If You Are Going to Catch Cattle, You Need a Horse - A Florida Cracker Tale

Now that my screw worm days were over, after my Mother used the old "I need him at the house" trick, I was back on the ridge, as it was called, which was the old shore line of Lake Okeechobee.

I was 15 years old, and much to my Father`s disappointment, I was more determined than ever to be a cow hand. Where we lived on the ridge, there was a big cow pasture behind our house, with a lane that joined to another pasture.

I knew that to be a good hand, I had to know how to rope and I decided I needed practice. I had managed to get a pretty decent rope, and I had honed my throw on our two milk cows, but it wasn`t the same as a wild cow.

Every evening the cattle came behind our house to get to the other pasture. One evening when nobody was around I got my rope and hid behind a tree, and watched for a little bunch to come along. One old cow was curious and came over to check me out, I made a lucky throw and caught her horns, then all hell broke loose.

When she seen she was caught, the first thing she did was try and catch me! This gave me enough slack in the rope to tie her to a little tree. I backed up a little, she was throwing a fit; and she finally fell over on her side. This was all I needed to get the rope off her horns, and run like the devil.

Well, she seemed happy enough to get rid of me and got up and joined the other cattle that were just standing watching the show. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Don`t bite off more than you can chew, and if you`re going to catch cattle, you need a horse!