The grass had shot away and Redstone was looking a picture. Good feed was now abundant and there was water trickling in all the gullies. The cows were shiny and healthy, their episode of starvation already forgotten.
In March, the Redstone weaners were taken off their mothers despite Sam’s insistence that they were too small. But Alice was adamant.
‘It’s the breeders we need to think about now, Pa. If we don’t get those weaners off, those cows will be too slow to recover from the dry, they won’t cycle, and our calf numbers will be down again next year.’
The weaning went very smoothly. Alice’s dogs were working so effectively that they almost compensated for the lack of manpower. Each afternoon, once her grandfather had disappeared inside to doze in his chair, Alice would saddle Rose and work the weaners. She was pleased to see that Rose was coming along in leaps and bounds.
Then, in April, it was time for the late bullock muster. Sam was strongly opposed to Alice’s intention to ride Rose. This was a rogue generation of bullocks: they hadn’t been worked as weaners, as Alice had been away at ag college. Sam warned her that there was no place for a green horse on this muster.
However, fate was in Alice’s favour. The day before the bullock muster they discovered that Bingley was lame. Then Dan arrived with Mushgang for the four-day muster without his horse, having had to put the gelding down with a broken leg a few weeks before. Suitable horses were thin on the ground so Alice had her wish.
The first paddock they mustered was Pandemonium. When the riders entered at the eastern gate the main mob of bullocks was gathered at the trough. The nervous beasts got wind of the riders when they were still a distance away, and thundered off into the brigalow suckers.
‘Cunning old coots,’ Sam muttered. ‘We’ll let them run till they hit the back fence, then work them back around the long way.’
He sent Jeremy on Carmen to trot in one direction around the fence, and Dan in the other. The remaining three split up to canvass the brigalow suckers en route to the back fence, where they hoped the main mob would have pulled up.
Jeremy and Ace arrived on the scene first; at the sight of them, the bullocks began to shift uneasily in preparation for flight. Luckily, Alice arrived shortly afterwards, bringing with her several head that her dogs had flushed out of the suckers. She, Jeremy and the dogs positioned themselves at strategic points around the mob, at a respectful distance, in order to hold the bullocks where they were. When the three older men arrived, the cattle began to mill around suspiciously, looking for a weak point in the blockade. But the riders and dogs stayed in position for more than fifteen minutes, until the bullocks had settled down.
The task now was to move the mob along the fence, exerting just the right amount of pressure to keep them moving without startling them. Sam and Dan went in the lead, Alice, Jeremy and the dogs took the wing, and Mushgang stayed on the tail. They began to push the mob, and at first the large beasts travelled in an orderly fashion.
Then Ace disgraced himself when a hare bounded across his path too tantalisingly close for him to resist. He was off after it like a shot, baying like a hunting hound. Several touchy bullocks rushed forward in surprise, which made some others bust out sideways. Instead of going out wide the too-keen Lydia made an aggressive beeline for them, and the added pressure only hurried them on their way out into the paddock. Kitty and Lizzy went out wide to block them, but, overcome by the size of the galloping bullocks, the two little bitches backed down at the last minute. Next Darcy closed in on the cattle from the side; targeting the ringleader, he leapt at the monster’s face and hung for a moment from its nose. The bullock spun around, disturbing the flight of his followers just enough to allow the other dogs to close in again.
By now Alice and Jeremy had arrived and between them they were able to turn the bullocks back towards the fence. But the whole mob began to rush. Sam and Dan were overtaken and in no time the bullocks were in full flight. They were moving fast, but in the right direction along the fence, so the riders’ only option was to keep up and try to steer them into the fenced laneway leading to the bullock yards.
Jeremy managed to get close to the lead, and at this point Carmen truly came into her own, roughly shouldering several straying bullocks back into the mob. At Alice’s command, Rose stretched out in full gallop, working her way to the front of the mob to help Jeremy direct them into the wing at the beginning of the laneway. Alice hadn’t even paused to consider the effect of the unruly chase on her high-strung mount, and it was only once she’d slowed down and reached the safety of the laneway that it occurred to her how responsive and willing Rose had remained amid the confusion.
Once inside the fence, there was nowhere for the uncooperative beasts to go but along the laneway and into the yards. The bullocks slowed to a bellowing trot and the riders were able to drop back to the tail and relax. Once the solid double gates had been shut, they left the bullocks to mill around in the cooler. To give the stirred-up cattle a chance to cool their brains, the four men and Alice took a break for smoko.
Mushgang chewed slowly on a piece of Olive’s date slice and looked sideways at Alice as though seeing her for the first time. ‘I take my hat off to you, Alice. I thought I was pretty damn good with horses until today.’ He shook his head. ‘I had that filly well and truly written off. You’ve proved me wrong. Wait till I tell old Stretch.’
‘I’m not as convinced as you, Mush,’ said Sam disapprovingly. ‘I wouldn’t trust that mare as far as I could throw her. Flighty bloody thing that she is.’
‘Well, Troy’ll think I’m talking rot when I tell him. I reckon he’ll be showing up here to see for himself.’ Mushgang laughed quietly to himself.
At once Jeremy was on full alert. ‘Troy Boy’ll jump at the chance to come and see Alice,’ he said tauntingly, poking her in the ribs with his finger. She pushed his hand away.
‘You’re not wrong there,’ said Mushgang, chuckling. ‘Been stuck on Ali here since he was nine.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mushgang,’ said Alice crossly. ‘Troy would be horrified if he could hear you.’
‘That’s true too,’ Mushgang agreed, still grinning.
‘Poor fella. Better brace himself for some cruel knockbacks.’ Jeremy shook his head sympathetically. ‘Unless he has a secret weapon of some kind that I don’t know about. He’ll need some kind of magic to melt the Ice Queen.’ He leaned forward and smiled provokingly into Alice’s set face. ‘Same as what he uses on those hot young fillies, maybe.’
Alice shoved Jeremy’s shoulder hard before standing up to put her cup away in the esky. ‘Must be time to draft,’ she announced decisively.
‘Aw, just when things were getting interesting,’ complained Dan.
‘Alice, you go on ahead with Jeremy and get started,’ said Sam. ‘Your eye for fats is every bit as good as mine these days.’
‘And a fair bit better too,’ added old Dan. They all laughed.
‘But use my horse, please, Ali,’ called Sam as they started to walk away. ‘It’ll be too much pressure for your green filly.’
‘Pa, just let me start on Rose and see how I go,’ said Alice. ‘I’ve done a fair bit of yard work with her on the weaners. Please don’t worry.’
Sam shook his head in concern.
‘This I have to see.’ Mushgang stood up and stretched. ‘I’ll help too.’
They drafted all the ‘finished’ bullocks out of the herd into a side yard. Darcy and the Bennet sisters were lined up along the fence, eyes riveted on Alice. She and the filly weaved quietly between the hefty beasts until she spotted a fine full-framed animal with well-covered loins. Rose seemed to sense immediately when Alice had chosen her beast: the agile little horse locked on to it and began a subtle, unrelenting pursuit. With quick, understated movements she started to block, advance, veer and retreat at the precise moment required to separate the bullock from the mob almost before it had registered what was afoot. She then became more assertive and entirely focused on the chosen animal as she directed it authoritatively towards the gate.
This pattern was repeated with each new beast. Rose rarely rushed at a bullock, but nor did she allow it time to stop and think. The sensitive filly seemed to be able to gauge the particular flight zone of each animal and to stroke its perimeter in order to achieve sufficient propulsion without panicking the beast. Most of the troublesome bullocks found that, once separated from their gang of brawny cronies by this small, dark, determined duo, it was simply easier to comply.
Alice was glowing with triumph when they finally finished. She’d discovered the filly’s aptitude for this kind of close work when working on the weaners, but she’d been uncertain about how this would translate to the pressure of the bullock yard, with such large animals and other horses, men and dogs present. Rose had come through this test with flying colours.
They had a late lunch before returning the remaining bullocks to the paddock, and Sam hugged Alice with relieved admiration. ‘You’re a Wilson alright,’ he said proudly.
‘You taught her all she knows, eh?’ Dan grinned.
‘Wish I could make that claim,’ Sam answered him seriously. He added quietly, ‘What Ali’s got can’t be taught.’