Claussen's View: Nothing is Impossible

Gail Claussen steps out of the Ford and cocks his head, straining to focus on a wobbly-legged Black Angus calf a few yards away in his pasture. He picks up the calf and settles it in a “calf sled” with wire sides attached to his pickup. All Claussen sees of the calf is a hazy blur, but his weathered face still beams with pride.

His wife, Karol, slowly drives the sled to the barn, while the mother cow plods behind. “Finding a newborn calf is like opening a present,” Claussen says.

The 64-year-old rancher wasn’t always so upbeat.

“When I got to the point where I was about to lose my job, I thought about suicide,” says Claussen, who raises cattle on 3,000 acres in Yoder, a town of 511 on Colorado’s eastern plains. Claussen once worked as heavy equipment operator to support his ranching and was diagnosed with macular degeneration nearly 30 years ago. But it wasn’t until 1992, when his eyesight was so reduced by the disease of progressive hereditary blindness, that he started selling off his herd. He attributes his about-face to his wife, Karol, his seeing-eye horse, and an innovative program for disabled farmers and his neighbors.

“Karol is the light of my life,” says Claussen, who married his best friend in 1992. When he felt sorry for himself, she challenged him to keep ranching.

“Cattle meant everything to him, ‘’ Karol says. “So when he was depressed, I kept telling him that losing his sight didn’t mean he had to give up ranching.”

Karol not only helped him rebuild his herd, her second-grade teaching job is their vital second income. Karol also bred Silk Shotgun, the quarter horse who serves as Claussen’s eyes when the rancher’s in the saddle.

“I can tell if Shotgun is looking at cattle, horses, dogs, people, or antelope just by looking at how his ears move,” Claussen says.

No longer able to read the cattle’s numbered ear tags, he has Karol point out to Shotgun the one to cut out of the herd. “I put Shotgun on that cow, and he drives her into a pen,” Claussen says. “He’ll stop, turn, and pivot to keep her moving forward.”

Five years ago, the pair chased off a Longhorn bull that got loose in his pasture near dusk. “Shotgun was running full-bore through gullies after this bull, and I couldn’t see the ground,” recalls Claussen, who still trains his ranch horses to work cattle.

Crucial to Claussen’s success in the beef industry are his 40-year-old records on bloodlines and rate of weight gain. The records he transferred to computer allow him to cull poor producers and retain valuable breeding stock. When those records became a blur, AgrAbility, a government program that helps disabled farmers, bought him ZoomText. The software program magnifies letters up to 10 times. His reading machine enlarges letters up to 5 inches high on a closed-circuit television set.

When Karol is busy, neighbors drive Claussen on errands. Claussen returns the favor. “I help them round up cattle with Shotgun, and I castrate cattle with the flankers, but I can’t see to brand anymore,” Claussen says.

Neighbor Jim Brewer has known Claussen for almost 20 years and calls him “one of the best neighbors you can have. Gail is always there when you need him. We do chores for each other and help each other out.” Brewer remembers Claussen’s generosity when his wife helped one of Claussen’s cows calve. “Gail gave the calf to my wife, and it became my son’s 4-H project,” Brewer says.

For Claussen, cattle ranching is an extremely rewarding way of life that’s as much play as work. After Claussen and Karol finish feeding, they spend an hour watching the calves kick up their heels. “It’s so relaxing,” Claussen says as he scratches a floppy black ear. “We call it our ‘calf therapy.’”

Karen Karvonen is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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