“Excited to share, Shannon M. and I attended Cowgirl Confident Oct. 2024. I learned so much! I wanted to share that with what I learned and Shannon’s verbal support via phone my husband and I were able to assist and deliver our neighbor’s calf who was in trouble. She was a young first-time mom and she wasn’t progressing. When we looked closer he only had one hoof present. We were able to push him back in, find his other hoof and get him out!! His mouth and tongue were starting to turn purple, but once we pushed him back in and found his foot he pinked up quickly and then he came right out!! I really never thought I’d actually be hands on, especially when it wasn’t even our cows!! So grateful for all of you and all your expertise, grateful we happened to be called over to their house or it may have been a different ending!!”

“Yesterday, we had a bred heifer get out of the pasture around the tractor at the gate. She was enjoying some fresh grass by the garden, as wel all went to get her back into the pasture. In the process of getting her in the pasture, I got kicked by her. It’s not the first time I’ve been kicked, but this is the first time I knew why. Thanks to the cattle movement class I knew I wasn’t positioned off her hip correctly and it was a great reminder to be constantly assessing your position when moving cattle.”

“A little story to tell y’all! As I’m still shaking. I just had a feeling mid morning that it was time for Willa. Sure enough she wasn’t with the herd. She was hidden well. Took me an hour and a half to find her in the woods. She was down and pushing, straining with nothing coming out in a way that didn’t seem normal. Fast forward after trying to get her tied to a tree we ended up getting her up into our chute. Thank God I had just been to cowgirl confident and saw first hand what you were feeling for inside a cow and the positions a calf could be in. I reached in and felt the tail head and hips. No feet. I struggled to find both rears. Found one, it came out, but couldn’t get the other. So had to put it back in. the cow was crying in pain and pushing against me. At times smashing my hand between the calf and her pelvic bone. I took a break and called every vet and cattle person I knew hoping someone could come help. But nobody answered. I took a deep breath and went in again with both hands. I remembered what our instructor said. I closed my eyes and slowly found both hips and moved my hands down the legs slowly and after some maneuvering I finally had both rear hooves. I twisted slightly and pulled and they seemed to fly back. I wrapped the chains as we were shown and pulled that calf out as momma pushed. I was fully prepared for a dead calf. But he was ALIVE. I did it, y’all! And you can too! 💪🤠“