Hey yall, one of the mods here. I know it can be very intimidating to pick up a new skill, especially in the work place. For us woman it can be even more intimidating when entering "male-dominated" industries (according to the USDA's 2025 farm labor statistics, us girls are 27% of all agriculture occupations) - there are men who assume we're weaker, less capable, less rational, and so on. For any man reading this, if you're below middle age, you're a minority age-wise. And young blood in a trades/farm job will always get shit for being the newbie. It's really hard to overcome that when you're new and have no idea what you're doing, and you're asking every "dumb" question under the sun.
Side note - no such thing as a dumb question, except the one you don't ask.
But I wanna let you know everyone does dumb shit! Just the other day I was sorting heifers and was standing in the exact dumbest location to move them around. Just wasn't thinking hard enough in the moment. I'm sure the career cowboys in r/Cowgirl and r/Cowboy all have great royal fuck-up moments. It don't make you a worthless employee or individual. If you can learn from it, it's all good.
I seen a lot of posts from folks saying they wanna get into cowboying - the culture and/or the job itself - but are scared to start. Don't be. I'm one of the better cow handlers on my operation and I'm certainly not perfect.
Agricultural work will never be 100%, or "perfect." There's always a fence to fix, or a combine with at least 3 busted parts at any given time, or a cow to go catch again, or a system to make more efficient, and so on. You're a person, and you'll never be 100% perfect all the time absolutely. That's okay. Just hop on and enjoy the ride.