We had a herd bull, a top graded registered Holstein bull that was a real gem. His name was Governor Pacheco. I didn't know for many years that he had been named for a past governor of the great state of California. I wonder how many bulls have been named Governor Warren or Brown or Reagan. That's the penalty for being famous.
Anyway, Pacheco was a purty little calf and grew to be almost 1900 pounds. I sat on him, pulled his ears, cleaned his stable and just generally fooled with him. That was in the stall. When he was taken out for breeding purposes there was always at least two men handling him, with a "jockey stick". That's a piece of steel about five feet long, some 3/4 inches in diameter and usually used with a team of horses when plowing; one jerk line on the lead horse and the other "jockied out" with no lines. Its also used in a multiple horse hitch like in a binder (rea to you city folks).
When the dairy was sold in January 1942, Pacheco was sold along with the herd. He was really getting too heavy for breeding and no doubt ended up as hamburger. Artificial insemination was in its infancy at that time so big bulls were frequently sold for slaughter. Now they pay little attention to size and use the big bulls as long as they can produce. It seemed like a waste at the time since Pacheco was purebred and most of his calves were females.
When Pacheco was a calf, Dad let me take him to Renton School one day where we were having a pet fair. I called him a thoroughbred bull and was corrected by some tall skinny old guy who said that thoroughbred are a particular breed of horse and other animals of identifiable lineage are purebred. He was right.
The Renton School wasn't the only school to have pet fairs. Harding School did too and several years earlier when I was in first or second grade at Harding, either Mrs. Clements or Ms. Francis whose property adjoined ours to the south east, was the teacher. Well, any how, one of the hired men had caught a greased pig at a carnival. She was a red female with black spots. I. can't remember what they called that breed. He gave the pig to me complete with dog harness and leash. It was only 10 weeks old or so and weighed about twenty pounds.
So, with pig, harness and leash I went into the auditorium at Harding and since there were not a lot of other four legged pigs there I won the most unusual pet award. Now I've been associated with some pigs in my life but this one was the only one for which I received an award.
She grew up and as with all farm animals, either produce or get out, she had several litters of youngsters. Since she was my pet, when she had some nine piglets the first time, I proceeded to enter the pen to see the new arrivals. I only had one foot over the pen wall when she made for me and by the narrowest of margins I escaped major disfigurement from those massive jaws. She wasn't kidding. I wasn't her buddy at that time.
Are you getting the impression I learn things the hard way? Shortly after died, Al Moyer who lived across the street from Aunt Florence in Rosedale brought a sorrel pony with a light mane and tail to the farm complete with bridle and a neat hand tooled leather saddle. Now that was a real treat, and the timing was right. I had lost my pony and now I had another one. The saddle I had for Polly was older than the pony was so never used it. Having a fancy saddle was super.