Let's Round Up Some Cows!

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This was a huge highlight for me. The Ranch have the 'normal' cows in herds that are used for babies and beef and they also have 'play' cows. These cows are kept as pets pretty much, there are probably around 16 of them in total. They live in one of the front fields and are for the guests to learn how to 'Cut' and 'Pen'. So, first we had to go and get them. With our horses we made a horseshoe and bought them in from the field to the arena. We put them in one corner and then got into teams of three.

We had to 'cut' the cow (we did it with just one cow in the beginning) and then guide it towards the pen at the bottom of the arena. The term 'cutting' means to literally cut the cow from the herd. We had to really work together as a team because they cow would always try to escape back to the head. We had a couple practices and then we did it against the clock, brilliant fun! After one cow, we did it with two cows and then three. Sometimes the cow would escape and you'd have to chase after it to stop it getting back to the herd!

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Photos

Lisa
Lisa was one of the Wranglers, here she is closing the gate.

Cutting
Here, I had to cut 3 cows from the heard to take them down to the other side of the arena.

Pen
We had to get them around to the other side and get them in the pen.