by Jan Fielden
What an interesting week-end we had! We have a bull named “Thorp” who actually belongs to our granddaughter, Ashton. But we take care of him…like, “Mommy, can I have a dog? I will take care of it, and feed it, and…. In her defense she is now in college and not living close…we ended up always taking care of him.
Thorp was always kind of shy around us until he grew older. Then he acted just like his Daddy, First Knight and would “stare” when he wanted cubes. Soon though, he got a little pushy if we going to the barn, or out in the open someplace. He would nudge The Colonel for cubes. Once, he nudged a little too much and The Colonel let him know he did not like being nudged. Thorp started staying away from the herd and lying down a lot. But he would always get up when we came around. We decided he needed to be put in the corral, given some cubes and some good hay even though there is plenty of grass to eat. We got him to the corral, got him to go inside the corral and he was not too happy about that. The Colonel told him we were not going to sell him just pamper him some. Thorp would not come for the cubes which was a mystery to us.
I picked up some cubes threw a couple down in front of him, he came a little bit, threw four or five in front of him, he came again, and then as I turned and started walking to get him to come again for cubes, he decided game over! I turned and looked behind me and he was running. I ran for the fence and climbed it but he hit me in the back with a glancing hit. He then turned and chased The Colonel up the gate but before he could get his right leg over the fence Thorp hit it and kept hitting his leg. The Colonel put his hand on the gate trying to hold on to get his leg over and Thorp hit his hand tearing the top layer of skin off in the area of webbing between the thumb and forefinger. Thorp no longer lives at the Red Oak Ranch, he was taken immediately to the sale barn in Buffalo.
