Bleeding Cows

Wednesday Kyle and I had an amazing day.  We were both working on the ranch with Jorge, planning on giving a trail ride in the afternoon.  Jorge started out by letting us rope some cows, and then we decided that we wanted to milk a cow.  We went over to Denis who let us try and milk the cow.  We both got milk out, but then Denis took over and got a ton out.  I decided it just takes practice.  Then the most exciting thing happened!  The vets from San Marcos came and had to take blood from the cows, Kyle and I watched, and probably looked like we really wanted to try.  So the vets asked us and of course we said yes, Kyle went first and tried to stab the needle into the cow's jugular vein.  It practically bounced off, so he tried again.  No luck, so the vet took over and showed us how to do it again.  Then he let me try, I couldn't get the needle to even pierce the skin!  Kyle tried again, stuck it once, bounced off, stuck it again and hit the vein immediately.  Blood started shooting out of the cow, so he collected it amidst cheers from the rest of us. 

The vets and everyone else decided that I really needed to do it, so I kept trying.  Every time I failed the vet kept encouraging me, telling me that it took him twelve years to master veterinary medicine, and that he started out just like me.  Finally, after being told numerous times to try harder, I got it in, but I didn't hit the vein.  At this point I was so pumped that I couldn't not get the vein, so I simply dug around in the neck until blood started shooting out, I'm pretty certain I screamed in excitement.  After I collected the blood, the vet and everyone else clapped for me.  It was one of my proudest moments of the entire summer.  Who knew that it could be so hard to stick a cow???? The day finished up with two trail rides, and then washing horses.  What could be better?

Katie