Reining resilience

OSAKIS — In the pasture with the livestock or in the dirt arena in a saddle is where dairy farmer James Maus can often be found. Horseback is his preferred approach to cover ground on and off his farm.

James and his wife, Jenn, milk a herd of 90 Holsteins on their farm near Osakis. The couple’s four children — Lynnea, Justin, Damian and Alex — help with chores such as milking and feeding the cattle, scraping the barn, and hauling manure, while the oldest two also hold full-time jobs of their own.

The year 2009 brought tragedy, change and unexpected blessings for the family when they nearly lost everything in a barn fire.

“I don’t know if I’d still be milking,” James said. “I don’t wish that on anybody, but I honestly don’t know where I’d be today (without the fire having happened), … if I would have built between then and now, or if I’d even still be milking because it was an old barn.”

Since losing the original barn, milking parlor and the majority of his herd in the fire, James has rebuilt and made adjustments for his operation to continue milking on the home farm.

Also, James coaches the trapshooting team at the Osakis High School. Jenn is the team manager, and Lynnea is James’ assistant coach. The trap team, including Justin and Damian, recently competed at the Minnesota Trap Shooting Championship held in Alexandria and did well in their AA division. James and his children enjoy trapshooting and riding horses when they are not busy on the farm.

“I have only bought one horse in my life that was trained,” James said. “Otherwise, I’ve always broken all my horses. It’s kind of the fun part. I have a lot of patience for a young horse, but when they know better, I don’t have very much patience.”

James has six horses on the farm. One is a mare that is expecting. This was exciting news, James said, as they have tried and been unsuccessful in breeding the mare for the last four years. When the family is not riding horseback for fun, they are riding horseback to accomplish farm-related chores around the property.

“Four-wheelers are easy, but you can look all day long for a calf on a four-wheeler,” James said. “It’s crazy the difference when you get up higher on a horse. You can walk right through the trees, … (and) usually, within 15 minutes, I’ll find it.”

Between James’ farm and the farm of his parents, Dennis and Rita, who now live kitty corner across the river, there is always a task of one kind or another that needs to be done. Many of those tasks are achieved with the help of a horse.

“Like checking fences in the spring, if I go around after the snow melts, there’s sloughs out there, and I just don’t want to deal with that,” James said. “If I go out on my horse, I just ride through (the sloughs), no problem.”

Together, James, Justin, Dennis and Rita farm 263 acres of cropland. Most of their crops are harvested using a self-propelled chopper, for silage and haylage for the cattle.

After chores, James coaches the trap team and shoots clay pigeons off the farm. Ranch sorting is another activity, one that has been on the fun list for James since he was 16. He said he would ride in an arena near Round Prairie every Friday night. This has become a passion now absorbed by his children as well.

Sorting is a two-person team event where riders sort cattle in a numbered order into two different pens along a figure-eight pattern with a 16-foot opening. If cattle go in the wrong order or they come out after they have been sorted, the team is disqualified.

Smilin’D Arena & Events in Belgrade organizes spring and fall leagues, giving the family the opportunity to ride all year round. The Ranch Sorting National Championships run sanctioned shows that the Mauses attend throughout the year along with local competitions. Teams need to compete in at least five events each year to qualify for larger competitions, like the one in Fort Worth, Texas, that James and Lynnea returned home from in early June.

In the first day, 1,800 teams rode out. James rode a horse named Gray, and Lynnea, this being her fourth year competing at the national level, rode her horse, Moonlight.

“I didn’t win anything, but I can’t complain much,” Lynnea said. “My horse did the best he’s ever done.”

James said he and Lynnea drove down on a Friday, arrived Saturday morning, rode Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and came home Thursday. Riders compete in different divisions based on skill level (9 being pro and 1 being amateur) and their win count. James said he and Gray earned some winnings, and overall, it was a great experience to be among that many other riders.

“The top 140 teams out of 730 (in each class) go onto the next round,” James said. “They add your cows from both rounds, and you have got to be in the top 50 teams to make it to the third round. From there, you have to be in the top 10 to make it to the last draw. It’s not just one run and you’re done; … you’ve got to compete.”

The annual trip to Montana has been the highlight of the summer for the family for the last few years. Between James’ family and his friend’s family, they have quite a crew that heads west each summer near Glacier National Park.

“This year, we are bringing our young horse,” James said. “We don’t usually bring a 3-year-old to the mountains. It gets to be a lot for them with the steep climbs, but with our other mare expecting, she will be staying back.”

Jenn is not a fan of heights, James said, so she will stay home on the farm, anticipating the arrival of the new foal while also tending the livestock and keeping up with the chores.

“We have nine horses for riding (and) two pack horses carrying tents, food and coolers,” James said. “We park at the trailhead and ride up in the mountains, probably cover about eight miles a day, we spend four nights, … find a spot by a creek or a lake, camp out and then, the next day, pack everything up and ride to another spot.”

Riding mountain ridge to mountain ridge, single file in a pack line through the switchbacks, is a feat in itself. James said the trails are fairly level, and by traveling with that many horses and a large party, they do not worry much about encountering bears. Lynnea does remember one year a storm came up on them quickly and caught them off guard.

“We were climbing a ridge when, ‘crack,’ the lightning was so close that all we saw was white for a few seconds,” Lynnea said. “It came down so close to where we were that there was no space between the sound and the light.”

Turning around on a mountain ridge is not the easiest thing to do, James said, but they had just passed a stream, so they went back down and set up camp for the night.

“We’ve had a couple close calls and unforeseen experiences,” James said. “But taking in the view while riding in the mountains and camping along the stream each night, … it’s worth it.”

Lynnea has been working with the 3-year-old horse she has had for a year now, training it for ranch sorting and working with it leading up to the family’s trip, but she also said she will not hesitate to pass it off to her father if the young horse is being ornery.

Family relations built on making memories, strong work ethic and responsibility are important to the Mauses. Lynnea works full time as an assistant shop manager for a cabinet company nearby. Justin works at a landscaping company and has started his farming career, renting some of his grandfather’s land this year. James is hopeful one of the kids will have an interest in carrying on the farm one day. It just might not be Lynnea, he said.

“I am fine milking cows whenever Dad needs me to, but I’d like to get a little hobby farm of my own,” Lynnea said.  “As long as it has room for a couple of horses, my ducks, maybe a cow or two, and chickens — probably a lot of chickens.”