Under the Wire

If you have spent the past three months stranded half way between Jeffry City and Mayoworth, Wyo., you probably haven’t heard about stimulus dollars flowing into just about every citizen’s bank account. I’m not going to try and explain it all. Just ask around and you will get an earful about this.

I can, however, point out that these programs grew from aid to individual citizens to businesses, large and small with one exception. At first ag enterprises were not included. Later that was changed to include most ag endeavors but not all. For some reason, the cow/calf operators of the country were not included. Someone just assumed we must be wealthy and don’t need any assistance.

I sent a copy of our financial statement, along with a letter from a couple of places we owe money to Washington and bang, just like that a program was created for us. Haven’t talked to anyone who has gotten any money yet but I am sure that, nationwide, quite a few cow/calf operations could claim a loss.

Even with that expansion of the programs, there still is one glaring omission. With programs in place to help crop farmers of all kinds, feedlots, dairies, people who raise fish, I suppose and of course, cattle ranches, one group needing help more than any of those folks are still excluded. Who are these unfortunate souls? Horse owners. That’s right, there is no program to help that industry.

I can’t speak for the entire group but I personally have lost more money over the years with horses than anything else I have ever done.

Over the past decades I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on roping horses, calf and team ropers, hauled them to rodeos and jackpots all over the country in expensive trailers, pulled by equally costly pickups. The big outlay of bucks, not counting feed, shoeing, vets and tack was entry fees.

My earnings didn’t even begin to make a dent in those expenses, even though I was a professional. Professional money looser. This went on for years. Even now, after deciding to stay home and run a few cows, my sole horse investment, Freckles, while indispensable gathering and moving cows, never directly makes me a dime. So … where’s my government bailout funds?

Take the “r” out of horse and you get “hose.” That’s what we horse people have gotten, “hosed.” Write your congressman or woman. Surely there’s a sympathetic team roper or barrel racer among them. Remind them there is an ag industry out here that could use some help. Get some cash coming our way. Ask them “Hey, What About Us?”

Oh, by the way, for those who don’t already know this, Jeffry City and Mayoworth really are towns in Wyoming. I’ve been to both, pulling a horse trailer full of money-losing horses.