“Oh, my, my, that trophy steer will stop more traffic than a dead man!” You all have heard Eddie Wood say that. He’s right. If you’ve ever traveled Interstate 35 between Georgetown and Round Rock, Texas, you’ve passed the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Industrial Motor Division Plant. From a distance it’s a big rust colored building with no outstanding features. The kind of place you pass by without looking at twice. So what’s so special about the Westinghouse Plant site you ask? Today, when people pass it, chances are good that they will slow down, turn around and go back to see what caught their eye as they passed Westinghouse. You guessed it. It was a big Texas Longhorn trophy steers grazing on the front lawn of the plant site that drew the people’s attention to Westinghouse.

The lawn is really a pasture that belongs to Westinghouse Corporation. It just happens to have a front gate road with an easy exit off the Interstate, in front of the pasture which goes to the main entrance of the plant. Most everyday, there will be someone who has pulled off to look at the Longhorns and to photograph them. Every photograph taken of those steers will have the name “Westinghouse” in the background since there is a large “Westinghouse” sign on the building behind the steer pasture.

When Westinghouse first located a plant site north of Round Rock, Texas, they thought about building a dancing water fountain with lights in front of the building to attract attention to the plant. Instead, the decision was made to do something “Texas-style” that would be a complement to the community as well as draw attention to the corporation. That decision was to put some live Texas Longhorn trophy steers in the pasture. The management of Westinghouse has since said over and over that that was one of the best advertising decisions they have made.

You’ve also heard Eddie Wood say that a big trophy steer in your front pasture will help sell everything in your back pasture. It’s true that the big steers do help sell your cattle, but what if you don’t live on a road with high visibility? You can still get yourself a big, colorful steer and have him help you sell everything in you pastures you want to sell. How do you do that? You train that trophy steer to saddle or train a team of steers to pull a wagon. Then you “go public” with your steer or wagon team by taking it to all the parades, fairs, parties, and special events you can. Whether you have a saddle steer or a wagon team of steers, you’ll be the hit of the parade or event. A lot of people will come up to you after the parade or at the fair and ask you all kinds of questions about the steer and about Texas Longhorns. That’s when you promote Texas Longhorns and your breeding program. You’ll have the people’s attention, so tell them about the benefits of owning Texas Longhorn cattle and invite them to your ranch for some private treaty sales.

Taking a saddle to parades, fairs, parties, grand openings, conventions, fund-raisers and other special events can be very lucrative business opportunities. Take a Polaroid instant camera with you and photograph each person sitting on top of the steer for a reasonable charge. You can make a bundle of money in a few hours doing that. Another thing you can do is to contract to bring the steer to an event for a flat fee. You can set your fee with a special number of photos included in the deal or charge so much a photo over and above your flat fee.

Another business opportunity you have with a riding steer is to take Christmas card photo shots of families and people with the steer. You can charge a “sitting fee” for the photo shot and let the people take the film, have it processed and printed into the photo cards they want.

SELECTION

You ask how do I train a Texas Longhorn steer to the saddle? Fear not, here’s and idea of how we do it. You can do it, too. Assuming that you have adequate facilities and pens available to corral the steer you want to train, we’ll start with the selection of the animal that is to become your special riding steer. Almost any Longhorn bull or steer can be trained, but life’s to short to spend a lot of time trying to train an animal with a bad disposition. Make your selection of calves that are gentle to begin with, a trait which is somewhat heritable. For instance, our premier herdsire, Handsome Stranger (who is 20 years old now) passes on a very sweet and gentle temperament to his offspring. All the steers that we have trained to ride or pull a wagon are Handsome Strangers sons or grandsons. Another characteristic is that most of them came up to us in the pasture when they were young calves. Each time they approached us, we would try to touch them or hand feed them. After awhile, they were eating range cubes out of our hands and were not afraid of us. We had gained their trust. We usually selected our prospective riding steers from those calves.

VISUAL APPRAISAL

The next thing in the selection process is to make a visual appraisal of the conformation of your riding steer prospects. If your riding steer is going to be used to represent the Texas Longhorn breed and your breeding program at fairs, parades, events, etc., then it needs to be correct in its structure with strong feet and legs, a strong topline, long and smooth muscling, and a smooth walk.

After you have narrowed the field of prospects based on conformation, then decide which of the steer prospects has “curb appeal.” Curb appeal is an expression used in real estate to describe how certain houses automatically catch the eye of the beholder from the street curb. The same will be true for trophy steers and riding steers. They should have something about them that will catch people’s eyes. Loud color, potential large size, and exceptional horn growth will draw people’s attention to your steer and give you a better chance of making and impression.

We prefer our riding steers to have somewhat less widespread horns than our pulling steers since riders will often be in close proximity to other people and riders. We like to pick potential riding steers that will be big and tall. The large, tall steers are awesome, particularly in parades or promotional events. When spectators see our big riding steer, “Captain Twiggs,” they don’t believe their eyes. They can’t get over his size, and can’t wait for a chance to see him up close. The first thing they ask is how tall he is and how much does he weigh. After a few minutes of being close to Captain Twiggs, it dawns on them that they are standing next to a 2000 pound Texas Longhorn with big horns. They are amazed at our “gentle giant” and are very anxious to have their photo taken with him. The point that we want to make here is “bigger is better” when selecting a prospective riding steer. The bigger size presents some extra challenges to the owner and trainer, but we believe that they are well worth it.