WE RECRUIT

Please tell the story of the calf scramble 👀👀 (and may you have a lovely day!)

Of course, and you too! (Apologies for the late answer I was working)

So this is Rugz! He was my calf scramble steer!

But that's the end- to start I'll explain loosely what a calf scramble is (loosely as some rules and prizes change per rodeo/fair)

A calf scramble is an event where those who are of age and showmen can compete. As example from my own there are six competitors (numbers can and will change depending on the year, and they are allowed to compete year after year until they win). Each competitor is equipped with a helmet & halter.

As with the competitors, the amount of calves different ever year. It's dependent on the amount of people, for me it was Three calves. Each calf was born January of the same year and this even takes place in early august, which places them in a weight range of 400-500lbs (so not tiny guys).

So what do you do? Well, you're placed in an arena (mine roughly the 3/4ths the size of an American football field). You and the other participants are lined up at one end and there is a small circle in the middle. When the even starts the calves are released at the other side of the area.

When a bell is rang, all participants run at the calves. The goal of this event is to catch one of these calves, get your halter on it, and then get all four of their feet in the middle circle.

As an explanation this sounds easy, but in reality it's not. The arena floor is wetted down to mud, and all the calves released are untouched by humans, large, and dangerous. You must grab them by the neck, as you and the calf are running through mud, then halter it, then get it in the circle.

And finally, if you do successfully do all of that. You win! Now unlike most places, at my rodeo, when you win you actually win the steer itself! The calf is given to you a week after the event, and you are required to raise it for a year then bring it to show at the same place you won it from!

In 2022 I ended up winning the Calf scramble during my first attempt at it. As pictured above I won a beautiful Charolais cross steer (who actually was quoted to be worth 5k)

I had fought tooth and nail to win. Every year from child to then I had watched the event, year after year waiting to compete. My sister competed and unfortunately lost. But my mother, my grandfather, and his father are all deeply rooted in this fair and rodeo, and I knew I had to win for them, and for myself.

I was the first one to get my hands on a calf, and It was nothing like I could have expected. It was harsh and difficult but I held on, but that beautiful shit head of a Charolais had other plans. As I attempted to get my halter on, he bolted. Running me into another competitor and flinging me off of him. I was exhausted, ready to give up, I told myself there was always next year. But I was angry, angry at myself and embarrassed for being knocked off. So I got up and ran, I chased that calf with my entire being. And in one final attempt, I dove at him.

And that's how I got this photo.

I had caught him, again. I wasn't going to wait, and as soon as I was on my feet again I put the halter on him. Then I was knocked down again, someone else who caught one ran into me. I refused to let go, I laid there, head one inch away from being kicked by a feral calf. But I clung on until I could stand.

I stood up, exhausted and I pulled that halter. Painstakingly slowly me and this calf moved, inches closer to the circle. When I got about three feet away he put his breaks on, nothing I did worked. He wouldn't move, and I was tired. So tired and worn out, the adrenaline wearing off and the pain in my body finally striking through. I almost gave up.

I remember thinking, "would they be mad at me if I gave up now?". And then he took a step back, and the my brain finally slowed down to remember one important thing my step-dad told me. My step-dad who never touched a cow in his life before meeting me.

"if you catch one, go where it goes, you can't put strength a cow."

So I did. I walked back with him, and then turned him around and he stook all four steps into that circle.

I had won.