Branding Cattle

Sunday was our valley's third farmers market this year with three left.

Just across the road from us an entire branding operation was in full swing and boy were the cows unhappy about that.  I should have made a video to capture their loud discontent.

                                   

Our property owner's association leases the greenbelt to a rancher and today was the second day to get them them rounded up and branded before returning them to graze.

Daniel's assistants are some of our neighbors who ride Western and love to put them cow-punching skills to the test.  It's hard work with long hours in the saddle and these guys (and gals) love it.  So many folks in our valley ride English so this is their day.

                                

The horses have been training for this and they love working too.

                                

Nancy took a break in the afternoon to walk over to buy a couple towels from me.  She said they had expected to be done by now but six calves broke free, so they had to round them up and release the others in order to brand the renegades - and boy was her butt sore!

I hope you can see that she's wearing her chaps - most of them are.   It's my theory that they're pronounced "shaps" because their purpose is to protect legs from the chaparral.  

This shopper just rode in to check us out and socialize her horse a little. She's was a huge hit with the kids. The farmers market is only four hours long but it's become a social occasion and one that many of us look forward to twice a month in the summer.