Alejandro’s horse in the Badwater Pasture

I always tell people “We’re a horseback outfit.” We do have a whole cavvy of pickups, four-wheelers, and even motorbikes. Still, we raise cattle and sheep in the mountains, and horses are an essential part of our crew. We raise some of our horses, we buy some domestic horses, and almost every year, we buy several “wild horses” which have been gathered by the Bureau of Land Management and placed at Wyoming’s Honor Farm, where inmates work with the horses. While the program is designed to gentle and train horses, its real goal is to rehabilitate men. The horses, in various stages of training are offered at auction. This is different that the BLM’s program of allowing qualified people to adopt untrained horses. The auction is an event. After going through security, buyers talk to the inmates, who are showing their horses. The auction follows with good money bid on these horses.

We also ride domestic horses, some of whom we raise as colts from our mares. Some we buy. We even have several that we’ve brought down from Canada. We employ these horses to help us care for our cattle and sheep. In the summer, our livestock go onto grazing permits in the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forests. We tend to the cattle every day on horseback. We are keeping them on a carefully planned rotation, and we don’t want them lounging in riparian areas. The predators–black bears, mountain lions, coyotes; and now in Colorado, wolves–are a growing threat. Since most of our deer and antelope, who also summer on the forest, died in the severe winter of 2022-’23, the predators are more likely to prey on livestock. Right now their numbers are not in balance with the prey species. All this means that the horses are a valuable part of our management.

Of course, the horses are also essential to the sheep operation. Summer and winter, the sheepherders tend their charges on horseback. The country is rough in terrain, so horseback is definitely the way to get around.

Rhen and Eamon ready to go

Chandler and McCoy, roping calves at branding

Tiarnan on his adopted wild horse, Jameson. That’s Smalls in the back.

distinctive neck brand on adopted wild horse

Cerilio with his adopted horse

Leo with DJ, who’s certifying a past horse adoption