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Post by Elaine on Jul 4, 2012 15:09:44 GMT
www.eclectic-horseman.com/content/view/82/92/ (click on the link to read more) The Flying D Ranch cowboys were branding calves when Tom Dorrance drove up. Jim Thompson, a teenager at the time, still vividly recalls the day. Tom had visited only briefly when Jack Shell offered up his horse so that Tom could rope a few calves. "No," Tom said. "I don’t want to take your horse." Then, pointing to a pair of horses in a nearby pasture, he asked, "What are those horses over there?" Someone replied, "They’re not broke." "Well," Tom wanted to know, "would it be all right if I rode one of them?" Tom drove to the other pasture and returned in about thirty minutes on horseback. Cows and calves milled around bawling. Cowboys on horses darted into the herd, swinging their ropes, and then came out briskly with a calf behind. Sometimes the calves dragged resignedly; other times they bucked and ran on the end of the rope. The branding fire roared. As the riders came close, wrestlers swarmed to the calves. Other men carrying hot branding irons hurried back and forth, ducking between horses and ropes. Tom rode into this chaotic scene on an unbroke horse and proceeded to rope one calf after another and drag it to the fire.
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