| Cattle are funny
critters. Sometimes they will happily co-operate, and sometimes...... well,
they prefer to do as they choose!
Many years ago, a couple of other drivers and myself had to load FAIRLY "wild" cattle out of a place called Forbes, in New South Wales! We had a "drover" to assist. Brian was one of the best drovers that I have ever worked with! He was a REAL good stockman! Most of the loads were cows. There were a few bullocks (you probably would call them steers... you know.... missing some equipment, so not quite as "fired up" as bulls would be)!! In any case, the majority of the cattle loaded really easily. Now the last pen of the last truck to be loaded just happened to be on my truck and it just happened that there were 4 REAL big BULLS to go into it. Now, bulls are pretty caste conscious! They will battle away (if left together) and fight and so on and establish just WHO is "boss cocky"! These bulls had been together in the same yard for about a day, and one bloke had established complete superiority. NOW comes the interesting part! Since they had already decided which of them was to be the leader, these BIG fellas decided that they were NOT going to go into the back of the crate until their leader had checked it out! Now he, in turn, didn't think it such a good idea! He must have baulked at the race a dozen times! Eventually, by crowding his mates behind him, we managed to encourage him to .... check it out! By now there were 3 of us behind them in this very narrow stock race.... Brian, Brian Sutherland and .... I forget... maybe Ted Hamilton. John Mantell was at the side of the race, doing some encouragement on the rear end of the "boss cocky" with his electric stick (cattle prodder). My better half was sitting on a railing, watching the sport. I have to say that she was enjoying the spectacle. "Boss" went into the back of the crate. He decided that, maybe, it was a little cramped for his style! OUT he came again, roaring like there was no tomorrow, head down and going like billyoh! Now the bloke that was at the top of the race, facing him was none too keen to take "Boss" on! He found reverse gear in overdrive! The other two bulls figured THEY, too, wanted to see how far and fast they could retreat! Now, these bulls were all around a Tonne in weight..... except for "Boss" who was about 15% BIGGER! You would be amazed at just how quick a bull can reverse! The three of us at the back of them were hollering and zapping them. The more we hollered and zapped, the quicker they REVERSED! I can tell you it isn't very salubrious to have in excess of 4 Tonnes of muscle reverse on top of you with no where for you to go! Mantell was doing the best he could to slow them up, but to no avail! My better half was piddling herself laughing, shouting instructions and generally have a wonderful time! One slip of any of the 3 of US and that man was dead.... maybe a couple of us! Down they came. BACK we went! I can tell you that it was quite interesting there for a moment! Barb kept suggesting what we should do! I reciprocated by suggesting what SHE could do! For some strange reason, she was disinclined to actually SHOW us how capable she might have been at loading them where we had failed! Eventually, we got them loaded, but I think it took at least an hour or more before my heart rate dropped! Copyright © Ian (Indy) Rosser |