Day at the Ranch for City Kids
By: Casey Seymanski
During Long View High School's four-day field study trip, one of the most outrageous stops was the ranch out in La Junta. The
Riddenoure family was kind enough to let us come out and experience branding and inoculating their calves.
On the trip, there were two teachers and six students.
Jennifer Daly from Long View was one of the teachers on the trip, and the main organizer of the trip and events was
Lisa Hughes from McLain High School.
None of our poor souls had any idea of the part of a rancher's life we were about to be exposed to as we pulled up to the corrals. As we stepped from the bus, the smell of manure foreshadowed our future. At first we had a comfortable talk with
Cody about our agenda and what we where there to do.
The first calf was by far the most horrific; when we saw the first castration we thought we were going to lose our breakfasts. Watching someone cut the testicles off another living thing was pretty hard for my conscience to take. Somehow we managed to keep our stomachs under control and pushed forward on this seemingly perilous adventure.
As the day progressed, we all got more control on our positions and duties, and became more comfortable with the environment. We all took our turns giving out shots for pinkeye and blackleg while someone else branded. One of our brave enlisted soldiers decided to castrate one of the poor calves; it was one of the bloodier ones after everything was said and done. The rest of us wanted nothing to do with touching anything in that region of a calf.
Once we were getting to comfortable with our jobs, Cody decided to have us wrestle the calfs to the ground instead of using the metal instrument, known as a squeeze chute. I can't speak for the others, but this calf wrestling was quite the strenuous activity. One of the calfs I went to take down dragged me halfway across the corral. Even though it was a strange environment for a city slicker like myself, the experience I gleaned from such an adventure will stay with me for the rest of my life.