Patches.

 This summer Patches made the move from my parents' ranch to our little place.  She had been living in freedom out in the pasture for a few years.  She is also nearly impossible to catch in a big pasture. Knowing she needed caught, I had been working on catching her since last fall.  Every time I came home, I would go give her apple snacks.  Just give her snacks, then eventually grain out of a bucket. Never took a halter or a rope or even a vehicle.  I walked out into the pasture on foot, gave her snacks and walked away.  Any sign of a rope or attempt to catch her and she knew the game and would leave.  

in May, she was in pretty rough shape after the winter and I had decided to give it a shot at catching her.  I wore a big hoodie and had the whole lead rope tucked up inside my hoodie with one end threaded down my sleeve with the end just inside the cuff.  I had my bucket of apple snacks and some grain and had decided that on her first dive into the bucket, I would grab her by the neck, hold on and grab the end of the lead rope from my sleeve and hope for the best. 

And that's what I did.  I caught her off guard and she was really hungry for some grain as she was pretty thin.  I managed to get the rope around her neck but didn't have a halter with.  Mainly because I didn't think I would actually get her caught.  So I tied the lead rope around her neck with a square knot and we started for the house.  I had forgotten that the only way out of the pasture was thru electric fence or the cattle guard.  Goodness.  I managed to pull a pig talenpostbout of the ground to lift the electric fence and I convinced her to go under the electric fence while I held it up.  😅 Goodness.  After that, we just walked to the house.  After some hoof trimming and a good bale of hay, things turned around. Enjoy those sunsets Patches, they're pretty stellar. 

She joined the sheep and goats up here mid-summer.  Patches is good for me but has fended for herself most of her life.  While she would hesitate to kick a threat. She is never mean to the other animals so long as she gets first dibs at the hay bale!