Life on a cattle ranch

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A few days ago i made the joureny from Agnes Water/Town of 1770, a fair few miles inland, passed the great dividing range into Kroombit cattle Station. We arrived at lunhc time and were greeted with steaks on the BBQ and heaps of salads and bread. After a good chow down, i got my long trousers on a saddled up.

I was heading out on a goat muster. As a more experienced rider i was given the boss horse. A lovely chestnut beauty that did what it was told! We headed out into a rocky and hill paddock and started searching for the goats. There were about twenty riders in total and four of us were experiened. The first goat sigthing was in the middle of the paddock so the four of us were sent trotting off to muster these goats while the rest focuessed on a larger group a little further on.

We drove the goats into the fence and once wed had them in a group set about driving them through the centre of the paddock to the holding pens. We had four riders behind and then eight on each side keeping the goats in a close group. It was fairly easy except for the occasionaly bout of goat sex, its the mateing season and the odd goat that made a break for freedom, though it never got far. We managed to herd them into the holding pen withing two hours, having covered some distance!

After our ride we were then taken back to the holding pen for a gaot rodeo, but first we had a chance to do some lassoing and some clay pigeon shooting. It is here that i found my calling in life. Gifted with my mothers eye i scored 4 out of 5 in the shooting, setting the record for the day! Lassoing however, is definately not my forte...

The goat rodeo is a way of life for goat herders. In teams of three they must catch, turn, brand, inject and sometimes castrate the little devils in a window of only ten seconds. We had the chance to see how we would fair. We too were in teams of three, though it had to be mixed male and female teams. However, three girls dropped out, leaving me and two blokes as a team. The goat master deemed this as cheating and decided to give us the biggest billy they had. No joke. he was as big as me. His horns were reaching my chin. Unlike the other goats that had been in, he didn't run away, he just stood there. This gave me the shits, as the goat master had said, "you don't want him to stand up to you. Don't let him stand up to you." Well i got news for you buddy he was standing up to me.

In the end i just went for it and grabbed the buggers horns and dragged it back to the team, where one guy helped me turn the bastard and the other grabbed the "brand" and placed it on the rump of the animal. We got a time of 20 seconds. The winning time was 17 so i feel we did well.

As a pre dinner snack there was some stewed ribs which were delicous, i straight away guessed it was goat, a lamb flavour but no lamb to be seen and also somewhat a little larger on the rib front. We then had roasted meat and veg, all cooked in oven onver an open fire. It was to die for.

After dinner we were able to try our hand at cracking the stock whip, a fun experience though i had a whip that was an inch too short and every time i cracked it it came back around and slapped my back. We then watched as most people threw themselves off the mechanical bull, though i was still full from dinner so didn't jump on myself.

I hit the sack about 11, along with the five other fellas in my room. Bearing in mind there was enough room for maybe four people it was quite a feat to fit 6 in the rooms. We ended up having to sleep with our bags by us because otherwise someone going to the loo would have broken their necks...

Peace Out!

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