they need the practice

years ago when I was a button, fresh outa the cotton patch , I was workin for the tovera  family at the Maricopa yard. at that yard which fed 25000 head I broke colts, worked on the branding crew, even washed water troughs. as cowboy wages went they didn't pay the best, but you rode the best horses and they had a roping arena. every nite after work you were expected to use a company horse and use that arena.  besides that when you doctored cattle in the feedlot you headed and heeled the sick animals to treat them. when roping in the corrals you wernt allowed to rodeo the cattle. you roped them in a quiet, easy manner. they had it down to a science.  after all they were the oldest cattle feeding operation in the state.
   after observing cowboys at other feedlots rodeoing the sick cattle , vet s decided that roping and ropes was a bad thing.   periodicly these vet s would hold hold a seminar to tell the cattle feeders how dumb they were and expound on the fact that they, the vets, were better educated and smarter than the rest of us.  at one of these seminars ed tovera was in attendance. after a long , drawn out lecture on the evils of roping the highly educated vet looked at ed and asked what he thought. ed stood up, wiped the gravey from his chin, dropped the napkin on the table, picked up his hat and said; we will keep on roping ours, the boys need the practice!!