After the work of branding is done… and a good meal is eaten… there’s more work to do.  We brand after we gather cattle from one pasture, and now it’s time to send them to another pasture.  I haven’t ridden this for a couple of years, and so it was very nice to go along on this little jaunt this year.

The first obstacle is crossing the bridge… and the girls line out like champs!

They weren’t crazy about the freshly plowed field… it’s soft and hard work walking across it!

Victoria and C. return a calf who wanted to go back.

They have to be encouraged to take the high road, not the low road next to the creek…

There’s a little bit of easy going where you can enjoy the view.

Then we hold them in the fence corner of the new pasture to mother them up.

As each cow finds her baby, we ease them out of the bunch and send them uphill.

They’ve learned the good pasture is up and over this hill… and so they trudge on.

It doesn’t hurt to have a few strategically placed cowboys though…

C. gets a good look at the trail.

It’s the epitome of a steep and rocky trail.

Once the cows are over the ridge and happy with their new location… we head back downhill… What goes up, must come down.  This trail is not for the faint of heart!

As C. said… “Every day here is a good day!”

I couldn’t agree more.