Western Horseman Magazine Jan 2018

Brave New Clinic ★ Cold Weather ★ College Courses with Craig Cameron Cool-Downs in the Great Outdoors

Rhythm, Rhyme & RED Steagall

Meet 3 Horse Industry Innovators

JANUARY 2018

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FEATURES

JANUARY 2018

VOLUME 83 / NUMBER 1

42 Rhythm, Rhyme and Ranch Life

58 Old School Meets New School

64 Industry Innovators

For Western Horseman Award winner Red Steagall, the music and poetry he performs do more than entertain. They promote and preserve one of America’s most valuable assets.

By ROSS HECOX

Retirement opened new gates for old-time cowboy Bill Mooney to day-work on Nevada ranches and learn the ways of a new generation of cowboys.

By JENNIFER DENISON

Work in the horse industry isn’t limited to being either a trainer or a veterinarian. A variety of career paths are open for those with the vision to see them.

By KATE BRADLEY BYARS

Experiencing the outfitting and packing class is a badge of honor for equine sciences students at Colorado State University. Every mile provides lessons and stories to tell.

By CHRISTINE HAMILTON

CHRISTINE HAMILTON

50

A Class Apart

J A N UARY 2018

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CONTENTS 18

34

12

10 Opening Shot

Natural rock formations provide a perfect backdrop for wranglers and cowboys moving horses to winter pasture in Wyoming.

12 Education

University of Montana Western students learn skills to train horses and riders.

18 Women of the West

22 Health

Use these veterinarian-recommended cool-down methods after a rigorous winter workout.

24 Backcountry

Planning a successful pack trip requires research and old-fashioned map-reading skills.

28 Young Horsemen

Country music and the mystique of the West drew Christina Tift to America.

Louisiana cowgirl Meredith Scroggs has found success in roping and speed events.

20 Horsemanship

30 Rodeo

The first Western Horseman Weekend with Craig Cameron challenged riders to improve themselves and their horses.

In an age of specialization, all-around cowboy Kyle Whitaker keeps working both ends of the arena.

34 Culture

A collection of miniature saddles made by Duff Severe goes on the auction block this month in Arizona.

36 What’s It Worth?

A custom-made R.T. Frazier saddle offers clues to its past.

IN EVERY ISSUE

8 Leading Off 78 Backward Glance 80 Baxter Black

38 Cowboy Tastes

Braided Onion Bread is a comforting wintertime treat.

40 Products

Find the perfect bucket for your horse or your chores.

ON THE COVER: Musician and cowboy poet Red Steagall promotes and preserves Western culture. Read about this year’s Western Horseman Award winner on page 42. Photo by Ross Hecox.

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: JENNIFER DENISON; COURTESY OF BRIAN LEBEL’S OLD WEST EVENTS; MELISSA HEMKEN

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Publisher: Ernie King Editor in Chief: Ross Hecox Editor: Christine Hamilton Managing Editor: Susan Morrison Senior Editor: Jennifer Denison Associate Editor: Katie Frank Editor at Large: Ryan T. Bell Contributing Editor: Kate Bradley Byars Art Director: Ron Bonge Fort Worth Production Manager: Sherry Brown Production Assistant: Emily Trupiano Director of Production: Kris Miller Production Manager: Cher Wheeler Digital Imaging Manager: Erik Lewis Senior Digital Strategist: Sonny Williams Digital Content Manager: Megan Thomas Marketing Manager: Lizzie Iwersen Business Manager: Tonya Ward Ambassador-at-Large: Butch Morgan Warehouse Manager: Tim Gelnaw

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LEADING OFF

Jason Pelham checks on first-calf heifers after an ice storm.

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OATED BY A LAYER OF ICE, the

mesquite bushes and tall grass stems crackled and glistened in the morning sunlight. Jason Pelham and I walked down the slick path to his barn as a stiff north wind pushed the 10-degree air against our faces.

“This horse is an older, laid-back horse,” Pelham said, leading the gelding out of its stall. “That horse over there is real quick and a little highstrung. I’m gonna put you on that horse.”

I can’t say that I liked the arrangement at all, but the Spade Ranch cowboy was actually looking out for the photographer visiting his place near Canadian, Texas.

He said the older horse tended to buck on cold mornings.

So I followed Pelham as he checked on 120 young heifers calving for the first time, riding a steam-snorting, hair-trigger athlete that didn’t want to stand still or be apart from his buddy. Keeping a firm hold on the reins, I managed to get several photos of Pelham rousting up newborn calves and introducing them to their wide-eyed mothers.

No matter how cold or icy the conditions, Pelham had a job to do. So often our image of horseback jobs includes green grass, warm sunshine and smooth, willing horses.

Winter rides are much less romantic, but they are a popular topic in this issue.

On page 12, Eric Hoffmann, instructor of the University of Montana Western’s horsemanship program, explains what his students learn from riding young horses in open country, even in deep snow. On page 22, veterinarian Timothy “Jake” Cox offers tips for cooling down a horse after a strenuous ride in frigid temperatures.

Beginning on page 50, lifelong packer Chuck Peterson makes it clear that inclement weather is no excuse not to ride. As the instructor for Colorado State University’s equine sciences packing and outfitting course, he leads his class into Colorado’s backcountry, come rain, snow or subzero temperatures. The climate and the many tasks of packing into the mountains do more than teach valuable lessons. They build character traits that translate to any occupation and life in general.

Finally, our cover story on page 42 features someone who has been shaped by rides in cold conditions, both literal and figurative. Red Steagall, our Western Horseman Award winner for 2018, was afflicted as a teenager with polio, which robbed him of the use of his left arm and wrecked his plans to become a veterinarian.

Instead, Steagall has used Western music, cowboy poetry,

and popular television and radio programs to promote our ranching heritage, cowboy values and Western way of life.

He also has long-trotted countless miles during brandings at the JA Ranch, working in shivering sleet, blistering heat or gusty winds. Western artist and friend Bruce Greene says Steagall embraces those difficult situations and has introduced many others to spring works on the ranch near Clarendon, Texas.

“He absolutely loves our Western culture, and how those experiences become a piece of who we are,” Greene says. “I’ve watched him expose guys to that who wouldn’t have dreamed they could get through a day of that. And then at the end they’d be emotional, trying to talk about what it’s done for them, to see that they could ride those miles and get the job done.”

That bone-chilling day on the Spade Ranch turned out to be quite productive.

Pelham found several newborn calves that needed his assistance, and I captured a photo that wound up on the cover of Western Horseman.

Curiously, his horse never offered to buck. But what can I say? Neither did mine.

—ROSS HECOX, editor in chief

ROSS HECOX

Shivering in the Saddle

nline JANUARY

See highlights from the Western Horseman Weekend with Craig Cameron.

Before ringing in the New Year, take a reflective look at 2017.

Listen to what Kent Rollins and his wife, Shannon, have in common with a “He Said/ She Said” in the kitchen.

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W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

Photos View exclusive Western Horseman images.

Newsletter Sign up to get a first look at the latest posts on the Western Horseman website.

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ROSS HECOX

westernhorseman.com

RIDE WEST

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OPENING SHOT

Rock Solid NEEDLE ROCK PROVIDES a glowing backdrop as wranglers from The Hideout Lodge and Guest Ranch move horses to winter pasture. The guest ranch also is a working cattle operation in the Bighorn Mountains near Shell, Wyoming. It uses Mustangs adopted from the Bureau of Land Management, along with Quarter Horses and Paint Horses, because they can be used to both manage cattle and, with proper training, can carry guests of differing skill levels.

Canadian photographer Shawn Hamilton says The Hideout is one of her favorite places to photograph because “the horses and ranch hands are all top-notch.� From left are Augustus Bercher, his father and head wrangler Tom Bercher, and wranglers Greg Prows and Joel Barnard.

J A N UARY 2018

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RIDE WEST

University of Montana Western Head Instructor Eric Hoffmann and students trot down Axle Canyon to accustom colts to moving out.

EDUCATION

Studying the Horse

University of Montana Western students learn skills to train horses and riders.

Story and photography by MELISSA HEMKEN

T

HE ARENA TEEMS WITH HORSES at the Montana Center for Horsemanship in Dillon, Montana.

Students enrolled in the University of Montana Western equine studies program at the center prepare their colts for morning class with groundwork and under-saddle exercises. As Head Instructor Eric Hoffmann watches from horseback, he notes the behaviors of both students and horses.

“Yesterday’s class didn’t go well,” Hoffmann says as he gestures toward the students working colts. “I reminded students they may know technique, but don’t have experience yet. They’re just beginning to read horses.

“I think horsemanship goes two ways: physical and mental, an engine and a brain. Both need [to be] understood to communicate with horses, and some horses need more of one than the other. That’s where feel comes in.”

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UMW horsemanship students advance their feel and timing in both the arena and at La Cense Montana, an 88,000-acre working cattle ranch and the university’s partner in the United States’ only four-year-degree program in natural horsemanship. The La Cense method of natural horsemanship originated at Haras de la Cense in France. It emphasizes how communication and respect between horses and people influences horse behavior.

“This program is not just riding lessons,” says senior Ava Duncan. “It’s not a trainer sitting in the middle of the arena telling us students what to do. The horsemanship instructors help us learn, but also let us struggle—sometimes longer than we’d like.

“Through it we learn how to develop our own methods of how we want to work with horses. The horse I trained in the UMW colt-starting class is the best horse I’ve made so far.

That’s the coolest feeling ever.”

Horsemanship students are allowed to be uncomfortable to encourage their learning.

“I promote making mistakes,” Hoffman explains. “There’s learning in failure. At UMW we do hands-on classes. It’s my job to give students real-world experience. I’d rather see them learn now than at their first [horse-training] job.”

EQUINE ACADEMICS UMW operates on a block schedule for classes: Students take two three-hour classes within each 18-day block. During a school day for horsemanship students, they might put the first

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rides on their colts in the morning. In the afternoon class, students discuss topics such as risk management and insurance for equine programs and facilities.

Hoffmann also attended an equine program as a college student.

“I finished college and worked for a clinician,” Hoffmann says. “I like to teach clinics, but really wanted to bring the clinic atmosphere to an academic study of horses.

And that’s what we’ve done here at UMW.” The equine studies program offers both bachelor’s and associate’s degrees. The bachelor’s degree in natural horsemanship contains four emphasis options: management, psychology, science or instruction. Many UMW students combine their equine studies with other majors. They may unite a business major with equine management, study psychology to work in equine-assisted therapy, follow the science track for pre-vet, or pursue the instruction option to teach horsemanship.

The UMW program is one of only a few collegiate programs that offer an academic degree for equine instructors in the United States. The only state that currently requires licensed for-hire riding instructors is Massachusetts, although this is a standard stipulation in European countries. Hoffmann worked with the American Quarter Horse Association, the Certified Horsemanship Association and the U.S. Equestrian Federation to develop a curriculum for aspiring instructors.

With increases in liability for equine instructors, UMW sees such third-party professional certifications as important for graduates entering the equine industry.

“There is a need for full-time instructors at pony clubs and riding barns,” Hoffmann says of his career research. “In our ‘Practical Instruction of Handling and Haltering’ class, students go beyond just learning to work with young horses. They also

J A N UA RY 2018

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Hoffmann reviews what students learned in previous classes, and explains what they should focus on in the day’s class.

Student Fran McAninch sacks out her colt with a tarp during the colt-starting class.

Hoffmann gives Karen Zehm pointers in how to encourage her reluctant colt to cross the creek.

develop teaching techniques to transfer knowledge and skills to their future students.”

In addition to coursework, every horsemanship student completes a required internship to gain more firsthand experience. An instructor-intraining completes double internships, with at least one under a riding instructor or clinician, and one as a UMW teaching assistant.

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

“Instructors don’t teach people how to ride, necessarily,” Duncan says of learning to teach. “We teach people how to problem-solve. That’s more complicated than just saying, ‘Pull now. Put your heels down.’ It’s teaching people to apply concepts in the moment with their horses for both to improve.

“I never thought educating people was something important to me until I spent two months as a teaching

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(From left) Ava Duncan, Karen Zehm, Eric Hoffmann, Alex Bath and Camas Neville ride on La Cense Montana, a working cattle ranch.

assistant. I loved seeing people and horses change from their very first day to the end of class. Assistant teaching prepared me to address challenges with difficult horses or frustrated students, before it [was] actually my job.”

Horsemanship instruction students also educate at-risk teens from the Montana Youth Challenge Academy, a five-month program based at UMW. Students use their colts to help them teach basic grooming, on-the-ground safety and horsemanship to the youth, most of who are new to horses.

ROOTS OF BEHAVIOR The UMW program is unique in the United States because of its emphasis on horse behavior and psychology.

Students start colts in the roundpen and arena, but soon progress to riding them outside at La Cense so the young horses can learn in a natural, outdoor setting.

“When we ride outside for the first time on the colts, the students often only have four or five rides on their colts and are nervous,” Hoffman says.

“I hear every time from students how their colts did better outside than they expected. I think it’s because the colts grew up on wide-open pastures and

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relax when they get back out in the open. It makes our job of training them a lot easier.”

In the future, UMW plans to support graduate-level research on the herd, focusing on hereditary and environmental effects on horse behavior.

Currently, undergraduate behavior classes study herds of bucking horses turned out on the range, broodmare bands of registered saddle horses, and free-roaming Mustangs.

“Bucking horse babies behave much differently than Quarter Horse colts,” says senior Alex Bath of his behavior study. “The bucking horses didn’t want much to do with you. I think it’s how they’re bred and handled. We helped wean the Quarter Horse foals, which had been turned out on pasture with their dams, and they liked people.”

Students in the behavior class also observe colts started in the sale-prep class. Together, both classes discuss the colts’ interactions with people, any known background details and their training progress. The behavior class visits many of the breeders who donate colts for the class. Students pick three colts from the sale-prep class, and when they are at the ranches where their colts were raised, attempt to identify their dams and sires based on

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

the young horses’ temperament, behavior and conformation.

After observing horses in different environments, students understand not only how horses behave, but also why they behave like they do.

“It’s obvious when a horse runs in a herd versus standing alone in a stall,” Hoffmann explains. “A stalled horse might react more quickly because she doesn’t understand levels of pressure.

The horse thinks, ‘This is my space and I don’t know why you’re in it, so I’ll get out of here.’ I see it all the time in class.

“I had a student yesterday tell me, ‘There was no sign of my horse bucking before it happened.’ Oh, there’s a sign.

It’s just subtle. Horses say a lot before the actual action happens.”

PREPARING FOR CAREERS Students attend the UMW program for myriad reasons. For Bath, it was the opportunity to start colts and train horses for Montana Western’s Colt Challenge & Sale.

“I had ridden broke and green-broke horses all of my life,” Bath says, “but was never allowed to start a colt. I tried to do natural horsemanship groundwork with my broke horse. I came to UMW and rode my barely halter-broke colt on the third day of training. There’s

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so much to learn beyond what I was able to get from a [training] video.”

Some horsemanship students learn that starting horses is not for them, which is a part of exploring interests and abilities.

“It can be a tough realization for students,” Hoffmann observes. “There’s a lot of emotion and pride. But there’s nothing wrong with paying someone to train your colt. For me, it’s shoeing horses. I don’t have a problem writing a check [ for the farrier]. It’s not my skill.”

In the eight-credit, six-month sale prep class, students do more than work with colts; they learn business, marketing, auctioneering and event planning.

While sale-prep colts are donated, students must bring or borrow a saddle horse that safely walks, jogs and lopes in a group for horsemanship classes, plus a colt, either borrowed or their own, for colt-starting class.

“Usually finding a colt is not too hard,” Hoffmann says of borrowing a

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colt, “especially when it’s a free deal for owners. It does keep classes interesting, though.”

As a UMW freshman, Duncan brought her 5-year-old Mustang mare, Esther, as her saddle horse.

“UMW instructors watched me ride Esther, and start 12 colts over four years,” Duncan says, “Through this they can speak to the weaker areas of my horsemanship in really effective and unique ways, because they know me.

“Also, I watch fellow students approach exactly what I’m trying to do but in a totally different way. And they get to the same spot as me. It makes me think about my horsemanship [more deeply]. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-invented Esther because of something I’ve learned, and changed everything I was doing in a specific area on her. Right now it’s flying lead changes and roping at brandings.”

Both Duncan and Bath agree their foremost learning at UMW is that there

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

is not a right or wrong way to do natural horsemanship.

“I think we tend to box things up and say, ‘This is the right way and that is the wrong way to do things.’ One of the great aspects of this program is we are encouraged to experiment,” Bath says.

“It’s about what’s working and what doesn’t work for [a specific] horse. It places the horse as priority, and what the human thinks as not priority. That’s what horsemanship is really about.”

Four years ago, Duncan was a girl from suburbia who competed in show jumping and had never seen a cow in person. As a UMW graduate with hours of horse training and cow work under her belt, she now starts colts at a ranch that raises polo ponies outside of Sheridan, Wyoming.

“It’s a job I never dreamed I would be able to do,” Duncan says. “I’m still learning a lot; it’s my first job, after all.

But the [UMW] horsemanship program changed my life.”

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RIDE WEST

remember they’re not Doc O’Lena and appreciate what they can give you.

WOMEN OF THE WEST

Christina Tift

Country music and the Western lifestyle drew this cowgirl from Denmark to Wyoming more than a decade ago.

Interview and photography by JENNIFER DENISON WHEN CHRISTINA TIFT was 10 years old, she told her mom she wanted to be a cowgirl when she grew up, marry a cowboy in the United States and never return to her native Denmark. Little did she know her dream would come true.

When she was 19 years old she bought an airline ticket to Billings, Montana, to experience the real West. Several months before that she had met Wyoming rancher Jeff Tift online, and they talked about her interests: country music and the Western lifestyle. Although he was not in favor of Christina traveling to the United States and around the West alone, he agreed to pick her up at the airport. From the time she stepped off the plane, the couple shared a connection.

They married soon after at a remote cow camp outside of Cody, Wyoming, where Jeff was working. They spent their honeymoon at Jake Clark’s Mule Days, an annual mule sale in Powell, Wyoming.

Today, they operate Wyoming Horses and Mules in Banner, Wyoming. They make their living horseback, raising, training and selling mules, Quarter Horses and draft-crosses. They ride on a grazing permit in the mountains tending cattle, guiding pack trips and working in hunting camps.

Christina is a self-taught musician who plays a variety

18

of stringed instruments in local gigs and jam sessions.

me he was a cowboy and I’d have believed him.

The first time I heard a country song I was 12 or 13 years old and had just started taking guitar lessons. My mom had bought some old records from a secondhand store. Two were Kenny Rogers singles: “Coward of the County” and “The Gambler.” I remember asking her what kind of music that was because I’d never heard it and loved it. I was just starting to learn English and didn’t know what the songs were about, but I sat down and learned to play those songs on the guitar.

I didn’t know how to even get on a horse when I came here.

Learning to ride and train horses has been like a college education for me. Jeff is like my own private clinician.

I had a fascination with cowboy hats, country music and anything Western. There’s none of that in Denmark, so I have no idea where it came from. I had this feeling I needed to see what inspired it.

As I got close to college graduation, I came up with the idea of coming to America for six months and brought it up to Jeff. He said, “Absolutely not. You don’t need to be coming to America.” I didn’t care and I didn’t need to see him anyway. Before I left I told him it’d be nice if he’d pick me up at the airport, and he did.

When I first came to America I didn’t know Texas from Wyoming, and anybody wearing a hat could’ve told

I’ve never been a person who needed people around me all the time. I want a social life, and I get that through my music gigs and horse sales, but I also need to get away

Once a horse reaches a certain point in its training and I can’t take it any further, I’m ready to move on to the next one. I enjoy teaching horses, and it’s rewarding to take them to a sale and get good money for them, and when our customers call and are happy with the horses they bought from us.

A couple of years ago I took a spill off a mule. She was scared and when I got on her she’d take off running. One day she made a hard turn and I went the other way, hit the ground and split my pelvis.

It took three months to heal and no riding. That’s when I learned to play the banjo.

“The wonderful thing about horses is just when you think you know it all, one will show up and teach you something new.” from people. That’s when we go to the mountains.

Jeff and I have never fought.

We don’t have anything to fight about, as long as I don’t have to cook.

No matter how often people tell me I’ve gotten so good with horses and mules, I still have limited experience. If a horse really wants to be a problem or is really green it goes into Jeff ’s string.

Our goal is to make a draftcross horse ride like a nice Quarter Horse. Getting the feel, snappiness and handiness from the draft-crosses can be challenging, because they’re big. They’ll get it eventually, but it’s harder for them and it takes a while. You have to be patient and not push them above what they can actually do. You have to

This is a great life and I love it. Every now and then I look for an excuse why I shouldn’t sell a [horse], but then I remind myself if I wasn’t doing this for a living I’d have to get a real job. It’s a blessing to be my own boss, create my own schedule and not have to drive to town, and to work with my husband every day.

WESTER N HO R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

J A N UARY 2018

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

19

RIDE WEST

Craig Cameron leads his students through one of his obstacles, a round bale feeder turned on its side.

HORSEMANSHIP

Arena Drills and Outdoor Obstacles

At the first Western Horseman Weekend with Craig Cameron, participants in the three-day clinic improved their horses and horsemanship by riding in a variety of situations and settings.

Story and photography by ROSS HECOX

O

UR HORSES WERE FRESH on a cool October morning, trotting through cedar bushes and weaving over rocky hillsides on the Double Horn Ranch near Bluff Dale, Texas. We rode in a single-file

WH Online

Check out the video with highlights from the first Western Horseman Weekend.

westernhorseman.com

20

line in silence, soaking up the scenery.

The only sounds were of hooves swishing through the dewy grass, and the occasional spur jingle. We kept our eyes open for deer, jackrabbits, or maybe even the mountain lion or Sasquatch we had told stories about around the previous night’s campfire.

Craig Cameron led the way down the hill and toward his training facility a few miles away. He and our group had spent the night sleeping in bedrolls under the stars, with our saddles on the ground and

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

horses tied nearby. Now we were headed to breakfast at the chuckwagon, but we weren’t taking the fastest route back.

Cameron was clearly enjoying the more challenging scenic route—and so were we.

I was riding my young palomino gelding, trying to apply the skills we had worked on over the past two days of the clinic—riding with softer feel, gaining better shoulder and hindquarter control, and developing forward motion and neck reining. On this first Western Horseman Weekend with Craig Cameron, 15 students had ridden in a covered arena, down wooded trails, around cattle and across obstacles such as bridges, logs and water crossings.

“People came from all over the country, and we covered all aspects of horsemanship,” Cameron says. “We started out in the arena, doing forward-movement exercises, and working on all kinds of fundamentals—flexibility, control, position. And we were working on ourselves more than working on our horses.

“From there we began going out on trails. And on the trails I tell people, ‘Now listen, take these skills that we’re developing and use them out on the trail with you.’

Consistency is a really big component of great horsemanship.”

Dwight Singer, an experienced, dauntless ranch sorting competitor from St. Francisville, Louisiana, was often reminded by Cameron to slow down and smooth out his cues. Caroline Gilmore, a polished horsewoman from Franklin, Tennessee, brought two horses she had trained: a seasoned gray gelding and a young buckskin gelding that needed miles.

Tom Simmons of Fort Worth, Texas, was less experienced as a rider and worked on his timing and balance. Terri Bailey of Weatherford, Texas, was adjusting to a new horse.

“This is my first clinic, and I had a horse I trusted that just died,” Bailey says. “So I came into this on a new horse and not with a lot of confidence. The thing that I’ve really learned is that you’ve got to have it in your heart to improve. And you can do it if you believe in yourself.

That’s one thing that Craig gives to everybody—that we can do it and we can believe in ourselves.”

Some riders worked on becoming softer with their seat and hands. Others

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

Bettie Sue Cook rides her gelding over several outside obstacles.

Clinic participants visit around a campfire on the last evening of the Western Horseman Weekend.

addressed herd-bound issues in their horses with Cameron’s guidance. It sounds like a lot to cover in a three-day clinic, but riding in a variety of settings presented opportunities for riders to improve the skills of their horses and themselves. Cameron kept his eyes on each rider, offering critique, advice and encouragement throughout each drill or pattern he prescribed.

“Everybody was approaching this as a student of the horse,” Cameron says. “We went through all types of obstacles, creating what we call the ‘brave horse.’

When we do that, it builds confidence in not only the horse, but the rider. Each person was going at their own pace.

“We also had some really cool contests working with cattle. And it was about

J A N UARY 2018

going slow and working cattle the correct way—not just ramming and jamming.”

As we zigzagged through the cedar on the last morning of the clinic, my gelding neck-reined like a bridle horse. He trotted with an arc in his neck and lift in his back.

And despite much more riding than he was accustomed to, he stepped out without me having to drive my heels into his sides. He also scrambled down a steep, 10-foot incline with little hesitation.

Thankfully, there was no situation that involved desensitizing him, or me, to a Sasquatch. But if there is any place to do that, it would be the Double Horn Ranch.

The Western Horseman Weekend with Craig Cameron will be offered again October 5-7, 2018, in Bluff Dale, Texas. Watch for details in future issues of Western Horseman.

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

21

RIDE WEST

to the length or strenuousness of the workout. To ensure your horse is ready to be turned back out or put up in a stall after being ridden, follow these four steps to safeguard its health. for about 20 minutes, or 1can Walk until the hair is mostly dry. This be done horseback or by

HEALTH

Chill Out

Use these cool-down methods after a rigorous winter workout.

B

By KATIE FRANK UNDLED FROM HEAD TO TOE and with a wild rag

around your neck, riding in cold temperatures can seem cumbersome. Then halfway through the ride you’ve warmed up and are tempted to peel off some of the layers you piled on.

But unlike you, a horse can’t slip on a warm, dry coat when a chill sets in. In fact, how you cool down your horse after a sweaty ride is critical to its wellbeing.

“A horse that does not get properly cooled down in the winter and is turned out into cold temperatures while still sweaty can be more susceptible to issues such as increased muscle soreness, respiratory disease and even colic,” says Timothy “Jake” Cox, DVM, of Noble Equine Veterinary Services in Purcell, Oklahoma.

22

Before becoming a veterinarian and moving to Oklahoma, Cox rode cutting horses in Colorado and New Mexico.

He emphasizes that a horse that’s grown a full winter coat is able to stay warm in temperatures well below freezing. When the brain senses cold, it triggers a reaction called piloerection, in which the outermost layer of skin contracts and causes hair roots to stand on end. It’s the same process that causes people to get goose bumps. The horse’s fluffy hair captures and heats air pockets close to the skin to stay warm. When that winter coat gets sweaty, however, it inhibits the hair from holding the air pockets and the horse can get cold.

Cox says recovery time depends on many factors, from the horse’s condition

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

Check respiratory rate and 2 heart rate. “The respiratory rate should be less than 18 breaths per minute and the heart rate should be approaching 36 beats per minute,” says Cox. “An easy, quick assessment is to look at the horse’s nostrils for increased flare and watch the abdomen for increased respiratory effort. If it all looks relaxed and calm, your horse is usually in good shape.”

Still-hot horses are susceptible to infection because they have a high respiratory rate. He says the higher

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

ROSS HECOX

The cool-down is just as important as the warm-up in winter weather.

hand-walking. Walking slows the heart rate, relaxes muscles and encourages blood circulation, which aides in the removal of lactic acid.

Build-up of this metabolic by-product in muscles can cause inflammation and soreness.

“As the horse’s muscles cool down, the amount of blood flow to the tissues decreases and starts moving back to the digestive organs,” he explains. “If the horse is cooled down too rapidly, the normal metabolic processes that remove the [lactic acid] may not take place and the muscles may not recover from the exercise session as well. In some cases, cramping may occur if the muscles are exposed to extremely cold temperatures while [the horse is] still hot and sweaty.”

He recommends loosening the cinch and throwing a fleece cooler over the saddle to speed up the coat-drying process. If the hair on the neck has already started to dry, loosening the cinch to allow some airflow under the saddle blanket is sufficient.

“As a general rule of thumb,” he says, “I don’t [let] the horse stand until the hair on the neck has started to dry.”

rate increases the amount of air they are moving in and out of their lungs, and exposes them to more potentially harmful pathogens.

“If the horse gets chilled because it was turned into freezing temperatures with a coat that is still wet, it may experience a degree of cold shock which can compromise the immune system,” he adds.

Groom well. Cox says to ruffle the 3 horse’s hair with a currycomb or stiff brush to speed drying. Rubbing straw or a dry towel over the horse’s coat can also quicken the process. If sticky, grimy dirt must be rinsed off, use warm water and tie your horse in a draft-free, sheltered area, such as a stall or wash rack. Keep a cooler on until the coat is completely dry, allowing its natural abilities to maintain warmth.

Provide water. A hydrated horse in 4 cold or hot weather is less likely to colic, so it’s critical to have water readily available. It’s a myth that horses need to be cooled down before drinking water to avoid founder or colic, or that the water cannot be cold, Cox says.

“Colic may occur for the same reasons it would occur in a horse that was not cooled down enough in the summer,” he says. “Horses still need to be offered water to replace the water lost during their workout. Just because they may not sweat as much, it still utilizes a lot of water through its normal metabolic processes.

“Horses can drink as much as they want [after a workout]. Most horses will self-regulate their water consumption.

The [water] temperature should not be freezing, but it does not have to be warm.”

Once the respiratory rate is back to normal, feeding small amounts of hay is fine, but wait at least an hour before offering grain.

Some owners choose to clip their horse’s coat, in a trace clip or other pattern in areas where the horse sweats, or keep it heavily blanketed and under lights in winter. This keeps coats slick and speeds up a horse’s cool-down time.

“Clipping is fine if the horse is to be kept in a barn and blanketed during the

J A N UA RY 2018

cold winter months,” says Cox. “Several of my clients that show year-round will clip their show horses. With these horses, use a cooler or a sheet to initially wick as much moisture away as possible before placing the regular blanket back on.

“However, if the horse is kept in an outside paddock or pasture, with or without a blanket, I do not recommend clipping. The hair plays an integral role in providing a warm layer of air between the horse and the environment. If the horse is clipped or a heavy blanket is placed on a horse with a thick winter haircoat, that layer is eliminated. It makes the horse much more susceptible to the cold in those cases.”

If possible, Cox recommends not blanketing a horse and allowing its winter coat to grow, despite the added time it might take to groom or cool down after a ride.

“Horses have adapted to live with their external environment,” he explains. “The only times I recommend blanketing a horse is if it is a clipped horse in an airy barn or outside environment, or if you have a waterproof blanket to put on a horse that is being exposed to an extended period of wet cold [i.e., rain and heavy snow]. Otherwise, let the horse live as naturally as possible.”

He says winter weather should be seen as an opportunity to spend more time with your horse and fellow equine enthusiasts.

“Riding in the winter can be fun and enjoyable,” he says. “In fact, it tends to be the time of year that I actually get a chance to ride with my family.”

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RIDE WEST

Melissa keeps the day’s map accessible, often by carrying it in her hand, to help not miss any landmarks needed for nagivation.

Mountain Routes

Planning a pack trip requires solid research, map-reading skills and some basic mathematic calculations.

By MELISSA HEMKEN

24

I

SLOSHED THROUGH THE RIVER, leading my horses across the kneedeep water. My pack partner, LeeAnne, rode around the trail’s bend and onto the bank, and then met me with a dumbfounded look. I held up my dripping map.

“I dropped it in the river as I rode across,” I explained. “I had no choice but to jump off Bailey to grab it as it floated downriver.”

The map was totally worth my getting wet. LeeAnne and I were traveling through a mountain range unfamiliar to both of us.

When we planned the pack trip, we did our homework before charting our course. Horses require meadows with suitable grass and accessible water in camp. Because we didn’t know where these camps were located, I purchased an overview map of the mountain range and consulted a friend who had packed through the area. He showed me where his group had camped, pointed to other good camps in meadows that he had passed, and highlighted places where there was no sufficient grazing for horses.

Another thing that I always do is call the national park’s or national forest’s local ranger district office. The packer (if the district employs one), or backcountry ranger, knows the most about current trail conditions and possible horse camps. Also, it’s smart to call the district office to learn if those taking personal trips with stock—non-commercial outfitters—need to obtain a permit to visit the area.

Over my kitchen table, LeeAnne and I decided which alpine lakes and waterfalls we wanted to see. We planned a seven-day circular trip from one trailhead so we didn’t need a shuttle to pick us up. My friend who had packed there before suggested some of our scheduled camps. Other camps looked feasible on Google Earth. Its satellite imagery indicated whether the topographic maps’ meadows

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

LEEANNE BELL

BACKCOUNTRY

were solidly covered in willows or contained grass patches.

RUN THE NUMBERS As we traced trails between camps on the map, we considered the amount of elevation gain and loss. The number of feet climbed and descended is more important than daily mileage counts, because it’s more strenuous to go up and down than ride over flat terrain.

On a topographic map, the contour lines that run close together signify steeper areas than lines where contours are spread apart. To measure elevation feet, locate the map’s contour interval, which is listed with its scale. The contour interval will tell you how many vertical feet each contour line represents. When traversing mountain passes, the previous night’s camp is best placed a few miles from it. This equips horses with fresh energy and rested, clear minds to walk across scree fields and slick rock on the pass.

J A N UARY 2018

Crossing a pass in the morning also avoids riding across a 12,000-foot pass, above tree line, when common afternoon thunderstorms shoot lightning bolts. To plan a feasible route, each day’s route (elevation gain/loss, mileage) needs to be considered along with the capabilities of horses and humans alike.

If packing with children, perhaps a base camp with day rides is more suitable. A progressive trip—moving camp daily—that averages 12 miles a day requires hours in the saddle. On a progressive trip, I plan a layover day for every fourth or fifth day, during which we stay in the same camp for two nights. This rests the horses and provides them more time to graze, and gives us humans time to leisurely eat breakfast, wash laundry and bathe ourselves. Often a short day ride to fish the lake over the ridge is also in order.

When planning a route, be mindful of trail conditions and travel speed of

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

horses. A main trail will generally be cleared of downfall and large boulders to form a wide tread. A less-traversed trail often requires us to stop to clear fallen trees, and the path’s uneven footing slows horses.

WRITE THE RAD Armed with these details, I write a Route And Description (RAD) plan for each day of the pack trip. I include area maps that are needed for each day, so I know the ones to pull out of my clothing bag and place in my saddlebags each morning.

A day’s RAD might look something like this: Maps for the day’s travel are the Ouzel Falls and Darwin Peak quadrangles. We plan to leave camp at 9 a.m. because we estimate our travel speed at 3 mph and will ride 6 miles up the Gros Ventre River to a 10,502-foot pass. On this timeline, we will cross the pass in late morning. This should be well before the afternoon thunderstorms

25

build up. To climb the pass, we’ll gain 1,900 feet in half a mile (aka a lung burner). After the pass, we will drop down along Crystal Creek and ride down country 4 miles to that night’s camp in Big Meadow.

The RAD not only informs all expedition members of the trip’s plan, but it also can be given to an emergency contact. If something goes wrong and my pack partners and I don’t arrive home at the appointed time, the emergency contact knows where to alert search-and-rescue teams to look for us. I also notify an emergency contact when day-riding in remote areas. Wilderness can be unforgiving, and calamities may strike during the most casual trail ride.

KEEP THE MAP HANDY With maps and numbers, I can build a pack trip itinerary that is realistic and doable. To be useful during mountain travel, a map needs to be constantly checked. Doing so helps me stay on route, because I notice high points,

canyons, cliffs and meadows when I ride past. To do this, I carry in my hand a map folded to show our current location in an approximate 5-by-6-inch section.

I bring U.S. Geological Survey topographic 7.5-minute series, 1:24,000 scale quadrangles for the entire route. I also carry an overview map(s), generally about 1:48,000 scale, that extends beyond our route to nearby edges of the mountain range. This guides us on alternate travel out from the backcountry in case of a medical emergency or wildfire. In addition, a global positioning system (GPS) device is helpful in case a key landmark is passed unnoticed.

I never rely solely on technology, like GPS, for route finding, as the device could be dropped in the river, refuse to be charged by the solar panel, or malfunction. But a wet map can be carefully dried and pieced together with duct tape and remain readable. A GPS unit is a great backup in case of human error, though.

One day I tucked the map into my vest pocket to eat lunch while I rode down the trail. The warm afternoon air smelled of pine, and sunshine danced on the river.

Between such distractions and me spooning tuna from its foil packet, it took me a mile to realize I had yet to see the river’s deep bow. It was my landmark for our next trail junction, and now a cliff wall loomed to the north.

A map check showed that we possibly missed the turn. LeeAnne booted up her smartphone’s GPS app, which revealed we had indeed gone too far. So back up river we went to the trail that would lead us to our night’s camp on the shores of aptly named Lunch Lake. My mistake added an extra two miles to the day’s travel. Because we planned a route suitable to our horses and skills, though, we still made camp before nightfall.

MELISSA HEMKEN is a freelancer writer and photographer based in Wyoming.

She has logged countless miles packing into wilderness areas.

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RIDE WEST

YOUNG HORSEMEN

Need for Speed

This Louisiana cowgirl gives it her all, from starting colts to competing.

NAME: Meredith Scroggs AGE: 17 HOMETOWN: Kelly, Louisiana WHERE SHE COMPETES:

AQHA, NHSRA, AjPHA and NLBRA

EVENTS: Heading, Heeling, Poles, Breakway, Barrel Racing, Stakes Racing, Goat Tying, Steer Stopping, Ribbon Roping, Trail FUTURE PLANS: Earning a degree in business or veterinary medicine.

By KATIE FRANK

M

EREDITH SCROGGS has a bit of rebel in her, but for all the right reasons. When she was 11 years old, the temptation to climb onto her dad’s roping horse, “Dixie,” was too much to resist. The blue roan tobiano mare had become notorious for ditching riders, so Meredith’s father, James, used the horse to rope bulls.

“He looked up and I was on the side of the trailer climbing on her,” she says. “From then on, it was on—me and her were a team.”

In 2016, Meredith and the mare, registered as Renos Cool Dancer, earned championships in heading, heeling and steer stopping at the American Junior Paint Horse Association Youth World Championship Show. They won the High-Point Western Youth award, as well as the Power Performance High-Point, which she also had won two years earlier.

“Before my first ‘big’ horse, I trained ponies,” she says. “I was trying to follow in Daddy’s footsteps. I had mini studs and they were broncy! I wanted them to run fast, and I figured out one of them would run faster going back toward the barn. So I would ride him out to the street, and as soon as a car would come by, we’d take off running and hollering. I only got away with it a few times.”

Her skills as a rider stem from helping her father halter-break and start colts at their home in Kelly, Louisiana, where they live with her mom, Clivette, and her younger sister, Maci.

“Training a colt or doing anything with a younger horse is different than just rodeoing. It really helps as a rider,” she says. “Riding the trained horses is no big deal. It’s like having a grown kid in the house. But with these little ones that don’t know any better, it’s like having a baby. You have to be there 24/7, and know what you’re doing.”

Meredith has competed in everything from ribbon roping and barrel racing to poles and stakes, and plans to participate in college rodeo.

Meredith Scroggs has shown Renos Cool Dancer to numerous wins.

Meredith rides her gray horse, “Star,” at her home in Kelly, Louisiana.

Do you know a young Western horseman or horsewoman worthy of a spotlight? Send your suggestion to edit@westernhorseman.com with “Young Horsemen” in the subject line.

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W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

FAVORITE COLOR: Gray

I NEVER:

“Punish my horse for messing up.

You’re controlling the horse, so it’s your fault.”

PET PEEVE:

“I don’t like when horses act stupid in the alleyway. My horses walk in the alleyway.”

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IDEAL PLACE TO RIDE:

“In the back pasture at home. It’s beautiful when the sun is going down on the pretty cypress trees. Looking out on something you own is pretty cool.”

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“My dream is to have a ranch where they bring troubled kids, and teach them responsibility and how to ride.”

J A N UARY 2018

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39TH TRIANGLE FALL SALE d October 26th & 27th

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“I have to pray over me and my horse.

When other kids do a silent prayer and take their hats off, it gives me chills to know there are still good people out there.”

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29

RIDE WEST

RODEO

Throwback Cowboy In an age of specialization, Kyle Whitaker keeps working both ends of the rodeo arena.

By KYLE PARTAIN

K

YLE WHITAKER HAS A CHANCE to make history in 2018, and that fact isn’t lost on this throwback to a different time in professional rodeo.

One of only a few in the sport today who compete at both the timed-event and roughstock ends of the arena, Whitaker earned his ninth overall and third straight Linderman Award in 2017.

Many rodeo fans aren’t familiar with the annual award, which goes to the cowboy who earns the most money while

30

competing in three events (including one timed event and one roughstock event) in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association competition.

Named for ProRodeo Hall of Famer Bill Linderman, the award recognizes Linderman’s world championships in three individual events: bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling. He also walked away with two all-around titles before dying in a plane crash in 1965 near Salt Lake City, Utah. The first Linderman Award went

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

to 1961 All-Around Cowboy Benny Reynolds in 1966, setting off a string of Linderman victories by some of the sport’s biggest names. Kenny McLean, the 1961 saddle bronc riding champion, won two of the next three Linderman titles. Phil Lyne—arguably the greatest rodeo cowboy of all time given his success in multiple events— won three straight from 1970 to 1972.

Lewis Feild won it three times between 1981 and 1991.

By the time Feild claimed his final Linderman, rodeo cowboys had begun to specialize in single events. Contestants who enjoyed success in multiple disciplines—such as Ty Murray on the roughstock end and Trevor Brazile in the timed events—have been few and far between in recent history. Cowboys capable of winning on both ends suffered from near extinction in the process.

The 1994 season marked the first time since the award’s creation that not a single cowboy qualified. Cowboys must earn $1,000 or more in each of three events (including one roughstock and one timed event). If more than one contestant qualifies, then the one with the most money in all events combined takes home the title. Whitaker was a PRCA rookie in 1996 when the award went unclaimed for the second time in three years.

“I think it’s pretty sad when nobody qualifies for it,” Whitaker says. “There used to be lots of guys who worked both ends, but that was back when rodeo wasn’t so far removed from its ranching roots. Guys started coming up as calf ropers or bull riders, and not just cowboys. That’s made each of those individual events really tough to win, which makes it more difficult for a guy to spend time trying to compete in multiple events. There’s a lot of bronc riders out there who can rope pretty well, but there’s no real incentive for them to devote time to a second or third event.”

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

JAMES PFIFER

Kyle Whitaker is one of only a few professional cowboys today who compete in both roughstock and timed events.

Whitaker has a special bond with the award. His father, Chip, is one of four cowboys who have claimed the Linderman Award in three consecutive years. Lyne was the first, Chip Whitaker followed from 1977 to 1979, Trell Etbauer won from 2008 to 2010, and the younger Whitaker joined the list with his 2017 win.

“He got some encouragement from me—maybe a lot at times—but I don’t think it was ever pushed on him,” says Chip Whitaker. “I got to see some of it up close because we traveled together early in his career. Having him to practice and compete with helped to prolong my career for a few years. Winning the Linderman was always something I wanted to do. I worked three events at nearly every rodeo I went to for most of my career. But it’s just so hard to compete on both ends these days.”

Kyle Whitaker can become the first cowboy to win four consecutive Lindermans with a victory in 2018.

Another title would also push him to 10 in his career thanks to wins in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2011, and 2015 to 2017. No other cowboy has more than four such victories.

“It’s the main thing announcers have to say about me when I compete these days,” Whitaker says. “I grew up hearing announcers talk about my dad winning the Linderman, so it was always a part of my life. I wouldn’t say there was any pressure to do it, but I’m competing in steer wrestling, bronc riding and tie-down roping just like my father and my grandfather. All my life, these were the events we practiced and talked about. I’ve always enjoyed competing in three events.

There are times when it’s tough, but when I develop a rhythm and get in a groove, it’s the greatest thing in the world. Everybody I know says I need to win 10, so I’m going to give it a shot.”

Whitaker rode broncs at fewer than two dozen rodeos in 2017, earning $3,740 in the event. Tommy Denny was the only other cowboy to qualify for the Linderman last year and he won just $4,810 in all events combined to finish nearly $60,000 behind Whitaker in the final award standings. Whitaker’s best event has long been the bulldogging,

where he totaled checks worth $51,233 in 2017. He also added more than $9,000 in tie-down roping.

“I mostly ride broncs and rope calves at the circuit rodeos,” says the Nebraska cowboy. “If I ever felt like riding broncs was taking away from my bulldogging, then I would give it up.”

At 41 years of age, that day might be coming sooner rather than later.

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“What I’d like to see is a couple of young hotshots come along and work both ends of the arena,” Whitaker says.

“I’d like to leave the Linderman in good hands, because I think it’s so sad when we can’t find a single cowboy to qualify for it. But there just aren’t a lot of guys willing to work both ends.”

Since his first Linderman win in 1997, Whitaker has qualified every

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

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year but one. An injury in 2012 took him out of the running for a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo spot in steer wrestling and ended his Linderman hopes for the year.

Kyle Thomson of Alberta, Canada, grabbed the Linderman title that year.

“There are still some guys out there who have an appreciation for the award, but they’re guys like [ four-time winner] Trell Etbauer and [two-time winner] Mike Outhier and [2014 honoree] Joe Frost,” Whitaker says. “They come from rodeo families and understand the tradition and the value of working both ends of the arena.”

As important as the Linderman title is to Whitaker, he’s also still looking for his first NFR qualification. He’s finished in the top 30 in the world several times in bulldogging in recent years, and owns one of the event’s top horses in Famous Chuck, voted the third-best bulldogging horse in the PRCA in 2017. His traveling partner, Nick Guy, rode the horse at the NFR in both 2016 and 2017, and Whitaker would like to add to Chuck’s workload in Las Vegas at the end of this year. A converted tie-down roping horse—Whitaker was just about to give up on the gelding all together when he decided to try him in steer wrestling—Chuck has been traveling the ProRodeo circuit in bulldogging since 2014.

“He’d been my backup calf horse and had been hauled some, so he wasn’t completely green when I started bulldogging on him. He’s a handful and every once in a while he’ll go to bucking with me out of the blue,” Whitaker says. “But switching him to the bulldogging was just the ticket for him. He’s been great ever since.”

That’s good news for Whitaker, who sees bulldogging as his best chance to earn a long-awaited first trip to the NFR. “Like any cowboy, making the NFR is the goal,” he says. “I had a good year in 2017, but I just couldn’t get that one big win that would push me into the top 15. I feel like I’m bulldogging really well the last couple of years, and with a great horse I’ve got everything I need to make it to the finals. I just need a break or two to go my way.”

KYLE PARTAIN is a Colorado-based freelance writer who has covered rodeo for 19 years.

Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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J A N UA RY 2 01 8

RIDE WEST These four half-size saddles made by Duff Severe will be auctioned January 20 in Mesa, Arizona. Similar to their full-size counterparts, they are (from left) the Form Fitter, American Bronc, Roper and Old Mexican.

CULTURE

Small-Scale Treasures A collection of four Duff Severe miniature saddles goes on the auction block in Arizona.

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I don’t think any have come up [for sale] publicly,” he says. “They were considered real works of art, and people who own them don’t like to let go of them.”

Duffin Leon “Duff ” Severe was born in 1919 in Idaho into a large ranching family, and at an early age was intrigued by the gear made by local cowboys.

While serving in the Marines, he had several opportunities to visit the shop of legendary rawhide braider Luis Ortega in California, and observe the master’s work. He later worked at Hamley Saddle Company in Pendleton, spending 10 years there before going into business with his brother Bill, who also had worked for Hamley. Bill focused on building trees, while Duff finished the saddles at Severe Bros.

The brothers’ work became soughtafter, largely because of the attention to detail that Duff put into the leatherwork.

They were invited to participate in the

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

1994 Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C., where they demonstrated their saddlemaking and rawhide braiding skills for 10 days.

Duff ’s work was noted in National Geographic in 1989, and the following year he was featured on National Geographic Explorer. He was inducted into the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame in 1992. He made his last known miniature saddle in 2003, and died in 2004.

The four saddles were displayed in the early 1980s at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and according to the family later were displayed at several U.S. embassies. The models are called the Form Fitter, American Bronc, Roper and Old Mexican.

Lebel says the miniature saddles— which are half-scale models—are works of art, especially when compared to samples carried by salesmen for various

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

COURTESY OF BRIAN LEBEL’S OLD WEST EVENTS

S

OME OF THE SMALLEST ITEMS

in Brian Lebel’s Old West Show & Auction this month in Mesa, Arizona, are likely to be among the biggest sellers.

Four miniature saddles made by Duff Severe of the legendary Severe Bros.

Saddlery in Pendleton, Oregon, will be on the auction block January 20. Severe was well known for his bronc saddles, but his miniature saddles helped earn him a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts for his artistry.

The collection of saddles—consigned

by Severe’s family—is expected to bring between $50,000 and $70,000. They will sell together in their original display case.

Each also has a custom-made stand.

Lebel says he hasn’t found any record of similar saddles selling at auction.

“There have been a lot of them that have been on display or in collections, but

By SUSAN MORRISON

The miniature saddles show Severe’s attention to detail in both leather carving and rawhide braiding.

THE

WESTERN FOLKLIFE CENTER

PRESENTS

JANUARY 29-FEBRUARY 3, 2018 • ELKO, NEVADA

Basques & Buckaroos: Herding

C u lt u r e s

of

F E AT U R I N G

saddle companies from the late 1800s to mid-1900s. “Duff really took as much pride, or more pride, in his miniatures as he did in his full-size saddles,� he says. “They’re spectacular. I can’t say they’re without equal, because there are other people making [miniature saddles] and doing a phenomenal job. But he was one of the first to make it an art form instead of a salesman’s sample.�

The saddles are expected to be a highlight of the auction, which will feature about 300 lots. Among other items are an Edward H. Bohlin silver parade saddle estimated at $30,000 to $40,000; an Edward Borein watercolor expected to bring $65,000 to $85,000; and a pair of Tapia Bros. spurs that Lebel says should be in the same price range as the Duff Severe saddles.

The Mesa show also features the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association’s Emerging Artists Competition, with the winner to be announced prior to the Saturday-night auction. This year’s competition spotlights the work of Western silversmiths.

An auction preview will be held January 18-20, with the auction beginning at 5 p.m.

January 20 at the Phoenix Marriott Mesa.

The show, featuring more than 180 dealers in all types of Old West antiques and memorabilia, will be open January 20 and 21. For details or to order an auction catalog, visit oldwestevents.com.

Basin,

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W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

35

RIDE WEST

COLLECTIBLES

What’s It Worth? >I have an R.T. Frazier saddle, breast strap and bridle. I am trying to put a value on these for insurance purposes, but to no avail.

We obtained this saddle from my father-in-law.

Where he got it, we do not know. The saddle has intricate carvings, silver and silver conchos. The breast collar and bridle [not pictured] have the same, but do not have the R.T. Frazier stamp.

R.T. Frazier opened his saddle business in 1898.

He died in 1931 and his wife continued operation until 1958. This saddle was made for Clara L. Bradford; the cantle plate has her name on it. The breast strap has her initials.

She was born in 1873 and died in 1949. —DEBBIE FARRAR, Oklahoma

36

YOUR SADDLE IS A VERY NICE, special-ordered saddle. My reason for saying this is that I have looked through my Frazier Saddlery catalogs that I have collected, and the saddle most like yours is shown near the front of the catalog where the best saddles are pictured. But none of them have all of the silver decorations that your saddle has. They do show the large conchos on the corners of the skirts and the housing, but not the silver cantle binding and silver pommel binding.

In my catalogs, the 1926 and 1934 models of this saddle show the silver decoration on the stirrups, similar to your saddle. The model that is like your saddle is number 503 in Catalog No. 16. In Catalog No. 29 the model is 2603, and in Catalog No. 42 the model is 3403. I believe the model number is 03, and the one or two digits prior to the model number identify the year the saddle was manufactured. So the 503 is from 1915, 2603 is from the 1926 W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

RACHEL FARRAR

A custom-made R.T. Frazier saddle offers clues to its past.

Now Available

catalog and 3403 is from the 1934 catalog. In 1926 the saddle sold for $212.50. But in 1934 the catalog price was only $195, which may have been due to the Great Depression.

You provided me with an obituary for Clara L. Houser Bradford, who lived from March 17, 1873, to July 25, 1949. She is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Moorestown in Northhampton County, Pennsylvania.

R.T. Frazier offered saddles made for ladies that were smaller and lighter. They did not come with the leather strap to hold a rope and were intended for transportation rather than for use as a stock saddle. This is not one of those. This is a fancy saddle to begin with, and then has more silver added to make it fancier.

This implies that Clara Bradford was a person who had more money to spend than most customers.

She obviously was a person with financial resources.

I estimate that the saddle is 85 to 100 years old, and it is in good condition.

My estimate is limited to the range of catalogs that I have to reference. I don’t see any alterations or repairs that would hurt the value of the saddle. The breast collar has one broken piece where it would attach to the cinch, but that could be repaired. The excellent pictures provided by Rachel Farrar show the true condition of the saddle.

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J A N UA RY 2018

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

37

RIDE WEST

COWBOY TASTES

WITH KENT & SHANNON ROLLINS

Braided Onion Bread 15 minutes INGREDIENTS

½ teaspoon poppy seed ½ teaspoon dried minced garlic ½ teaspoon dried minced onion 2 cups warm water 1 package rapid rise yeast 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons olive oil 1½ tablespoons fresh minced yellow onion 1 ¹⁄³ cups all-purpose flour 1 egg white

2 hours, 15 minutes

8 servings

DIRECTIONS In a small bowl, combine the poppy seed, garlic and onion, and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together the water, yeast and sugar, and let set for one minute. Mix in the salt, olive oil and fresh minced onion, and slowly stir in the flour until combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 2 to 3 minutes, adding more flour if needed to remove any stickiness.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and set in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and turn over a few times to lightly coat the outside with flour. Cut into three even pieces, and roll each piece into a long strand. Place the strands on a greased cookie sheet and braid together, turning each end under. Cover with a towel and let rise 20 to 30 minutes, or until nearly doubled in size.

Lightly brush the top of the loaf with the egg white and sprinkle with the poppy seed mixture. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 30 minutes or until the top is light golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Serve warm or at room temperature.

"This bread that Shannon created is savory with a hint of onion.

Baked fresh out of the oven, it teams up well with a bowl of soup or stew during a chilly winter day."

—KENT ROLLINS

WH Online

See how much Kent and Shannon Rollins have in common in our exclusive version of “He Said, She Said,” cooking style.

ROSS HECOX

westernhorseman.com Cowboy cooks KENT AND SHANNON ROLLINS are based in Hollis, Oklahoma, but spend most of their time cooking on ranches and at events across the United States. For more information on their cookbook, A Taste of Cowboy and their cooking schools, visit kentrollins.com.

38

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

JANUARY 14, 2018 Fort Worth, Texas 1 PM • WILL ROGERS COLISEUM

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RIDE RIDE WEST WEST PRODUCTS

Bucket List

Pick up one of these buckets for your needs around the barn or while traveling.

Little Giant’s Hook Over Feeder (suggested retail $13.49) is made with durable plastic that can hook over any 2-inch-wide board. The buckets can be stacked for storage or carrying, and hold up to 12 quarts. miller-mfg.com

Fortex’s 18-quart rubber bucket (suggested retail $12.49) features a flat back and is made with reinforced rubber so it is resistant to cracking and won’t rust like metal. fortexfortiflex.com

As a go-to bucket, Yeti’s LoadOut bucket (suggested retail $40) is durable for tough chores, and can be fitted with add-on accessories, such as a lid and caddy. yeti.com

KATIE FRANK

Miller Manufacturing Company’s flat-back buckets (suggested retail $8.49 for a 20-quart, $5.49 for an 8-quart) lay flush against stall walls and are made with impactresistant plastic. miller-mfg.com

Allied Precision Industries heated 16-gallon bucket (suggested retail $99.99) and 5-gallon flat-back bucket ($49.99) are resistant to cracking down to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, and feature a 6-foot grounded, anti-chew cord. nrsworld.com

40

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

“COWBOY LOGIC”

EQUINE MANAGEMENT is an extension of horsemanship, according to Sonny Miller. As director of operations at NRS Ranch (formerly National Roper’s Supply) in Decatur, Texas, Miller oversees the company’s ranch, event center, guest ranch and saddle shop; assisted in the design of the 100,000-square-foot facility; and coordinates the events that take place at the ranch.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about buckets, blankets, pads or bits, it all comes back to the level of horsemanship and management,” he says. “Just because someone can stay on top of a horse and not fall off doesn’t mean he’s a horseman.”

Miller says a slip in your horse’s health can often be traced back to management choices, which includes using a bucket that fits your horse’s character and lifestyle.

Here are his tips to make sure you’re putting water buckets to proper use: Bring four buckets per horse when traveling. Miller recommends using two buckets in a horse’s stall, plus two more to transport water.

“If we have a horse that drinks an excessive amount, we’ll even hang three [buckets], especially in the summer or if a horse has just walked off a trailer after a long [haul], even with water breaks along the way,” he says.

If you wind up in a situation where you have to carry water, he advises, “from a balance standpoint it’s easier to carry two 5-gallon buckets, even if you only fill them 2 to 3 gallons full; it’s lighter and easier to manage.

We call it cowboy logic around here.”

Hang buckets based on the height of the horse. “Typically stalls are 48 inches high with bars, mesh or another material to the top,” he says. With a bucket strap, buckets tend to be about 40 to 44 inches off the ground, but the correct height should ultimately be determined by the height of the horse on bedding.

He says buckets shouldn’t be low enough that a horse can get a hoof stuck, or so high that the horse must lift its head to drink.

Accommodate horses sensitive to change. For example, Miller says hanging a rubber bucket instead of one made of plastic is better for a horse that rubs because it’s not accustomed to a stall, because the rubber bucket won’t break or crack. Or try filling a muck bucket or a bucket with a wide rim to encourage a wary horse that is used to drinking out of a large stock tank or trough.

“If a horse isn’t trained to drink out of a bucket, the last thing a horse wants to do is put his head in something that he’s not accustomed to,” Miller explains, adding that for any horse, using buckets from home can help make a horse feel more comfortable in an unfamiliar place.

J A N UARY 2018

You have been asking for it, and it’s finally here! Legends Volume 9!

The 9th volume in the series is loaded with stories of some of the most famous stallions and mares that ever lived.

The list reads like a Who’s Who in Quarter Horse history.

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W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

41

ROSS HECOX

For Red Steagall, the Western music and cowboy poetry he performs do much more than entertain. They promote and preserve one of America’s most valuable assets.

42

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

In his office, Red Steagall surrounds himself with pictures, gear and artifacts that symbolize his life.

By ROSS HECOX J A N UARY 2018

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

43

WESTERN HORSEMAN AWARD

44

Raised in Sanford, Texas, Red’s interests included playing football for Phillips High School and roaming the Canadian River bottom with his brothers Carroll (top) and Barry (right).

A

S A BOY, RED STEAGALL WAS CAPTIVATED by the sight of cowboys riding through his little town in the Texas Panhandle. The horseback crew occasionally passed through Sanford, Texas, headed to work cattle in the rugged country along the Canadian River. Red and his younger brothers would stop what they were doing and soak in the scene.

“Boy, we always wanted to go with them,” Red says. “And I can still see them in my mind just as plain as if it was yesterday.”

The town of about 100 people sat in the middle of the Sanford Ranch, located on the harsh, windblown Panhandle plains. It’s where Red grew up, learned the value of being resourceful and resolute in desolate situations, and gained an undying admiration for people who make their living on ranches and farms throughout America.

“Our agricultural society is our country’s most valuable asset,” he says.

“Think about this: It wouldn’t make any difference how vast our armed forces are, how fast our technology is, how comfortable our cars and homes are. If we get to the point where we import all our foodstuff, nobody will have to fire a shot inside our country. All they have to do is conquer the country that’s feeding us.”

At age 79, Red continues to pay tribute to agricultural life and ranching traditions through his songs, poetry, concerts, radio program, television show and wildly popular Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival, W E STER N H O R SEM A N

held every October in Fort Worth, Texas, for the past 27 years. His radio show is carried by 155 stations in 34 states. Each year he records 26 new episodes of his television program, Somewhere West of Wall Street, which appears on RFD-TV. He writes a column each month for Cowboys & Indians magazine. During 2017, he performed on average three musical gigs each month—the most he’s toured since the 1980s.

“I think the television show has something to do with that,” he says. “The visibility is better.”

Red has held celebrity status since he began recording country music hits like “Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music,” released in 1976. Although his decorated career has taken him all over the world, his fascination with rural America and the ranching lifestyle remains as gripping as that boyhood moment when he watched the Sanford cowboys riding toward the Canadian River.

RUGGED RIVER COUNTRY Born in Gainesville, Texas, in 1938, Red was 3 years old when his family moved the 300 miles to Sanford. His father, J A N UA RY 2 01 8

THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF RED STEAGALL; OPPOSITE PAGE: ROSS HECOX

RED STEAGALL will be presented the Western Horseman Award during Ranching Heritage Weekend at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, January 12–14. The award was instituted in 2005 to recognize outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the Western stock horse industry. In selecting candidates for the award, the magazine looks for men and women who embody values the magazine embraces: impeccable Western horsemanship; a commitment to education, authenticity and ethics; and a passion for the Western way of life.

Red gained worldwide fame as a chart-topping songwriter and performer of country music during the 1970s and 1980s. During the mid-1980s, he shifted into cowboy poetry, and then began recording Western music albums that celebrated ranch life, Western heritage and cowboy values.

His radio program, Cowboy Corner, and television show, Somewhere West of Wall Street, do the same. His annual Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering also celebrates cowboy culture and has awarded nearly $1 million in scholarships to youth from agricultural backgrounds.

Past Western Horseman Award recipients include Ray Hunt (2005), Buster Welch (2006), Bob Moorhouse (2007), Craig Haythorn (2008), Ian Tyson (2010), Jack Brainard (2011), Robert Miller, DVM (2012), Buck Brannaman (2013), Larry Mahan (2014), Dick Pieper (2015), Pam Minick (2016) and Al Dunning (2017).

“As long as you’re trying and you don’t break a rule, the cowboys are on your side.”

—RED STEAGALL

J A N UARY 2018

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

45

ABOVE: One of Red’s most successful albums was Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music, released in 1976.

George, began working for an oil company, and in the following years worked a variety of jobs, doing “whatever he could to make a living,” Red says. His mother, Ruth, was a public school teacher.

George and Ruth had five boys and one girl; their first child was a red-headed boy they named Russell Don. “Red’s” childhood was undoubtedly country, even though the Steagalls lived in town.

“I spent almost all my time in the river bottom on the south side of the Canadian River,” Red says. “Outdoors was my whole world.”

Sometimes Red and his brothers rode down by the river on horses they borrowed from a kind neighbor. The only

46

horse they ever owned was a palomino gelding they purchased that had been bound for the slaughter plant.

“My little brother Carroll decided he wanted a horse, so we walked down the river about seven or eight miles to a man who had horses that nobody else wanted, and he was going to take them to the killer sales. And there was a palomino that Carroll just fell in love with. He had a hoof cracked almost all the way up to the pastern. The man said, ‘How much money you got, Carroll?’ ‘$75.’ He said, ‘I’ll take it.’

“So we led that horse back up the river.

We spent every afternoon after school soaking that foot in kerosene and used W E STER N H O R SEM A N

crank-case oil, until we softened that hoof. And over time it grew back out.”

The horse, named Tony, turned into a steady mount for the Steagall boys. Other dealings with unwanted horses didn’t materialize as smoothly, but served as a good source of boyhood fun. A group of wild horses turned out by ranchers roamed the river country, and sometimes they wandered into town, and the Steagall boys and their friends would try to catch one and ride it. One time they managed to get a rope and a saddle on one of the younger horses, and one of Red’s friends hopped on.

“He threw him off and got away,” Red says. “We never tried that again.”

According to Bruce Greene, a member of the Cowboy Artists of America and a close friend, the Steagall household was far from affluent. The blowing wind seeped into the house, and on some mornings Red woke up with a thin layer of dust or snow on his bed covers.

“Red puts his boots on before he puts his pants on,” Greene adds. “The reason is that linoleum floor in the house would be so cold, so he’d put his boots on, get up and then pull his pants on over them. He still does that to this day.”

In high school, Red played football and planned to go to college and become a veterinarian. But in 1954 the course of his life made a dramatic shift. His parents divorced in August, leaving Ruth with five children and one on the way.

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

MATT BROCKMAN

LEFT: Red performs at his annual Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival in Fort Worth, Texas.

In September, Red woke in the middle on writing songs,” Red says. “From 1966 Coincidentally, the first National of the night with a fever, chills and to 1969, I had 60 of my songs recorded by Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, excruciating pain in his head. At the other people. And then I started Nevada, was held in 1985, and Red hospital he was diagnosed with polio, recording myself. My music took me all attended. Once again, his career shifted four months before the Salk vaccine for over the world.” in direction. the disease was available. Four days During the 1970s and 1980s he “My brother and I went there, and we after his diagnosis, Ruth gave birth to released a steady fell in love with it,” Red’s youngest brother, Danny. lineup of albums, and Red says. “I started The disease severely weakened Red’s more than 20 of his writing poetry and left arm and hand, and he permanently singles landed on the didn’t write a song for lost the use of his left shoulder. Ruth country music charts. five years.” bought a secondhand mandolin to help His most successful Red credits Elko him rebuild the strength in his fingers. hits include “Party and WestFest, a “My fingers were just like pieces of Dolls and Wine,” cowboy gathering spaghetti,” Red says. “Mother bought “Somewhere, My spearheaded by enterme a mandolin—paid it off a dollar a Love,” “Someone tainer Michael Martin month. It was a $10 mandolin. For days Cares for You,” and Murphey for years, as I would concentrate on getting enough “Lone Star Beer and events that sparked a —GARY REYNOLDS renaissance in strength in one finger to keep from Bob Wills Music.” muting the strings. And I went all the Often backed by his cowboy poetry and way through each finger on my hand, band, the Coleman Western music. doing that on that mandolin until I County Cowboys, Red performed an “They were two major forces that could play a two- or three-finger chord. average of 200 dates a year, including elevated the image of the West in the And then Mother helped me buy a many rodeos, and he toured Australia, minds of the public,” he says. “From guitar for my graduation, and I took Europe, South America and the Far about 1935 to 1985, there weren’t a that with me to college.”

East. He also sang at the White House handful of people who published Although Red graduated college at for President Ronald Reagan in 1983. cowboy poetry. It was out of vogue. the urging of his mother, earning a By the mid-1980s, Western swing and Cowboy motion pictures and television degree in animal science and agronomy honky tonk songs weren’t selling as well shows were [popular], but the written from West Texas State University, he as pop-influenced country music. word was not. So those two events got discovered that music was his true calling. During college he began writing songs and formed a country band. He continued playing at rodeo dances while working for five years as an agricultural chemist.

Some of Red’s friends he’d met through music moved to Hollywood to pursue careers in the entertainment business, and with their encouragement he followed suit in 1965. Red began working as a music industry executive, including a stint with United Artists Music. In 1967, Ray Charles recorded “Here We Go Again,” co-written by Red Steagall and Don Lanier. The song became a hit in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

“My whole world abruptly On the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, Red helps gather cows and calves during branding season. changed, and I concentrated

ROSS HECOX

“The person that you see on screen is very much the person that he is in real life.”

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such publicity because it was like a music to working cowboys competing in brand new art form.” the ranch rodeo, and children participatRed was named the Official Cowboy ing in fiddle and poetry contests. The Poet of Texas in 1991. His first book, Ride Cowboy Gathering also raises money for the Brand, was published in 1993 and through various channels for youth included 168 pages of poems and songs. seeking higher education, and so far it has That same year, he released an album for awarded nearly $1 million in scholarships the first time in seven years. Born to This to students from agricultural families.

Land featured songs about cowboy life Overall, the event embodies Red’s biggest and Western history. It was followed by passions: music, poetry, ranching eight more Western music albums, heritage, Western values and traditions, including Dreamin’ of...When the Grass and the working cowboy.

“Our goal is to celebrate the lives of Was Still Deep, released in 2011. Red is the men and women who continue to currently writing new songs for an work cattle horseback, providing beef album he plans to record with his Boys for dinner tables of America,” Red says. in the Bunkhouse band.

“There is still an Red’s nationally image of the syndicated radio cowboy. It’s the show, Cowboy image of America Corner, spotlights that people individuals making worldwide adore a living in agriculand glom onto. ture and is in its It’s because the 25th season. His cowboy exhibits television show, independence, Somewhere West of individualism and Wall Street, is in its freedom, the fifth season. The three things that program features everybody wants great horses, to experience influential people, regardless of modern ranches, where they live or and significant —BRuCe GReene what they do for places and events a living.” in the history of the American West. It is recorded simply by HORSEBACK CULTURE Red and two cameramen, Jody Duggan Despite a hectic, well-traveled and Gary Reynolds. Reynolds operates schedule, Red has carved out plenty one of the cameras, plus edits video and of saddle time. He team-roped for produces the show. many years, gripping the reins with his “All three of us are from the Texas left hand but tying the rope to his Panhandle, so we speak the same saddle horn rather than dallying. He language,” Reynolds says with a laugh. has regularly attended rides as a “Red truly cares about portraying the member of the Rancheros Visitadores, Western lifestyle and our history. It isn’t Tejas Vaqueros and Cowboy Artists always romantic, but he wants to be of America. honest about how it was.”

“The CAA made me an honorary Another venture that promotes the member in 1973,” he says. “I have missed Western lifestyle is the Red Steagall only one trail ride since 1976. So they’ve Cowboy Gathering, which regularly been my family for a long, long time.” attracts about 40,000 people each Red often joined the Four Sixes October. The event includes chuckwagon Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, for spring competitions, Western swing dances, a works. For 20 years he and several ranch rodeo and a cowboy trappings friends helped with branding for a week show. It draws people from throughout on the JA Ranch in Clarendon, Texas. the United States and touches all age Many times Greene has accompanied groups, from retirement-age fans of swing

“He deeply loves the cowboy culture and all it entails—the long hours, the hard rides and terrible weather— and how those experiences shape who we are.”

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Red on the historic ranch founded by Charles Goodnight and John Adair.

“Red has a lot of experience and the know-how about working cattle and being on the wagon,” Greene says. “And he is very capable of dragging calves to the fire. Here’s this guy that is basically one-handed, and I’ve seen days when he just double-hocks them all day long. If [the job] requires 25 miles in a trot that day, then that’s what it is. He would be asked, ‘Do you think it’s going to get cold or rain?’ And his answer was, ‘Well, if it does, it does. But here we are.’ He was never complaining; never expecting any special considerations. He deeply loves the cowboy culture and all it entails— the long hours, the hard rides and terrible weather—and how those experiences shape who we are.”

For Red, one of the highlights of those experiences was riding alongside working cowboys who live by a code based on respect and integrity.

“When we would pull into those pens where we would set up camp, those guys and I didn’t belong to ourselves,” he says. “We belonged to that wagon boss. We were just like day workers.

“And you learn courteous things to do right away, like you never should ride in front of another man. But the cowboys will never criticize you. They’ll give you a suggestion. As long as you’re trying and you don’t break a rule, the cowboys are on your side. They don’t laugh at you. They try to help you because they want you to succeed. It’s just an unbelievable society. It’s everything I respect in people. It’s a way of life that is so fulfilling to me.”

Greene says that Red himself personifies those cowboy codes and values.

“He’s the ambassador to the world for the Western and ranching culture,” Greene says. “I’ve been in Europe with him and people come running up, hollering his name. One of his greatest traits is his ability to help people understand that they matter to him.

That’s one of lessons I’ve learned from him. It’s so valuable, and it’s completely sincere.”

“The person that you see on screen is very much the person that he is in real life,” Reynolds adds. “He is a very genuine person and is cut from the old cloth of J A N UARY 2018

honesty, integrity and caring about your neighbor. He’s always very gracious with people he meets and appreciates his fans. He has the most fantastic memory for people of anyone I’ve ever been around. He’ll meet someone, and then go, ‘I remember, I met you here like nine years ago, the year it rained and we played at the rodeo.’ ”

AUTHENTIC LYRICS After residing in Hollywood and then Nashville, Tennessee, Red returned to Texas early in 1977. Later that year, he and his wife, Gail, were married. For the past 40 years they have lived about 25 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

Their place includes their home, an office building, a barn, pastures, Longhorn steers and several horses they own. For Red, living in his home state in a rural setting with Gail has been an ideal existence.

“I always knew where I wanted to be, I just didn’t know how to get there,” he says. “Gail is my best friend. It’s the most wonderful life I could possibly imagine.”

Red says he sees or talks to his brothers and sister almost weekly. His brother Carroll lives in Weatherford, Texas. Brothers Barry, David and Danny live in Oklahoma. Sue Anne lives in Colorado. Red and Gail also regularly visit his son Steven, whom Red adopted during his previous marriage. Steven and his family live in California.

There are too many awards and honors given to Red to list, but they include induction into the Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 2006 Poet Laureate of the State of Texas, and multiple Academy of Western Artists awards.

Looking back on his career as a musician, which began in the mid1960s, Red laughs and says, “I’ve lived through five revolutions in music.”

He is clearly not worried about whether or not his songs, poetry or television episodes are in vogue. Trends, by nature, never last long. Red is more concerned with recording music and words that accurately portray Western and agricultural life.

“I believe that what we write and perform today may be the only reference W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

MORE ABOUT RED You might not know it, but Red Steagall:

• Discovered Reba

McEntire as she sang the national anthem at the 1975 National Finals Rodeo. He signed her to Mercury Records the following year.

• Co-wrote George Strait’s No. 1 hit, “What’s Going on in Your World.”

• Has written more than

200 songs recorded either by himself or others.

• Has appeared in several

motion pictures, including a starring role in the 1987 film Benji the Hunted.

• Hosted the nationally

televised National Finals Rodeo for four years, as well as the Winston Pro Tour on ESPN for the 1985 season.

• Has two brothers, Carroll

and Danny, who are also accomplished musicians.

• Says his heroes are

innovative cattleman Charles Goodnight and Comanche chief Quanah Parker.

• Rode bulls after college,

strapping his left arm to his body so he wouldn’t be disqualified for accidentally touching the bull with his free hand.

to how we lived that people have 50 years from now,” he says. “It’s important to me to be as honest about it and as authentic as possible. I think we have a great way of life. We look at life through a beautiful window, and I want other folks down the road to know that it was a good time. So what we write is very important.”

ROSS HECOX is editor in chief of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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A Class Apart

Experiencing the school’s outfitting and packing class is a badge of honor for equine sciences students at Colorado State University.

Every mile ridden provides lessons and stories to tell.

Story and photography by CHRISTINE HAMILTON

The spring 2017 outfitting and packing class in Colorado State University’s equine sciences program headed deep into the backcountry north of Sweetwater Lake in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

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“You learn a lot faster out here, experiencing it all … rather than reading about it in a book.”

—Alex VanVelkinburgh

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espite the fresh highcountry snow, the trip was on. Starting from a trailhead at Sweetwater Lake, the group of 19 planned to ride seven miles into the backcountry near Colorado’s Flat Tops Wilderness, packing in the gear they’d need for themselves and their stock to spend two nights and three days in the wilderness, and then ride out. It was the last weekend in April and more snow was coming.

“I thought I’d just learn how to do another skill in the equine industry. … I walked out learning how to be a better person.”

—Sierra Escoffier

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“If we are riding, and it gets too bad, will we come back?” asks a tentative voice from the back of the dining hall in the historic Sweetwater Lake Lodge.

“No,” answers lifelong packer Chuck Peterson. “Just put your head down, depending on which way the wind is blowing.”

It was one more lesson for the Colorado State University equine sciences packing and outfitting class in the spring of 2017: It takes more than fickle mountain weather to make an outfitter cancel a trip. Although safety is paramount, comfort is not.

A lifelong outfitter, packer and rancher, Peterson has been teaching this class twice a year for almost 40 years, and has been packing longer than that. At 69, he looks like a modern-day Jeremiah Johnson, although his students have probably never seen that 1972 movie.

Topped by once-red gray hair, his outdoorsman’s face can go from stern to smiling and back again in an instant.

Students have grown accustomed to his blunt evaluations—“Close, but no bananas,” or his booming, “Whoa, Mississippi!” (quoting John Wayne in El Dorado)—when he spots someone approaching a mistake.

For six weeks, under Peterson’s eye and with help from three teaching assistants, J A N UA RY 2 01 8

14 students have tied knots, weighed panniers, saddled pack horses and lashed loads in two intensive three-hour classes a week. They’ve watched videos and asked questions and heard Peterson’s stories. Mostly upperclassmen, the 12 women and two men come from all over the United States—Florida to California, and Maryland to Mexico. All are adequate riders; most could count on one hand when they’d ridden outside an arena.

Many have been backpacking; few have camped with horses, much less led a packhorse. Preparing for and taking this trip is the point of the class.

Ready or not, they’ve hauled into the Rocky Mountains to the old Sweetwater Lake Resort, out of which A.J. Brink Outfitters operates packing trips into the White River National Forest, permitted by the United States Forest Service. Jim Brink, Peterson’s longtime friend, has been the outfitter and guide for the class trips for almost 20 years, providing both riding and pack stock. Wiry with close-cropped gray hair, he has a sixth sense for things like unbalanced packs and where to spot elk. And he always brings along horse cookies for his string.

The two men first packed together in 1964, when Peterson was a teen. Between them they have more than 100 years of backcountry experience, from Wyoming’s Medicine Bow country down to the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico. They are undaunted by the thought of taking 14 green students, three undergraduate teaching assistants and 30 horses into thousands of acres of unfenced country.

The students head out to get their saddle horse assignments and to pack the string. They sort sleeping bags and food into hard- and soft-sided panniers, then meticulously weigh and balance them, load the horses, and figure out how to pack the wood stove and the long, two-man crosscut saw. They make sure they have personal essentials on their saddles like granola bars, gloves, sunscreen and slickers. Peterson, Brink and the TA’s help out.

“You have to be looking back [at your pack horse],” Brink cautions as he lines them up, making sure the contrary gray is last. “You need to develop a feel for your pack horse. I give and take all the time [according to the trail obstacles].”

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ABOVE: Lifelong rancher and packer Chuck Peterson has been teaching CSU’s outfitting and packing class for more than 40 years. His teaching assistants for the spring 2017 trip were, from left, Rain Reich, Rachel Cone and Alex VanVelkinburgh.

LEFT: Jim Brink of A.J. Brink Outfitters has more than 50 years’ experience packing and outfitting in the Rocky Mountains. He has been the outfitter for the CSU packing and outfitting class for almost 20 years.

That night, the wind chill reaches 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. It was a long day of riding narrow trails, untangling pack horses, re-packing the saw, breaking out slickers against falling snow, setting up camp, high-lining horses, hauling water from the creek and cooking supper. The students huddle in sleeping bags under canvas tarps as ice forms inside the wall tents. They listen to the jingle of the bell mare and the hoofbeats of the grazing pack string.

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To a person, they wonder if this class was a good idea after all. But, like the hundreds of students who have gone before them, they also can’t seem to get enough of it.

“I thought I’d just learn how to do another skill in the equine industry,” says Sierra Escoffier of Ramona, California. “I felt like I learned more about myself. It forced endurance.

When things start to get uncomfortable, that doesn’t mean you have to quit; you

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ABOVE: Saddle mule Jackie Lee takes a turn at grazing and wearing the signal-giving bell.

LEFT: Class instructor Chuck Peterson, center, helps students set up a canvas teepee at camp.

can push on. I walked out learning how to be a better person.”

BEFORE WORLD WAR II, Peterson says, every male student at what was then Colorado A&M had to take one year of military science.

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“One of the classes was on riding and packing,” he says, adding that’s where this class started. “In the ’50s and ’60s it shifted to training forestry people to do it.”

In fall of 1972, a longtime instructor left and the job of teaching the class fell W E STER N H O R SEM A N

to a master’s student who felt out of her league. Her husband happened to know Peterson, who offered to help in between his fall hunting trips. He has taught it regularly since, and twice a year since 1985.

By that time the class was solidly part of the school’s respected equine sciences program. A backcountry trip has always been part of it. It’s now open only to upperclassmen, and Peterson screens students through an application process, reviewing riding level, height and weight restrictions, and medical issues. In addition to class attendance, students are required to write a trip response paper and a detailed outfitting plan for a trip of their own.

Through the years he has seen two big changes: a shift from majority male to majority female students, and a decline in students with agricultural backgrounds.

“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, I’d have 35 kids by myself. I don’t know how I did it,” he says. “The majority were guys and two or three girls. They were usually ag J A N UA RY 2 01 8

kids—ranch hands, ropers or packers. I was teaching them to be outfitters and how to handle a big string.

“Now, it’s 95 percent women in the class. I’ve had a couple of years where I didn’t have a young man in a class. And overall, they can ride really well, but I spend a lot of time on basic horsemanship. And most of them don’t understand ropes or leverage. I just want to get them to lead one or two horses up a trail.”

One thing hasn’t changed: the students’ desire and dedication to learn.

“The kids are awesome. They want to know, and they’re excited to come to class,” Peterson says. “And I’m up there, telling stories, telling them what not to do and getting after them. I make them engage and turn off their cell phones.

They respond like nobody’s business.”

In addition to the packing and outfitting classes, Peterson also teaches a trail riding class three times a year that gives students backcountry horsemanship skills sans packing.

He also pulls students into other projects, such as packing gear into wilderness areas to help with trail improvement and maintenance for the U.S. Forest Service.

“There is so much more to the equine ag industry,” says Rachel Cone, a junior from Maryland and a TA on the spring trip. “We spend the summer clearing trails for the forest service, and the regulations are all affected by the politics. I think I want to get involved with public policy.”

By his own count, last summer Peterson had 56 former students working on dude ranches or pack outfits in six western states.

“It’s critically important to me, in our program, that students are able to take classes and do internships that provide them meaningful experiences to prepare for careers in the industry,” says Jerry Black, DVM, director of the CSU Equine Sciences Program and Equine Reproduction Laboratory.

“Our packing and outfitting class is very unique to an equine sciences program. It’s opened the door for many careers for our students in the guest ranch and the packing/outfitting industry across the West. It’s a hidden treasure of our program.”

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Black calls it a “no quit” program, “once you’re committed to it.”

“It’s often a life-changing experience, and it’ll be tough, especially when you’re riding long hours in inclement weather,” he says. “Students have not often experienced that. Every mile is a lesson.”

JINGLING HORSES in the morning is Alex VanVelkinburgh’s favorite task, although she says she doesn’t really mind any camp chore. Originally from Denver, she took the class as a transfer student and is now a teaching assistant.

Brink turns his string out to graze and feed through the night, leaving them free to water at the creek. The dominant mare wears a bell around her neck to signal the rough location of the herd. In the morning, the string needs to be found, quietly gathered up and tied, ready for the day’s work.

“I like how quiet it is in the morning,” VanVelkinburgh says. “Everything is so still, and you’re listening for the tiny faint bell off in the distance. It helps if you have your night horse in camp, then you just saddle up and look for tracks in the snow, or manure, and listen for cracking sticks.”

Before dark the night before, Brink took VanVelkinburgh and two other students down to the narrow spot where the trail enters the blind valley at the end opposite camp. He showed them how to build an illusory fence with two ropes strung across the trail and sticks woven between them. The idea was to convince the loose pack string they were fenced in and couldn’t hit the trail back to Sweetwater Lake, which they’ve done before.

VanVelkinburgh had not seen that trick.

She’s ridden all her life and started her own horses. Interested in training, she wants to learn as much as she can from all kinds of horsemen.

“A lot of your learning [here] comes through osmosis, just watching Chuck and Jim,” she says. “You learn a lot faster out here, experiencing it all, and seeing what they’re doing rather than reading about it in a book.

“You learn how to take care of horses when you don’t have all the things you are used to, like a hose to fill buckets. You learn to take care of them outside, in the open. You learn more than you do just riding in an arena.”

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And the students also learn to appreciate how nice it is to wake up to a cup of hot coffee; the first one up gets it brewing. With the new snow from the previous day and the sky cloudy with more, most of the day is spent in camp.

Petersen has students organized in teams of four or five under each TA, and they rotate through chores—cooking meals, cleaning up and caring for the horses. The cold puts the wood stove in high demand, and Peterson and Brink coach crews in sawing and splitting deadfall aspen. Most of the students have never handled a two-man saw or an axe, and jump at the chance. The work warms bodies.

“It’s amazing the sense of accomplishment you can get from just learning to split firewood,” says Rain Reich, a TA from Alamosa, Colorado. “One gal started out quiet and self-conscious, but after she cut firewood it was like she could do anything.

She was relentless; she would not give up.

You could tell it wasn’t something that would go away.

“It has to do with pushing your comfort zone and doing labor that people just don’t get to do nowadays.”

In the afternoon, Brink takes a group on a ride to explore the next valley west. They follow his lead on judging drifts and learning to ride horses lunging through deep snow. They clear downed trees, sending them rocketing down the steep slope off the trail, and talk about avalanche country.

That night, once supper dishes are washed, the group gathers around the warm stove in the large wall tent and the stories begin. It’s another of Peterson’s camp rituals—everyone must share something they’ve learned: “A base layer is very important and oilskin chaps are a gift from God.” “I loved how when we got to camp, we busted it all out and everybody came together.”

“Leading the pack horse is like driving a truck and trailer; you’re watching your mirrors more than the highway in front of you.”

Questions lead Peterson to explain what he does if caught in the open by hail—he hobbles and blindfolds his horse, and then crouches down, holding a stirrup fender over his head. Brink lines out a horse’s shoeing cycle over a

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Sierra Escoffier appreciated the “real-world application” the trip gave the students for their lessons.

Student Bonnie Carnesecca helps to gather up the loose pack string early in the morning.

CSU students work as a team to load pack horses with evenly balanced hard-sided panniers.

season of packing, from going barefoot to shoeing all four. Every fact comes with a story.

“At first they think I tell stories [in class] just to humor them,” Peterson says. “But the only reason I tell a story is to make a point. It’s the only way you can understand things like why, if you have a horse hung up, half on or off a trail, you might have to cut a rope and let him fall to keep from pulling an entire string off a mountain.

“I tell kids those things—thinking ahead, so you don’t make a mistake that could hurt somebody. I talk about honesty and integrity, doing the right thing and treating a horse with respect.”

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They laugh whenever Peterson says, “It’s the cowboy way,” but they listen. It follows everything from how to approach a horse in a non-predatory manner, to why he wants lash ropes coiled just so, or why this pot is the only one to boil water in.

“I think it’s just all those things he’s come to learn over the years,” says VanVelkinburgh, walking back to the sleeping teepee by moonlight.

THE NEXT MORNING, the sky has cleared and the sun has melted much of the fresh snow by the time camp is broken and the horses are saddled and packed.

Brink ties horses together so a few students can lead out strings of two. As W E STER N H O R SEM A N

the line moves away from the trees and across the sage-covered valley, no one is completely ready to go.

“I learned that I can be happy in the middle of nowhere and live off almost nothing,” says Bianca Anderson, from Tallahassee, Florida. “I loved drinking water out of a creek. I loved how much I learned in a short period of time. And everything we did with the horses—it’s amazing they don’t need fences.

“I’m a lot stronger than I’ve given myself credit for. I liked going to get water; it was necessary and I felt useful. And I will never, ever not take waterproof boots [into the mountains] again.”

She pauses and then adds, “It’s easy to get stuck into one facet of the horse industry, and just be comfortable with that. A lot of people aren’t very versatile and don’t go out of their box. But you need a different perspective for a well-rounded education. That we can do this, it’s huge.”

The teacher is pleased. With every class, Peterson hopes students come to see why he and Brink have spent a lifetime living by their horses and mules and experiencing beautiful wilderness. He hopes they learn something that will help them in the horse industry.

“When we start, especially on cold, hard, wet trips like this one, [the students] can be fearful,” he says. “But there’s no way they can quit. Then they get to laughing and building camaraderie among themselves, and they gain confidence.

“They use what they’ve learned and have fun. I see them change. It might sound funny, but it makes my heart sing.”

CHRISTINE HAMILTON is editor of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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Old School Meets New School Retirement opened new gates for old-school cowboy Bill Mooney to day-work on Nevada ranches and learn the ways of a new generation of cowboys.

By JENNIFER DENISON

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MARY WILLIAMS HYDE

W

HEN COWBOYS GATHER AROUND THE CAMPFIRE or in the bunkhouse they naturally commence to telling stories about their rollicking adventures on ranches and riding rank horses. In the digital age, cowboys like 69-year-old Bill Mooney of Spring Creek, Nevada, have new platforms such as Facebook to share and swap stories about their experiences and epic rides, and even develop a captive following of “friends” who eagerly await the next installment.

Mooney never intended to be a writer and storyteller. In fact, he usually shared his stories only in casual conversations with cowboys and friends, because he didn’t believe most people would comprehend them if they hadn’t experienced the cowboy lifestyle. In 2005, however, after retiring from 30 years of employment as a supervisor at the Nevada Department of Transportation, Mooney began writing down his recollections of buckaroos and big Nevada outfits, such as the Circle A and the iconic Spanish Ranch, where he buckarooed as a young man in the 1970s. Now he uses Facebook to share those stories, as well as new ones from recently helping with spring and fall works

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Bill Mooney has worked with young cowboys such as Clint Riggins on the C Punch Ranch in Lovelock, Nevada.

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and trying to keep up with buckaroos who are often less than half his age.

Written purely for amusement, the stories give readers a glimpse into the real West and prove that an old-school cowboy can still ride out with the wagon, adapt to today’s ranching ways and learn a thing or two from the young guys.

MOONEY’S FAMILY was from Boston, Massachusetts, but moved around the West during his childhood. Mooney was born in Orange, Texas, in 1948, but developed an East Coast accent from his parents. His father was a lawyer. His family moved to New Mexico when he was 6 and then to Nevada a few years later. They didn’t know anything about horses, but that didn’t stop Mooney from wanting to be a cowboy.

His first job was at Twin Lakes Resort stable in Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was about 10 years old. He scooped up manure in exchange for an hour of riding on Saturday nights. When he was 13, his family moved from Las Vegas to Carson City, Nevada, and at age 15 he went to work for Nick Mansfield on the 102 Ranch east of Reno, Nevada.

Mansfield won the Western States Trail Ride, commonly known as the Tevis Cup Ride, in 1959 on a Thoroughbred-cross gelding he called Buffalo Bill. Inspired by endurance riding, Mooney completed

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three 100-mile Tevis Cup Rides when he was 15, 16 and 21 years old.

He landed his first cowboying job on the Circle A Ranch wagon near Winnemucca, Nevada, when he was 21 years old. Brian Morris was the cowboss and Waddie Mitchell was on the buckaroo crew. He learned about the job in a passing conversation with a former Circle A cowboy named Claude Dallas, who became a fabled modern-day outlaw convicted for the manslaughter of two game wardens citing him for poaching in the 1980s.

“All I owned was a Tex-Tan saddle with a 2-inch horn, a grazer bit and a cheap pair of spurs,” says Mooney. “I was green. I could ride and rope on the ground, but had never roped and dallied on a horse. The guys were nice to me and helped me out because I wasn’t afraid to admit that I didn’t know and would ask questions. I knew I couldn’t compete with the cowboys there, so I outworked them.”

After a year at the Circle A, Mooney headed to Elko County, where he went to work for legendary cowboss Bill Kane on the Spanish Ranch in the mid-1970s for a couple of years.

“We started the horses, which were known as broncos, when they were 5 or 6 years old, so they were fully developed,” he says. “I’d start four on a Monday and a W E STER N H O R SEM A N

week later have four more because they went into the cavvy for the cowboys.

“Some of the nicest horses I ever rode were Spanish Ranch horses, and some of the funniest horses I rode were from the Spanish Ranch.”

Yet some could be tough. Mooney recalls gathering cattle in steep country on the Spanish Ranch bridle horse Caliente. The horse kicked him in the knee and left him lying injured in the wilderness while he was gathering cattle in a steep, brushy area.

“I don’t remember how, but I did get on him and rode back down to the creek, as I didn’t know where the bull had gone, or the cows either for that matter. I couldn’t get my left foot in the stirrup so I just let that leg hang down. I [decided I] would make a stab at the bull, but if he was not going to go then I would leave him for the ‘white buckaroo’ [snow]. If that didn’t get him, then he could winter with the coyotes for all I cared.”

While on the Spanish Ranch, Mooney met a schoolteacher named Aline, and the couple soon married. Knowing how hard it was to support a family on cowboy wages of $350 a month, Mooney went to work for the Nevada Department of Transportation while Aline got a job teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Jiggs, Nevada.

Mooney day-worked on ranches on his days off, and he set off on horseback J A N UA RY 2 01 8

JENNIFER DENISON

Mooney and California cowboy David Morrison hold a calf still for the ground crew at the C Punch branding last spring.

JENNIFER DENISON

journeys such as riding the Pony Express Trail from Utah to California. The trip involved 428 miles in eight days, averaging 54 miles per day and rotating three horses.

He and Aline also rode along the Forty Mile Desert, a dreaded, waterless, alkali section of the California Emigrant Trail first traveled by wagon trains in 1843.

A SURVIVOR of prostate cancer, Mooney is convinced that life is too short to hang up his rope and spurs before he’s ready. A few years ago, he saddled up again for the spring and fall works on big Nevada ranches such as the C Punch and Gamble with a new generation of cowboys, including cowbosses Scott Van Leuven and Mark Lundy. He also has helped on family ranches such as the Barnes Ranches in Jiggs.

“I’m a big believer in today’s young cowboys,” he says. “They’re making and riding better horses than we had, and they’re swinging big loops and throwing fancy shots.”

Still, Mooney can’t help but notice a few differences in how they get their job done compared to when he cowboyed more than 45 years ago.

• Trailers have replaced trotting out.

“Back in the day we didn’t use horse trailers,” he says. “A pickup might have a horse rack on it for three or four horses, but for the most part we used stock trucks or trotted out. The old-time ways are great, but today, at the end of the day, when I see a horse trailer waiting for me I’m tickled [I don’t have to trot back].”

• Large cavvies of company horses are becoming a thing of the past.

“We rode all company horses, because outside horses weren’t allowed on the ranches,” Mooney says. “Now most of the outfits don’t have their own cavvies of company horses, so the buckaroos need to furnish five or six of their own horses to ride, plus their own shoeing outfits, gear and everything else involved.”

• Cowboys cook for themselves. “All of our meals were cooked for us and served in the cookhouse, but there are fewer cookhouses now and the cowboys are cooking their own meals, except on the wagon,” he says.

J A N UARY 2018

Mooney cowboyed as a young man on ranches in Nevada. For 30 years he worked for the Nevada Department of Transportation to support his family. Now retired, he’s returned for a second round of cowboying during spring and fall works on a few Nevada outfits.

• Day-workers have replaced fulltime cowboys. “As more of the ranches have been taken over by corporations, they want to save money by hiring fewer fulltime cowboys and more dayworkers. That’s also because it’s hard to find guys who want to cowboy fulltime,” he says. “I’ve read that there aren’t any fulltime riding jobs out there anymore. I’ve found that not to be the case. There are jobs out there, but ranches are having a hard time filling them. If a kid is honest, hard-working and will stick around, a cowboss will teach him. The problem is, once some guys try cowboying they figure out it isn’t as easy or as fun as they thought.”

WaTChing Top horsemen and cowboys like Van Leuven and Lundy W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

rope and ride has kept Mooney working to improve his horsemanship and roping abilities. He has attended ranch-roping clinics with Gwynn and Dave Weaver, as well as Van Leuven and Dwight Hill. Van Leuven also has given him advice on taking his horse from the hackamore into the two-rein.

“We are driving out of Limbo camp on the C Punch [in the fall of 2016],” he recalls.

“Scott said, ‘Hey, ol’ timer, you sleeping? No you’re not. How old is [your horse]?’ I told him he was 7 and he said, ‘Well, throw that hackamore away. It’s time you advanced him into the two-rein, and a two-rein with a nice silver spade bit.’ I told him I didn’t have a two-rein or spade bit, and he said, then go buy one. That got the wheels rolling.”

This spring and summer, Mooney rode his horse, Music, in the two-rein, and the

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Get ready for the 2018 Western Horseman/Cowboy Artists of America Youth Art Contest!

Send in your best drawing or painting with Western horses as the subject, and get a chance to win a grand prize trip to the Cowboy Crossings art show and sale this October at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Champions and reserve champions will be selected in three age divisions—8 and under; 9 to 13; and 14 to 18—with an overall Grand Champion selected as the grand prize winner.

Contest entry deadline is Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Original artwork must be unframed and no larger than 16 inches by 20 inches. Find complete contest guidelines, download the official entry form and get additional prize information at westernhorseman.com. Original artwork and completed entry form must be received at the Western Horseman office no later than close of business April 4, 2018.

Kara Kraemer, the 2017 grand champion, stands with her colored pencil drawing, Partner, at the 2017 Cowboy Crossings show and sale.

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Send your entry to: Attn: Tonya Ward Western Horseman Youth Art Contest 2112 Montgomery St. Fort Worth, TX 76107

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

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gelding is making a smooth “I’ll leave one of three transition toward becoming ways: I’ll get into a wreck, a bridle horse. the cowboss won’t call me Realizing he’s not as nimble or anymore to come work, or as fast as he used to be, Mooney I’ll be forced to face the facts gladly accepts any job the that my time is over and cowbosses offer him just as he did check out myself,” he says. when he was starting out. On the “When it’s over, it’s over. I C Punch he still helps rope and won’t cry and whine about it gather part of the day, but he also and wish for more chances. has proven himself reliable at I was never a cowboss or doing jobs the horseback hero, but I rode with some of buckaroos prefer not to do, such the best buckaroos and as loading and hauling cattle in an Moony, (seated at left) returned to the C Punch last spring and worked buckaroo bosses.” with a crew that included David Morrison (seated), and standing from old-style stock truck from the Lundy says he hopes that he left, Toni and Larry Schutte, cowboss Scott Van Leuven, Andrea Zeller, ranch to the feedlot. receives the same treatment Kadie Zeller, TJ Meagher and Chance Gee. Though Mooney takes his fair when he is Mooney’s age. share of ribbing from the young guys, he stories in the evening, and he’s always “I hope one day when I’m an older is respected. upbeat and optimistic. gentleman someone allows me to “I’ve always enjoyed Bill’s stories and “Although Bill isn’t a young man participate in something similar,” he says. insights,” says Lundy, cowboss on the anymore he’s always done more than his Mooney’s stories can be found on his Gamble Ranch. “My father always told me fair share of work. He’s darn sure tougher Facebook page, as well as on the website to take care of the older men; they serve a than one would expect.” cowboyshowcase.com. purpose, mentally, even if they’re not Mooney moves a little slower than he JENNIFER DENISON is senior editor of physically able. I’ve invited Bill out on our used to and knows he can’t keep up with Western Horseman. Send comments on spring wagon because the men enjoy his the young cowboys anymore. this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

Industry Innovators Work in the horse industry isn’t limited to being either a trainer or a veterinarian.

A variety of career paths are open for those with the vision to see them.

By KATE BRADLEY BYARS

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Josh Hilton, Kelsey Temmen and Anna Morrison all have found unconventional jobs in the horse industry.

TE OSI OPP LEY AD BR ATE E: K PAG OX HEC SS : RO AGE SP THI RS; BYA

J A N UA RY 2018

HILE BUSTING BRONCS FOR LOW WAGES used to be the typical way for a cowboy to work with horses, today there are many options for those who want to be involved in the equine industry. Among other choices, professionals now can make a living as an equine educator, a special-interest promoter, or in a variety of positions within a breed association.

For Anna Morrison, PhD, a new world opened up at Colorado State University, especially through one equine science professor’s lecture.

“Dr. [James] Heird gave a speech about finding success in the equine industry,” Morrison says. “One of the things he touched on in that lecture is to first identify if in your career path you needed to handle horses on a daily basis; if yes, then you had one path. Or, if you love horses and the industry but don’t need to be hands-on [in your job], that opens a new path and set of possibilities.

“Really, about 80 percent of the jobs in the equine industry don’t involve handling horses on a daily basis. That was eye-opening for me and a lot of students.”

Armed with that newfound knowledge, Morrison pursued an education that bridged her love of both horses and teaching, which eventually led to her current positions as both chief international officer with the American Quarter Horse Association and chief foundation officer with the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

Morrison is far from the only person who has found a unique role in the equine industry. Kelsey Temmen’s desire to trick ride at a top level led to a full-time career as owner of the Trixie Chicks Trick Riders, and put her in constant contact with her horses.

“If you’d have told me five years ago that I would not use my education for the typical job most people have and instead be able to pursue trick riding, which I love so much, as a full-time career, I would have said you were crazy,” Temmen says.

An ear for music and passion for the rodeo industry led Josh Hilton to a career that resulted in a nomination for 2017 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Music Director of the Year. With a background in radio and firsthand experience with rodeo, Hilton creates the soundtracks that keep rodeo fans rocking across the United States and Canada.

“I’ve always had a passion for music, but little did I know that I could do what I do now for a living,” Hilton says. “People come to a rodeo to be entertained and escape their lives for a little bit. I take it seriously and want to put on a show.”

Following are these three professionals’ stories and their advice for those who wish to follow their hearts to the horse industry.

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“Don’t put off your education, because it will be the fallback plan when you get too old to ride, or get hurt and can’t ride.”

—KELSEY TEMMEN

GOAL-ORIENTED CHICK Growing up in rural Missouri, Kelsey Temmen begged for a horse. Her parents provided riding lessons when she was 7, and when Temmen was 11 they purchased a broodmare and foal for her. Though it wasn’t the ideal situation for a young girl, Temmen tackled riding the mare and then training the foal.

Destiny stepped in the summer after she graduated high school. Temmen, then 17, traveled to BreyerFest—a three-day festival combining live horse demonstrations and events for Breyer model animal enthusiasts—in Lexington, Kentucky. There, she saw trick riding for the first time and wanted to learn more about it. Because of her father’s opposition, though, she put it on the back burner as she started college.

Temmen had planned on becoming a veterinarian, but that soon changed.

“I attended Missouri State in Springfield. One of my scholarships allowed me to bring my horse to college,” she says. “I was on the [Intercollegiate Horse Show Association] team and involved in a lot of activities, like the school’s horsemen’s association.

“The association was going to have trick riders come and do a demonstration, so I called my dad and asked him to come with me to see it. As soon as the demonstration was done, I looked at him and said, ‘Dad, I’m 19 years old, live on my own, and I’m going to do this.’ The rest is history.”

In December of 2012, Temmen joined the Trixie Chicks Trick Riders, based in Westphalia, Missouri. Then-owner Shelby Epperson and the group performed at local events.

“Shelby wasn’t looking for any new riders, but invited me out to a practice,” recalls Temmen. “She let me try a couple of things and it came easy to me. Shelby invited me to be part of the team, and that following spring we drove to Colorado to train with [legendary trick rider] Karen Vold. Trick riding is not something you can really learn on your own.”

Temmen’s star rocketed as she devoted all of her free time to the group. She received instruction from a number of top trick riders across the United States, and focused on improving her own horsemanship.

In December of 2014, Epperson decided that she preferred to ride and not deal with the stressful side of running the business. She handed the reins to Temmen, who became the owner of the Trixie Chicks, with Epperson still involved in the team.

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Temmen graduated from Missouri State University in May of 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in animal science with a minor in equine studies and emphasis in agriculture communications and business.

Though she took a full-time job as a marketing specialist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Temmen poured her time into trick riding by booking and promoting performances, designing costumes and routines, and giving lessons to aspiring riders. All the while, she worked on her master’s degree in education. Any income generated from performances was poured back into paying for truck and trailer maintenance, new costumes, horse care and travel expenses.

It was a second full-time career.

“We never considered it a hobby because we took it so seriously,” says Temmen. “I qualified to compete at the North American Trick Riding Championships in Las Vegas in December of 2016. I wanted to focus on trick riding and had planned to go full time in the spring of 2017, but in October of 2016 I quit my job.”

The decision paid off, with Temmen winning the open women’s title.

Drawing on her marketing experience, Temmen built the Trixie Chicks brand through promotional materials, marketing and media kits, and public J A N UA RY 2 01 8

KATE BRADLEY BYARS

Temmen turned her love of horses and trick riding into a career, and she is now a business owner.

KATE BRADLEY BYARS

personnel permitting process, the Trixie Chicks are now a carded specialty act. When they roll into town to perform in flashy outfits on fast horses, Temmen focuses not only on a good performance but also on audience outreach to grow the business.

“We did over 41 performances [in 2016] on our PRCA permit card. We performed in Missouri, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa and New Mexico, to name some,” she says. “It was our plan to go above and beyond while engaging with the audience. After we finish in the arena and cool out our horses, we go back to sign autographs and take photos. That helps us be role models and it opens doors [with other rodeo committees] while providing good feedback.”

That same philosophy applies when it comes to teaching up-and-coming trick riders: Work hard to go above and beyond. Students learn how to ride safely and how to handle their horses, and are coached in how to be professionals in the industry.

The one thing Temmen does not advocate is putting education on hold to pursue a dream.

“We push all of our students or the people we talk to at rodeos and events to learn a trade or go to college because you will never regret that decision,” she says. “I didn’t start this until I was 19, and now I’m 24. You’re never too old to follow your passion. Don’t put off your education because it will be the fallback plan when you get too old to ride, or get hurt and can’t ride.”

In fact, Temmen is now enrolled in a doctoral program at William Woods University, pursuing a doctorate in educational leadership, and an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction.

“I know I won’t be able to trick ride forever,” she says. “But I get a rush while waiting in the alley on my horse, ready to perform [at a rodeo] for 18,000 people. I get that same feeling watching a little girl I’ve worked with for six months prepare for her first performance. I never thought I could get so much out of helping someone else do the sport I love.”

J A N UARY 2018

ROCKIN’ RODEO PRODUCER It is 20 minutes before the nightly rodeo performance at the Fort Bend County Fair & Rodeo in Rosenberg, Texas, and the announcer’s stand and arena are buzzing. Handling last-minute details takes all of sound producer Josh Hilton’s attention.

“This mike is on. All she has to do is step out on the dirt,” Hilton says. “I’ll unmute it and she can sing, then I’ll mute it right after she is done.”

As a rodeo committee member hustles away to deliver the cordless microphone to the singer who will perform the national anthem, Hilton turns to answer his cell phone.

Announcer Boyd Polhamus’ microphone isn’t responding, so Hilton flips a switch on his mixer and fixes it in an instant. Over a Luke Combs song blasting out of the speakers, the rodeo committee secretary checks the timer buzzer—for the fourth time.

It is always something in the sound booth at a rodeo, and this is Hilton’s world.

“Man, I love it. I’m from a small town—Sidney, Iowa—where the [rodeo] arena seats 8,000 and there are only about 1,000 people in the community,” Hilton says. “Our outdoor rodeo committee is in the PRCA ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

“My dad rode bulls, and that is how my family got into rodeo. I love to rope on a for-fun basis.”

Rodeo-savvy and technologically adept, Hilton stumbled upon his dream job nearly a decade ago. He was two years out of a radio program at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. There, he learned to edit music and use radio programs. But after graduation, Hilton found himself working on his brother-in-law’s feedlot, looking for a way to work in music.

“The music keeps things flowing and keeps it entertaining. It creates mood.”

—JOSH HILTON

Hilton handles the sound and music at more than 180 professional rodeos each year.

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“In order to be good at what Josh does, you have to be tuned in to the rodeo—to the announcer, the clown, what is happening with the stock and how the cowboy made the ride,” Polhamus explains. “He has to be glued to it like a football coach to a football team. You have to be dialed in, and if you’re not, the sound effects and music that a guy like Josh employs, it never gets played.”

Whether playing to a crowd that knows the ins and outs of rodeo, or an urbanbased audience, Hilton can match the demographic, Polhamus says. He adds that Hilton stays current on music, and mixes contemporary hits with classic songs.

“Throughout the course of a two-hour performance, Josh will play all genres to make sure that everybody gets fed a little bit of what they want to hear,” he says.

When a bronc is fighting in the chute and delaying the rodeo, Hilton will play dramatic music. If a roper misses a loop, the effect the crowd hears is akin to a “whoopsie.” He’s watching and working every run and every step of the rodeo to ensure the crowd is entertained. To do it all, Hilton falls back on the skills he learned at community college.

“It goes back to a love of music. I love soundtracks to movies and how they can make you feel—scared, excited or pumped up,” he says. “The music keeps things flowing and keeps it entertaining. It creates mood. You can have a bad rodeo, but with a good announcer and sound and barrelman, it can cover up a lot. You have to provide the ticket buyer with entertainment value.”

INTERNATIONAL ADVOCATE Since stepping into the role of AQHA’s chief international officer in January of 2017, Anna Morrison has earned 93,379 frequent flier miles, traveling throughout the

“Horse people are horse people, no matter where you are.”

—ANNA MORRISON Morrison travels the world to handle international relations for the American Quarter Horse Association.

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Hilton pitched in at Nebraska, Iowa and Colorado rodeos, helping Colorado stock contractors Mike, Binion and Chase Cervi produce events. Mike, who used to run Cervi Championship Rodeo before handing it over to his sons, Binion and Chase, gave Hilton a call before their summer rodeo season kicked off.

“Mike asked me if I would run the sound at some of their small rodeos. I jumped at the chance, but didn’t have any equipment or money to buy it,” he recalls. “Mike got me what I needed.

That is how I got my start.”

Hilton had a working knowledge of rodeo, and knew how the announcer interacted with the crowds and how the rodeo cowboy’s ride could be affected by the crowd reaction. He took that knowledge, paired it with his ability to mix sound to create soundtracks, and styled his sound after that of Benje Bendele, a wellknown sound and effects producer in rodeo.

“They had music at rodeos, from bands to record players to CDs, but it boils down to one guy—Benje Bendele,” says Hilton. “He created what I do with sound effects and putting music on a computer, cutting it into song clips and playing effects like we do. I remember hearing him for the first time at Fort Madison, Iowa, and it was like, ‘Holy cow!’ He would play an effect and the crowd’s reaction was so cool.”

From small rodeos to working the Denver National Western Stock Show and teaming up with Bendele at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Hilton works all sizes of rodeos during the approximately 185 performances he does a year. Rodeo committees or stock contractors hire Hilton to bring in equipment and facilitate the music. He brings banks of speakers, microphones, a mixing board, amplifiers and more.

Hilton essentially creates a soundtrack for each rodeo, and that inspires him. Polhamus recognizes Hilton’s unique ability to tailor a soundtrack to the crowd. The three-time PRCA announcer of the year works with Hilton at many rodeos.

United States and across the globe to locations such as Brazil, Germany, Ireland, Japan and Mongolia. It is all part of her job to promote the association through its 36 international affiliates. Morrison’s education and early career path set her up to pursue her dual passions: horses and education.

Morrison caught the horse bug at an early age while growing up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. In spite of not having a horse at hand, the tenacious young girl worked out a way to make her dream a reality.

“When I was 10 years old, a boarding facility opened up about two miles from my house, and my mom showed me the newspaper article about it,” she recalls. “The next day, while my mom was at work, I talked my babysitter into biking over with me. I wrote the owners a letter about how it was my dream to be around horses and offered to work for them for free just to learn. That is what began my horse adventure. I worked for them until I went off to college.”

Morrison planned to pursue medicine or law as a career, but those paths ultimately didn’t excite her. An Internet search brought Morrison to Colorado State University’s equine sciences program, where she was struck with the realization she could do something with horses other than being a trainer.

“I thought I would pursue veterinary medicine as a career path at CSU,” Morrison says. “While I had the aptitude for the sciences, I found that I wasn’t passionate about veterinary medicine, and that is certainly something you need to be dedicated to when pursuing veterinary school and the veterinary medical career path!”

Instead, Morrison pursued bachelor’s degrees in equine science and agriculture business, and eventually received a master of agriculture in extension education. She later received a doctorate degree in higher education administration from Texas A&M University with focus areas in non-profit management, philanthropy and equine science.

During her school years, she gained exposure to AQHA’s international arm through Dave Denniston, PhD, an instructor who coordinated an international equine education trip. She was one of four students who accompanied Denniston abroad.

“The gamut of possibilities in the equine industry opened up to me at Colorado State,” Morrison says. “What excited me about the equine industry was the challenge of educating people.”

As an undergraduate, she was the first AQHA international intern appointed to lead summer horsemanship camps throughout Europe.

Later, in her positions at both CSU and Texas A&M, she helped coordinate groups of faculty and industry professionals to teach seminars—predominantly in South America—partially funded through the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

An integral part of the equine program at CSU, Morrison was an undergraduate advisor, and then from 2007 to 2009 was the equine sciences coordinator, advising students, facilitating donations to the program, planning and executing events like the Legends of Ranching Performance Horse Sale, and coordinating AQHA-funded international education trips.

As part of the Texas A&M Equine Initiative at Texas A&M University in College Station from 2009 to 2016, Morrison coordinated the AQHA-facilitated William R. Verdugo International Seminars in Argentina, Columbia, Costa Rica, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay. She also developed curriculum that spoke to the growing need for diverse education to match the areas of need in the industry. Classes like sales management and equine career development allowed students to explore numerous possibilities.

However, it was the common language spoken by horse people around the globe that ignited a passion in Morrison.

“I developed a real heart for our international membership. I realized that it didn’t matter what language was spoken or what country you were in, when you get horse people together they all speak that common language,” she says.

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“Horse people are horse people, no matter where you are.”

While serving as an assistant professor and the assistant coordinator at the Texas A&M Equine Initiative, a role she once saw as her long-term career path, Morrison felt compelled to pursue the chief international officer position at AQHA. Since launching her career in a new direction, Morrison has worked to make a difference for the association’s international membership.

While she occasionally rides her horse, a 2012 AQHA mare named Rockin Paddy, Morrison spends most of her time in boots working to better international member relations at events, such as sales and shows.

The challenges she sees international associations facing are similar to those in the United States, where the general public is less rural-based and more urbanized, with fewer opportunities to interact with horses.

“More and more people are disconnected from agriculture, all around the world,” she says. “We have to create more opportunities for people to engage with horses. We have to understand how people want to use the American Quarter Horse and make it available.”

As breed associations tackle the challenge of growing membership and attracting an urban population, more opportunities arise for marketing the horse in a fresh manner. For Morrison, the opportunities available to promote the equine industry are endless.

“I believe in doing good work. I believe in giving back to a horse that gives his all to us,” Morrison says.

“Horses are incredible partners to us. If I can walk in a building, step on a plane or attend an event that makes this industry stronger, make more people excited about the horse, then that is how I give back to the horse that I love.”

KATE BRADLEY BYARS is a freelance writer based on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Send comments on this article to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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SPECIAL PROMOTION EDUCATION

LEARNING FOR LIFE

If you’re looking to pursue a career in the horse industry, possessing both education and experience can be helpful in achieving your goals. The programs curated in this section are all designed to provide important information and valuable experience to help you progress on your journey to a career with horses and agriculture.

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA WESTERN

CANYONVIEW EQUESTRIAN COLLEGE

FEATHER RIVER COLLEGE EQUINE STUDIES

GRAHAM SCHOOL FOR LIVESTOCK MEN AND WOMEN

UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA WESTERN Located in picturesque Dillon, Montana, the University of Montana Western implements an innovative experiential approach to working with horses. Montana Western offers the nation's only four-year bachelor’s degree program in natural horseman-

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ship. Degrees include a bachelor of science in Natural Horsemanship and an associate of applied science in Natural Horsemanship, with option areas including management, psychology, science, instruction, and other degree options focused on business administration, equine studies and equine management. umwestern.edu WESTER N H O R SEM A N

CANYONVIEW EQUESTRIAN COLLEGE Located in Silverton, Oregon, Canyonview Equestrian College is a non-profit Christian horsemanship college founded in 1994. This licensed trade school consists of a two-year resident work-study program combining Bible courses J A N UA RY 2 01 8

SPECIAL PROMOTION

with in-depth equine studies and hands-on equine courses. Graduates will be equipped to successfully manage, train and teach in a variety of equestrian settings. Participants in the program ride in hunt seat, dressage and Western disciplines that include reining and cutting.

Horses are provided, or students can bring their own. canyonviewequestrian.org

FEATHER RIVER COLLEGE EQUINE STUDIES Nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Quincy, California, Feather River College offers an intensive, hands-on approach for students preparing for a career in the horse industry, or even transferring to another university.

Areas of focus for bachelor’s and associate’s degrees include horse

There’s a SCHOLARSHIP

Feather Feather River River College College Agriculture, Agriculture,

Agriculture, Equine Studies Studies Equine Equine Studies & Rodeo Programs Programs & & Rodeo Rodeo Programs Bachelor of Science in Equine Associate of Science

Associate of Science in: and Ranch Management Degree or Certification Certification Associate of Science in: Degree or Associate of Science Degree or Certification in: ~ Agriculture • Horse Training Agriculture • Horse Degree or Certification in: ••~ Ranch •• Rodeo Rodeo •• Pack PackTraining Skills~ ~Ranch Agriculture • Horse Training Skills~ ~ Agriculture • Horse Training • Ranch • Rodeo • Pack Skills~ •Ranch • Rodeo •For PackFall Skills2011 ~ Now Enrolling Now Enrolling For inFall 2011Sierras Discover a unique horse experience the High Now Enrolling For Fall 2011 www.frc.edu/equinestudies

for this!

J A N UARY 2018

Introducing

our new

NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP instruction option

We offer the nation’s only four year natural horsemanship degree.

EARN A SCHOLARSHIP JUST FOR BEING YOU! Be more competitive, get your degree in EQUINE STUDIES

Now you have a choice of four exciting career options: management, psychology, science, and our latest, instruction.

Earn a two or four year degree at our state of the art facility.

Call 877-683-7331 for more information today.

www.frc.edu/equinestudies www.frc.edu/equinestudies 1-800-442-9799 ext ext 272 272 1-800-442-9799 1-800-442-9799 ext Ave 272 570 Golden Golden Eagle Eagle Ave 570 570Quincy, GoldenCa Eagle Ave Quincy, Ca 95971 95971 Quincy, Ca 95971

training, ranch and equine management, rodeo, packing, stable management and agriculture. Students in the sale program experience everything from working with foals to producing a sale. Feather River College hosts clinics with notable clinicians, and its rodeo team is nationally ranked. frc.edu/equinestudies

www.cwc.edu/equine 800-GO-TO-CWC

2660 Peck Avenue • Riverton, WY

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

Don’t miss our Montana Western Colt Challenge & Sale, April 6-7, 2018 in Dillon, Montana.

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Lamar Community College Lamar Community College Lamar Community College Lamar Community College Lamar Community College

SPECIAL PROMOTION

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www.lamarcc.edu www.lamarcc.edu 2401 S. Main www.lamarcc.edu 2401 S. Main Lamar, Colorado www.lamarcc.edu 2401 S. Main81052 Lamar, Colorado 81052 www.lamarcc.edu 800.968.6920 2401 S. Main Lamar, Colorado 81052 800.968.6920 2401 S. Main81052 Lamar, Colorado 800.968.6920 Lamar, Colorado 81052 800.968.6920 800.968.6920 72

CENTRAL WYOMING COLLEGE

LAMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

GRAHAM SCHOOL FOR LIVESTOCK MEN AND WOMEN Since 1909, Graham School for Livestock Men and Women in Garnett, Kansas, has offered hands-on experience and education in managing cattle to ranchers, future ranchers, dairymen and veterinary students. The five-day program runs once a month year-round.

Students learn in the classroom and on the ranch working with animals. Topics covered include pregnancy testing, artificial insemination, calf delivery, vaccinating procedures and more. Graduates receive a certificate of attendance, and valuable knowledge and experience gleaned from instructors with a lifetime of ranching experience and education. grahamschoolforcattlemen.com CENTRAL WYOMING COLLEGE Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming, provides equine studies programs to students, while allowing them to use their own horse in training classes. Degrees include an associate of science in Equine Science to prepare students for a transfer to a four-year WESTER N H O R SEM A N

university. The associate of applied science in Equine Management provides students with equine facility management skills they can integrate into day-to-day equine production, health, boarding and training practices.

Certificates include Equine Management, Certified Horsemanship Association Teaching Riding, Equine Training and Farrier Science. cwc.edu/equine LAMAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE Offering a riding-intensive experience, with lots of hours in the arena, Lamar Community College gives students the chance to gain a wealth of knowledge from three associate’s degree programs taught by respected trainers and equine experts at the campus in Lamar, Colorado. Thanks to education tracks for aspiring trainers in barrel racing, cutting, reining, working cow horse or roping, in addition to studies for future equine business managers, many of Lamar’s graduates have become successful professional trainers and also have pursued other occupations in the equine industry. lamarcc.edu ■ J A N UA RY 2 01 8

Shopper’s Corral

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We combined 6mm insulated liners with stirrup friendly outsoles, a solid spur shelf, and built them to fend off the coldest, wettest Montana weather. Cowboys and Cowgirls stay warm all day in the saddle, and they also love the slip on convenience of our new Bobcat Zip for chores.

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From Rider to Horseman Expert Tips for a Lifetime Journey

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Real Estate 65 Acre Horse Facility 65 65 Acre Acre Horse Horse Facility Facility

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EXCELLENCE IN FARRIER EDUCATION Minnesota School of Horseshoeing; Comprehensive program covering balance, conformation, anatomy, lameness, diseases, and forge work www.mnschoolofhorseshoeing.net; 1-800-257-5850.

MIDWEST EQUINE DENTAL ACADEMY Four week instruction periods. www.Midwest EquineDental.net, 989-772-2999.

SADDLE SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR RETIRED TEACHER/ADMINISTRATOR. Montana Department of Labor and Industry approved. Approved for Veterans training, Class 1 and Advanced Class 11.

5 weeks. Private rooms. www.montana horseman.com,montanasaddleschool@ yahoo.com, 406-388-1387. Montana Horseman Saddle Building School, Belgrade, Montana.

MNHOR SETRAININGAC ADE MY.COM Best program in the industry, guaranteed!

320-272-4199.

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY FARRIER SCHOOL - Don’t settle for a shorter course, get the foundation you need to succeed! MSU Farrier School is a 16 week program. Limited class size of 12 students. VA approved.

For more information go to http://animalrange.montana.edu/horseshoe.html or call 406-994-3722.

PROFESSIONAL PACKING SCHOOLS www.rockcreekpackstation.com, Craig London,

jennifer.sanders@westernhorseman.com

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EQUINE GNATHOLOGICAL TRAINING INSTITUTE: 38 years experience. Practioners in 60 countries. 208-869-1002; dalejeffrey@ equinedentistry.com, www.horsedentistry.info

FARRIERSCHOOL.NET - Weekend shoeing classes, new online trimming course, Dennis Cappel owner/instructor 314-486-4065.

Call Mac A. Coalson, Sr. Broker Call A. Broker Call Mac Mac A. Coalson, Coalson, Sr. Sr. Broker @ 817.925.3333 or @ 817.925.3333 or @ 817.925.3333 or @ McAllen Coalson, Broker McAllen Coalson, Broker @ McAllen Coalson, Broker @ 817.991.8300.

817.991.8300.

817.991.8300.

FOR SALE

AWESOME NEW BOOK! FIRST STEPS Building your foals foundation. Beautifully written with lots of photos. $19.99 includes shipping. Order at www.foalsfirststeps.com

Education / Schools B a c k c o u n t r y tr a i l r i d i n g c a m p i n g o r i n n l o d g i n g S i n c e 19 75

w w w. hon d o o.c om

Selling Property?

Books / Magazines / Videos

WESTER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN School of Horseshoeing. 2-week course for shoeing your own horse. 8-week course for shoeing professionally. Licensed by the state. VA and DAV approved. We teach hot, cold, corrective shoeing; forging; lectures; and study of anatomy.

For more information and brochure, call: 256546-2036 or write: 400 Lewis Rd, Gadsen, AL 35904. Lodging provided at no charge. www. horseshoeingschool.net.

SADDLEMAKING SCHOOL/ TWO WEEK COURSE - $3,950. Dan Hubbard instructor.

See us at Facebook.com/Diamond D Ranch and Saddlery. 816-616-4154.

OKLAHOMA STATE HORSESHOEING SCHOOL - ALL instructors AFA Certified Journeyman Farriers, 22 students per class, 6 week Fundamental Farrier Course, Training on live feet only. Approved for VA, Post 9/11, BIA, WIA, WIA 167, and Vocational Rehabilitation. Student loans available with approved credit. Licensed by OBPVS. Accredited by ACCET. www.oklahomastatehorseshoeingschool. com Contact us at 1-800-634-2811 or email at oshs@cableone.net, 4802 Dogwood Rd, Ardmore OK 73401.

OKLAHOMA HORSESHOEING SCHOOL: Licensed by OBPVS. Call 405-288-6085 or 800-538-1383. Write: Oklahoma Horseshoeing School, 16446 Horseshoe Circle, Purcell, OK 73080. Website: www.horseshoes.net; “Like” us on Facebook.

Employment $500 WEEKLY ASSEMBLING PRODUCTS from home. Free information available. Call 860-357-1599.

Livestock MAMMOTH JACKS for sale. Dean Wingfield, Vernon, CO 80755, 970-332-5471.

Real Estate LOOKING FOR DALLAS-FORT WORTH METROPLEX PROPERTIES for sale that are set up or suitable for horses? Call 940365-4687 or visit www.texasliving.com, Dutch & Cheryl, Keller Williams Realty, Aubrey TX.

136245*XX*50 GIBBS MANUFACTURING 2.5” WH_DC B L A C K 0.083 15

TEXAS RANCHES For Sale - C21Homeand Ranch.com, 1-866-88RANCH.

Tack / Equipment EQUINE DENTAL INSTRUMENTS: World Wide Equine, www.horsedentistry.com, www.equinedentistry.com, 208-366-2550, wwequine@horsedentistry.com

136907*XX*16 CRAFTERS AND JOURNAL 2” CMYK 0.067

L E AT H E R SADDLERS WH_DC 26

SUPREME HORSE WALKER - Affordably priced! Lead and Freeflow exercisers. 256412-5782; www.SupremeWalker.com NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP EQUIPMENT: Marine rope halters, leads, reins.

Order at www.horsefriendly.com; call 1-855467-7337 toll free.

DWDIXONSADDLES.COM - Ranch saddles that fit; Free swinging stirrups. David 573754-2453.

NILEVALLEYSADDLERY.COM - Makers of the Ranch Hand. Dan Flower 308-765-1020.

136349*XX*53 HORSEMENS UNITED ASSOCIATION 2” WH_DC CMYK 0.067 33

2018 Membership Membership Includes Includes 2017

Trailers Gifts DURR KNIVES - Since 1983. Farriers Rasp Bowie inquiries welcome. www.durrknives. com; text 417-251-7333.

Insurance WWW.AL L AME RIC ANHO R SE IN SUR ANCE.COM Carriage - Pony - Trail Rides - Guided Outifitters, Farm, Nationwide.

435-896-4593.

Leathercraft TANDY LEATHER’S 220 page Buyers’ Guide of leather, saddle and tack hardware, tools and more is FREE. It’s filled with everything for the leather craftsman and useful supplies for the ranch. Tandy Leather, Dept. 18WH, 1900 SE Loop 820, Fort Worth, TX 76140. www.tandyleather.com GET THE WORLD’S PREMIER LEATHERWORKING How-To Publication. www.leather craftersjournal.com, 1-715-362-5393.

J A N UARY 2018

2000 4-STAR LIVING QUARTERS TRAILER. Excellent condition. 3/H/S with built in mangers, 10’ short wall, Outlaw Conversion living quarters package. 2 large propane bottles, Air-ride suspension, 19” wheels with new tires. electric jack, camera in horse compartment, large ramp. Large hay/cargo bo on top. $45,000. 817-233-4007.

136264*XX*43 B U D ’ S HORSESHOEING EQUIPMENT 2” WH_DC BLACK 0.067 35

Vacations / Trail Rides WINTER IN ARIZONA! Stalls, RV hookups, trails to ride, cattle, arena. Right in the heart of Cave Creek, AZ. Daily, Monthly, Seasonal Rates. Reserve Now 719-651-3394; www. dynamitearena.com WINTER IN ARIZONA: Full RV hookup and stalls. 520-868-2351 or gotno@cgmail box.com COMPARED TO US “City Slickers” is a pony ride. 120 year old working Wyoming ranch. Check out our new venture “COWBOY CAMP”. Double Rafter Cattle Drives 1-800704-9268. We dare you to compare: www. doublerafter.com W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

WE ARE THE REAL DEAL: Experience the cowboy life on our working cattle ranch in Wyoming! 307-467-5663, www.thenewhavenranch.com ROCKCREEKPACKSTATION.COM Yosemite and California Sierra. Observe wild mustang. Traveling Pack Trips, Trail Rides, Hiking with Pack Stock and Horse Drives. 760872-8331.

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BACKWARD GLANCE

CALIFORNIA RANCHERS Paul and Worth Albert were scratching out a living on their Tarantula Ranch near Lafayette, California, east of San Francisco. It was 1935, and the Great Depression still gripped the country. To make ends meet, Paul worked as a traveling salesman for heavy equipment, and they opened the ranch to “dudes” on weekends for day rides and a supper of beans, meatloaf, hot coffee and stories.

Paul had a crazy idea—to start a horse magazine.

Never mind that automobiles and tractors were replacing horses and people had no money or inclination to keep horses for pleasure. As a horseman and cattleman, he just couldn’t imagine horses losing their place in the American West.

In his first editorial, Paul wrote, “We may fly, or sail, or glide over the roads on pneumatic tires with more

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comfort, but the love for good horseflesh will never be stamped out of humans while they still have red blood in their veins… .”

He was right. Paul and Worth hired a friend to help type, and Volume 1, No. 1 of Western Horseman appeared in January of 1936. They printed 1,500 copies that sold for 30 cents each; $1 bought a one-year subscription. The magazine is now in its 83rd year.

That same ingenuity hasn’t left the Western horse industry. In “Young Innovators,” on page 64, meet three professionals who’ve carved unique careers out of the Western horse world. They line up pretty well with Paul, pictured here on the left with a cowboy named Charlie. Paul is referred to on the back of the photo as “chief bull slinger,” a rancherturned-magazine editor.

W E STER N H O R SEM A N

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

WESTERN HORSEMAN ARCHIVES

Multi-Taskers

Advertiser Index 6666 Ranch A Legacy of Legends

32 9 27

Kenetrek Boots

73

Lamar Community College

72

Leather Crafters And Saddlers Journal

77

Linear Rubber Products

23

Back On Track

2

Bag Man, LLC

74

Morgan, David

73

Bear, Allie Tipton

74

Mustang Heritage Foundation

17

Booma Rein

15

Pacific Health Collaborative

63

Buck Brannanam Clinic Schedule

35

Pine Ridge Knife Company

73

Buckaroo Businesses

74

Platte Valley Saddle Shop

74

Bud’s Horseshoeing Equipment

77

Red Bluff Bull Sale

26

Canyonview Equestrian College

71

Resistol

Catalena Hatters

32

Road To The Horse

57

Central Wyoming College

71

Roto Harrow

77

Charlie’s Cowdogs

75

Segraves & Associates

31

Slow Bale Buddy

76

Cinch Coalson Real Estate Davis Ranch

6 76 74, 75

Back Cover

Stetson

Inside Front Cover

Steve Guitron Custom Rawhide

74

Double H Ranch Saddle Shop

74

Tammy’s Cowdogs

74

Feather River College

71

Techsew

73

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

39

The American

33

Foxden - Tract Gard

73

Tim Cox Fine Art

21

Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch

31

Tippmann Industrial

48

Gist Silversmiths

29

Tip’s Western & Custom Saddles

73

Graham School, Inc.

71

Trail Ride Magazine

16

Henderson Cattle Company

74

Triangle Sales

29

Hondoo Rivers & Trails

76

U-Braid-It Braiding Supply

73

Horsemen’s United Association

77

University of Montana Western

71

Horseshoer’s Secret - Farnam

5

Weaver Leather

73

Wedge-Loc

76

J.M. Capriola Co.

73

Western Folklife Center

35

Jama Old West Boots

25

Western Horseman

J A N UA RY 2018

1

Wrangler

Best of the West

Check out Western Horseman’s top 50 picks of what to see, hear, do and eat to experience the authentic cowboy West.

Plus:

• Roping champ Tyler Magnus

shows how three common horse problems start with the rider.

• Top horsemen across the

Western performance disciplines are sharing skills in a growing cross-training trend.

7

Horseshoer’s Supplies, Inc.

JT International Dist. - Tough 1

Coming Up

ROSS HECOX

5 Star Equine

23, 32, 37, 41, 48, 62, 75, 76

Look for our February issue on newsstands January 15.

Inside Back Cover W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

79

ON THE EDGE OF COMMON SENSE

by Baxter Black, DVM

The Weather

T

HERE IS AT LEAST ONE THING that separates agricultural people from their office-working brothers: the weather.

How often have you seen the local anchorman turn to the local weather girl and say, “Gosh, Marsha, that’s really good news! I’m sure getting tired of this rain!”

What’s he getting tired of ? Having a soggy newspaper on the porch? Having to wear his galoshes from the office to the health club? Postponing the wearing of his new all-season Nikes?

He’s probably not getting any more tired of it than the feedlot cowboy sloggin’ through the pens in hock-deep mud. Or the Iowa range hog man slidin’ his feed wagon along the bank of the north pasture.

But somewhere, out beyond the cattle guard, a farmer’s standing at the edge of a quarter section of winter wheat, watching it rain and smiling.

A skiff of snow, a 2-inch rain, five days of hot and dry, a 4-foot drift and minus-25-degree wind-chill factor are like person-to-person calls to someone whose livin’ depends on the weather.

When the big city weatherman’s map has a yellow sun with a smiley face that covers the Louisiana Purchase, you realize how far from nature some parts of our civilization have been removed!

Great skiing weather can often be translated to baby calves on the kitchen floor, frozen waterlines and chopping ice. Gentle April showers can keep tractors out of the field, chronics in the sick pen, and bankers in a frenzy!

Farmers and ranchers are students of the sky. They spend a lifetime lookin’ for a blue horizon or black clouds. It’s bringing ’em luck; sometimes good, sometimes bad.

They watch the local weather like brokers watch the ticker tape. They

80

meet at the town cafe with neighbors to see who caught a little of the squall that blew through. They watch pasture and planted fields wash away or shrivel and die. They see fertilized, prepared soil crack and blow away or turn to gumbo. All the time watchin’ the sky.

But, sometimes they win. The snow melts off, the fields turn green, the afternoon storms soak the ground, and the sun breaks through. They W E STER N H O R SEM A N

watch it come. They smell the weather changin’. They aren’t looking at it through a window. They are truly a part of their environment. Maybe that’s why they don’t take it for granted.

Cowboy humorist BAXTER BLACK, DVM, is based in Benson, Arizona.

J A N UA RY 2 01 8

WORLD CHAMPION BULL RIDER

SAGE KIMZEY