Chapter 18--How Environmental Factors Affect The Human Race And The Animal World

Good Morning Everybody, How The Heck Are You?  I've got to get into a better schedule on blogging.  Here is to better intentions.  We were driving to Dodge yesterday and my wife and I were talking about how things were just better back in "the good ole days".  How people were better people, how animals seemed to be better and that conversation has inspired this blog post, so here we go.

Now, stay with me.  As usual I'm going to take a big wide turn on this one.  I promise it will make sense in the end. Back in the late 70's and early 80's my family was running quite a bit of ground, 4000-5000 acres.  We were running a lot of cattle over some kinda rough country. So when cattle had to be checked and or doctored you just couldn't do it from a cab in a pickup.  You had to have good stout horses that could travel.  Now we raised horses, good horses, we still do for that matter.  But we were in-between finished horses and Dad was riding a lot so he decided to go to one of our family friends ranch and see if they had a couple of finished geldings.  This is where the story of Buck and Blue start.  So this ranch, about 40 miles southwest of us, was a working ranch.  Their horses grew up around quick sand, rattlesnakes and other predators.  Dad decided he needed two finished horses, so he went with these two horses. Buck, a buckskin gelding and Blue, a blue roan.  Original name huh?  Now if you know anything about horses you can picture them in your head.  They stood a little over 15 hands and even in their working clothes probably weighed 1200 pounds. They were stout and they were tough.  I've seen better working horses in my life.  In fact the best horse we ever had was probably a little mare we called Jody.  We used her around the home place to gather cattle and pen them. You could literally put a saddle on her and she would go out do and her job with nobody on her back.  She was that smart, but she was a little on the smaller side and couldn't travel all those miles that Dad was looking for a horse to do. Now Buck and Blue were the quintessential working horses in that scenario anyway. Good feet, always ready to go to work and they were stout.  Have I mentioned before that they were stout?  Just checking because they were stout!!  Now believe me they weren't perfect and I'm fixing to get into how imperfect they were and how that really kind of made them perfect and that's what makes this story so good in my opinion.

They were out of good blood lines and had all the physical traits to be super horses.  But to start off with the guys that broke them let them get by with anything and everything.  They were handfuls. They were spoiled and they knew it.  They were like our grandchildren.  They got by with most everything they tried growing up and unfortunately we paid for that.  Here's a couple or three stories so you can understand their mindset. One day my Dad was riding Blue up on a 2000 acre pasture and he bowed up and took off.  He was the kind of horse that would try you at least once a day and he tried to run Dad under some tree limbs and knock him off his back.  Dad told the story later that he decided if he couldn't get him stopped they were at least going to hit the trunk of the tree and not let him run him off under the limbs.  So picture this, my Dad is a big guy and was bigger back then. 6'2" probably 240 pounds and he was having trouble steering this horse.  So at a pretty good gallop he got him directed right towards the tree trunk.  Dad said they hit hard and the force of the collision knocked the horse to his front knees.  Then that tough ole bastard shook his head a couple of times to clear the cobwebs, got up and off they went to doctor cattle.  Another time my brother was riding Buck and my Grandad was riding another young colt we had just started across some pretty boggy areas of that same pasture.  Buck stopped and wouldn't budge.  My brother was gigging him pretty good and he wouldn't move.  My Grandad went ahead on the young horse hoping that the older horse was just being stubborn and promptly sunk the gelding he was riding almost to his belly in quicksand.  That horse, even though he was at a new place of employment had quicksand engrained in his psyche enough that he remember what his environmental raising was all about. The final short story I will relate is about Blue.  Dad was riding him this time and to get up to one of the windmills you either had to drive along ways around or ride a horse up through this tiny wash out.  It was barely wide enough for a horse and a rider to get through.  So up to the windmill they went.  As they got to the washout Blue put it in reverse and went full speed backwards.  Dad thinking he was just being an ass got him going again and as soon as he got close to the wash he put it in reverse and got out of their again.  This happened a couple more times and the next time they got close to the crossing Dad saw a rattlesnake.  Now if that horse would have went through there that rattlesnake would have bit Dad in the thigh.  He hadn't seen that snake but that horse sure had.  I've got a million stories on these two horses, way to many for today's blog but I tell these stories to prove a point.  Those two geldings were not the all round horses that you would necessarily want. You wouldn't want to take them to a ropin. They were not parade horses.  They would bite, They would kick sometimes, and if you needed to teach a stud horse some manners all you had to do was put him in a pen with these two guys.  Hell, they were kinda bullies.  You could rope of them easy enough, they had such a stop on them and were so big and tough I was always afraid they might break a calf's neck, but they didn't. In fact Dad wouldn't let me on them when I was a little squirt  until they had been rode quite a bit that day.  Even then I got into a wreck with them one day, though it was all my fault. They were not perfect but most of the time they did what we needed them to do.   I've never seen another pair of  horses like them to this day.  That is both positive and negative!  And here is where I start to make my circle.

If you are involved in agriculture think about this one.  Production has went up across the board in our industry.  Yields on grains have skyrocketed in the past 20 years. Milk production has went up in dairies. Genetics have changed and animals grow faster and more efficiently.  All these changes have been good in my opinion.  They had to be made so we could continue to feed the ever growing world. But to get these gains we have also lost some things as well. Animals are not as sound as they used to be.  Their productive lives are shortened.  Even a lot of all natural layer operations that have their flocks outside on grass are only keeping them for one year because their egg production starts to decline after that.  Here is another example.  In my 4-H and FFA days I had a flock of about 35-65 ewes every year.  They were primarily Suffolk's and were big.  They mostly had twins and even the ones that had triplets raised them on their own.  They could lamb anywhere, never needed any help and would wean a couple of huge lambs every dang year.  Now what happens with farm animals? They have to be housed in somewhat climate controlled environments. Their feed is more balanced then ever to get that high production everybody is looking for and we have bred out a lot of the toughness and survivability of our stock.  I'm not saying you need to have rank animals necessarily.  Back when Limousin cattle got popular we bought a couple of bulls to add some growth to our primarily Angus cow herd.  They sure did that.  They also added a temperament that would put me up on the corral panels most of the time.  After about 3 years I told Dad I'm getting too old to get chased around by cows every time we had to do something to them or their calves and we went back to Angus bulls. But you can't argue what kind of growth they added to our herd. 

Now think about the same thing in the human race today.  We are generally weaker then we use to be.  Everything offends us. Peoples opinions make us run for safe spaces with crayons, a blanket and a cookie. Nobody wants to work hard or stand up for what we know is right. Think about all of your close friends.  How many could survive without any help if a disaster struck them?  Could they house themselves? Could they feed themselves? Could they take care of other basic needs? Or would they have to wait on somebody or the government to come save the day?  We have to get back to where we know what to do and how to do it, if for nothing more then the goodness of our own lives.  Over the years we have come to lean on our government way more then we should. Why should we do anything, they will save the day kind of mentality.  If a snow storm hit your area could you go without going to the grocery store for a week?  I doubt it.  Look what happens now when the weather people call for 4-6" of snow.  There is a run on every store in town. Kids are more connected to the internet or games today then to where their food comes from or how to work or how to survive. We live in an entitle world these days and that entitlement is kicking our butts right now. We need to be more like Buck and Blue.  Maybe a little rough around the edges but having the ability to survive and prosper in hard times as well as the good ones. 

I am making myself write once a week.  Right now with every thing going on it seems like its a real battle to find time to write but I think over time it will stop being such a hassle and come naturally.  Please like my page on Facebook.  You can find me at OK redneckfarmer.  I've also got to start using my Twitter account more.  My handle there is OKREDNECKFARMER.  Until next time folks, have a good day and better tomorrow!

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