The Running of the Bulls

Okay, admittedly, it was more of a soulful meandering, but it was still cool to see these Texas Longhorns stroll through a former stockyard in Fort Worth!  The TL’s are actually born with tiny little nub horns at birth!  They continue to grow as they age.  They can live to 20 years, and those horns aren’t hollow!  They have living bone in their core—I feel sorry for those heads having to hold up that lug of skull and horns for 20 years.  Longhorns are not a ‘purebred’ form of cattle.  They are a mongrel breed of Spanish and English cattle.  All the cattle had been branded.  The term “Maverick” refers to cattle that have not been branded.  That is because back in the day Samuel Maverick claimed that any cattle not branded were his! 

One fascinating thing to me, is the horn patterns all come from only 7 bloodlines!  You can almost tell the cattle’s lineage by their horn pattern.

 

To me, there is nothing cuter than a cow cleaning up another cow!  This pair (below) cleaned each other’s faces!  So cute!!!

 

It may have been pointed out some time around this moment when this TL was coming in for a very hardy scratch that there was a rather large sign saying “Please stay at least 20 feet from all the cattle”  Along with “Don’t feed the cattle”— but you have to admit they were pretty hard to resist. 

 

Just like walking on a railway roundabout.  I mean, I know they weren’t probably supposed to walk on it...but it was a roundabout...how could they not?? 

I believe in my cattle frenzy (well, I do love cattle) that we met up with the Balmanno’s there!  Back in January when Beth was visiting, I casually mentioned going on this trip, and she said they would meet us in TX!  And, oddly enough it all worked out, so we met there and stayed with her fabulous boyfriend Jeff!  It was an awesome few days with friends!