T-Bone Wins Round One

I just thought I would share this little story about our first steer that we raised. We got him when he was very young. I fell in love with him right away. That cute little white patch on his nose was too much! Well, we decided to name this little guy T-Bone to remind us why we have this animal. My family has watched T-Bone grow up. Finally the day came to load him up and take him to the butcher. So, one Saturday morning we all went out to the pen with a heavy heart but very confident that we would get this big fellow loaded with no problem. The goal:

Get T-Bone

to go in here

That should be a cinch, right? Now I know for all you experienced farmers and horse people out there you are probably shaking your heads and laughing right about now. But you see, we parked this borrowed horse trailer out in our pasture for a couple of weeks and fed Mr T-Bone in it each evening. He would just waltz right in, get his treat and leave. However, we didn't take into account how intelligent cows really are. You might even say this big boy out-smarted US!

On this particular morning, we put his treat in the nose of the trailer just like always. In he went...ahhh so easy...we should be on our way in no time. Brandon, our photographer, had a birds-eye view on top of the goat pen, out of danger.

Then, as soon as we would walk up to the back of the trailer this is what he did...

We tried repeatedly but each time T-Bone was ahead of the game! After awhile we all were sick of that cute -little white patch-steer. And by the end of the morning, we were frustrated. As for T-Bone? Well, he was so mad that he was blowing at us! He was pretty worked up as you can see here.

A couple of weeks later we finally did get him loaded but in a different trailer, a cattle trailer with open sides. I do miss him. Now we look back and laugh at that Saturday morning and at out mistakes too!