Rohling 1 Robert Rohling Professor Orobello ENC 1101 (11:00 am) 07 Feb 2014 Market Day

Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a cattleman; or more commonly known as a cowboy. Many people say they wanted to be a cowboy due to watching old westerns growing up; though that was never the case for me. The first time I saw the orchestra of stockmen directing cattle across a pasture I knew that was what I wanted to do. The men would cut and lead the cattle as if directing a symphony. Their horses well trained as if they were finely tuned musical instruments. The moo of the cows, the crack of the whips, and the sharp whistles of men make up this symphony on horseback. The term Florida Cracker derived from the thunder crack sound that the bull whips make; which is usually due to a stubborn bull that didnt want to move out of a slough. When I was a teenager I got the chance to work cows with one of my friends dad. In the cattle business there is a very limited need for day to day cattlemen on a ranch. The men that do work on the ranch everyday are called top hands and they ride for the brand which is to work for that ranch year round. There are times when the ranch needs help to cut the herd, or on market days, thats when they employ outside people. Those that only work occasionally are called day workers. On market days they

Rohling 2 have to gather, sort, and load the desired livestock to be sold at the market. In the ranching community; especially for smaller ranches being neighborly is important. Today we were loading three tractor trailer loads from a medium sized ranch, so there would be a small mixture of enthusiastic neighbors and day workers. Get up boys, you got fifteen minutes to shove some food in your face and get dressed, then we are gone! said Justins dad Floyd firmly. His voice, like an alarm clock, woke us up to start the day. I looked at the red glow on the digital clock by the bed and it said 3:10am! I knew we were getting up early but had no idea he meant before the birds!!! We half dazedly made our way to the breakfast table, hitting our knees on the chairs, where we had a steaming plate of biscuits and gravy waiting on us. The atmosphere was one of haste so there would be no time to savor the meal. We hungrily ate the dish as if we were in an eating competition. Justins mother was in her old pink flowered house coat speedily packing sandwiches, jerky, and pouring coffee to go. I could tell that she had done this before; it was not her first rodeo! Everything was strategically packed; coffee for now, jerky for during the day, and sandwiches for lunch. Mr. Floyd was more concerned with getting the horses saddled and loaded than eating. He wanted the horses loaded and loosely saddled so that all we had to do was tighten the girth straps and ride when we got to the ranch. It was pitch black as we made our way out to the idling truck. The sound of the horses stomping excitedly around on the worn wood floor of the trailer ready to work led us to the truck. We had two strong sorrel horses and one paint horse that seemed to know what awaited them. As I walked down the length of the cold aluminum trailer to the open waiting truck door I saw the red beady eyes of Mr. Floyds blue heeler cattle dog , Elvis, peering out of the back of the trailer gate, close to the door to avoid getting stepped on by the anxious equine. He looked at me as if saying, Look boy this is just business as usual and you better do your part!

Rohling 3 The pickup truck was pretty quiet except for the low volume of the radio and the hum of the tires going down the road. The consideration of Mr. Floyd was apparent, due to the lack of conversation on the trip to the ranch, he was letting Justin and I get a little more shut eye before the long work day. I was too excited to sleep but Justin, whom had done this many times before, took full advantage of the chance and within minutes was snoring like a hibernating bear! I thought I smelled something! hollered out Mr. Floyd to one of the cowhands as we pulled up to the ranch entrance. Its probably your upper lip, no telling where those lips have been! the other man bellowed back. It was as if the only way these men knew how to communicate with each was to be aggravating and insulting to one another. Justin was starting to come out of his self-induced coma when his dad yells at us Get up, unload the horses and keep an eye on Elvis, I am going to go talk to Mr. Ralston the ranch manager to see what the plan is!. After about twenty minutes of discussing the job at hand, and the telling of the latest heard dirty jokes, we had our marching orders. We were to head to the northwestern most pasture and push the cattle to the north gate that lead to the main cow pens. Mr. Ralston and a few of his top hands had been cutting the cattle earlier in the week so most of the sorting had been done; it was just a matter of rounding them up and pushing them to the pens. We worked on the through the morning chasing strays and being chased by angry bulls. We eventually got all the cattle to the cow pens where the first thing I noticed was the pungent odor of nervous cattle with very active bowels! We then began the final sorting, counting, and loading of the bovine. The shiny tractor trailers had been at the pens since the night before and the first trailer was already backed up to the cattle ramp. We pushed the cattle, which were reluctant and stubborn, into the trailer. We repeated this until all the bewildered cattle were loaded into all three of the massive trailers.

Rohling 4 Everything went pretty smooth and we put in a good days work. We sure smelled like we put in the work too! I had never smelled so bad yet felt such satisfaction. The day was over for us but had just begun for Mr. Ralston, who prayed his beef would fetch a handsome price today at the market. I felt a kind of peace and pride being in that saddle that day that I had never gotten from anything else. I knew at that moment if I could find a way to make a living at this, that I would like to continue my love affair with working cattle. This was my destiny.