And the ranch remuda had become pretty well accustomed to capture by nylon, and several of the ranch steeds could accurately tell you where the end of a 30 foot rope would reach. This place was stocked pretty heavy with large Santa Gertrudis cows, no bulls,,,these types of cattle are fondly referred to and also known as Gert’s, (expletives deleted),,,kind of cows originating in the deep brushy realms of south Texas, and theoretically bred, or at least “exposed” to Gert bulls,,,,(that word, “exposed”, always sounded a tad suspicious when applied to cows) ,,,,thus no bulls on the ranch at this point. BUT I was told, hey, the price was right,,,,so,,, These cattle, being dense heavy south Texas brush bred and raised, some rumors of being gathered by helicopters out of their natural very dense habitat, were delivered and released in a huge multisection square “Railroad Section” pasture, I want to say it was a 10,000 acre pasture. Back then the ranch had 5 mountain pastures and the “flats” pasture which was about 1/3 of this 30,000 plus acre place. I have heard that now there are over 35 pastures on the ranch, which was/is needed to utilize this place right,,,but back then,,,,well, let’s go on,,,,
This ‘big’ pasture, being in the “flats”, contained virtually NO flora nor fauna over about 2 feet high. I have been in big pastures, and we can call ‘em “big” for a variety of reason,,, whether they’re brushy, full of deep steep canyons, gyp hill sinkholes, way too many rattling snakes,,,whatever the case may be, ”big” is a word that like most words is relative to the situation. Hold that thought. Upon delivery to the ”flats” of Barrel Springs, these brush bred cow brutes hit the ground running beyond overdrive and desperately hunting something to hide behind,,,or under,,,but alas, none such existed so they, about 400 head of them, struck the ground with their heads and tails high in the sky til they hit the boundary fence lines and down the fence they went. One really large benefit to this was,,, no diesel was wasted running the ranch road grader for a fire lane,,,at least not in that pasture.
So,,,, “big” pasture will apply here,,,some of the resident Gerts started to calve,,,, many were springing,,, some, heavier springer’s than others,,,some obviously bred but middle springers and a considerable “some of ‘em” that had the appearance of never gonna spring,,,,so the decision was made, we needed to pen ‘em, cut all the wet ones with calves back with the heaviest of springers, and “preg” the rest,,, palpate them,,, with the assistance of our resident cow physician, the legendary Dr. Charlie,,, Dr. Charlie Edwards of Marfa. This ranch was blessed with a few different assets,,, we’ll try to define ‘em all in time but for now, we’ll focus on the remuda and labor,,,labor in this case consisting of a handful of good cowboy type foreign exchange students we affectionately refer to as “wets”,,, solid, hardworking, cowboy, Chihuahua, Mejico ranch raised horse minded wets,,, where they were from, they rode horses, mules, burros, had wagons, buggies and didn’t feel impoverished or hurt due to a lack of technologies,,, they could drive four wheel drive pickups, feed cake, put out protein and salt blocks, check waters and fix pipeline leaks. We had a revolving number back then from 4 to 6 at the ranch at all times, all of then related and from the same area of ranchy Chihuahua,,, and they were mounted,,,the ranch had 18 head of good horses and 4 head of gentle, good minded “Spanish” mare mules, that were pretty cowy,,, and each foreign exchange student had his own favorites and rode them regular when checking pipelines and waters,,, in places that a pickup couldn’t go,,,like it’s supposed to be,,, I’d been on a few ranches and good horses was the norm on good ranches, but this place,,, Barrel Springs even had a horseshoer,,,not a full time guy, but a guy that could shoe, and would show up every five to six weeks and shoe everything on the place company and personal mounts,,, name was Carl Rogers, a student at Sul Ross and a good hand at shoeing,, when I learned this I felt obligated to feed him when he came out,,, until I got here he’d either brought a lunch and or ate with the foreign exchange guys,, oh,,, did I mention they had a cook ???,,, I mean a sho’ nuff cucinero mejicano,, named Juan,,, Juan had been a good hand and a segundo in his earlier year on one of the Wardlaw ranches around the Del Rio area, but alas, had grown older and more gimpy from the lifestyle and had ended up at the Rancho Barril as cook for the resident mujados,,,but wait, this was in the ‘70’s and the ranch had a deal (like a lots of those Big Bend ranches) the ranches had a deal with the Border Patrol, the wets were “papered” to a point and would rotate out with other family cowboy members from their home range in Chihuahua,, the deal was, when they got ready to take a break and go home, I’d take them to Marfa and turn them in to the Border Patrol, they’d be processed and bussed to the border at Presidio, crossed and headed home for some time off,,,,, when ready to come back a couple or few weeks later, they’d send the ranch a letter, a date would be set up to go get them at the bridge at Presidio/Ojinaga, and back to work we’d go,,,these hombres were also ‘eyes’ for the border patrol when other nondesirables crossed the river and were attempting to come inland,,,, the border patrol had an open invitation to come eat fresh tortillas and have coffee at the bunkhouse anytime,,, it was a good deal.
Before going much farther, let me go back to Carl, the horseshoer,,, after a couple trips to shoe, my obligatory cooking and feeding him lunch was “ok” but he didn’t want to hurt ol’ Juan the cocinero’s feelings,,, and he had a soft spot for Juan’s tortillas y comida,,, come to find out, after shoeing the remuda, Juan the cook would always send Carl back to town with quite a few of Juan’s finest tortillas,,, hey, I didn’t mind, I liked Juan’s cooking too,,,,and the ranch bought flour in 100 Lb sacks,,, so,,,, BUT one reason Carl had to be there every 6 weeks, mas o menos was,,,,the horse trap was right behind the barn, big enough to house the 24, or so equines, the ranches mounts and mine,,,,open the gates and it was straight up and those hills were pure pumice,,, lava rock,, if you ain’t never seen it, it’s hard to believe, but a