Many times in my life since then I have felt the strength of greater powers than I have been prepared to withstand.
Instead of being violently yanked from my saddle, I found the relative ease of letting my horse do the pulling while I had the much more simple and manageable task of holding the dally tight and maintaining the connection to the anchoring force. This simple act allowed me to draw strength from something far greater than myself. The dally transformed my situation of having inadequate personal strength to being able to access a greater power that anchored the turbulent polar forces acting upon me. The saddle becomes an anchor point, which connects to the greater strength of a steady and powerful horse. To dally means to take the rope and making two or three quick wraps around the saddle horn. Just as I was being violently jerked out of my saddle, I heard a wise cowboy yell across to me: “Dally up!” Despite trying my best to hold onto the calf, I found that my strength was no match for him. Though the calf was seemingly small and slow, I felt its tremendous force start to jerk me off my horse. I carefully planned my throw, and I felt the thrill of accomplishment when the loop settled over the calf successfully. I remember proudly getting my lasso rope ready and searching out the smallest and slowest-looking calf in the herd. At about the age of seven, after repeated failures in tackling the calves, I was finally allowed to try my hand at roping. Alternative responsibilities entailed wrestling the calves to the ground, oftentimes resulting in me getting kicked or run over. The sight was surreal as I would watch hundreds of cows and calves being herded toward a corral to be branded and vaccinated.Īs a young boy I aspired to be able to rope the calves as my part of the branding. As the first rays of sunshine would start coming over the mountains, the cowboys I was working with would scatter out and begin looking for cows and calves from among sagebrush flats and juniper-covered hillsides. I would start the days very early by catching and saddling my horse in the moonlit and frosty morning hours. I grew up on a large cattle ranch, first near Eureka, Nevada, and later in Kanosh, Utah.
Thank you for this opportunity, President Worthen. I am humbled and thankful to be among so many friends today and to see so many of my current and former students.
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