Owyhee Miracle: He is Risen!

Tuesday March 28 2017

It's not often you witness an honest to goodness miracle. But one happened yesterday, on the very Owyhee Trails you will be riding on the April Fools (Tough Sucker) ride on April 1.

Weeks ago, a very new calf was laying in a sagebrush right beside a trail we ride on. Mama cow was nearby. We all exchanged glances, cow, calf, humans, horses. And the calf laid there, and mama cow grazed, and we rode on.

A few days later, said calf was dead, sprawled out in a ditch across the trail, gone to cow heaven. Mama cow was gone. The little carcass spooked Jose. He knew very well that baby calf had been alive the last time he rode by. He stopped and sniffed the carcass, and I assured him the calf was in cow heaven.

The next time we rode by there was only half a dead calf. Jose eyeballed it suspiciously because it had previously been whole, and it had moved a bit, but yes, it was the same baby-calf-in-cow-heaven.

Then yesterday as we approached that spot, Jose was again on the lookout out for the dead half-calf on his right. We all were looking for it - me and Jose, Steph and Smokey... but it had disappeared…... when suddenly on the left out of the sagebrush rose a whole live calf, spooking all 4 of us into the next county - WHOA!

Not only was the dead half-calf on the right gone, but He is Risen, out of the sagebrush on the left, come back to life all alive and well and in one whole piece, and I could swear that Risen Calf had a halo floating above his head!

There could be no other explanation - it being somewhat close to Easter and all - than an Owyhee miracle!

Because Jose is so smart, and he thinks about things, he could not process this. How on earth can half a dead calf on one side turn back into a whole live calf on the other side??? As we moved on, Jose kept stopping to turn around and look back and ponder things in his heart.

Henceforth this spot is christened as Baby Jesus Calf Corner, to mark this miraculous miracle.

We might put up a sign for the April Fools ride, to show the exact spot of this true Owyhee miracle. Or you might see deep hoof prints gouged in the sand where the horses spooked. Or we might not put up a sign because we don't want to make this a pilgrimage spot. It's really our secret Owyhee miracle.

If there is no sign, and if you happen to feel a kind of miraculous magic in the air or a tingling down in your bones when you ride by Baby Jesus Calf Corner, you will know where you are.