Branding Etiquette - Do's, Don't's, and How to Be Good Help at a Branding 

"You're either helping or in the way." 😂😂😂 That is a universal truth that hurts more people's feelings than anything. Thank you for that reminder.

Participating at my first branding tomorrow… Will be the designated person to vaccinate ( I’m a nurse) … this video was extremely helpful… ( my boyfriend ,the rancher ), I’m so very nervous, knowing animals and horses, and people are all thinking- not wanting to “ drop the ball “ in anyway… I will watch a couple more videos… and spend the rest of my time in prayer… That’s what I do before every shift… that’s what I’ll do before our branding 🙏🏻🙏🏻😇💕

"It's OK to stay out by yourself" ! The best line of this video, especially since Pat looks like he is holding back on laughing for a few minutes right after uttering that truth. Priceless ! Thanks for a very interesting video. Not boring at all.

“Goes into the non profit category”. I love you Pat 😂

If words were currency, this video is worth it's time in Gold. This is something that's should be Taught in ffa/4H/AG in general. Like paw used to say "stick to the basics"

"Brandin a dead calf kinda goes into the non profit category" hahah. Yep correct. Loved that line.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience, Pat. I have been to a branding and got to help with the gather and in the branding pen from the ground. Two very interesting and fun days. And, yes ... It is work.

A friend of mine who is an excellent hand and his life is ranching cattle, told me having help from people who aren’t ranchers or cowboys themselves just makes their job working the cattle longer and harder, when the job could have been done in 3 hours, it’s now taken 5 hours because of uneducated help. If you get asked to help, take direction and use your best horse.

Awesome video. Not boring, not redundant. Loved it. Thanks Pat

Great video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Mr.Pat. Many of us appreciate it.

Thanks Pat for another great video. I went to a branding at the CS Cattle Co in NM I did a great job of staying out of the way lol. Got to work the ground on a few calfs. The Davis family sure knew what they're doing, all work no talk. It was a great experience.

Pat it was not boring or redundant. I found it very informative thanks for taking the time to do it.

Thank you Pat. Always an enjoyable(&humorous) video from you. Coming from Pennsylvania most didn't expect myself & four cousins to grasp ranching in Montana. Self taught riding since we were tots, our experiences grew to include trail riding north country mountains, sorting, jump & dressage. Leaving our horses behind, we often traveled to help friends with Spring drives. After getting the buck out of their wintered horses, we moved hundreds & branded newbies. With expert instructions. I asked our boss why just us 'yankees' helping his usual crew... He replied he was fed up with 'hot dog cowboys' wasting time & stressing cattle. We finished early and sat down to a feast to celebrate. We gals are in our 60's now and still look forward to Springs drives. Sharing your video!

Great information Pat and Deb. I really liked how you pointed out early in the video that the crew boss should start the day by telling everyone what is going on and what and how he wants the process to take place. I've gone to so many garhers/brandings where the crew boss doesn't say a word and everyone goes out and does their own thing only to create a mess and make the boss mad. It doesn't' have to happen.

Thanks Mr. Puckett that was great. If you ever get to Montana I would love to hear more great cowboy logic. We don’t have many left.

Hit the nail on the head there Pat!

This is so helpful thank you. Wish I could learn from a wise educator like Pat

Truly appreciate your efforts sharing your experiences.

I learned more about round up and branding today than I have for my 71 prior years.

he’s such a funny kind of funny. makes it so easy to listen to and learn from

I really appreciate your videos. I grew up on a ranch but things were not done "cowboy." The ranch I work on does things more cowboy and I have had to learn in a hurry. Your videos have been very helpful and I hope to someday make a good hand. I've had some good teachers here as well that have taught me the things you just discussed. I laughed a few times because I've seen or done the dink things you mention.

Some of the best advise I've heard in year's !!!

Thanks just wished more people would watch and soak up the information have a good evening

Thank you for all the info. I think you did an excellent job.

Well said my man keep it going nfo is gr8 been there seen it thank you god bless you

This was not in the least bit boring. None of your videos are. Thanks for the great lessons.

Intentionally dragging calves over top of your help sounds like a great way to ensure that your ground crew never comes back. Interesting strategy.

My sympathies about the winds! Here too! Thanks for the info!

Great info! You'd think after all the years irons have been burning everyone would figure out the rules and best ways to do this. I guess a lot dont know any better.

Best sit down ever

First branding tomorrow. Very nervous, slowly but surely growing my fingers so I can call myself a hand. Thank you for the advice!

I didn't want to watch this video because I knew it would bring up some embarrassing memories of dink things I had done in the past...but I watched it anyhow and sure enough I am reminded of my dinkhood. Hahaha! Some of us had to learn the hard way! Thanks for the excellent video!

Plenty of times where there has only been 3 of us to brand 15-20 head. We usually have either my step-dad or my buddy's dad with us, "Senior Hands". We have them head most everything. While Jose and I heel. Whoever doesn't catch on the heels gets to work the ground. Senior hand stays a horse back never working the ground. I know it makes me try a little harder on the heels! Lol

I thoroughly enjoyed this Pat. You forgot the guy that is not saddled up and ready when he arrives and everyone has to wait on him. 🙂And the calf wrassler that gets in front of the calf and turns him back. I suppose you remember the day of the horn scoops on Herefords. Keep up the good work my friend.

Great video, seen bout everything you've talked about. Some days ya just gotta shake your head.

Fascinating thanks for the lesson Sir

A lot of good information. Thank you.

I sure hope you're putting all this cowboy wisdom down in a book, not just videos. Generations of wisdom preserved in a book.

HAHA Pat Puckett keeping it real!!! I am so grateful I had the honor to be trained by this man! Although I'm sure he could point out a few mistakes! haha

Golden advice love it

Legend pat great advice i like the be quite part i was at a branding with martin black last October and it was quite like you say

Excellent description slow & quiet is good not rodeoing the cows in at jog or lope . . . I have gathered with some great ranchers and also with those who bring their 3 yr old kids and dogs and kids on their saddle with rank horses that are petty high headed. they were invited friends of someone who had a fantasy of how it should be done - - - but had no experience - -- I never have figured why bring barking dogs??? Anyway thank you this is a very valuable video . . We do not have allot of cattle now and we joined up this spring with our friend who leased land from us - he had 37 pair 4 bulls we are down to 17 and 1 bull. We have a chute for cows and table chute for calves. Not elegant but the rhythm was lovely ~we all have a job Ear Tag, # vaccines, pour on, brander, & steer maker with 3 to push in corrals and went at an even pace (yes new to me nasal vaccine). But we all commented no one had a cross word and the cows and calves flowed and we all knew what we were suppose to do - - that helps. We had 7 of us 4 I had never met before but we have all done this work . . . it is a really nice day when we are done - Blessings Val

There is a lot of wisdom in this video. I hope every cowboy or want to be cowboy can watch this. I'm not a cowboy anymore doctors orders no horseback but I am a stockman in charge of managing cattle. There are very few good cowboys left to do ranch work everyone wants to be rodeo star these days. I'm blessed to have found a few to help me work cattle.

If I could hit the thumbs up button on this one 100 times I would. You’re so right. After watching several of your videos probably all of them, and sharing dozens of them for sure. It does not surprise me you know of Bud Williams.

Loved this

I would think the "guest" to the left of you should be grateful for that opportunity. A fellow paying attention could probably gain three months of learning in that single day.

My friends in the Nebraska Sandhills have allowed me to "help" at two of their brandings. Those two days are some of my best memories. branding. Sure enough, just as Pat said, these ranchers had 300 brood cows!

Fascinating.

Very informative - would be awesome to have the opportunity to turn the advice into reality - in the meantime, watching will do - thanks for the huge effort to put this video together:) thank you!

That was awesome I've done it a few years and I was really good help I would always tell the boss that I was not very but ask them to show me how they want it done and it always work really good

Thanks you so much for this!

Thanks if I ever get to do this and help a ranch I now know what to do and what not to do. First I will ask what they want me to do and we’re they want me and don’t want me.

No, not one second of it was boring! Thanks!

Clear instructions prevent a lot of problems.. Last big branding I was at, 700 pairs, we used three Nord Forks right by the fire so 3 ropers could drag and hold three calves at a time without help from any other roper while other ropers caught three more.. good ground crew knew what they were doing with tagging and inoculating and branding, so we branded a lot of calves in one day. I can't rope to save my life so I helped bring the herd in close the night before and worked gates the day of... Ya gotta know your own skill set, or you end up in the way.. Those Nord Forks are worth their weight .. That black horse Pat is riding at minute 30 is the very image of one of mine.. nice horse(s).

Painted Desert Ranch has a nice branding setup. Maybe discuss the Nordfork next time. Great talk.

LOL! You didn't lose your hat in San Diego, it's right behind you. Thank God!! That's the coolest hat.

Never boring and great education ✅

Interesting and wonderful explanation

Good man, knows his business. You know he's been there done that. Would love to work with him. When I work, if I can't do it horseback I don't do it.

In my 73+ years I have never had the opportunity to work on a cattle ranch, but consider myself a cowboy in dress and heart. I have read books and watched you and others to educate myself on the cowboy life. I do have a couple of dink questions though. What is the best rope length for roping? I have a 35ft rope I have practiced with for many years catching my saw horses. Another question is, what is rim firing? Watched this portion of the video over and over but could not get the grasp of the term. You and Deb are greatly appreciated for what you do to bring the cowboy life to those of us that are unable to fully participate in it. May GOD Bless you both.

I can get about fifty head done per day just with the family helping, getting them to talk to me again when we are done usually takes anywhere from a few days to a few weeks!!! Haha.

Exellent.

Thanks for telling it how it is

Thanks!

Boy howdy. Back in the bad days I didn't know what a one-day branding was. Guess I was lucky. We all stayed over. For a week. Wyoming's weird like that.

Thank you.

Thank you sir. I have cowboyed all my life. Daddy sure sounded a lot like you but we drug calves to the fire by heels. Then had flankers to hold a front leg and sit behind with a foot and hand. We better have that heel rope off almost as our butt hit the ground. That was what big stout kids were for, if they knew enough to do it right. I’ve helped brand with Nord Forks once in Kansas. Thought I was gonna have a nervous come apart. Lol. Sorry help makes me really tired. One sorry hand is like losing 3 good ones. Thanks so much. I’m 69 and still have my bedroll together. Old women can still be good help if they stay with it.

Imagine working wild Brahman X cattle that only see a cowboy twice a year, swimming your horse across salt marsh coups (low water crossing between shell ridges called cheniers, alligators swimming along with you at hip level. Local-made big-star-raul stainless steel spurs worn on green LaCrosse rubber knee boots. Every cowboy has a homemade wooden handled palmetta fround flyswatter used to knock the Green Head flies off their horses and themselves. The Green head fly is the meanest horsefly in the world and attacks in great swarms at daylight. So do the mosquitoes. Every saddle is locally made with big swells and deeps cantle seats with no padding to rot in the coastal dampness. Everybody carries a local made bull whip. Cows are pushed out of the marsh to levys and onto the state highway were they have learned to follow the cowboys rather than be driven. Or they and the horses can swim across many bayous. Or loaded on barges. The law in Cameron Parish give cattle the right of way. Traffic stops as the cattle flow around cars and trucks on an unstoppable migration to summer pasture or back for winter. Cows and calves are parted in huge corrals and left apart all night long. In the morning a line of riders line up side by side across the middle of the pen the cow are in holding the momma on one side of the pen. One or two calves are let in to be claimed by its momma. That pair is cut from the pen into a small working pen where the calf is mugged by hand by muddy boys on foot fighting off the momma as the calf is worked and given the ear mark or brand of its owner. Along the Louisiana coast, thousands of head are ranged together by several owners. The only way to identify the calf's owner is by its momma. The boys who mug these calves are fearless and talented. Some calves are 4 or 5 hundred wt. The boys grabs one ear and runs with the other hand runs his thumb in the back corner of the calf's mouth, twists his head and falls backward on the ground pulling the calf down on top of him while at the same time his partner helps tail the calf down. This can go on for days. The crew is well feed with boiled crawfish, blue crabs, rice and gravy, and all the beer you can drink. Women and girls usually drive the trucks and load and count if trailers are needed. Creole ponies are small and unshod. They have big feet and are light so as not to bog down in the mud. I made the mistake of bringing my young roping horse down there to help. The black mud ruined my good saddle and I almost killed that colt. The Cameron Parish Cowboy is the toughest breed you will ever come up against. Their high school football team was almost unbeatable.

Outstanding video!!!! One thing that is a big gripe of mine is the gunzels riding across you. That just grinds my teeth and everybody I work with. That and thinking everybody has to ride double. By that I mean they think they have to be riding beside the guy next to them like a trail ride. Ol Lee Von Heater will short out on them. There are times when its alright to cross a man. There's been several times I'd be on a pisshead colt and everybody knows it. The guy next to me on the drive with ringgy cattle will cut you because he knows that colt will probably throw a fit and cause a wreck. You ask the man you're cutting "May I" and he'll tell you yes or no. It's respect and courtesy to ride across a man is disrespect its saying he isn't good enough hand to take care of his country. I have seen gunzels roped of their horse for doing it after being told not to. I don't generally take a colt to a neighbors cow work but there have been times I've had to. Before you do you ask the cowboss (respect again). Works at my camp I'll use that coltbut not when I'm neighboring. I have been taught my whole life (62yo) THE SCHOOL HOUSE IS AT YOUR HOUSE.

Hey Pat I live in South Carolina I found your hat. Lol

Realistically I am never going to have the opportunity to be involved in a branding operation on a ranch as I am now a 66 year old woman from New Zealand, but I do admit this has been a fantasy scenario since I played cowboys and Indians at the age of 6. BTW, I usually choose to be an Indian due to the attraction of using a bow and arrow. Thanks so much for this video giving me some insight into what is involved as it gave me an awareness of the substantial skills and teamwork at play. Wouldn't movies and television be so much richer and more interesting if we actually got to understand the skills and knowledge of ranch life?

Have to say it, great hair!

Thank you for this educational video. I wish that I could ride right along with. I grow up in the wrong part of the country. Yes I did live on a farm with cattle and horses. But not like you.

Very interesting, especially for me, as I still have little experience. Having a sense of where to be and what to do takes a lot of practice, not to mention good and patient teachers. This video has the potential to come across as hostile to newcomers, but I don't think that is the intention. We all have to learn. Would I be correct in saying, if I read between the lines, that this is the same as many things; the newcomer has to be willing to be taught and remember the lessons as quickly as possible? I've found Cowboys much more willing to educate me when I've ditched the ego and been willing to learn. Fair statement? Thanks for the videos. I learn something every time. And as others have said not boring or redundant at all!

when we have a good crew, and alot of times have 2 per calf wrestling, whoever is packing the pail for calf nuts also has a younger kid with a crayon to mark the top of or even a little to the opposite side of the brand so the roper can see whose done. as well the marker is the last person to touch the calf before we let it go.

Not boring or redundant. It would be nice if more of the terms were explained. Thank you.

Gold

Homework required to "help" at a branding: watch this video. The link should be included with the invite, on a sticky note, or something. Haha, good stuff.

Thank'S

I sure learned some things and I'm sure glad to know I knew some good things. I work my own cattle and I get so frustrated when them city folks want to play cowboy. They laugh at stupid stuff and call the cattle stupid or dumb when they are just being cows and calves. I hope some day I can ride and help with a branding and I pray I don't do stupid stuff. But I guess I better learn how to rope because I sure don't want to be stuck in the corner!

Early in the morning, incidentally 😆😆😆

You missed one thing, the guy that thinks he has a good dog or a pup in training . Been there done that. Enjoy your point of view. Thanks 😊

let's get this to the ranch owners

I'm so glad you're hitting on this one because as a woman we have kind of an uphill swing to begin with when you go to a brandy that you've been invited to mind you and there's all the men that look the part and half of them shouldn't be in that pain let alone on a horse I've only experienced two pins in my life that the Cowboys would absolutely not let the Trail Rider the neighbor down the road the weekend warrior the whatever you want in a man it isn't to be rude or disrespectful towards anyone it's just the lack of knowledge and a lack of you shouldn't be there I have seen some things as I'm sure you have and lots of people that are going to read this and identify with on both ends and it is in a play-day it isn't the local Gymkhana people get hurt or die because other people don't have the lack of knowledge or the ability to set a boundary and say no you're not going in that gate that best used to be ground crew in somebody will walk you through so I'm glad you're hitting on this one because it's like everybody supposed to be a winner and you can't say no cuz it's just not the saying or you're the big a****** we're at now they don't even swing a rope there's a lot of grass and I reminisce back to the westside of the desert and the west coast and go I missed the brandings on one hand and on the other I don't thank you Pat for having a platform be able to say what is because if I said it you know what I'd be and I do and I am and I'm sure I've been called all kinds of things but I'll guarantee you this nobody left my place in an ambulance

Any complete beginner series?

I am decent with cows and decent with horses. I never quite had the confidence to marry the two. With our operations, corral work is done on foot quiet and slow. I have seen "real cowboys" cause nothing but wrecks on horses in the corral. We tip the calves in a chute. I think that makes us dinks. I have been to many brandings where the calves are roped and drug to the fire. I like that but it is still on the bucket list of skills to develop. 51 from Alberta, Canada. Typical brandings here are 75 to 150 calves.

Hey not many people talk about greybull. That's my home town

YES it's WORK .. BUT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO EITHER ASK OR GET THE HELL OUTA THE WAY SO YOU DO NOT GET KILLED or GET SOMEONE ELSE HURT ? AND THEN too there is a LOT to be said for GOOD MANNERS .. Thanks, Pat for some REALLY GOOD ADVICE

That's modern day ranching !

👍

Possibly someone can help me here. He said a few times that a cow or calf will or is "selling out" I'm struggling to get the meaning from the context. Any help?

I agree that a lot of etiquette has gone out the window! I can’t stand people not staying in their hole or when they start dragging to drag to the wrong side of the fire! I understand that things are done different in different parts of the country but there is no way that heading and heeling is faster than dragging and flanking! And don’t even get started on using forks those are for the birds!

I don’t know the term rimfire other than as a firearms reference. Can anyone explain?

best thing is to let them do what they like and then convince them it was their idea, at least that what we do with the Bison, do go ropin them

I would really enjoy coming to work for you someday to be piad in knowledge

I never seen that many people with so few cattle. ....Times r changing I guess.

What does it mean “steal a ride” or working the horse

I can appreciate everything that was said here however what wasn’t covered was the root cause of the whole situation, the problem sure isn’t the poor people that were invited it’s the person who invited. It seems to me as a rule you shouldn’t work for ranches that invite people to a branding. What I heard here is that if you get invited it’s best to not bring your horse and trailer. Just show up in your flip flops and cargo shorts watch from a distance

Dont invite, weekend warriors with 30 feet of twine and goodyear mulehide. They only know 1 shot and its done way too fast.

"The kind of people that we get to be around are Trail Riders and Ranchers". I'm of the age that I'm not interested in being around Trail Riders, and of the temperament that I don't do well Wrangling Dudes. Pat gets to the most important thing at about three minutes into this video. All you have to do is watch folks pull up. The one that parks his Outfit cross-ways to where it should be is guaranteed to be your biggest problem. Within 30 seconds of when he steps out and puts both feet on the ground, you'll know everything you need to know. By the time he unloads his six dogs and four coolers of beer, you know you are going to be in for a very long day................