From: Broken Horn Ranch Ministries Campbell
\nDate: January 27, 2015 at 10:19:48 PM CST
\nSubject: Daily Reading-1-28-15–Bud Williams<\/p>\n
At the end of one school year, I asked my Animal Science class what their favorite lab was that semester.\u00a0 We had preg checked cattle, learned how to artificially inseminate cattle, and handle straws.\u00a0 We\u2019d done DNA precipitation labs, dissected ruminant digestive systems, administered vaccinations, and wormed critters, as well.\u00a0 We had done about 18 different labs, most of which included a trip somewhere or at least some good old fashioned hands-on learning (a hallmark of Agricultural Education, I might add).\u00a0 Because of the nature of all of those labs, some of which made me realize why I had become a teacher, I had some expectations as to which ones might have been their favorites.<\/p>\n
I was wrong.\u00a0 Overwhelmingly, the students picked the lab where we learned how to move cattle using nothing but a read on what the animal was telling the student.\u00a0 It was very simple, as a matter of fact.\u00a0 I simply showed students how to move a steer around a pen at a walk, back up to a trot, back down to a walk, and then to a stop.\u00a0 They then had to turn him and move him the other direction and do the same thing going that way.\u00a0 The clincher was that they had to do it without saying a word or using any tools.\u00a0 They had to use the animal\u2019s actions and nothing more.\u00a0 To finish their assessment, each student had to move two steers around the same pen, peel one off through a gate and keep the other one moving.\u00a0 Most students mastered it, but not very many on the first try.<\/p>\n
I think the reason those kids liked that lab was that it gave them a sense of accomplishment and understanding.\u00a0 They could see the immediate reward of their learning in a way that made them feel a sense of communication with another living being.\u00a0 More than just that, though, they achieved that without yelling, moving fast, or using tools.\u00a0 They did it quietly and subtly, using intelligence and knowledge.<\/p>\n
A lot of what I taught kids came third hand from Bud Williams, a stockman who truly lived low-stress livestock handling.\u00a0 He never wanted his critters to look at him as a predator.\u00a0 He simply wanted to take the stress off of an animal, read the animal, and get the animal to believe what Bud wanted was what she really wanted.\u00a0 Gary Marshall was the first one who told me about Bud Williams, and I was a believer off the bat.\u00a0 He\u2019d gone to one of Bud\u2019s clinics, and for a cowman who had been around cattle his whole life to sing an old man\u2019s praises the way Gary did, Bud Williams must have truly had it figured out.<\/p>\n
Keeping it simple seemed to be Bud Williams\u2019 mantra.\u00a0 Things shouldn\u2019t take too long if you\u2019re doing them right, and if you\u2019re thinking the right way, the livestock will be plumb cooperative.\u00a0 Are there those cows whose mothers are just stupid?\u00a0 You bet, but for the most part, if cattle are simply respected and shown that the right way is the best way, they\u2019ll generally go that route, and for Bud, that was what was most important.<\/p>\n
Jesus treats us the same.\u00a0 When we begin to think his way instead of our own, we begin to have life.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t always easy; as a matter of fact, it probably seldom is.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s good, and that\u2019s way better than easy.\u00a0 If we submit to Jesus, he can get one of us peeled off through a gate and the other one going on by without a stick, a paddle, a fit, or anything else.\u00a0 That\u2019s way better than the alternative.<\/p>\n
Jesus loves us, and he wants to work in harmony with us, not against us.\u00a0 Proverbs 3 tells us, \u201cIn all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your path.\u201d\u00a0 If we just follow him, Jesus will direct us down the right trail.\u00a0 If we fail to acknowledge God and his role in our lives, the wreck is on.\u00a0 He knows how to guide us, but we\u2019ve still got to listen.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to be like the cow whose mother is stupid.\u00a0 She\u2019s going to town, and that ain\u2019t necessarily a good thing.\u00a0 Trust God, and follow him.\u00a0 It will all fall into place after that.<\/p>\n
God Bless,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From: Broken Horn Ranch Ministries Campbell Date: January 27, 2015 at 10:19:48 PM CST Subject: Daily Reading-1-28-15–Bud Williams At the end of one school year, I asked my Animal Science class what their favorite lab was that semester.\u00a0 We had preg checked cattle, learned how to artificially inseminate cattle, and handle straws.\u00a0 We\u2019d done DNA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stockmanship","category-testimonials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1864,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1863\/revisions\/1864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockmanship.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}