in and by

years ago while running the cowboy crew at hughes and ganz feedlot it was my job to sort fat cattle for the packers who bought cattle there.  it was a big yard and the chore was a big job. you just couldn't  catch up.  some days it was daylite til dark. I had a 7 man crew and it took a minimum of 3 of us to sort while the balance of the crew was checking pens for sick cattle.  the schedule was hectic with many days  weighing and shipping as many as 20 truck loads of fats and new cattle coming in at the same time.  while all that was going on the processing crew was branding at the squeeze chute as many as 800 to a 1000 head a day.  to say the dust didn't settle till after dark is a undrstaement.  the cowboy turn over was a little high as they burned out from the grind.  tempers got short with the physical exhaustion. I was no exception. I had a new man helping me one day in the sorting ally. he was a good feedlot cowboy and horseman but wasn't quit used to our style of rapid fire sorting. we didn't have time for horse training or conversation.  hayden was a pretty laid back kinda guy and easy going and his main spring wasn't wound to tight.  he was watching the gate on a green kinda horse  while I had two cowboys bringing 15 or 20 head of fats to me . as those steers steamed by me single file I would call in or by and it  was pretty rapid. I would try to get as many of one kind as possible  in a row before changing the call.  most of the time the steers were head and tail at a trot or lope. so the gate man had to be ready jump across the alley and turn the in  steer into the gate.  during the coarse of the sort one or two steers would go the wrong way, it was to be expected. it wasn't a exact  science. but this day haydens green horse was a little late on  a bunch of calls and the steers went the wrong way. after the fourth or fifth time I looked back over my shoulder and told hayden I hadn't planned on sorting this bunch twice.  I then went back to work not looking back but just watching out the corner of my eye to see where the steers went. for the next half hour it was in and by in rapid fire style and no mistakes.  I noticed the boys who brought the steers to me ginning and giggling after a while. I didn't know what was so funny til I looked back. hayden had a spur buried in his horses shoulder while holding him with a bridle rein in the gate, when I called one in he simply eased preassure on the rein and ole bay would fly across the ally to escape the spur in in his neck. it was like he was spring loaded!! by the end of the day ole bay had a swollen spot on his shoulder and neck but he would jump  sideways accross that alley like a big cat!!  after that day it was almost impossible to get a steer to go the wrong way when hayden rode that horse.