Cowboy on horseback wrangles runaway cow on busy Michigan highway

A Michigan cowboy came to the rescue last weekend after a runaway cow escaped from a gravel pit and threatened drivers speeding down a busy highway.

It was almost three hours past high noon on Sunday when Michigan State Police said they received an unexpected call. The day was not especially hot or particularly dusty, and there was not a single tumbleweed to be found. But there was still danger afoot as a cow, which had escaped from an abandoned farm six weeks ago, was spotted in a gravel pit in Holly, Michigan, about an hour northwest of Detroit.

The male bovine, later identified as Lester, soon freed himself from the gravel pit and headed toward I-75, a busy interstate that extends from Michigan's Upper Peninsula all the way down to Florida. With John Wayne long gone and Clint Eastwood far from town, MSP troopers had to round up an usual posse, which included professional cow catchers Ricky Littlejohn and his fiancée, Trina Resendez, who live about 100 miles away.

"They called me and were like, 'Hey, is there any way you can help?'" Littlejohn recalled. "I was a little nervous about going because it’s super dangerous to be on the highway and whatnot."

But when duty calls, a true cowboy answers, and Littlejohn, Resendez, other assistants, and members of law enforcement strategically placed themselves to try and steer the rogue steer away from the road. For several minutes, the suspect refused to cooperate and eventually "managed to outsmart its advisories" and made a daring move toward the highway, even as motorists traveling at speeds of more than 70 mph whizzed nearby.

A trooper used his vehicle to block traffic as Littlejohn and his trusty ride, Bucky, charged after Lester. Armed with a lasso and years of cow-chasing experience, Littlejohn got hold of Lester and brought him to a halt on the grassy median, while an officer on a four-wheeler cut off the escape route. Though Lester made one last attempt at freedom, Littlejohn ultimately held him by the rope and saved the day.

Littlejohn made it all look easy, but I-75 posed some unique challenges to the seasoned wrangler. "When we started running across there, we got shoes on all of our horses and stuff, and it’s like a skating rink when you are running across there," he said. "So we had to be really careful we didn’t wipe out ourselves and keep everybody safe while we got the job done."

"The bovine was not charged," MSP joked in a Twitter thread, "and is back in the pasture with a story to tell all the other livestock."

Watch the video below and be sure to have the volume on:

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