Cattle Drive
Jackson Hole was orginally a cattle town. In the past twenty years most of the cattle ranches have been sold off, sub-divided, and turned into gated communities. Tourism is now the biggest industry in Jackson Hole. Cattle ranches do still exist in Wyoming, but not in Jackson. Property taxes have become so high that most of the cattle ranchers have been driven south to more remote places in Wyoming. Last weekend, I was invited to join Crystal Wright’s family in Boulder, Wyoming to help move the last of the cattle and shut down the ranch for the summer.
On Saturday morning, sounds of cows rustled me out of my deep sleep. The truck arrived early in the morning to take the first batch of cattle to their winter grounds. I was really excited about the day and jumped out of bed to see what was happening.
Don Wright and the rest of his crew had been up before the sun and were separating the cows before loading them into the truck.
The Malboro Man Lives!
As I watched, Crystal filled me in a the day’s mission.
All of the cattle, once separated, were loaded into the truck.
After the first round of cattle were loaded and on their way out, we headed out to gather up the horses.
We were given a halter and some horse treats and headed out to the field to try to catch the horses. As we walked out to the field, the horses came running to the fence. They were like golden retrievers ready to play. We each caught our designated horses and walked them back to the stables to saddle up.
It is very important to brush your horse before you saddle it.
Once the horses were saddled and the crew was mounted, we were given our mission. The mission was to round up 200 cattle and bring them back to the ranch. And yes it was important to count them and bring back all 200.
And so we were off to find the cattle. Did I mention that none of had a clue what we were doing.
We found the cattle and were told to ease in slowly so they wouldn’t scatter. Most of the cows stayed together and started moving as a unit towards the ranch. There were a couple that strayed from the group and into the bushes. Ron told us to hussle around to the other side of the bushes and flush them out. I took off, my horse at a full run, and really felt like I was on cattle drive.
We flushed the three cows out of the bushes and ushered them back to the others. This was the most exciting part of the cattle drive for me.
Luckily, the horses knew a lot more about herding cattle than we did. I’d like to think I was driving the horse and really helping with the drive, but
I think my horse was the one in charge.
A HUGE thanks to Crystal Wright and her family. I had a blast on the ranch!
