Page 20 of Roping Her In

At least it’s not snowing, she thought as she trekked behind the Courage Reins facility, and then cut southeast toward the equipment shed situated behind the administration building. The moon shone full that night and coated the ground in silver, making Hailey feel like she was walking in a magical world and not a regular ranch.

Hailey made it to the shed, found the key, and double-checked for the equipment Jake had requested before she threw her leg over the seat and started the machine. It roared into the night, and Hailey actually cringed at the noise it made among all the silence out here.

She got out of the shed and jumped down to push the button to close the door before continuing. She paused for a moment to check Jake’s pin. She tapped on that and let it load, because she didn’t know how much service there would be the further from the epicenter of the ranch she got.

Her navigation app told her it would take twelve minutes to get there, and Hailey frowned. “I’m not walking,” she muttered, and she figured she might as well get going.

In reality, it took her sixteen minutes to get to Jake, and she realized that he’d spoken true by saying he was quite a distance away. She found him with the headlights on, the ATV pointed at a still-pregnant cow on the ground. Hailey pulled up beside him as he rose to his feet and shined her headlights in the same direction.

“That took forever,” she said. “I’m sorry; I got here as fast as I could.”

“Yeah, we’re pretty far out,” Jake said. “There’s a cabin just over that slight swell right there.” He looked utterly exhausted, and Hailey handed him a towel, where he wiped his hands and still didn’t get them clean.

“Calf’s turned the wrong way,” he said, looking down at the pregnant cow. “And I can’t get it to move. I don’t know if I’m not strong enough, or if I can’t reach far enough, or when I do reach in that far, my arm is just too big, and I can’t get things to move.”

“I’m smaller than you,” Hailey said. “I could give it a try.”

Jake made an angry noise that Hailey attributed to his frustration more than anything else, and said, “We have to try, or I think we might lose them both.”

The cow gave a mournful sound, her cry for help filling the air with a terrible sound. Hailey’s throat closed, and she turned to grab the kit she’d brought with her. “You can also push from the top,” she said. “And try to rotate the head down while I push up.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, following her over to the momma cow.

Hailey knelt down right in front of her and stroked one hand along her head. “It’s okay, Momma,” she whispered. “We got you.” She looked up at Jake. “She’s definitely in distress.”

“I’ve been with her for forty-five minutes,” Jake said. “She was ready to deliver before that.”

Hailey took a deep, deep breath and said, “Dear God, bless us with the knowledge and quick thinking we need to help this momma have her baby.”

Satisfied she’d have the help she needed and what needed to happen would happen, she got back to her feet and moved to the other end of the cow. She didn’t even have to touch her to see the problem, as one little calf hoof fell out of the momma.

“Yeah, that’s a back leg,” she said, staring at it. “Which means the rump would be right up here.” She traced up the cow’s belly with two fingers. “So if you stand on the other side of her back and push down, that should be the calf’s head and shoulders, and you’ll rotate it this way toward me while I push up like this.” She demonstrated with her hands, but when she looked at Jake, he wore a frown.

“I’ve literally never seen this done,” Jake said.

“Dual-birthing technique for breech animals. I learned it in my last semester,” she said. “And like you said, we’ve got to do something.” She met his eye, and while he still held plenty of doubt in his expression, he moved behind the cow’s shoulder as she had instructed.

“Really lean your whole body weight into it,” she said. “And we’ll go on the count of three.”

The cow lowed again, and she did not sound happy. In fact, she started to stand up, and Jake said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! No, you stay down,” in one of his more commanding voices.

The cow panted and cried out again, and Hailey said, “One, two, three,” at a crisp rate. She leaned her shoulder into the lower belly of the cow and pushed the hoof back inside. She continued to push and push and push, one hand braced on the ground, and the other inside the momma cow.

It wasn’t working. She needed⁠—

All at once, the calf moved, and Jake grunted and groaned, and then fell over the front of the mother cow.

“There you go,” Hailey said, her voice bright. Sure enough, the calf’s head popped right out. Hailey reached in and grabbed his shoulders and pulled with everything she had, falling backward as the calf slipped out of its momma as easy as a greased stone.

She grunted and gasped as she now had a couple of hundred pounds of newly born calf on her thighs and pelvis. The calf started to stand up, and she didn’t want to be anywhere underneath its hooves, so she scrambled backward.

The momma cow had obviously been in this area for a while because the grass surrounding her was dry. She heaved herself around to get to her baby, and Hailey realized that Jake still sat in the way.

“Jake!” she called. He looked up from where he was cradling his right arm. “She’s gonna step on you.”

He looked over his shoulder to the cow, and then rolled, crying out as he moved over his clearly injured arm. He came to a rest out of the hoof zone and sat up, now panting just like that momma cow had been.

Hailey took the few steps to him and dropped to her knees, not sure where she should put her hands. She probably shouldn’t touch him at all, considering where they’d just been.