# Longhorn Cattle Drive in Woodward, OK (new photo added 8-06-11)



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Every year they have a big rodeo in Woodward, a small town in Western Oklahoma. One of the highlights is a cattle drive of longhorn cattle through downtown Woodward. This captured my imagination, I've wanted to go see it for several years, ever since I heard about it. But every year something comes up to keep me from going. Last year when this happened, I vowed that in 20112012, I would do it come Hell or high water. Speaking of Hell, 2011 2012 ended up to be one of the worst possible years to do it, as the drive is scheduled for Noon and we are in the middle of a historic heat wave. But I took off work and went anyway! Here are the pics, unedited straight out of the camera:

Here come the cows!









Gotta have some cowboys in escort, of course. And they put the picturesque ones up front.



























When I scoped out the route before the cattle arrived, I knew I had to get a pic of cows in front of the Health Food Store!



























And away they go! The less classic-looking cowboys go behind the herd. Whole thing was over in twenty minutes or so.









The cattle herd is driven directly from their ranch outside Woodward. Though they "home base" there, the herd is available commercially to rent for anyone who thinks a longhorn cattle drive would be a good thing to have. Once they were (I'm told) taken to downtown Detroit and driven through the streets to promote an automobile brought to market! They know exactly where the tips of those horns are, and you could see them avoiding poking each other, and even avoiding bumping the horn tips into parked cars! I'm glad I went, even though the heat was bad, and the harsh midday light wasn't the best for photography. I waited for the cows inside a "Cowboy Tack Shop" and will post some photos of lariats and saddles and spurs later.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

werelonghorns?


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

scarlet said:


> werelonghorns?


Yep, there were longhorns there. Hint: The space bar is the long skinny one at the bottom of your keyboard!  And you need an "h" in there for the second letter. They were in Woodward.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

What year did you go?  
(I guess it's going to be hot next summer, as well)


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

intinst said:


> What year did you go?
> (I guess it's going to be hot next summer, as well)


wow, i didn't realize he got the time machine working. but now i know why the lair smells like leather...


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

scarlet said:


> wow, i didn't realize he got the time machine working. but now i know why the lair smells like leather...


And that stinky smell isn't the wolf pack having accidents, it is just cow.


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## hakimast (Jul 23, 2011)

I've never been farther west than VA, so i've never seen anything like that


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

HC,

Thanks for sharing those photos...


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Bevo!!  Hook 'em Horns!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I FUBAR'd the link to the first picture, showing the approaching herd, complete with police escort! They never had this in the old west! Most of what you see is the escorting cowboys, but you can see a bit of the longhorn herd, especially to our left of the lead cowboys.


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## John Dorian (Jul 23, 2011)

Those cowboys better be careful, they just passed a speed limit sign!


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