The Trackers

The Trackers

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

You nearly always see them in cowboy movies, they’re usually down on one knee fingering the dirt or sniffing the ground... Who are they? I’m Susan Allen this is Open Range, stay tuned to find out. If you're ever invited on a cattle drive and are asked to go on a reride get ready for an adventure. Being sent to reride means you’ve been elected to find the lost cattle or horses,  the stragglers or cattle known as remnants. You are the tracker! Now there are a couple of basic things cowboys look for to locate livestock, a track and a sign. A track is the marks animals make on the ground, typically footprints but in deep snow it could be brush like mark made when the horse’s long tail scrapes the snow. Signs are clues, often the hair left on bushes or fence lines, areas of flattened grass where animals have bedded down, urine markings and manure piles. Suffice to know that horses and cattle make different tracks but it gets trickier, a good tracker can tell the age and the sex of an animal. Domestic bull tracks will be rounder and larger at the toe then a cow track and if you note a smaller track on top of a cow track, pay attention because Momma has a nursing baby. Finally not only does a good cowboy understand signs and tracks he needs to know how fresh they are. A cold track is a hoof print that has some deterioration, maybe a bit smudged, a hot sign is a fresh manure pile or urine puddle while a red hot sign is usually a manure pile that is still steaming. If you find a hot sign, and you are close to your buddies you'd be wise to  “top out”  meaning ride to a high spot where the other cowboys and buckeroo’s can spot you so they can come help you gather.    
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