'Don't Let Go'

I guess you could say it’s just like walking a dog. If your dog weighs over 700 pounds and will take any necessary and often destructive means to get far, far away from you.
Halter breaking a steer is the ultimate test of patience … and oftentimes, bravery. My very first year in 4H, my steer’s name was Chaco - a personable, 700 pound beauty straight from my dad’s herd. I can still feel the drop of my heart as dad placed the end of that halter in my gloved hand, and with a reassuring pat on the back noted, “Don’t let go.” Of course, as with probably any other sane person, my first instinct was to drop the halter and hit the fence as Chaco tried to get away.
It was perhaps at that exact moment in my life, at age 13, when I felt more shell-shocked and terrified than ever before, that I found an important strength inside myself. The strength to hold onto my 700 pound steer, as I would with many more in the future, and, despite his amazing strength, never let go.
Years later, with a little more experience under our belts, my four sisters and I began the same halter breaking process. There’s always one steer, every year, who strikes fear into our hearts as the fateful halter breaking weekend approaches. He’s that one steer that just never settles down and seems to exert frightening levels of strength and will power. That particular year, the steer we were all afraid of was, of course, mine. His head seemed a little too high, his approachability a little less than the rest.
And so the day arrived. The steers were put in the chute to get their halters put on for the first time. Mine was first. Gingerly I placed his neon halter over his ears, glancing nervously at my dad as he arranged not only himself but also my three sisters on the end of an additionally attached lead rope behind me. Gripping the rope tightly, I could feel my dad and sisters tense as the chute was opened to release my supposed high strung calf.
And wouldn’t you know it? That steer not only exerted minimal if any resistance to the halter he found himself in, but actually walked himself, at a completely calm pace, out of the chute. This is still a joke amongst my family and a reminder that the unpredictability of the steer is half the excitement of halter breaking.
So, the next time you’re looking for a little more of a thrill than walking your dog, I would definitely suggest trying to walk a newly haltered show steer. The experience provides much more of an adrenaline rush and perhaps more injuries, but the memories and stories are, without a doubt, worth every bruise.