There is a first for everything!

As most of you know we enjoy working with the Rodeo bulls here at the station. Each night Butch, Hayden, Yarra, Flea (the dog) and I load into the Ranger with molases and head out to greet the bulls. The bulls have come accustomed to this and come running when they hear the Ranger every afternoon.

About a month ago we noticed that there was a strange bull in the paddock with the rodeo bulls. He was a reddish colored bull with white on his face and legs, long horns and quite a large build. Butch thought he might be about 4 years old or so. A clean skin, which means he had no brand or identification marking. Many of the paddocks here are so large that sometimes cattle jump out and are not found again. There are vast areas of unfenced land owned by the government or aboriginals that these cattle often live on. For whatever reason this bull decided he wanted to live with the Norstock bulls, and jumped into the Sturt Downs paddock.

We were not able to get close to him, but each night we would drive as close as we could around him. He had gotten quieter and quieter. Butch has been training the bulls to go through trap gates to get to the water, so that we don't have to chase them when we need to use them. This clean skin bull was not going to get close to the yards or go through the trap gate!

Yesterday afternoon we spotted him in the paddock and he attempted to chase the Ranger. This definetely wasn't safe, so we came back to the house and Butch started the bull catcher. The bull catcher is used for chasing and rolling cattle. Butch headed out to find the bull, roll him if he needed to and bring him into the yards for water. Butch did chase the bull for awhile, until the bull decided to fight the bull catcher. The bull charged at the bull bar of the bull cather and hit it very hard on the passenger side corner. The bull fell into a heap at the front of the bull catcher. Butch jumped out of the bull catcher and tied a rope around the bulls horns. As I approached in the Ranger with the kids Butch was carefully examining the bull. After a minute we noticed the bull was not breathing. That silly bull had hit the front of the bull catcher so hard and at the right spot that he killed himself instantly!

All this took place so fast that I didn't even get a picture to put on the blog. I guess that wild bull won't become part of the Norstock string after all! Just another story to add to the Taylor's Tales from the Territory!