg was draining fluid from the injury.  She could not walk for several days.  Daddy carried her around, up and down the stairs, and took really good care of her.  His face wore the solemn look of regret as he bore complete responsibility for the accident.

But it was an accident, plain and simple.  Nobody could have foreseen what was about to take place.  That is how it is when working around animals.  They are as unpredictable as people.  Her leg has completely healed, but the muscle has never looked the same.  She bears a deep indention on her thigh where the gate hit her.  It aches, but she bears it silently.  Cathey is one tough cowgirl!

I believe that everything in life offers us a chance to learn; therefore, we have learned not to stand anywhere near the closed gate of the chute.  Once you shut it, move out of the way.  This past week a cow was frantic when she heard her calf “moo” in a nearby pen.  She tried to clear a different gate in the same place.  Luckily nobody was there to be pinned under it like Cathey.  We can replace gates.  We can replace boards on fences, but we cannot replace one of our family members.

So now you know why when I hear Reba McEntire sing, “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” I immediately think of Cathey Holliday.  I also think of my daughter, Kyla, and I will tell you her story soon.

To go directly to “Cowgirls Don’t Cry, Part Two,” click here.