I Should Have Been a Cowboy

Longhorn Visitors

I returned to Tres Colinas after a brief trip to Caldwell and found these visitors in my front pasture.

I spent most of the morning trying to determine where they came from and who owned them.  I'd not seen any Longhorns while driving up and down our road.  They aren't that common as there are much better beef breeds available.  After numerous calls to neighbors and the Sheriff (they handle wandering cattle problems), I finally identified their owner was my neighbor on my south property line.  I've never seen any activity on that property but it seems he dropped them off on Saturday and just assumed the fence was good enough to hold them.  When cows are moved to a new pasture, they often try to return to their prior home.  While they couldn't get that far, they could cross to my land. 

So, I fired up my tractor and herded them back through a small hole in the fence.  This was a little tricky as the hole was only five feet wide.  I guess their cattle drive genes kicked in as all I had to do was keep the leader moving in the right direction and the rest followed.  I did give them my best Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) stare a couple of times.  I repaired the gap and thought they would stay as they had plenty of grass to eat and access to a stock tank (water) on their property.   I was wrong as I guess they prefer my grass and water.

They were back the next evening, eating my grass, drinking from my stock tank and wreaking havoc on my deer feeder (like a bad brother-in-law).  I guess they could smell the corn in it and decided it was a candy machine for them.  They knocked it over and managed to get the top off, giving them access to 150 lbs of corn that I had recently loaded.  That kept them busy (and happy) for awhile.  The dogs are keeping them from getting too close to us and Pam did yell that we were Aggie's not Longhorns (that had little affect).  I don't like to think what those horns could do to our vehicles or the RV. 

Hopefully, their owner will round them up in a day or two, although they are pretty.  Fortunately, they can't get to my black angus or I might have some Longhorngus's next year.  Yippie-ki-yo-ki-yay.