May 10, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
My son was a senior in high school that spring. It was a practice high school rodeo and we were there early to get a good spot to park with room for his horses. We had unloaded and had the horses tied to the trailer, hay nets hanging by them so they could pick at […]
May 8, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
An area ranch had hired me to come and help them get their cows and calves to summer grass. They asked me if I could swing by and pick up another guy and his horse on the way and I said I would. When I got there, this guy, Cody as I recall, had his […]
April 25, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
If you’ve had horses for more than a week, you know how accident prone they are. So, having a little tip to make bandaging a difficult area easier might be welcome at some point. A very good vet showed me this simple way of doing it and I’ve used it many times. When a horse […]
April 24, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
In mid April we were preparing to receive our summer cattle on several big grazing leases. A great deal of fence fixing was involved, but one of the biggest problems we had was that there were around 75 head or more of bucking horses running on that 25,000 plus acres of country with the gates […]
April 20, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
We had taken on a cattle contract to care for about 4000 steers and 800 cow/calf pairs for the grazing season. It was my husband, three year old son and I who were going to be doing it. We had to get around the fences as soon as the snow and mud went off and […]
April 10, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
When I was in high school I always had summer herd cattle to ride on, besides doing the riding on my folks’ place, so I had miles to put on horses and could work the kinks out of horses that just needed time and wet saddle blankets. A guy had sent a horse to me […]
April 6, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It was early spring and calving was just starting. I don’t remember if there had been any calves yet, but I was going out and walking through the cows in the grass trap in the night to check. I’ve always wintered the bulls with the cows once the heifer calves are weaned, so there were […]
March 24, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
The share deal I had with a neighboring place was a nice situation for both them and me. They lived out of state but planned to move back to the place upon his retirement. They had me buy cows for them, then I took care of them. I spent their money frugally and had bought […]
March 16, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It was the winter of 1993 and by February the country was absolutely buried in snow. We were living at the ranch with my folks that winter. My then husband was working away from home and I helped my Dad on the ranch. The road into the ranch was about three miles long, through some […]
March 14, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
One fall and winter I was processing cattle at a feedlot until spring when my summer cattle would arrive. The processing crew and cowboy crew all ate together in the cowboy shack, a room built in the corner of the horse barn, therefore I saw the goings on there. One guy who was riding pens […]