Mental toughness

Not only does a cowgirl have to be physically tough, but she has to be mentally tough too. Not every girl can handle the tasks of calving season or the challenges of working in blizzards.  Cowgirls have to be mentally tough to fight through these obstacles and rise above them.

On the ranch I grew up on, it just so happened that most of the blizzards came during calving season. My parents had to check the cows during the night in case cow had trouble having her baby. My mom and dad would both check at 9 p.m., then my mom would check at midnight, then the other hired hand checked at 3 a.m., and my dad checked at 6 a.m. while checking throughout the day too. When blizzards would come in during calving season, my mom and dad would split up and check the cows every hour. Checking cows is very important especially during blizzards because if a cow is having problems, we have to pull the calf. The reason we would have to pull the calf is the cow could die and so could the calf. Pulling a calf takes a certain mental toughness. I have helped pull many calves.  We first would bring the cow into the calving barn and put her into the shoot. The shoot helps protect us from getting slammed by the cow or kicked. Once the cow is secured in the shoot, one person would put gloves on and grab for the calf’s hooves inside the cow to put the chains on. After the chains are around the calf’s hocks or higher up the calf’s legs, I would connect the chain to the puller. The puller is a device that uses a pulley to help ease the task of pulling the calf. I would crank a couple times then lower the puller to help the cow deliver the calf. This process doesn’t take long and we will have the calf lying on the ground in a matter of minutes. After the calf was delivered, we would use another pulley system to raise the calf up off of the ground and stick straw up the calf’s nose. We did that to make sure all the membrane was off of the calf’s nose. If there is membrane on their nose, the calf will die because they will not be able to breath. To pull a calf takes a mental toughness because cowgirls have to be able to handle the smell, the blood, and the fact that these cows become very protective of their calves and could potentially charge you. You have to always be thinking one step ahead no matter what time it is or what the weather is like. Also, pulling a calf in a blizzard takes mental toughness because you can become tired and your job is to protect that calves and keep them warm. Sometimes nature has the advantage and you don’t save every calf, which hurts your mental state because you feel like you are failing at one of the most important job. A cowgirl has to learn how to let the death of one calf go so that they can concentrate on the other calves and their task at hand.