Back from the Ranch

I've been that way, back, for quite a while.  And it's been a whirl of often agitated activity: leaping aboard E Z Dollar with delight, saying hello to my parents too, moving into a new apartment, dreading classes, starting classes, planning classes, failing to grade classes' work, trying to socialize, losing my cat, fighting for hot water in my new apartment, you know, just the usual.  While doing all of that I was pretty consistently doing my best not to miss Bitterroot Ranch.

"So what.....Are you going to go to Wyoming forever?"

"Yeah."

This is a conversation my mother and I had over email a few days ago, after I sent her a link to an adoptable dog I wanted to get since my cat is missing and I apparently need a housepet to feel complete, but know that I can't actually get because I am too busy, and what would I do with him in the summer when I go to the ranch?

I can't guarantee that I will go to Wyoming forever, and there are certain elements that make continuing to go somewhat irrational (that I miss out on E Z Showing and Riding Time high among them), but...it gets in your blood.

Photo by Tre Cassetta

There is no doubt that I missed the Dollar.  But there are SO MANY horses out there.  Everywhere you look, horses.  Horses running by you, horses coming to sniff you, horses beside you and underneath you.  So, I was comforted from not having my very own racehorse.  Instead, I had my ranch horses--those wrangler horses you work with, coax past insecurities and are impressed by when they are bolder than you give them credit for.  Due to the kind care of Hadley, the Super Wrangler, my mounts are very rarely the babiest of the learners, or the squirrelliest of the unreliable.  I would never claim to be a trainer, and nor would I claim to be a particularly brave rider, so my favorites are those who have had a few years under saddle and have been already pretty well figured out by the Super Rider herself.
Like Wajir.

Wajie has had more than a few years under saddle, but some squirrellyness still remains.  She is super round, I always crack some joke about her skinny jeans not fitting after her pregnancies, and also still a bit jumptastic.  Like spooking hugely and surprisingly at a thistle.  It's charming.  But she also has the smoothest gaits, the most speedy but ratable canter, and knows her job.  She has a hard little eye, and threatens to pull back every time you tack, making it very clear that she never, ever, wants a lunch pack put on her back, but I would ride her every day out there if I could.  One day moving cows I dismounted to chase them out of a highly wooded and steep ravine, and rather than pull her along as I tried to chase them out I put the reins over the horn and let her follow me.  As we squeezed our way under brush and back out into the open I looked behind me to see her cute little badger face following along obediently, head down to duck the branches, to halt when I stopped and wait to let me remount.


Then there's Kitui.  A younger lil dude who is unpredictable in line, but also knows his job in the front.  Nervous and often startling in the woods, he would nevertheless go anywhere after cows.  A favorite moment of mine was an epic transfer of 16 cows from the bottom of one pasture to another, an occurrence we weren't expecting, so had neither the best cow horses or the most avid riders, and took a full three and a half hour with what felt like Kitui doing all the work, but a beautiful, willing, independent, and totally fun, long canter at the end to reach and open the gate.  Every time a guest offered to take a picture of me on a ride, and I wasn't too embarrassed to say yes, I was riding Kitui, so somewhere out there guests have majestic photos of us on mountaintops and at Butch Cassidy's hideout, but they aren't sharing.  So you'll have to trust me when I say he is the cutest.  Dapple gray with black mane and tail and and black tipped ears, guests would never fail to comment on his good looks (which is maybe why they're holding on the all the photos?).

Update: Here's Kitui! (Thanks Danielle!)

Alicante is a favorite of many.

Can you tell we had a photo-shoot on the bench?

One of what we call the Trios, he is the product of a Thoroughbred-Andalusian sire and an Arabian dam.  As well as being handsome, he is a charmer.  He is probably the most talkative of the herd, nickering constantly if you pass him in the corral and pretty much the whole time he is tied and being tacked.  Not immune to the occasional tantrum, he is still learning, but rarely nasty.  I was glad to have him the day I was riding with a woman and her three young children, and the mother lost conciousness and suffered a seizure while riding.
While trying to keep her stable, her children calm and the horses cooperative, Alicante was the least of my worries, and he willingly left the group to get some help as quickly as we could.  He and some of his half-siblings form a giant, curious gang in the corral, curious and always searching for attention, and probably more so, oaties.


These trusty steeds and many more were my partners for two rides a day, taking guests of varying levels of skill through a variety of trails.  To be aware of them, the guests, the guest-horses, the trail, the cows, be charming to make sure everyone's having a good time and also behaving themselves--it's not always an easy job.  Sometimes it is, and sometimes it is pure pleasure, and you can appreciate how lucky you are to be doing exactly what you are doing.

Because as well as the horses themselves, there's the place that we live in.  And you know you've got it good...

When this the view you outside your cabin...

Photo by Katie Cassetta

and this is your weekend swimming hole...

Photo by Tre 

and this is the first thing you do when you wake up.

There's no doubt that it's a unique and inspiring place.  The minute I get there and am surrounded by the open land, the dry sage and the red mountains, I just feel my heart expanding.  That's not a scientific definition, because that might be worrying, but it's a sense of awe and possibility.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there are the people.

Photo by Katie

The job would be unimaginabley difficult, and way less fun, without the wranglers I work with.  As long as they continue to return, I will find it hard to not do so with them.  I have an affinity with them born of our shared love of the place and the work that we do there that I am lucky to have.

Photo by Tre

The few months I am able to spend on the ranch are often grueling, uncomfortable and difficult.  But out of those experiences there is also a sense of accomplishment, of recognizing your capabilities and seeing the results of your work.  And in addition to those moments there are others of unfettered freedom, adventure, beauty, and possibility.