Ay-bar-Ay

The *front* of my legs is what is sore today… and that was from our “small” branding, with the Big One coming up in a few weeks!  Of course, all the yardwork I did today, too, probably added to the soreness!  As usual, or what has evolved to become The Usual, is that I apply the bar part of our A bar A brand.  Vernon and Johnny apply the two A’s and then I follow and connect them with the bar.  Here’s Vernon applying the second A, the first is higher… well, it’s higher when the calf is upright!

The finished product looks like this.

People always seem to ask us, “Why is it necessary to brand?”  Well, I can take a pretty good guess that those people have never been to Wyoming’s big open spaces.  We’ve had cattle end up in Kaycee, clear over the Big Horn Mountains, but they were returned to us because of the brand.  Here Daniel has roped one around the hind legs as Vernon was turning them out of the corner.  You can see we’ve branded most of them already.

At our place, we rope them by the hind legs, hopefully both, but one will do!  The roper then drags them towards the branding fire, where a team of “wrestlers” grab the rope and/or tail to pull them over onto their sides.  They are then held in place for the people branding… like me!

I was kept hustling, so these pics are all just snapshots taken before I had to run for my branding iron.  I liked it when the ropers were slow, because it gave me more time to focus and frame my subjects!  Tomorrow… Ten Things You May Not Know about BRANDING.