What are friends for?
Julie Carter Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

Cowboys aren't especially known for not ever doing anything stupid. In fact, they are fairly consistent in that department. That is proven apparent in four out of five stories they tell you.

Usually "stupid" is directly related to something they shouldn't have roped, something they shouldn't have ridden o,r sometimes, someone they shouldn't have married.

Right after that list comes the list of pranks they pull on each other that should have, but didn't, get them killed.

Another constant but not always a requirement, is the influence of an adult beverage of one variety or another.

Johnny and Tom were serious ropers - or as serious about roping as they got about anything. They were wheat pasture punchers by trade. This particular winter they had cattle scattered all over the Panhandle.

They had been doctoring sick cattle all day, roping and giving shots. Late in the afternoon, they decided it would be prudent to test a little of the fresh moonshine they had recently acquired.

They unsaddled at the pens and were making a plan for the next day while conducting this experiment on the 'shine.

The pens were home to a bunch of chronically sick calves and after a while, they decided that these needed to be roped. No reason needed, except they were there.

The kids' bicycles were leaning up against the fence and, well, transportation is transportation.

The bicycles worked fine; these calves were pretty sick.

When they got all the calves roped, standing in the pen, there was a big Santa Gertrudis stray cow that belonged to a neighbor.

This old hussy weighed at least 1,200 pounds, with horns and was about half- wild.

Tom bet Johnny he couldn't rope the old cow and, of course, Johnny couldn't pass up a cowboy challenge.

Johnny shook out a loop and snared the old hussy right around the horns with the other end of his rope tied off to the handlebars.

He just couldn't help himself or pass up this opportunity. Tom opened the corral gate to the outside world. The cow left on run with Johnny trolling behind at the end of the catch rope.

Johnny was holding his own with the bicycle until it hit a hole in the pasture.

He had on leggings and spurs and as he dug in to hold on, the spurs shelled all the spokes off the back wheel of the bicycle.

In the inevitable wreck, the old cow drug the bicycle off, leaving Johnny laying in a heap on the ground.

Their wives were supposed to come out to the pens that evening and bring them supper. The cow had run through a gate tearing it up and rescuing what was left of the bicycle didn't make anybody happy.

Supper that evening was a very solemn affair. Wasn't a funeral, but may as well have been.

Visit Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com