Western Horseman 2025 March edition by Cowboy Publishing Group

CHASE THE THRILL

Epic adventures and fierce competition across the globe

ON THE WEB

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Wilderness Rides

Even in 1973, the expansion of urban areas was a signiﬁcant issue. Wilderness areas were being reduced in size to build and expand other infrastructures. The trails and secluded areas that riders loved to explore were quickly disappearing, raising the question: Will wilderness rides become history, or will they remain a reality?

SOCIAL

Road to the Horse 2025 Road to the Horse 2025 returns to Kentucky to change people’s ideas and create a better world for the horse through education and entertainment. Join us on social media as we share all the behind-the-scenes and colt starting action!

Backcountry Basics

This problem-solving handbook is for recreational trail riders, but any rider in any discipline can beneﬁt from Mike Kinsey’s techniques and have a safer, more reliable, responsive mount. Kinsey’s “tell it like it is” philosophy and step-by-step lesson plans will gradually develop your horse’s trust, conﬁdence and willingness. Purchase your copy at shop.westernhorseman.com

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VOLUME 90/NUMBER 03 Western Horseman (ISSN 0043-3837) is published monthly by MCC Magazines, LLC, 735 Broad St., Augusta, GA 30901. Subscription rate is $24 for one year, $46 for two years. Canadian subscriptions add $20 per year (U.S. funds only). All other foreign subscriptions add $40 per year (U.S. funds only). Editorial and Advertising Main Offices: 2112 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, TX 76107. Periodicals Postage paid at Augusta, GA, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Western Horseman, P.O. Box 37131, Boone, IA 50037-4131. Submission of freelance articles and photographs is welcomed. For complete editorial guidelines go to westernhorseman.com or email edit@westernhorseman.com. No faxed materials accepted. Articles that appear in Western Horseman do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of Western Horseman or MCC Magazines, LLC. Western Horseman does not endorse and is not responsible for the contents of any advertisement in this publication. No material from Western Horseman can be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or otherwise used without express written permission. © 2025 by MCC Magazines, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.

POLARIS: LEADING THE INDUSTRY NORTH

In a small farming community in northern Minnesota, Polaris was founded by three men who grew up in a world where innovation and mechanical aptitude were part of rural life.

BY ANDRIA HAUTAMAKI

FESTIVALS AND FOLKLORE

Marvel at the gaucho’s skill and embrace the festive spirit of jineteada, a bucking horse rodeo competition in South America.

BY ANDRIA HAUTAMAKI

MORE THAN ONLY MEMORIES

Completing the Gaucho Derby in Patagonia did more than simply check off a must-do item on the list of three horsemen’s lists; it also provided them with life lessons.

BY KATE BRADLEY BYARS

LIVING THE DREAM

Jenna Paulette strikes a balance between motherhood, ranch life and life on the road.

25 EVENTS

Skijoring is an emerging sport in the state of Maine, boasting the Maine Skijoring Triple Crown in February and March.

TRAINING

Introduce your horse to tracking a cow with NCHA Open Hall of Fame rider Austin Shepard.

WOMEN OF THE WEST

Brittany Heseltine spends half the year alone in a remote Wyoming cow camp with her horses, dogs, 800 cattle and bold predators. 37

HORSEMANSHIP

Photographer and horsewoman Kim Stone recalls her personal ride along the Winch Ranch with owner Luther Winch.

REAL LIFE RANCH WIFE

There is a lot for the Youngs to learn off the ranch when “country” goes to town.

44 FROM THE LENS

There is no need for heavy machinery when a pair of Percherons can get the job done on Colorado’s Vista Verde Guest Ranch.

HEALTH

Horse owners must constantly be prepared for illness and injury — here’s how to be ready whether you are traveling or at home.

54 RODEO

At the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, everything starts with volunteers.

COWBOY COOKING

These jalapeno popper pinwheel steaks beautifully infuse a delicious jalapeno popper with a succulent skirt steak.

“Old Red” Art by Clara Smith

Where Will Your Boots Take You?

By the time you read this, we’ll be well on our way into spring. As I write it, though, it’s the first week of January, and we are hunkering down in Texas as we prepare for our first winter storm of the season. This last week has been full of adventure and reflection for me. We decided on a whim to visit my dad in Colorado on New Year’s Day. We loaded up the kids and the dog and drove 13 hours to Sedalia, Colorado, to spend a few days on the Wiens Ranch. My kids saw their first snow of 2025, watched my dad work horses, checked cattle and even helped us feed horses one afternoon. We don’t get to do things like that often enough with them — it’s so di erent from my own childhood. The visit reminded me how important it is to me that my kids be exposed to and raised near horses and other livestock.

As our drive home was delayed and extended due to snow-blocked roads, I had a lot of time to reflect on what I wanted out of this year. More time with my children while they are little and precious. More time to enjoy my husband while we are still young and eager to explore the world. More opportunities to work with people I admire and love. More quality time with my aging grandparents. Less stress. Less work I don’t care deeply about. Less stu . Less excuses. More contentment. Less envy. More intention. Less noise. More companionship. Less phone.

I don’t set speciﬁc resolutions for myself because there are always so many things I want to work on or work toward, and I feel like a failure if I don’t get to all of them. This year, I am just simply trying to be a better version of myself than I was the year before. I will try to be a little bit better in every area when the opportunity presents itself. I will try to take advantage of opportunities that come my way when they serve me or when I can serve others through them, and I will take every minute I can get snuggling or building magnet towers with my toddlers. I will make any excuse I can to see my extended family and build my work around my life. I hope I visit new places, tell great stories and serve great communities. So no resolutions, just self-improvement and a lot of grace.

My youngest, Boston, was enjoying a day at the Denver Polo match with my dad, Craig Morris, when we visited Sedalia last fall. Like me, Boston enjoys the warm Colorado days far more than the cold, snowy ones.

In the spirit of our horseback adventure issue, I challenge you to ask yourself: Where will your boots take you this year? Where should you give more of yourself? Where should you get some of your precious time back? Where can you be a blessing to someone? Where can you enrich your life? I encourage you to saddle up and go somewhere you haven’t been before. Stretch your comfort zone, take a great adventure and soak up your life — we only get this one.

This issue features epic adventures and ﬁerce competitions across the globe including the rise of skijoring in the United States, the classic and thrilling Gaucho Derby and even South American bronc riding. We are excited for you to read about the horses and riders having their own big adventures this year.

AMANDA DEVAN EDITOR

Mario “Paraﬁna” Gonzales competes in a jineteada in Southern Chile. This bucking horse rodeo competition is also practiced in Argentina, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Andria Hautamaki Writer, Photographer

Andria Hautamaki is a photographer and writer who divides her time between Colorado and Chile. She’s been reading Western Horseman since her middle school years, when she would tuck a magazine into her three-ring binder and sneak glances at the stories during class. She holds a master’s degree in international agricultural development from the University of California, Davis. Her work has been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and The New York Times. She is a frequent contributor to Western Horseman.

Kate Bradley Byars Writer, Photographer

Kate Bradley Byars is a writer and photographer living in the Texas Hill Country, winging her way around the world and documenting the Western way of life. Bradley thrives on telling stories through photos and words. She has been published in Quarter Horse News, Reined Cow Horse News , Horse and Rider , Chrome , Paint Horse Journal, Horse Illustrated and more, and she is a frequent contributor to Western Horseman

Katie Navarra Writer

Katie Navarra is an American Horse Publications Equine Media Award winner and a longtime contributing writer for Western Horseman, Barrel Horse News, Quarter Horse News and more. She has been freelance writing for over 20 years, including contributing to children and adult educational books such as “Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover’s Soul II” and “Shoeing the Modern Horse: The Horse Owner’s Guide to Farriery and Hoof Care.” Her article “Horses Helping Seniors” (Horse and Rider, 2019) won the Service to Consumer Single Article category from American Horse Publications and highlighted the power of using horses to treat individuals diagnosed with dementia. Navarra is proud to bring attention to the deep-rooted legacy of the ranching and rodeo industry in the Northeastern region, as well as highlight the talent and dedication that ﬂows through that area today.

ON THE COVER

A Letter to the Editor, January 2025

Dear Amanda,

The January 2025 issue of Western Horseman is fantastic. I am a man, but I was greatly impressed by the stories of all the strong women in this issue. I read every story in this issue and loved every one.

I am also very pleased and happy when writers and story subjects are willing to share their faith in God. Always keep God ﬁrst place. Keep up the good work! I have enjoyed Western Horseman since you became editor.

Yours, Rick Jansen Jackson, Wyoming

BY CLARA SMITH

Oregon artist Clara Smith uses bold shapes and vibrant colors to document Western life in her paintings, as seen in “Bold Strokes,” in the January 2025 issue of Western Horseman on page 30. An artist from Portland, Oregon, Smith was “that” horse girl who doodled equine portraits in the margins of her class notes and sketched galloping horses on her homework.

Dear Rick,

Thank you for your kind words! It’s so encouraging to hear how much you enjoyed the January 2025 issue of Western Horseman. What a lovely way to kick off the new year!

Since January is our Women’s Issue, we always strive to feature women who exemplify the Cowboy Code. The Western industry is certainly one that is male-dominated by the nature of the jobs, so it’s special to me that we can honor strong Western women once a year.

Thank you for your loyal readership and your feedback. We love hearing from you and all our readers!

Sincerely,

AMANDA DEVAN EDITOR, WESTERN HORSEMAN

Smith’s aunt taught her how to ride and how to draw in the summers as a child. Smith continued to draw and paint through high school and college. When Smith lost her full-time job in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, she threw herself full time into her art career.

Smith captures authentic Western moments with a palette of rich colors, contrasting tones and dynamic compositions. She pays careful attention to detail, regardless of the medium. Whether she is painting rawhide buttons on a set of reins or adding a horn wrap to a roping saddle in a digital design, Smith tells visual stories with a passion for Western life.

“OLD RED”

CLARA SMITH

Discover Silverton Casino Lodge— where rustic charm meets modern luxury with cozy rooms, a sparkling pool, thrilling casino action, top-notch dining, and an unforgettable aquarium.

MORNING MILL

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY

BY EMILY MCCARTNEY EIGUREN

This image was taken at Haythorn Land & Cattle Co. near Arthur, Nebraska. I was an intern that summer of 2016, and I talked Craig Haythorn (the bossman) into letting me bring my camera along for just one day of branding out on the wagon.

I made this image at sunrise in the rope pen where the remuda of saddle horses were kept, near the chuckwagon and the cowboys’ teepees. Craig was in the middle of the remuda, roping out a horse for each cowboy that day. It was causing the geldings to “mill around” as they tried to evade the bossman’s houlihan loop. That’s where the title of the photograph came from.

I spent three years of my childhood on the Haythorn Ranch, and it was really special to go back and cowboy there as a young woman and document those people and the place I hold dearly!

FROM SADDLES TO SPOTLIGHTS

A COUNTRY MUSIC JOURNEY ROOTED IN RANCH LIFE

Balancing ranching, motherhood and a rising music career, Jenna Paulette proves that authenticity and grit go hand in hand.

STORY BY KRISTEN SUBLETTE • PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JENNA PAULETTE

For this singer-songwriter, life on the ranch isn’t just a backdrop — it’s the foundation of everything she does. Whether she is gathering cattle, writing songs in the saddle, hitting the stage or attending to her children, her balanced perspective and work ethic shine through.

Jenna Paulette shares her unique perspective on being a country music singer, living in far West Texas, working on ranches and balancing her career with motherhood. Life is a delicate balance for Paulette and her husband, Ross. Ranching and small-town life are Paulette’s muse for many of her songs. Her authenticity and connection to her roots have set her apart in the world of country music. Paulette has woven together her love for ranching, music and family in a life that’s as inspiring as the songs she sings.

WESTERN HORSEMAN: Ranching is a way of life that requires hard work and dedication. How has growing up in this environment shaped your approach to your music career?

JENNA PAULETTE: I think it prepared me for doing what I do for a living on so many levels. I never thought of myself as being at a deﬁcit because I’m a girl. I was one of a bunch of granddaughters in my family, so we were just expected to get the job done.

My granddad would expect me to be able to do things. I’m on a lot of male crews. I never think of myself as less than because I’m a girl. And I think so many people have made such a big deal, especially in country music, in the last 10 years about being a girl. I’ve just never thought of that as a bad thing.

It also made me gritty. I mean, the job’s not done until it’s done. Even though I’m not an overnight success right now, it’s one of those things where I think the slow build is always better because it creates character over time. I think when you chip away at something, and you know how important it is to maintain and pro-

tect a legacy at the same time, like in the ranching world, it teaches you how to value the day-to-day input that you can put at anything and then see the output over time. I think that’s built a lot of character in me in a lot of ways.

It taught me how to hold on when things aren’t easy. As glamorous as being a cowboy looks on TV, it’s one of those jobs you do in the scorching heat and bitter cold; you don’t quit until it’s over, no matter what the elements tell you. I think life can be a lot like that. And you can’t give up when you’re uncomfortable. Ranching has taught me a lot about doing. Doing all of those things and never giving up.

WH: In a world of overnight sensations and TikTok stars, how do you feel about your success in slowly building your career over time?

JP: The slow build is very much the way to go, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I want to always maintain who I actually am in my heart — who I am when I’m on the back of a horse or when somebody’s asking me to go get a gate — [it’s important to me to] maintain being down-to-earth forever. I think when you get things quickly, you have the tendency to forget those things, or think you’re really important when you’re not, or think you’re a bigger deal than you are. I never want to see myself that way.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Paulette is in her element on the ranch, where she spends her days working. ABOVE: Paulette gets into the truck, ready for a full day of work.

WH: What does a typical day look like for you when balancing the demands of ranching and your career in country music?

JP: I haven’t been in the saddle with our daughter yet because she is two months old, but I have an 8-year-old stepson. For the last 2 1/2 years, I’ve ponied him through every pasture. I’m sure I’ll do the same thing with our daughter.

Usually, we’re up at 3:30 a.m. or 4 a.m. We go feed horses; I’ll make breakfast for everybody. We saddle horses and get everything ready to go. We get in the truck and go wherever we’re going. I get emails on the way, and I hope for enough service to respond or listen to a demo somebody sends me. When we get to where we are going, we go gather whatever pasture we’re gathering that day and do whatever work needs to be done.

If the guys are going to rope something rank, I’ll hang at the trailer until they get back. When I get back to service, I usually have four or ﬁ ve emails that I need to make sure I get back to that day. I cut outside songs, too, like Cody Johnson or George Strait. I write a lot for myself, but I also record stuff that I didn’t write myself. So, usually, I’ve got a couple of emails with songs I’ve got to listen to, and I hold the phone up to my ear with a bunch of cowboys in the truck and listen to them.

Then, we’ll go home, and I’ll make dinner or whatever, go to sleep and then do it all over again.

I think both sides of what I do lend themselves to each other. When we’re out of service, I have time to think — like really see an idea all the way through. It’s such a gift. We have Wi-Fi at the house but don’t have service, so I can do what I need to do when I’m home. It’s this perfect balance between cowboying and doing music.

WH: Ranch life often inﬂuences your songwriting. Can you share a particular moment from the ranch that inspired one of your songs?

JP: I get a lot of ideas when I’m in the saddle. I keep my phone in my leggings

Paulette grew up ranching with her grandfather; horses have long been a part of her story.

pocket to sing an idea into it. “Prairie Primrose,” I wrote when we gathered a bunch of bulls. I was with my husband and a friend of his, and I was running in the middle. So, they were bringing bulls from either side, and I was pushing everything over into a corner. I was singing into my phone, and if something got out of line, I’d get it back going. I had most of that song written in the saddle that day.

WH: Becoming a mother is a life-changing experience. How has motherhood inﬂuenced your outlook on life and music?

JP: I think everything is more precious and intentional now. I’m not just going to pick up and leave like I have been for the last three years.

My family is home, and we’re working cows from February until the beginning of May, so I will do that with my family. When my kids are out of school, I will go on the road for a season, and then I will take shows that make sense and do things that matter on both sides, not just my career.

I’m thankful for a new outlook, and I’m thankful that my time away from home will mean more. That’s the goal for me, for it all to have a purpose and not just be about me.

I think my whole life, I’ve wanted to be ranch mom, country music, and be a cowboy. I’m living that right now. However God wants to let that look is what I want. I want to do something that beneﬁts my family and isn’t just about me.

WH: What has been the biggest challenge in balancing your responsibilities so far?

JP: I think it’s the travel aspect of things because we don’t live close to town — not a big town, that is. The closest airport is 2 1/2 hours from us. If I’m traveling, it’s going to take me an entire day to get wherever I’m going. So, [the biggest challenge is] ﬁ guring out where I need to be for as long as I need to be there, but not so long that I lose a whole day coming back.

If I’m going to be in Nashville, [Tennessee], for three days, it’s really going to be a ﬁve-day trip. I have to make sure those three days count. And when I’m

home, I put my phone down and pay attention to my family when I’m there.

WH: You’ve talked about wanting to be an authentic voice for women in country music. What does that mean to you, and how do you aim to achieve it?

JP: I think, in country music, there aren’t a lot of people who get to live the way I do. And they’re afraid to live outside of Nashville for what that would mean for their career.

I’ve seen the very opposite of that. My career has done better leaving that town because I live what I sing about. I think people really care about that and want that, and they want to feel like somebody understands them and not someone who is just writing a song in a room because somebody told them to. I’m not knocking that because they’re still great songwriters; I write with them, and they make my real experiences better songs. But I think

I have such a gift in that I get to live my life doing the things I sing about and be surrounded by the people I want to sing about and represent. That is a differentiating factor for me, and I think I’ll get to provide something missing in country music today. I wouldn’t be able to do it if I hadn’t gone [to Nashville] and learned how to write a song.

WH: With so many roles to juggle, from ranching to performing to motherhood, how do you stay grounded and ﬁnd time for yourself?

JP: I don’t know if I have a great answer right now because I think I’m still ﬁguring out the balance of motherhood and all of that. My husband knows I like to take a bath at night and unwind for a second. Ross will take the baby while I do that, and then I have about 30 minutes to sit there and think and read my Bible or pray. I can give him a big old prop

up on that one; he is the reason why I have that time. I haven’t gone to work with him since I had the baby. After he leaves, I’ll feed the baby and then sit in bed and read my Bible. I have a couple of really good books I love that have been helping me ﬁgure out the motherhood and wife side of things.

Put your family ﬁ rst and trust that God has your dreams in his sights, and it’s going to bless your family. Do what you can on a day-to-day basis, have your goals and check off what you can because you’ll never be able to do it all. If you can prioritize a few things that really are going to make a difference in your career on a day-to-day basis while still putting your family ﬁrst, it’ll all work together, but your kids will always remember you being there. That’s going to matter way more to you when you’re on your deathbed than an Academy of Country Music Award, Country Music Award or Grammy.

Paulette strums her guitar in the pasture with one of her horses.

RACING THROUGH THE SNOW IN MAINE

East Coast riders and skiing enthusiasts partner up to compete in skijoring events in two Maine communities.

STORY BY KATIE NAVARRA • PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE LAWLER PHOTOS

Six years ago, Mary Haley was working for Main Street Skowhegan in Maine, brainstorming ideas that could create an economic driver for the town. She grew up riding horses, is an avid downhill skier and knows about skijoring events held out west.

“I had a gut instinct it would be a success in Maine,” Haley says. “Many people don’t know that the equine industry contributes $360 million to the Maine economy. I believed bringing two major industries [riding and skiing] together in one event would be a hit!”

Skijor Skowhegan was the ﬁrst skijoring competition in the state. The inaugural event was held in 2019 at Eaton Mountain on an oval track in the ﬁeld, and teams were timed with a handheld stopwatch. Today, the event attracts about 50 teams, according to Haley.

“Horse riders tend to come from mostly Maine, with a few from New Hampshire and Massachusetts,” Haley says. “Skiers come from farther away, and spectators come from all over New England, and our data shows a good handful of visitors coming from even beyond New England.”

Interest in skijoring took o with additional events — Topsham Skijoring and Skijor Bangor — popping up. In 2024, event organizers teamed up to host a Triple Crown circuit to encourage competitors to enter as many races as possible and build awareness and a following for the sport.

“Competitors would earn points on how they placed at the race and bonus points for each race they attended,” Haley says.

Mel Merchant says ﬁtness is everything with skijoring, and she breezes at least once a week and keeps her horse muscled up.

Last year, rider Molly Thornton Lanpher and skier Matt Alexander clinched the ﬁrst-ever Triple Crown title after a tough start in the sport. In Lanpher’s ﬁrst race in 2023, they went o course, resulting in a time that was too slow to make the scoreboard.

“I started training my horse for more speed and took her to local racetracks, clocking our time, plus going to friends’ houses that had made skijor tracks with jumps,” Lanpher says. I rode her every day, no matter the weather. I was determined that I was going to place and not make the same mistakes as the year before.”

The hard work paid o , and the team

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“IT’S AN AMAZING SPORT, AND IT’S THE PERFECT SPORT FOR ME BECAUSE I’M AN ADRENALINE JUNKIE WITH A NEED FOR SPEED!” — MEL MERCHANT

ﬁnished second at both Skijor Skowhegan and Topsham Skijoring, setting them up for an opportunity to win Skijor Bangor.

“I wanted to win Bangor badly,” Lanpher says. “I was shaking so badly while trying to put my chaps on that I had to ask for help. When the pro division was called and our turn came, I could barely breathe.”

Her horse and skier were ready for the challenge, and together, they completed the course in the fastest time of the ﬁ rst round of runs. The track was deteriorating with every run, so the o cial called o the second run for safety reasons, and they were declared winners.

When Molly Lanpher isn’t skijoring, she’s training for and showing in hunter under saddle and Western pleasure events. She is a POA and Level A carded judge.

“While snow is always a concern, skijoring is unique in that it’s a snowsport that doesn’t need a ton of snow,” Haley says. “You only need a few inches of base to run. Getting snow for jumps is the main concern, and even then, organizers are resourceful by either creating wooden bases like Topsham does or hauling in snow from other sources, as we have done before. I think Mainers appreciate out-of-the-box thinking, and skijoring satisﬁes the need for Mainers to be di erent.”

The Triple Crown circuit is on hold for now, but Haley sees opportunities for it to return in the future. Riders and skiers will have two opportunities to enter skijoring contests in Maine this year, with the Topsham Fair Skijoring set for January 25, 2025, and Skijor Skowhegan scheduled for February 22, 2025, at the Skowhegan State Fairgrounds.

“Maine was the ﬁrst state on the East Coast to start hosting skijoring, and to my knowledge, it’s the only state with multiple events,” says competitor Mel Merchant, who has been racing for ﬁve years. “It’s an amazing sport, and it’s the perfect sport for me because I’m an adrenaline junkie with a need for speed!”

COW HORSE KINDERGARTEN

Introduce your horse to tracking a cow with tips from NCHA trainer

Austin Shepard.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABIGAIL BOATWRIGHT

Many tasks done on horseback require a horse to know how to work a cow. From ranching and feedlots to performance events such as cutting and cow horse, tracking and working cattle are a necessary job. Fortunately, many stock horses possess cow sense, that innate understanding of how cows think and move. But even with a cowy horse, they’ll need guidance to best work with cattle. And that knowledge starts with tracking a cow. National Cutting Horse Association trainer Austin Shepard of Summerdale, Alabama, is an expert in teaching this skill.

WHY TRACKING IS IMPORTANT

When Shepard starts a 2-year-old on a cow for the ﬁrst time, his goal is to get the horse “hooked up” to the cow. This looks like following the cow around the arena rather than mirroring its movements parallel to it like you do in boxing or cutting.

“You don’t just immediately start stopping and swooping around with a cow like a cutting horse. You have to get the horse to where they will travel with the cow,” Shepard says.

Tracking the cow like this teaches the horse how to rate their speed to match the cow’s speed, which is important for reined cow horse and roping, especially.

“It also teaches them that when the cow does stop, they need to stop with it,” Shepard says. “They get to relax with the cow, and then you go back [moving] with it.”

Tracking a cow is also a useful skill for tuning up a cutting horse.

“Sometimes a horse gets too many turns, and they get a little smart to it. They want to do what’s easy and cheat into a stop a little bit,” Shepard says. “You can get in behind a cow, work it and ask the horse to go around the arena a time or two. When we show a horse, there are so many turns, and reading a cow across an arena that a horse can get is just a little too sticky. [Tracking] tends to free them up.”

Shepard says cow sense is partly innate, partly trained into a horse.

When your horse gains conﬁdence, you can work with a herd of cattle, teaching the horse to drive one cow out of the herd.

TRAINING

“A cow horse-bred horse is going to track things naturally — it’s no di erent than a border collie dog getting in behind cattle and following them,” Shepard says. “Naturally, they want to do it and instinctively know that they should be doing it. But they don’t really know why they’re

doing it. I think we have to train them to do it correctly.”

POSITIONING

You, as the rider, need to know where to put yourself in relation to the cow.

“When you’re traveling around a pen, if you’re directly behind the cow, it’s go-

ing to go forward,” Shepard says. “A lot of times, a cow is going to try to go to the gate they came in. So, if you’re trotting around the arena, you’re at the cow’s hip, and everything is going great when you get to the gate they came in, they’re probably going to stop to try to get out.”

Don’t ride up too close to the cow — they’ll tend to stop quickly and change direction when you’re in their bubble.

“Cows take o for no apparent reason and can trip your horse,” Shepard says. “If you trot behind it at a safe distance, the slower it gets, the closer you can get to it. If the cow is traveling straight, and you get up around the cow’s shoulder, be ready to stop and turn when he wants to change direction.”

PREREQS

Before you set your horse on a cow, you need to make sure your horse can be guided and pick up both leads, and speed up, slow down, stop, back up and rollback.

“It doesn’t have to be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be so overly broke that your horse is paying more attention to you than to the cow,” Shepard says. “At the same time, a horse needs to be broke enough that when you’re trying to teach them how to get started on a cow, you’re not wrestling with the horse so much that they’re not even paying attention to the cow.”

TEACHING THE SKILL

A horse that’s never tracked a cow will be sloppy doing it at ﬁrst, Shepard warns. But that’s where you start.

“You just want to get in behind the cow and start following it around,” Shepard says. “Put one cow in the arena, get behind them and trot them around a little bit. When that cow stops, let the horse realize that that is their chance to catch their breath. After a while, if a horse is very smart, they’ll learn to fall in behind a cow and rate and slow down because they know when the cow stops, that’s when they get the release of being able to sit with it.”

TOP: When tracking a cow, if you’re directly behind it, that will drive the cow forward. MIDDLE: The goal with tracking is to get your horse “hooked up” to the cow. BOTTOM: Tracking a cow teaches the horse how to rate their speed to match the cow’s speed.

As your horse understands how to follow a cow around the arena, stopping in time with the cow and taking a few steps back to turn with the cow at a slow pace, you can step up the speed.

“You want to do the slow, simple stu ﬁrst,” Shepard says.

NEXT LEVEL

Once your horse gains conﬁdence working with the cow, you can start working with a herd of cattle, teaching the horse how to drive one cow out of the herd to work.

You can also start working a ﬂag — a piece of fabric attached to a pulley system that you’ll use to teach the horse to mirror its position along the arena wall.

“Working a ﬂag can help a horse getting started because it’s kind of like having one cow in the pen; there’s no pressure of holding the cow, but it gets a little quicker as you go,” Shepard says.

Don’t worry about your horse working quickly right away. Focus on the fundamentals, Shepard adds.

“Our late 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds, we don’t want them going super fast until they’re 100% solid,” Shepard says. “You want to get the slow stu down ﬁrst, and that makes the faster work easier later on.”

PRACTICE TIPS

How much you work on tracking a cow with your horse depends on the individual, Shepard says. Most likely, you won’t track cattle every day. It’s more of a skill to work on every few rides.

“A smart horse that’s really taken on the job and wants to be better every day, they’re going to get a little bored with it,” Shepard says. “So, you’ll know then to go ahead. Even our show horses, if we get in behind the cow and trot around, once they free up and feel like they’re going to do everything correctly in time with the cow, they’re ready to go back the way we would normally work them.”

To change it up, once your horse is solid on tracking, you can guide your horse out and away from the cow, then go toward its head, stop and turn the cow, then go in the other direction.

“The good ones that really want to do it, they’ll perk their ears up and like that — they’ll enjoy a challenge,” Shepard says.

CAUTIONS

Temper your expectations, Shepard advises.

“It can be a sloppy, ugly process when you start,” Shepard says. “Have your horse broke well enough to where you can manage it and stay in time with the cow. If you can lope a circle, stop and back up just like you would when you’re tracking a cow. You can do it with the cow, but don’t get in a big hurry.”

It will also take time for your horse to understand what you’re asking of him.

“It’s a slow, methodical process,” Shepard says.

Don’t go too fast with a young horse. If a cow takes o , just keep trotting behind it.

“Sooner or later, it’s going to slow down,” Shepard says. “Don’t feel like you have to go head the cow and stop him every time. It’s not about turns. It’s about getting your horse in behind the cow.”

Tracking a cow is a good tool for horses being started on cattle all the way through

working show horses if used correctly. Shepard says just make sure you do not use it to gain speed.

“Use tracking a cow to get a horse traveling. Don’t use it to make a cow run fast and the horse to stop hard,” Shepard says.

MEET THE EXPERT

Austin Shepard is an NCHA Open Futurity champion and NCHA Open World Champion with more than $9 million in NCHA lifetime earnings. Based in Summerdale, Alabama, Austin has won many major NCHA awards, and was the 2024 The Run For A Million Cutting Horse Challenge champion.

BRITTANY HESELTINE

This range rider spends six months a year alone in a remote Wyoming cow camp with her horses, dogs, 800 head of cattle and bold predators.

INTERVIEW BY JENNIFER DENISON • PHOTOGRAPH BY MAGGIE GODDARD

The Upper Green River Cattle Association comprises 11 ranchers with 5,600 head of cattle. Each June, they trail 60 miles to mountain pastures in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. The cattle graze throughout the summer and gradually work their way back down by October. It’s called the Green River Drift, the last continuous cattle drive in the United States and a tradition dating back to the 1890s.

Brittany Heseltine, 32, is one of five range riders hired by the association to manage the cattle and steward the land. Her post is the Tepee Creek Camp, which sits at 8,800 feet in elevation and is more than an hour’s drive down a rough road to the nearest town, Pinedale. She primarily works alone, relying on four or five horses and five border collies to help do the job. She lives most of the summer in a one-room, o -the-grid cabin and has turned a camper into a leather shop. Her duties include doctoring cattle, packing salt, fixing fences, rotating pastures and keeping cattle away from riparian areas. She also works closely with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, monitoring predators and recording cattle losses.

When she’s not on the mountain, she lives and works with her ﬁancé, Quaid McCracken, on her family’s ranch in Big Piney, Wyoming, day-works for other ranchers and builds leather goods.

Horses have always been a big part of my life. I grew up in Elko, Nevada, rode all over the Ruby Mountains and was in 4-H. My parents divorced when I was 8 years old. Horses were a place of solace for me; talking to them and riding made things better.

When I was 16, we moved to my stepdad’s ﬁfth-generation ranch in Big Piney, Wyoming, and I was gung-ho to work cattle. The ﬁrst lesson he taught me was to watch and learn. He and my grandpa hardly ever spoke to each other, so I had to learn the end goal and watch how they got there.

We were ﬁxing fence one day, and I saw a range rider cabin on the property. The range rider who lived there was Jillian McGinnis. It never occurred to me that there were women range riders. I told my stepdad I

wanted to do that, and he said, “You don’t want to do that.” I think he thought I couldn’t handle being alone and doing everything myself.

A couple of summers after I met Jillian, we were at my family’s cabin on the mountain, and my stepdad told me not to bother her. I went down to her cabin anyway and told her we were up there. She asked if I’d like to ride with her. We spent the morning looking for a bear kill and debating which Disney movie was better, “Tangled” or “Frozen.”

I kept in touch with Jillian while I was in college. When I graduated, she asked if I’d be interested in an open range rider position. I said, “Absolutely!” She hired me to work at the Mosquito Lake Camp, which was a good place to learn.

My ﬁrst season was difﬁcult, but I was excited to be there and bound and determined to go through the entire season and do a good job. It was hard work, but nothing I hadn’t already done. I just had to apply it to the situations on the mountain.

I don’t begrudge the bears and other predators for liking beef. However, it’s annoying when there are so many predators, and they don’t let my cattle spread out.

We lose quite a few cattle to predators. We use Garmin inReach [satellite communication devices] to share the kills we ﬁnd with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. They come up and determine whether it’s a kill or natural death. The ranchers are reimbursed for the cattle killed by predators.

I’ve never felt truly lonely. I talk to my dogs and horses; they’re great therapists. If I want human interaction, there are plenty of hunters and recreationalists. There’s also a little ranch at the bottom of my pastures; the two owners are nice. One was with the association for 30 years, and he ﬁnally retired. I run into him all the time, and he still helps me.

I wouldn’t want to do my job without my dogs. They go into the trees and willows and keep my cattle moving. I can’t quantify how much they mean to me.

I didn’t see myself doing this long-term, but the longer I do it, the more I can’t see myself doing anything else except leather work.

Working as a range rider has made me more conﬁdent in my abilities. I’m not a top hand, but I can get a job done no matter how long it takes.

I love riding my horses and working my dogs in the mountains, knowing I can get a job done with them. I also appreciate the history of the Upper Green River Cattle Association and am proud to be a part of it and to help keep it going.

GENERATIONS DEEP

Photographer and horsewoman, Kim Stone, recalls her personal ride along with Winch Ranch owner Luther Winch.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIM STONE

I

met Luther Winch several years ago at a Ranch Clinic in Idaho. He is a ﬁfth-generation rancher from Montgomery, Texas. I have a great interest in generational family businesses. It is a labor of love and hours of commitment and dedication to continue a family legacy. As I asked Luther about his younger years on the ranch, his stories began pouring out as he shared the history of The Winch Ranch with me.

Like most ranch owners, Luther and Thérèse Winch are no strangers to early mornings and long hours in the saddle that often spill over into the darkness of night. As I worked alongside Luther in preparation for a morning branding, I learned that he and Thérèse come from generations of Texas and Louisiana cattlemen dating back to 1859, when Laurent Winch sailed as a stowaway from Palermo, Italy, escaping a prearranged marriage. While running from one unwanted

fate, he soon found himself on the shores of New Orleans, Louisiana, ﬁghting in a Civil War in the United States.

He was captured and became a prisoner of war. After his release, he was hired to drive cattle from the Mississippi River to Banker, Louisiana, which eventually became the settlement for the earliest installment of the Winch Ranches. Though six generations have succeeded him, their ranch beef cattle can still be found today on the Coastal Plains of Louisiana and Texas.

THE STOMP

More recently, I visited his Pine Island Ranch in Welsh, Louisiana, and found myself riding stirrup to stirrup with Luther through a deep marsh. Since this was my ﬁrst time riding through a marsh, I asked

Luther Winch, owner of Winch Ranch in Montgomery, Texas, is a ﬁfth-generation rancher.

SPRING ESSENTIALS

if I needed to be concerned about marsh dangers. I learned to watch for alligators, snakes and wild boar. Luther’s memories came alive as we began to rodear the cattle.

SPRING ESSENTIALS

“We had few fences and no corrals as the grasses and cane grew higher than our horses’ backs,” Luther says. “This pasture is known as ‘The Stomp.’ Our marsh horses stomped their way through; [we were] looking for laid-over grass in search of cattle, which often led to standing in our saddles with a pair of binoculars.”

Luther talked about working with his dad, who swung a grass rope at brandings while Luther and his brother helped to sort cow-calf pairs and yearlings into three or four di erent cuts to prepare for multiple brands and earmarks.

dants of the King Ranch. These horses have been described as a crossbreed between Creole and Quarter Horse.

“Big heads, big feet and big hearts” are all necessary for covering marshy country. Many of the mares were considered outlaws and broncs that produced tough colts. The cowboys usually had multiple horses for the day’s work, the second being smaller cutting horses for roping and working cattle in the rodear. During one of the cattle rodears, Luther met the neighbor’s daughter.

SPRING ESSENTIALS

“It was just the three of us,” Luther says. “The biggest job for me and my brother? Hold the rodear and keep the Brahman-cross cows o of Dad!”

BIG HEADS, BIG FEET, BIG HEARTS

Curious about “marsh horses,” I learned many of the horses that made up the early cavvy came from stallion descen-

“When I ﬁrst saw her, Thérèse, our families were neighbors working cattle together on Pecan Island, Louisiana,” he recalls. “The deep marsh environment was rough and dangerous and not a place for women and kids. My brother and I got a pass because we wanted to be cowboys and ride with Dad and the crew. Thérèse was serving food and water to the crew, and I thought, ‘Wow — she is so sweet and beautiful; I am going to marry her!”

Luther was 10 years old on the day he made this decision. They were married 20 years later.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Winch Ranch cattle operation began with just eight bred heifers.

ABOVE: Over the next 15 years, Luther grew their herd to more than 2,500 cows and calves.

ABOVE AND BELOW: The Taliaferro and Santa Leona ranches in Richards, Texas, fall under the Winch Ranch perview. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Winches strive for continued growth and improvement of their beef product.

A NEW BEGINNING

Luther and Thérèse moved to California. While Luther worked in the pipeline business and Thérèse taught school, it was the backdrop of their early years together. They explored the beauty of the West Coast and made many good memories in those first five years. California was something very di erent from ranch life on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, where they grew up. With the pipeline construction boom ending and the excitement of a new baby on the way, they moved back to Texas to take the first step in building their own dream of the Winch Cattle Company. Settling on a home base established in Mont-

gomery, Texas, Luther told me the story of how their cattle herds started.

“When the ranch was ready for cattle, our fathers insisted on gifting us eight bred heifers of their best stock, and that’s how it all began,” Luther says. “My dad loaded up Angus heifers, and Thérèse’s dad loaded up Braford heifers.”

For the next 15 years, Luther’s ambitious plan to raise cattle on a large scale grew their herds to 2,500 mother cows and yearlings. Luther has never forgotten his forefather’s advice: You’ve got to have land — lots of land. If you don’t own it, ﬁnd some cheap. Luther and Thérèse honored that advice by purchasing land to the north and west, focusing on Angus cattle with better genetics. They started buying better bulls and cows that would suit each of their ranch environments.

WORKING TOGETHER

Luther and Thérèse work horseback, side by side, to gather, sort, rope and doctor cattle. The Taliaferro Ranch, located in

Richards, Texas, has grass reaching the withers of the horses. The scales, shipping and receiving corrals are also located here. The Santa Leona Ranch, also in Richards, features rolling hills, creeks and an old stockyard corral.

Steeped in history, the Winches continue to push forward. They remember where they came from and strive for a brighter future for the ranching industry. More than ranching, Luther and Thérèse are committed to each other and their family. The couple is generous with their time, talents, resources, land and beef production and their passion for continuing education. They are eager for growth, learning from top hands all across the country to help reﬁne and continuously improve their ranching lifestyle.

Quality improvements in their beef production have made way for opportunities to sell their prime Angus beef directly to restaurants and families, both locally and throughout the country. To learn more about Winch Ranch, visit www.winchranch.com.

WHEN COUNTRY GOES TO TOWN

There’s lots to learn o the ranch.

STORY BY JOLYN YOUNG • ILLUSTRATION BY TYLER CROW

Years ago, I caught a cab at an airport in Dayton, Ohio. While chatting en route to my hotel, the driver was surprised to learn that being a cowboy was still a real job. I was surprised to learn this surprised him. We lived on a ranch and spent most of our time with other cowboy families. Were there indeed other types of people in the world?

Since then, I’ve ventured o the ranch a bit more and caught a few glimpses of life on the paved road. I’ve noticed more than a few di erences between us cowpokes and those “townpokes,” as my son calls city dwellers.

From listening to them talk, I gathered that townpokes considered having one dog and two cats “a lot of animals.” Anyone who’s ever owned livestock knows that these are starter numbers and barely

count. That’s what you pick up in the parking lot of Tractor Supply while restocking the chicken coop after your last bird dog didn’t quite understand the assignment.

In addition to more animals than I can count, we have three kids. When they were babies, I read some online tips for taking little ones on road trips. I learned that most people considered anything over one hour to be a road trip. When I drove for one hour, I wasn’t even o the ranch yet.

For longer excursions, I didn’t bring any more supplies than I did for my standard 2 ½-hour trip to town — snacks, sippy cups, sandwiches, one-gallon water jug, toys, diaper bag, extra shoes in case the mud hole by the ﬁrst gate was deep again, handgun in case I broke down and encountered predators of any species, change of clothes in case we had to spend the night due to weather, and lip gloss because ranch gals like to look shiny, too.

It turns out that everywhere I went was a road trip. And due to the dirt roads, we only have four-wheel-drive vehicles. The guys I met last year while doing open mics at a comedy club in Bakersﬁeld, California, were amused to learn that I drive an F-150. They seemed to think it was funny that a petite mom got behind the wheel of such a big, manly truck.

But where I come from, a half-ton is the wimpiest model in the ranch’s driveway. It can barely pull a three-horse bumper-pull on ﬂat ground, even if the horses got out and helped push.

F-150s are the “mom mobiles” of the cowboy world. I always have a cooler in my bed to transport milk, lunch meat and cheese over an hour from store to fridge. Someone recently saw my belt buckle, boots and ice chest and said, “Of course, you don’t have a Yeti due to their stance on immigration.”

I had no idea what Yeti’s stance on immigration was, but I was slightly offended he thought I would drive around a city with one sitting in the back of my truck where some townpoke could steal it. Yes, we own Yeti products but keep them at the house under lock and key. We’re country, not dumb.

This cowpoke can’t pass up a good deal that’s almost a steal, though. Last fall, I bought a ﬁreplace tool set and log holder o Facebook Marketplace. When I met the seller in town, she handed me the implements. All were in like-new condition. The holder even contained several logs of seasoned hardwood that looked oddly clean, like it hadn’t spent all summer in the far corner of the shed out back.

“I bought this stu as decoration for our gas ﬁreplace. I used the poker to move the fake logs once,” she explained.

I loaded my purchase into the bed of my pickup and tried unsuccessfully to process her townpoke mentality. I couldn’t imagine a rancher buying anything purely for decoration. I’ve been to rural weddings where guests sat on hay bales cut from the pasture where the ceremony took place, then were expected to cut strings and throw a few ﬂakes to the saddle horses before they left the reception.

“F-150S ARE THE ‘MOM MOBILES’ OF THE COWBOY WORLD.”

— JOLYN YOUNG

I enjoy meeting people from di erent backgrounds, even if their initial assessment misses the mark. Last year, I introduced myself to a person who immediately had questions.

“‘Jolyn,’” he repeated. “Is that all one word? Or is Lyn your middle name?”

“It’s one word with a capital ‘J,’” I replied. “My middle name is Ann.”

His eyes lit up.

“Jolyn Ann?! They went full trailer on you!”

I figured he knew what he was talking about since he was a middle-aged man with a paunch and a permed mullet. Or he simply didn’t care what anyone thought. The mullet supported either theory.

And he didn’t miss the mark by much. I grew up in a double-wide on a family outﬁt. It was trailer in the front, ranch in the back. Looks like maybe cowpokes and townpokes have a few things in common after all.

JOLYN YOUNG lives way out West with her husband and three kids. Visit www.jolynyoung.com to learn more, including where to ﬁnd her debut book.

HITCHED HEAVY

No need to rely on machinery during Colorado’s cold winter when a pair of Percherons can get the job done feeding the horse herd at Vista Verde Guest Ranch.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATE BRADLEY BYARS

Winter is a magical time, especially when it is sunny and things are working properly. When the temperatures drop or ice makes roads impassable, things can get dicey. The Vista Verde Guest Ranch doesn’t worry about trucks not starting on cold mornings in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains; they have a team of Percherons who are willing and able to get the job done. These gentle giants feed the horse herd similarly to the U.S. Postal Service, in rain, shine, snow or ice.

At this guest ranch in Clark, Colorado, horsepower makes the daily chores a delight. When “Dilbert” and “Wade” are hitched to the sleigh, the pair bring some major horsepower. Guests and ranch employees alike delight in the pair’s power, eagerness to do their job, and the chance to watch and partake in a long tradition of using horses to power processes on a ranch.

Horsepower takes on a new meaning in the several feet of snow at the Vista Verde Guest Ranch in Colorado.

WADE & DILBERT

(Left and Below) Draft horses like “Wade” and “Dilbert,” Percherons, are bred for work. With large hooves, these Percherons are among the largest and oldest horse breeds and have a long history of assisting in farm and ranch work.

(Right) Eager to please, the pair know their job. Kaulana Papalimu (not pictured), the ranch’s director of horse operations, has watched the pair work since ﬁrst starting at the ranch in 2013.

PAPALIMU

(Left) Papalimu is dedicated to keeping the tradition of sleigh feeding alive, noting it’s still one of the most efﬁcient ways to feed the cavvy. While the mountain cold air creates havoc for the engines of tractors and other equipment, Papalimu has never seen a morning too cold to harness a team of horses and get the job done.

(Above) According to Papalimu, the ranch feeds enough to account for about 25 to 30 pounds of alfalfa per horse, including hay loss.

(Right) The feed sleigh is both practical and popular, as guests and staff alike are welcome to jump on board and feed the cavvy.

PREPARING TO ADMINISTER FIRST AID

As horse owners, we must constantly be prepared for illness and injury. An expert in equine emergency medicine shares how we can be ready, whether traveling or at home.

STORY BY HOPE ELLIS-ASHBURN PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF DR. MARGARET MUDGE

When facing an emergency, it is always best to be prepared.

“One of the biggest things that we see people struggle with is not having adequate bandage material,” says Margaret Mudge, VMD, DACVS, DACVECC, clinical professor and Equine Emergency Critical Care and Surgery section head at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Mudge says having enough bandage material on hand is important if your horse develops a signiﬁcant cut that requires a compression wrap. She says that these wraps can be disposable or washable. Still, she adds that disposable cotton wraps can be a better option than polo wraps when additional compression is needed for heavily bleeding wounds.

ABOVE THE NORM

For the treatment of minor cuts and abrasions, Mudge also likes to see ﬁrst-aid kits that include antibiotic ointment.

“You may not even need to call the vet for these types of wounds,” Mudge says.

However, for deeper wounds or those over a joint, she advises ﬁrst checking with your veterinarian before applying any medication.

She also recommends including one or more baby diapers in your ﬁrst-aid kit.

“For foot wounds, punctures or abscesses, a baby diaper ﬁts conveniently on the horse’s foot if you need to bandage or poultice the foot,” Mudge says.

This horse suffered from a laceration over the front of the hock and it involved one of the extensor tendons and the tarsometatarsal (lower hock) joint.

TRAILER VS. BARN

Mudge says that in the event of an injury or illness occurring at home, even if your barn fi rst-aid kit is lacking, it is often possible to substitute household items or even items found in a first-aid kit designed for humans. However, those same items will often not be available while on the road. For trailer or towing vehicle first-aid kits, Mudge recommends adding clean water to the list of supplies.

STOCKING YOUR FIRST-AID KIT

In their resource “Care Guidelines for Equine Rescue and Retirement Facilities,” the American Association of Equine Practitioners recommends that the following items be included in a basic ﬁrst-aid kit:

• Bandaging material, such as a cotton roll, contact bandages, gauze, sterile gauze pads of assorted sizes, gauze wrap and adhesive wrap

• Leg wraps

• Bandage scissors

• Hemostats

• Steel cup or container

• Rectal thermometer

• Surgical scrub and antiseptic solution

• Latex gloves

• Flashlight with spare batteries

• Permanent marker

• Shoe pullers

The organization further recommends storing the kit in a clean, dry and readily accessible place.

ABOVE: Here is an example of a less dramatic wound in a bad location, right over the fetlock joint. It didn’t involve the joint, but Mudge advises an owner not put ointments or powders on this before they have their vet see it. RIGHT: With proper treatment and care, wounds should heal fairly seamlessly.

A WORD ON MEDICATIONS

Mudge acknowledges that many horse owners, under the supervision of their regular veterinarians, keep medications such as phenylbutazone and ﬂunixin meglumine in their ﬁrst-aid kits. Flunixin meglumine is most used in treating colic or soft tissue problems, while phenylbutazone is used for musculoskeletal or lameness issues.

“The biggest thing with having these medications on hand is not giving more than one dose in quick succession,” Mudge says. These medications, she explains, are not designed to be given more than twice a

day, and doing so could lead, even as you are trying to help your horse, to an overdose.

COMMON EMERGENCIES

Colic and lacerations top the list of the most common types of illness and injury seen at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

In the case of colic, Mudge says that one of the guiding principles veterinarians use regarding treatment is whether there is a twist.

“If there is a twist in the bowel that cuts o blood supply, then we have only a mat-

ter of hours before that intestine starts to die,” Mudge explains.

While not the most common type of colic, it is the most time-sensitive and severe.

“When owners are calling to describe the colic, I’m looking at severity,” Mudge says.

Elaborating on certain information will help your regular veterinarian determine whether the horse needs to be brought into the clinic or hospital. She advises being prepared to relate such information as whether the horse is o its feed, lying down more than usual, rolling or thrashing. Severe symptoms may mean taking your horse to a referral center if your veterinarian cannot come out in an hour.

If you have the sort of relationship with your veterinarian that allows it, and the hour is reasonable, Mudge advises texting your veterinarian a heads-up about your horse’s colic and alerting them that he or she may be needed at the farm later.

For colic in particular, Mudge advises

being knowledgeable about your horse’s normal heart rate and gut sounds and being able to report appreciable changes in these to your vet. She says you should check and report on your horse’s gum color, water intake and whether their manure looks dry.

For serious lacerations, Mudge says that while most can be cleaned by hosing them o while you wait for your veterinarian to arrive, this step can be skipped in the event of profuse bleeding.

“Just get some compression on it,” Mudge says.

If necessary, she says you can bandage it while ywaiting for the vet. To help determine the extent of the emergency, Mudge suggests taking photos of the wound and texting them to your veterinarian. She advises taking the photos in the best light possible and taking the images both close and far away.

With a little bit of preparation, you, too, can be prepared in an emergency.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is run by 35,000 volunteers each year. These people make it possible for the elite rodeo to payout more than $2 million to rodeo athletes and stock show contestants.

AN ARMY 35,000 STRONG

At the Houston rodeo, everything starts with the volunteers.

STORY

BY MATT CROSSMAN • PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE HOUSTON

LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO

The numbers behind the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo are staggering. In this year’s event — March 4-23 — the rodeo will pay out $2.5 million, second only to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The size of the purse helps Houston, Texas, draw elite rodeo stars each year. The presence of those elite rodeo stars helps attract 2.5 million visitors from around the state, country and world. The presence of those visitors has helped the rodeo raise the funds to dole out more than $600 million in scholarships, making it one of the biggest benefactors in the country and changing countless lives in the process.

There’s one more number deep behind those other numbers that makes all of them possible: 35,000. That’s how many volunteers work at the rodeo every year, a group so vast that it almost deﬁes belief. If volunteers were employees, the rodeo would rank among the city’s top six employers. If the volunteers were a city, it would have a higher population than six di erent state capitals. Laid foot to head, they would span 36 miles.

That leads to an obvious question: What in the world compels so many people to work so many hours for free?

“That’s the perfect question,” says Pat Mann Phillips, the rodeo’s chairwoman of the board and ﬁ rst chairwoman in the rodeo’s history. “It ain’t bragging if it’s a fact: We are the largest and most prestigious Livestock Show and Rodeo in the world, right here in our home of Houston, the fourth largest and most diverse city in the nation. Rodeo is the one event each year that brings everyone together as a community.”

Whatever usually divides us — race, creed, income or politics — disappears at the rodeo.

“Every year, we come together, and it’s like a big ol’ family reunion,” Pat says.

Mike Diezi can relate. Four generations of his family have worked a

combined 232 years at the rodeo, dating back to 1960 when his dad, Jack Diezi Jr., ﬁrst got involved. That number will keep growing, as there are still seven Diezi family members serving on the scramble committee (one of 109 committees across the rodeo) and more who will volunteer once they are old enough. The age minimum is 21.

Jack bought lifetime memberships for his grandchildren on the days they were born, making them the youngest lifetime members the rodeo has ever known and ever will know, as a rule change means that’s no longer allowed.

Members of the Diezi family have served in a variety of roles in the scramble. A dozen have participated. Mike competed in 1966 alongside the stars from Gunsmoke: Matt Dillon (James Arness), Doc Adams (Milburn Stone) and Festus (Ken Curtis).

Mike has a favorite part of the rodeo.

“[It’s] meeting the kids and talking to their parents from all over the state of Texas,” Mike says. “It’s really a great feeling to visit with these people. They

have stories. They’ll talk to you for one and a half hours, telling you about their life and family.”

Older volunteers pass on their love for and devotion to the rodeo to new volunteers. They both pass on that love to the kids in attendance. In turn, those kids in attendance energize the older volunteers.

“That’s a big part of it,” Mike says. “I think you’ll hear that from a lot of volunteers.”

As big as the rodeo has become, it still sometimes feels like a small festival held at the town square as opposed to the massive event it is, with 2.5 million people visiting the sprawling 350-acre facility.

However, he sees familiar faces on many of those acres Mike walks. He has watched as multiple generations of families worked their way through the scramble.

“I got to talking, and one of the young girls said, ‘Wow, how long have you been on the committee?’ And I said, ‘Well, since 1971.’ And they said, ‘Wow, I wasn’t even born.’ Then the other one chimes up and says, ‘My dad wasn’t even born then,” Mike says with a laugh. “But that’s the fun part. You’ve got to have fun. That’s why we keep doing it.”

Volunteering at the rodeo is a tradition passed down through generations.

Jalapeno Popper Pinwheel Steaks

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds skirt steak

JALAPENO POPPER PINWHEEL STEAKS

These Jalapeno Popper Pinwheel Steaks beautifully infuse a delicious jalapeno popper with a succulent skirt steak.

STORY BY KRISTEN SUBLETTE

• PHOTOGRAPHS BY

KAYLA ZENNER

As Kayla Zenner’s life shifted from teaching to becoming a stay-at-home mother, she rekindled her passion for cooking.

Zenner is a farmwife based out of northern Idaho, where her husband and their two boys row crop farm and raise beef cattle.

Before Zenner made the transition to stay at home, she was a math teacher. She was busy commuting daily, doing farm chores and raising her children. Cooking took a backseat in the hustle of everyday life.

“I really did enjoy cooking and baking and all of those things, but as life gets more hectic, cooking was just one of those things that fell by the wayside,” Zenner says.

Dinner was stressful for Zenner when she was working, but as life slowed

• 8 ounces cream cheese

• 2 jalapenos, diced

• ½ pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

• 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

• Salt and ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cook bacon as desired, crumble once complete.

3. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, diced jalapenos and shredded cheese.

4. Lay out skirt steak and season with salt and pepper.

5. Spread cream cheese mixture onto steak, then sprinkle on crumbled bacon.

6. Roll steak tightly into pinwheel and tie with cooking twine in two or three spots, depending on your desired thickness. Slice between each piece of twine.

7. Place into baking dish and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.

ABOVE: Steaming hot, the Jalapeno Popper Pinwheel Steak is cut and ready to eat. OPPOSITE PAGE: Kayla Zenner poses with one of her favorite cakes.

down staying at home with the kids, she began sharing her recipes online.

“I just really dove head-in sharing my recipes online, and it kind of felt like a lot of people related [to the idea] that dinner can be stressful,” Zenner says.

With that, The Farm Style was born, Zenner’s website and social media platform. She posts all kinds of recipes, from

breakfast to dessert. Her website also has weekly meal plans that are great for busy families.

The Zenner family’s daily routine includes family dinners. It is important to Zenner that they all come together at the end of their day. The Jalapeno Popper Pinwheel Steaks are one of her family’s favorite meals to share together.

WESTWARD

Bound

Get ready to saddle up for a horseback

riding adventure.

COMPILED BY ABIGAIL BOATWRIGHT

Did you know that most dude ranch stays are all-inclusive? If you’re looking for a vacation where you can arrive, drop your bags and begin enjoying your stay without stressing over dinner plans, activity itineraries or hidden expenses, this is the perfect getaway for you.

Dude ranches and guest ranches are generally nestled in nature’s most beautiful scenery and o er activities for every age, skill and interest in the family. It’s the perfect combination of exciting excursions and serene escapes without leaving anyone out; even your pets can join in some cases.

Whether you’re looking for a thrilling day on white water rapids, an afternoon in the hammock with your favorite book, a family-style chef-prepared meal under the stars or a morning coffee horseback, there is a dude ranch to suit the wants and needs of you and your family. We’ve compiled a list of places and ranches to visit that might just ﬁt the bill.

RED ROCK RIDE TROPIC, UTAH

On the epic seven-day Red Rock Ride, you’ll start and end in Las Vegas, Nevada. You will be guided through Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Thunder Mountain Trail, Butch Cassidy Trail and the Paria River in the Grand Staircase National Monument, concluding with the Grand Canyon. This all-inclusive vacation includes cabin lodging and roundtrip transportation to the trailheads. REDROCKRIDE.COM

RUBY’S HORSEBACK ADVENTURES*

BRYCE, UTAH

Located 1 mile from Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park entrance, Ruby’s Horseback Adventures offers horseback riding, hiking, rides on allterrain vehicles, rodeos and wagon rides in a familyfriendly area. Choose from guided horseback riding tours ranging from 1½ hours to all day long. During the summer, enjoy the nightly rodeo. Ruby’s Horseback Adventures also offers four-day horseback adventures, overnight stabling and camping for private horse owners. HORSERIDES.NET

*Located 1 mile from the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park. There are miles of trails and scenery.

“HORSEBACK

RIDING IN GLACIER & YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL

PARKS”

BY DANA P. DAMRON

This is a guidebook designed for novice and experienced horseback trail riders alike who wish to ride in Glacier or Yellowstone National Parks. It contains detailed information with photos about the best trails for horses, trailhead parking, tips for a safe and enjoyable ride for both horse and rider, recommendations for gear and tack selection, safety tips and a suggested supply list. Suitable for riders of all skill levels. Available from Amazon and other bookstores. AMAZON.COM

7 LAZY P OUTFITTING CHOTEAU, MONTANA

Since 1931, 7 Lazy P Outﬁtting has been conducting traditional, multi-day horse and mule pack trips throughout Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. Ride through amazing scenery to iconic destinations on seasoned mountain horses. Experience great hikes, cast a ﬂy line, or just relax and unplug. Enjoy excellent meals and camaraderie with a very friendly and professional crew. Contact them today. SEVENLAZYP.COM

DUDE RANCHERS’ ASSOCIATION

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS ( )

Find your ultimate Western adventure getaway through the Dude Ranchers’ Association. Each DRA member dude ranch offers vacation experiences that allow you to escape reality and step back in time to the Old West. Enjoy top-notch hospitality, food, accommodations and activities for everyone from beginner to experienced riders. With the DRA member dude ranches, you can enjoy an all-inclusive experience, where lodging, meals and most activities are bundled into a single price. DUDERANCH.ORG

JACKSON HOLE PACK TRIPS

JACKSON, WYOMING

Experience horseback riding in the Bridger-Teton National Forest with Jackson Hole Pack Trips. Available in two-, three-, four- and ﬁve-day packages. On these trips, guests will camp in spacious safari-style tents, eat delicious meals prepared by the camp cook, and enjoy ﬁshing, hiking and photographing wildlife in their natural habitat. Jackson Hole Pack Trips provides gear and some of Wyoming’s most experienced guides. Groups range from two to eight people. WILLOWCREEKHORSEBACKRIDES.COM and JACKSONHOLEPACKTRIPS.COM

ROWSE’S 1 + 1 RANCH

BURWELL, NEBRASKA

Join sixth-generation ranchers Jerry and Tammy Rowse in everyday ranching activities in the beautiful Sandhills of Nebraska. Guests get involved in ranch work such as driving cattle, checking pastures, working cattle, doctoring and branding. Small groups of guests ride in wide-open pastures on a well-trained ranch horse and enjoy home-cooked meals fresh from the garden served family-style and stay in private cabins. Come as a guest, leave as part of the family. 1PLUS1RANCH.COM

FESTIVALS & FOLKLORE

MARVEL AT THE GAUCHO’S SKILL AND EMBRACE THE FESTIVE SPIRIT OF JINETEADA, A BUCKING HORSE RODEO COMPETITION IN SOUTH AMERICA.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDRIA HAUTAMAKI

“FOREMAN OF THE FIELD, ARE...WE...READY?”

bellows the rodeo narrator, his eyes focused on the horse and activity in the center of the arena.

Inside a grassy ﬁeld encircled by a fence made of wire and wooden pickets, a bucking horse named Little Riﬂe is snubbed up to a sturdy wooden post. Astride the gelding is Juan “JP” Paredes Vidal, a rodeo contestant, or jinete. He rides a plain leather saddle, with his toes jammed into large, round stirrups, each adorned with a large star. With his left hand, JP grasps the reins and then wraps them around his hand. With his right hand, he lifts a short, rawhide stock whip, signaling that he is ready to ride.

Once the horse stands alert, with all four feet ﬁrmly planted on the ground, the foreman lifts his whip in approval, and the lead rope is untied. As the horse leaps away from the post, the sound of guitar strumming increases, and the narrator calls out a play-by-play.

“ Salió! Salió! He’s off! There he is going straight. I see him using the whip nicely! The horse changes directions! The man stays with him; he is riding well! He keeps working. There, he lifts the horse with his hand. The bell rings! JP stayed on!” croons the narrator.

The sharp chiming of a hand-rung bell declares the end of the 12-second ride. Two pick-up men gallop alongside the rider and bucking horse, sandwiching the horse be-

tween them. As Little Riﬂe lunges forward, the pick-up men ﬁrmly grasp JP’s arms and sweep him o the horse, setting him safely on the ground. The crowd cheers, and the payador, a gaucho troubadour, launches into a summary of the ride in improvised verse.

A jineteada (pronounced “hee-neh-teh-ah-da”) is the gaucho equivalent to North American saddle bronc and bareback riding. During the South American summer, colorful posters hang in grocery stores and are posted on street corners to announce jineteada festivals. From dusty towns to big cities across the Southern Cone region — Argentina, Chile, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — a jineteada is a celebration not only of gaucho culture but also of community, gastronomy, music and folklore.

Jineteada is a traditional gaucho sport in Argentina, Chile, Southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The riders, or jinetes, compete in three different categories. Before the start of a ride, the bucking horse, or reservado, is restrained at one of three numbered posts in the arena. There, the rider prepares to mount up. Once mounted, the foreman of the arena uses his saddle horse to position the bucking horse correctly, with all four of the horse’s feet on the ground, before giving the go-ahead to start the ride.

RIDE A BUCKING, REARING HORSE

From northern Canada to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego, the cowboy spirit to ride an untamed horse is alive and well. Just as cowboys in the early American West started unbroken horses and tested their riding skills with di cult colts, so did the gauchos.

Jineteada is a traditional sport that grew out of the tasks required of the men who started horses on Patagonia’s large estancias. According to respected Argentine writer and poet Carlos Raúl Risso, riding rough stock was simply considered part of life and work for gauchos in the 1800s. Large herds of wild horses often roamed the expansive pampas. Starting a tough horse was not so much a spectacle as simply part of the job.

Neighbors would often gather to help brand calves or earmark and castrate lambs. Sometimes, after the work was done, the gauchos would show off their riding skills in front of families and friends. After saddling a young or unbroke horse, the gaucho would mount up and ride until either they cramped up from exhaustion or the horse stopped bucking and bolting. Only years later, jineteada evolved into a competitive sport with rules, regulations and prize money.

In 1892, nine Argentine gauchos embarked on a steamship to London to join Bu alo Bill’s Circus. It’s possible, writes Risso in his blog “Costumbrismo Writer,” that international interest in the gaucho’s skills is what sparked a national interest in creating a horse-taming or riding competition. In 1908, the First Horse Taming Tournament took place in Buenos Aires.

Today, jineteadas consist of three main categories. Basto con encimera lisa is the South American equivalent of saddle bronc riding. In grupa surera, a triangular-shaped sheepskin pad is cinched onto the horse just behind the withers so the rider is not pulled forward. Crina limpia, which literally means “clean mane,” is considered the most challenging of the three events. The rider uses only their spurs and a leather strap wrapped around the horse’s neck to stay on. The time for bastos and grupa is 12 seconds; crina limpia is eight seconds.

Jineteada horses, called reservados, while bred to unseat the rider, must know how to lead and stand tied while saddled. The horses are haltered and led horseback from the corral to one of three palenques, or posts, in the center of the arena. As one jinete starts their ride, two other jinetes, each working with a trusted helper, ready their saddle or cinch on the grupa. In the bareback category, riders often lightly spray the inside of their pants with water for additional friction and grip.

“In terms of physical conditions, a reservado may be strong or powerful in its loin, but more importantly, a very good reservado is agile and skilled at bucking and trying to get the rider down,” says Felipe Vidal Gallardo, president of the Rigor and Courage Jineteada Club in Puerto Natales, Chile. “There is no single prototype for a good reservado horse. There are di erent horses with di erent conformations, but each one does its own job. For example, a big horse might be very powerful; a small horse is very nimble. But a good horse is one that, when you let it go, it bucks from the start and doesn’t stop until it reaches the end of the time.”

In jineteada, since no ﬂank strap is used, the horses tend to rear upwards and leap forwards more than buck. Jinetes are judged on their use of spurs and the elegance of the ride. When using stirrups, they must swing their feet up towards the horse’s shoulder or mane and then back towards the ribs. The horse’s performance is also factored into the score.

Since many jineteadas are small, local events, the rules can vary by region and country. Jinetes generally compete for monetary prizes; however, sometimes winners go home with a young colt or ﬁlly, a barbecue grill, a big-screen television or a motorbike.

ABOVE: In 2022, Juan “JP” Paredes Vidal made the winning ride at this jineteada in Cerro Castillo, Torres del Paine, Chile. LEFT: Javier Vega, from Puerto Natales, competes in the category grupa surera. In his right hand, he twirls a rebenque, a short stock whip that aids in balance and adds style to the ride.

Ariel Rodríguez competes in the basto con encimera lisa category. To receive a score in this event, the jinete must complete a 12-second ride.

GAUCHO LINGO

Just as a North American rodeo has its own lingo — from ﬂank straps and bulldoggers to headers, heelers and hazers — jineteadas also have specialized vocabulary. Here’s a rundown of key terms:

APADRINADOR: pick-up man in charge of protecting the rider and helping them safely dismount

BOCADO: a leather strap that is placed in the horse’s mouth instead of a bit; the reins, which each have a ring to thread the leather through on the bit end, are attached to the bocado

BOTAS DE POTRO: traditional gaucho footwear that are knee-high leather boots fashioned from horsehide

CAPATAZ DE CAMPO: the foreman of the arena who gives the go ahead to start a ride

CHARQUI: when the rider touches the horse, or saddle, with either his rein or free hand during the ride, which results in disqualiﬁcation and no score

GRUPA: a triangular-shaped sheepskin pad that is cinched to the horse so that the rider is not pulled forward over the withers

JINETE: a rider or competitor at a jineteada

PALENQUE: a tall, stout post where the horses are restrained while saddled and prepared for the event; also serves as the horse and rider’s starting point

PAYADOR: a gaucho troubadour who, while strumming a guitar, chants improvised verse after each ride

REBENQUE: a rawhide quirt with a wooden handle, ﬂat leather lash and a short strap to loop around the rider’s hand

RELATOR: the person who narrates to the public what’s happening in the rodeo

RESERVADO: a jineteada or bucking horse

Juan “JP” Paredes Vidal has represented Chile three times at jineteada’s most prestigious competition, the Festival Nacional de Doma y Folklore de Jesús María in Argentina.

FROM THE ESTANCIA TO JESÚS MARÍA

“I ﬁrst started jineteando when I was 17 years old. I learned from my uncle, [Felipe Vidal]. For us, it was like a game,” says JP, who grew up in the Magallanes region of Southern Chile. “My uncle had some colts to start, and we were the pilots. He would say, ‘Get on that horse,’ and we’d be o and galloping. We’d fall, we’d get all beat up, but we kept on trying.”

Those ﬁrst unbroken horses that JP rode were eventually trained to be saddle horses. But with his appetite being whet for riding unruly stock, JP put together a grupa, and then tried his skills riding a rough-stock mare. With time and practice, he honed his riding skills in both the grupa and basto categories.

The most prestigious jineteada of the year is the Festival Nacional de Doma y Folklore de Jesús María, or Jesús María National Festival of Horse Taming and Folklore, held in the city of Jesús María in Argentina’s Córdoba province. Founded in 1966, the Jesús María National Festival o ers 12 days of competition with more than 70 horses being ridden each night, plus musical shows that last until 5 a.m. Jinetes must qualify for the event. In addition to national Argentine riders, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay each send a team of four riders: one jinete per event and one alternate rider.

JP has represented Chile three times at the Jesús María National Festival. In 2003, he qualiﬁed on the inaugural delegation from Chile in bastos. In 2007, when there was an International Championship category, he took second place in grupa, with ﬁrst place escaping him by only one point. In 2009, he rode as an alternate; that year, he mounted once in both the grupa and crina categories.

“At Jesús María, one gets to test themselves against horses that are really good, horses that you’ve only seen on television,” JP says. “To even have the opportunity to ride a horse like that, it’s like being crowned champion.”

JP gets a sense of the reservados by watching videos of previous performances. He pays particular attention to how the horses leave the post, just like a bareback or saddle bronc rider studies how a bucking horse leaves the chute.

“In jineteada, the rider has to help generate movement in the horse,” JP explains. “I’ve never ridden the [North] American rodeo style, but from what I’ve seen on TV, those horses leave the chute with a ﬂank strap; we don’t use a ﬂank strap. Here, we ride with spurs and one hand; that is similar [to American rodeo].”

While riding jineteada horses is a passion, JP continues in the steps of the ﬁrst jinetes, the old-time gauchos who cut their teeth working on estancias. While he has traveled much of Patagonia working for di erent ranches, he currently lives and works on an estancia about 30 minutes north of the closest town.

Forget a sti cup of black cowboy coffee. Here, the gauchos wake up with maté tea. Each morning, after stoking the woodburning ﬁre and heating a teapot of hot water, JP sips the maté from a small gourd using a metal straw. After catching his horse and saddling up, he rides out to check fence lines and the cattle.

The desire to ride a bucking horse is often passed on from one generation to the next. JP, who learned from his uncle, is now teaching his 21-year-old son; JP’s younger brother also competes. Traveling

to di erent jineteadas gives a reason to see new places, meet new people, and experience di erent customs. This year, he took a road trip with his wife, Oliva, and a good friend to compete in a jineteada in northeastern Argentina.

“We drove 3,000 kilometers [about 1,900 miles] to ride a horse,” JP says with a laugh.

CULTURE & COMMUNITY

In early December, the Rigor and Courage Jineteada Club holds a Jesús María qualiﬁer, where jinete competitors contend for a spot on the Chilean national team and the chance to ride at the National Festival in Argentina the following month. The event is held at Estancia San Jorge, where the extended Vidal family has been coming together for more than 20 years to support Chilean riders. The proﬁt from ticket sales, plus the proceeds from plates of lamb asado served with a side of potatoes, helps cover the team’s travel expenses.

“When our family started this club, it was with the purpose of raising funds to take the Chilean delegation to Jesús María. In Chile, rodeo is not an o cial sport. It is considered a show. For that reason, there are no state resources to finance the delegation. As a club, we took the initiative to hold jineteada festivals to raise money to cover the costs of transportation, food and clothing for the jinetes,” says Felipe, who, as president of the Jineteada Club, organized the very first qualifier in 2002, and has traveled with the team every year since.

In Chilean and Argentina Patagonia, cities are few and far between. A jineteada, while it is a competition with prizes to be won, is also a gathering place for those passionate about horses and livestock. Vendors also set up booths, selling gaucho-inspired knives, maté tea gourds, hats, wallets made from the skin of capybaras and leatherwork.

In addition to the rodeo events, there are often parades, drill team exhibitions, dances and activities for youth. Other possible events include mutton busting, bucking ponies or cowhide races. Tambores is a popular match race where two riders compete against each other while galloping a serpentine — similar to pole bending — but with barrels. The two fastest riders from each round advance to the ﬁnals.

“It is important to preserve this culture in our region, in the Southern Cone

of America, where this sport is practiced,” Felipe says. “The truth is, [jineteada] is the sport of rural people, people who are from the campo, the ranch. I call it the sport of the poor because the only thing that the rider has to have is [two] conditions: physical aptitude and the courage to ride a reservado.”

At the 2024 Jesús María qualiﬁer, JP stepped into the stirrups, once again, trying to claim a spot on the Chilean team. Dressed in a crisp white shirt, a necktie, knee-high leather boots made from horsehide, and a belt with his initials, he mounts up. Spectators, dressed in down coats and beret-like hats, line the outside of the jineteada ﬁeld with thermoses of hot water for their maté tea in hand.

As the wind whips across the ﬁeld, JP’s horse leaps across the grassy expanse, and he successfully makes the bell. However, his score in the basto category isn’t quite high enough to win the one qualifying spot. Such is the way of rodeo; such is the way of jineteada. Some days, you win; other days, you don’t, but it’s about showing up and trying. It’s about gathering with friends and family. It’s about supporting others. It’s about being bearers of tradition.

JP lifts his hands triumphantly in the air and grins. As he walks o the ﬁeld, the gaucho troubadour strums his guitar, painting pictures with his spoken verse and rhythmic refrains:

One more for the notebook, one more for the inkwell. One more for the countryman who stayed on and is not slow. The man who rises early to drink maté and who meets the horse’s challenge, what a tremendous rear! Hombre, man, who knows jineteada.

ABOVE: Proceeds from ticket sales and plates of roasted lamb with sides of potatoes sold to hungry spectators are used to help cover travel expenses for the qualifying team of Chilean riders to travel to the Jesús María National Festival in Argentina. BOTTOM: Equestrian drill team, “Escuadra Patagonica Entre Huasas y Gauchas,” rides in with the Chilean and Magellanic regional ﬂag during opening ceremonies at the 2024 Chilean Festival in Cerro Castillo.

Pick-up men Oscar Mella, left, and Jorge Vidal, right, help jinete Juan Muñoz of Puerto Natales, Chile, safely dismount after a ride.

WHERE CAN I SEE A JINETEADA?

During the summer months in South America, jineteadas occur across Argentina, Chile, southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Most of the festivals occur near small and medium-sized towns where local gauchos gather to showcase their skills.

Jineteadas are also community events. An afternoon of rough stock events and barrel races is often followed by an asado. You will often see – and smell – a sizzling, salt-encrusted lamb on an asado cross over an open ﬁre, accompanied by an evening of music, drinks and dancing.

While well-known locally, these festivals are often not published widely in English media. If traveling in this region, check local social media channels to see whether a jineteada festival is planned nearby or ask at your hotel, hostel or local guide.

There are several larger jineteada festivals to check out in person — or even stream online — opportunities to immerse yourself in gaucho culture and tradition.

In January , the Festival Nacional de Doma y Folklore de Jesús María in Jesús María, Argentina, is the most important jineteada championship of the year. The 12-day competition is the gaucho equivalent of the North American cowboy’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. You can learn more at festival.org.ar/ . Also in January, the ﬁve-day Festival Nacional de Jineteada y Folclore de Diamante takes place in Diamante, Argentina, and draws top-notch bucking horses.

In early February, the Rodeio Internacional de Vacaria takes place for eight days in Río Grande do Sul in Southern Brazil. In addition to rodeo and roping competitions, the event is known for its diversity of cultural attractions, artisanship and typical gaucho cuisine. rodeiodevacaria.com/

At the end of March, celebrate Semana Criolla del Prado in Montevideo, Uruguay. The week-long event features the best Uruguayan horsemen and attracts more than 200,000 visitors annually. montevideo.gub.uy/semana-criolla

In November, the Fiesta de la Tradición in San Antonio de Areco, Argentina is a three-day “festival of gauchos for gauchos.” The festival corresponds with Argentina’s annual “Day of Tradition,” which occurs on November 10 . Watch skill contests and a display of ﬁnely-attired gauchos and criollo horses parade through town. sanantoniodeareco.com/ ﬁesta-de-la-tradicion

In early December near Puerto Natales, Chile, riders compete in the National Qualiﬁer to Jesús María for a spot on the Chilean national team. At the end of January, the Fiesta a la Chilena in Cerro Castillo, Torres del Paine, Chile, is a three-day event that showcases local drill teams, traditional Chilean folk dance, a Chilean Horse rodeo, nightly concerts and jineteadas.

LEADING THE INDUSTRY NORTH

In a small farming community in northern Minnesota, Polaris was founded by three men who grew up in a world where innovation and mechanical aptitude were part of rural life.

STORY BY ANDRIA HAUTAMAKI • PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF POLARIS OFF ROAD

For Polaris O Road founders Edgar Hetteen, his younger brother Allan, and their close friend, David Johnson, innovation and mechanical aptitude were part of everyday farm life in the 1920s.

The trio grew up near the tiny town of Roseau, Minnesota, just 7 miles shy of the Canadian border. In this northern region, where warm summer days feel endless and amber waves of grain ripple in the wind, the cold of winter bites as strong as the summer sun shines. When daylight hours start to wane and lakes freeze over, the area is cloaked in a frigid blanket of snow.

During the winter of 1955, the founders pursued a more e cient form of winter travel. The goal? They aimed to ﬁnd an easier way to access remote hunting shacks by building a motorized sled to travel over the snow. Their resulting creation, an early snowmobile, launched the company into the o -road vehicle market. With 70 years of experience behind their products, Polaris is an industry leader. The Polaris RANGER is currently the number one-selling utility task vehicle in the United States, and the Sportsman is the top-selling automatic all-terrain vehicle. The company proﬁle also includes military and commercial o -road vehicles, pontoons and deck boats, Indian Motorcycles, and Slingshot moto-roadsters.

“It all starts with the customer. How can we make people’s lives better? And how can we solve problems that maybe they didn’t even know they had?” says Brent Erspamer, RANGER product director at Polaris Inc.

The demand for o -road vehicles utilized by ranchers, farmers and equestrians continues to rise yearly. In response, Polaris is poised to meet these customers’ growing needs. How did this business, built by three young men who started in the farm machinery and repair business, become industry trailblazers? They relied on the same skills needed for success on the farm: perseverance, ingenuity and determination.

SNOWY START

The first Polaris snowmobile — with a grain-silo conveyor belt for the tracks and an old Chevrolet bumper for the skis — was not a sleek, powerful machine; however, it did reﬂect creative problem-solving.

In 1945, Edgar founded a business called Hetteen Hoist and Derrick; he later brought on his close friend, David, and later his younger brother, Allan, to meet the expanding workload. Their shop was well-respected, and the trio was known for their skills and ingenuity. They built machinery, hoisted utility poles and repaired farm tools ranging from fertilizer spreaders to straw choppers. It was from materials lying around their farm equipment shop that their first snowmobile was fabricated.

In 1954, the three partners reincorporated their business to Polaris Industries, Inc. Their work had diversiﬁed beyond hoists and derricks and needed a less restrictive name. The company was named after Polaris, the North Star, to give credence to the northern location of their Roseau headquarters.

In 1960, Edgar led a group of three Polaris Sno-Travelers on a 1,200-mile trek across the Alaskan wilderness to prove the mettle of their new machines. The expedition proved that the snowmobile was a legitimate means of transportation and helped garner interest in the budding snow machine industry.

to the public, at no charge, on weekdays at 2 p.m. at the Roseau manufacturing facility.

All three company founders have been inducted into the International Snowmobile Hall of Fame. The same mindset that launched Polaris — to work hard, persevere and solve problems — is what continues to drive the company today.

PURCHASE CONSIDERATIONS

When choosing which o -road vehicle is right for you and your operation, there are several factors to consider. A UTV or ATV does not replace the work of a talented cowboy and a good ranch horse. However, an o -road vehicle can be a complementary tool to lighten the load for tasks ranging from ﬁxing fences to checking water tanks. The vehicles are increasingly popular in farm and ranch settings as they are less expensive and more fuel-e cient than a pickup truck and o er increasing performance and capability.

“It really comes down to use cases,” says Tanner Blaschka, senior marketing manager at Polaris Inc. “What kind of property do you have? What do your trails, or maybe lack thereof, look like? What is your storage situation? Overall, how much capability and comfort do you want?

“Our RANGER lineup is based on capability, comfort and durability. You can walk up the ladder [of models] from there.”

BUDGET: Make a list of the core requirements, starting with payload and towing capacity, engine power and number of seats. Then, consider accessories and upgrades that might increase the usability

ABOVE: Visit the Polaris Experience Center in Roseau, Minnesota. Learn about the history of the company through product displays, exhibits, archival photographs and a video presentation. Polaris factory tours are available at the Roseau facility on MondayFriday at 2:00 p.m. during regularly scheduled production. Tours are free to the public.

In 1984, Polaris expanded into the ATV market. The Sportsman launched in 1995 and was the ﬁrst ATV with a fully automatic transmission. In 1999, their ﬁ rst utility side-by-side, the RANGER, came to the market. In 2007, RZR, a recreational side-by-side, was introduced. In 2016, the GENERAL, a crossover UTV, became available for purchase. In 2023, the performance-focused XPEDITION expanded the Polaris side-by-side lineup. Today, the company employs approximately 16,500 people globally. The corporate o ces are located in Medina, Minnesota, with manufacturing centers in Roseau; Huntsville, Alabama; and Monterrey, Mexico. Roseau is also home to the Polaris Experience Center, open Monday-Saturday. Factory tours are available

BELOW: In 1954, Polaris Inc. was founded in the small town of Roseau by Edgar Hetteen, his younger brother Allan and close friend David Johnson. Today, the company employs approximately 16,500 people globally. The corporate headquarters are located in Medina, Minnesota, with manufacturing centers in Roseau; Huntsville, Alabama; and Monterrey, Mexico.

The RANGER XP 1000 Premium offers an 82 hp engine with stout 1,000-pound box capacity and 2,500-pound tow rating; it can winch up to 4,500 pounds. The 2025 RANGER XP 1000 Premium starts at $21,199 US MSRP.

and enjoyment of your machine. For 2025 models, the 2-seat RANGER SP 570 starts at $11,499 MSRP. The top-of-the-line six-seat RANGER Crew XD 1500 NorthStar Edition Ultimate starts at $49,499 MSRP. If a new vehicle is out of your price range, consider purchasing a used vehicle from a reputable source.

COMFORT AND CLIMATE: How much time will you spend in the vehicle, and in what seasons? What are your weather and climate considerations? Some models are open to the elements, while others come with heat, air conditioning and even seat heaters.

MANEUVERABILITY AND STORAGE: ATVs are more maneuverable and can squeeze through narrower spaces than UTVs. Also, ATVs are easier to transport as most ﬁt in the bed of a fullsized pickup truck. If you’re hauling your UTV frequently to di erent locations, a smaller framed model may be easier to transport. Also, consider where the vehicle will be parked or stored when it is not in use.

PAYLOAD AND TOWING CAPACITY: Hauling hay bales, bags of cement or ﬁrewood? Ensure the model you select can handle the intended payload and towing loads.

POWER: Engine power is measured in cubic centimeters. A more powerful engine can handle heavier loads and more challenging terrain.

SEATS: Consider how many passengers you plan to transport regularly. One advantage of an ATV is that it’s quicker to hop on and o , which can beneﬁt some jobs. If you plan to ride with employees or family members, a UTV with more seating capacity might be a better ﬁt.

UTILITY, SPORT OR CROSSOVER : Utility UTVs, such as RANGER, are primarily intended for ranching, farming, hunting, construction and hauling heavy loads. Sport UTVs, such as RZR, prioritize agility, speed and performance. Crossover UTVs, such as the Polaris GENERAL or more adventure-focused XPEDITION, are versatile, all-around vehicles that balance performance and utility.

“I personally have a RANGER XP 1000 NorthStar,” Brent says. “Living up in Minnesota, we get the full array of seasons. The overall ride and handling of these vehicles is bar none to anything in the industry. These vehicles are the most comfortable and most maneuverable out of anything out there. It just makes it for an overall great experience to operate.”

The Polaris website o ers a “Help Me Choose” tool to guide customers toward models that might best ﬁt their needs. Will the vehicle be used for work, recreation or both? Do you plan to use the vehicle for farming, ranching or hunting? Or for plowing snow, rock crawling or dune riding? Next, identify how many seats you need and any extras, such as air conditioning, a tipout windshield or an upgraded JBL audio system.

What color would you prefer? Zenith blue or sand dune with camouﬂage accents? Customers can also visualize their new ride by utilizing the website “Build” tool. Select a vehicle model and build it out to your needs and preferences. The 3D computer model updates in real time to show what the vehicle will look like, even adding on accessories, like a tool rack, winch or snowplow.

“A favorite model of mine is one that we launched [in 2023],

and it’s the RANGER XD 1500,” Tanner says. “I think a lot of your readers [at Western Horseman] would gravitate towards this vehicle as well. It is the most capable vehicle in the industry. It has more hauling capabilities and more bed space than anything else out there. On top of that, it comes with all of those extreme kinds of creature comforts. It actually has heated seats [in our models, with] top-of-the-line trim. I love that we’re far enough along with these vehicles to put heated seats in them at this point.”

If you purchase a new vehicle, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the break-in period. This is often the first 25 hours of driving or the time it takes to use the first two full tanks of gasoline. Be gentle with the brakes, vary the throttle position, pull only light loads and recheck fluid levels. Careful treatment of the new engine during the initial break-in will result in an engine with a longer life and more e cient performance.

Follow guidelines for oil, filter and transmission ﬂuid changes. If you won’t be using the vehicle for a while, hook up a trickle charger to keep the battery topped o . O -road utility vehicles are designed to hurdle through mud and mire, but it’s a best practice to wash o the grime to prevent rust, increase the longevity of bearings and chains, and keep everything in good working order.

If you want to buy a used vehicle, Brent encourages customers to contact their nearest Polaris dealer. Dealers often use machines they take in on a trade. The dealer will go through the machine and ensure it’s in good working order prior to resale.

ciﬁcally tailored for ATV and UTV users.

The Recreational O -Highway Vehicle Association, rohva.org, o ers a free two-hour course that helps develop safe habits and a safety-minded approach to o -road driving. The All-Terrain Vehicle Safety Institute, atvsafety.org, also offers free online safety education eCourses, hands-on courses, on-the-job training and safe riding tips.

TOP OF CLASS

The RANGER is currently the industry’s number one selling utility side-by-side, and the Sportsman is the number one selling automatic all-terrain vehicle. Whether you have 5 acres in the Midwest or thousands of acres in Texas, these vehicles are used across the country and in all seasons.

“We’re really trying to ﬁnd the boundaries of the vehicles to make the highest quality, most durable utility vehicle on the market,” Brent says. “People work hard with the vehicles. If our vehicles can help make their work more e cient, they can spend more time doing the things they love and spending time with the people they love.”

For the

If you’re a new ATV rider, a young driver or you’d like to brush up on your safety skills, training courses and online resources are available spe-

young Patterson family, acquiring a UTV gave them more mobility to go about their ranch work in Central Idaho with their two small children by their side. They traded in a used stock trailer for a used Polaris RANGER.

“The RANGER was a huge help during calving season. I put the little one in her car seat, strapped her in, and she’d fall asleep,” says Hollyn Patterson, who charges ahead with daily tasks while her husband is out on the range moving cattle.

With a 4-year-old and an 18-monthold in tow, she feeds horses, takes care of the stock dogs and nurtures leppy calves.

“I can do a ton of things,” Hollyn says. “I can’t drive through the sagebrush, but I can gather the horses out in the ﬁeld. And the girls have a good time.”

Whether you need an open-air two-passenger vehicle or an enclosed cab with space for six and power doors, there’s a RANGER to ﬁt every need.

“The [2025 Polaris RANGER XD 1500] is the closest we’ve gotten to perfection in a utility rig,” says a review by UTV Driver, referring to this model as the “Chuck Norris” of RANGERS. “Nothing else in the UTV world can touch its comfort, capability and usability at any price.”

The 2025 RANGER XD 1500

ABOVE: The 2025 Sportsman 6x6 570 features an 800-pound lock and ride dumb box and a front bumper with a 3,500-pound winch. The 2025 model features enhanced suspension with upgraded sealed bushings and 11.5” of ground clearance. Price starts at $14,999 US MSRP. OPPOSITE PAGE: The Polaris Sportsman is the top-selling automatic ATV in the United States. The Sportsman 570 features a 44 hp engine, 1,350-pound towing capacity, and a combined 270-pound front and rear rack capacity. This 2025 model starts at $7,999 US MSRP.

NorthStar Edition was designed with torque and power in mind. It can hold 1,500 pounds in the box, tow 3,500 pounds and winch up to 6,000 pounds.

The first fully electric model, the RANGER XP Kinetic, was launched in 2021. The expected battery range is up to 45 miles in the Premium model and 80 miles in the Ultimate model.

The Polaris Sportsman 570 is one of the company’s most popular ATV models. It features a 44-hp engine, 1,350-pound towing capacity, and a combined 270-pound front and rear rack capacity.

“There are people who don’t solely use this vehicle for work; a lot of people use it like a Swiss Army knife for both work and recreational activities,” Tanner says.

Popular accessories include front and rear steel bumpers or brush guards, rock sliders and LED lights. Other add-ons include a cooler, overbed cargo rack, tool racks, gun boots and a 60-gallon utility sprayer.

Polaris is unique in its integration of RIDE COMMAND, a GPS and waypoint-based route planner, in its o -road vehicles. The company’s proprietary navigation system can be accessed on a 7-inch touchscreen display that is factory-in-

RIDE COMMAND+ is a subscription-based service that delivers an extra level of connectivity, all available in the palm of your hand. Remotely monitor fuel levels, battery life and oil change status directly from your phone and receive reminders for routine maintenance. A vehicle locator features pinpoints exactly where each vehicle is on the property and sends an alert whenever a vehicle moves location.

stalled in some models and can be purchased as an accessory on others.

Whether you own a Polaris or not, you can use RIDE COMMAND — either online or as a free smartphone app — to access more than a million miles of trails. Using the GPS mapping features, the user can also save waypoints on the map. For example, you can mark the location of a herd of cattle or horses as a waypoint. Over time, this can allow the user to track where the livestock has been grazing.

RIDE COMMAND+ is a subscription-based service that delivers an extra level of connectivity. This technology allows the user to remotely monitor fuel levels, battery life and oil change status directly from their phone and receive reminders for routine maintenance. A vehicle locator feature helps give peace of mind as it pinpoints exactly where each vehicle is on the property and sends an alert whenever a vehicle moves location.

Beginning in 2025, Polaris customers will enjoy a warranty that increases the limited warranty period to two years

ABOVE: The 2025 Sportsman 450 H.O. Utility features a 33 hp engine, 1,350-pound towing capacity, and a combined 270-pound front and rear rack capacity. This 2025 model starts at $7,699 US MSRP.

BELOW: The 2025 RANGER SP 570 Premium, which starts at $13,999 US MSRP, offers a 44 hp engine and a 1,500-pound tow rating. The gas-assist dump box accommodates up to 500 pounds of gear.

across the entire RANGER lineup. From its showroom appeal to a pleasing dashboard layout, Polaris exceeds consumer expectations for handling, comfort and power in their o -road utility vehicles.

INNOVATION, AGRICULTURE AND ENGINEERING

“Useful technology is what’s driving the industry forward; that’s what consumers are expecting,” Tanner says. “As a company, we try to push the industry forward with our innovation. Oftentimes, we’re the ﬁrst one to market with new technology. The RIDE COMMAND screen is a great example of that. We’re continually learning.”

The evolution of the pickup truck is analogous to how customer expectations for increased comfort and performance are also driving advancement in utility vehicles.

“When trucks ﬁrst came out, they were purely a tool for a task. Now, look how much that industry has advanced,” Tanner says. “You can still get your baseline workhorse-style trucks, but you can also

get them with all the creature comforts you see in luxury car brands. I would say our industry has taken a similar approach. When we ﬁrst came out with the RANGER, it was purely a work-oriented vehicle. It was still good riding for that time, but it had nowhere near the level of comfort and durability that our vehicles have today.”

Not all ranching-inspired jobs take place on the back of a horse. If one has hands-on experience from a rural upbringing, plus a technical aptitude, that’s an incredibly desirable skill set for a future engineer. When looking for new hires for the team, Brent says he’s drawn to candidates from an agricultural background. He’s observed that these candidates value hard work and discipline. As an employee, they bring that mindset and work ethic to the company.

“If I see on somebody’s resume that they have a farming or ranching background, that really piques my interest,” Brent says. “Typically, they’ve been around a lot of di erent types of equipment. They have that mechanical intuition about how things operate, how things work, and how to make things simple so people can work

on them and service them. [They also understand] how to make things high quality and robust.”

While ranching, training horses or giving riding lessons is done primarily for the love of the horse, hopping in your UTV or jumping on your four-wheelers can help the operation run more efficiently by streamlining daily tasks. The vehicles often become a part of people’s lives. As a bonus, you can bring your dog, a grandchild or a friend along with you.

“Our vehicles enable a livelihood,” Tanner says. “A lot of customers tell me I would have a hard time doing what I do for a living if I didn’t have a RANGER. We allow people to go outside and chase their passions or fulfill their livelihood. That’s what makes me most proud and humbled to work at a company like Polaris.”

Meet the Experts

The 7-inch touchscreen display powered by RIDE COMMAND is waterproof and brings industry-leading technology to the dash. Access features like off-road GPS Navigation, Bluetooth® connectivity, and ride and vehicle statistics from the driver’s seat.

TANNER BLASCHKA is the senior marketing manager at Polaris Inc., specializing in the off-road utility line of products. Since 2019, he has led the Polaris RANGER and Sportsman brands, in addition to product marketing. Tanner combines innovative strategies with a passion for the powersports industry. One of Tanner’s favorite models is the RANGER XD 1500, the most capable off-road vehicle in the industry.

BRENT ERSPAMER is the RANGER product director at Polaris Inc. He brings 18 years of experience to off-road product development and innovation. Before working at Polaris, he was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a broad background in supervising a diverse engineering development team, vehicle validation planning and developing in-depth product development plans for new offroad vehicles from concept to production. Brent, who lives in Minnesota, owns a RANGER XP 1000 NorthStar.

MORE Than Only MEMORIES

Completing the Gaucho Derby in Patagonia didn’t simply check a must-do o three horsemen’s lists; it provided them with life lessons.

STORY BY KATE BRADLEY BYARS PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHY GABRIEL, COURTESY OF THE EQUESTRIANISTS

The vast terrain and extreme weather made riding one of the easier challenges in

the 10-day Gaucho Derby.

Simply completing the race is a win, as these riders, including Holtzman, James and Schiller, experienced.

he “greatest test of horsemanship on earth” is how the Gaucho Derby, held in the fabled Patagonia region of Argentina, is dubbed. Elliot Holtzman, Dan James and Warwick Schiller not only passed the test but also earned extra credit along the way, making personal breakthroughs while navigating the Argentinian landscape.

The derby, a 10-day race across 500 kilometers of varied terrain, beckons riders looking to challenge themselves and their horsemanship and fulﬁll a sense of adventure. That is what the three professional horse trainers did in 2024 when they agreed to do the unfamiliar ride together.

The Gaucho Derby tests not only the rider but also the horse they are on, as seven horses are needed to compete in the long-distance race. It posed challenges to each horseman, though they were well-versed in colt starting techniques. All three ﬁnished together on day 10, but the path to get there was slightly di erent for each.

Erik Cooper, operations lead and course designer for the Gaucho Derby, says that is not uncommon.

“There is a saying on our races: This race will give you the race you need, not what you want,” Cooper says. “It’s all about the horse and human spirit. This race should be the most challenging thing you’ve ever done, and it should show you how you are as a human and how you look out for each other. You might not get horses at every station that just want to gallop and go. They might be challenging.”

The Gaucho Derby concept mimics the Mongol Derby, which began a decade ago under The Equestrianists’ founder, Tom Morgan. This race, unlike the one in Asia, requires Cooper to work with local estancia, or ranch, owners to coordinate the race path and to obtain horses for the riders. In 2024, 34 riders took o into the unknown to test their mettle. Each required at least seven horses to complete the course.

While the approximate direction from start to ﬁnish is outlined and riders are given both paper maps and Garmin 64 GPS handheld satellite devices, each charts their own way across grassy ﬂats, desert areas and over mountainous terrain. There are no signs to follow. Cooper says much of the path traversed the original footpaths gaucho, or cowboy, used to travel, move sheep or cattle, and settle the region.

“Our routes are paths gauchos still use today,” Cooper says. “That is what is such an interesting thing. The course isn’t just remote; it has a story. It makes you wonder. You can place yourself there as a pioneer.”

The vastness of Patagonia, the unique weather conditions at the near bottom of the world and the challenge of traversing 500 kilometers aboard a strange horse impacted each horseman di erently. One thing rang true for Holtzman, James and Schiller — it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Friendly FOMO

There is always a ringleader in a group of friends or competitors. Kentucky-based horseman James can point squarely to Schiller as the reason he signed up for the race. In turn, Holtzman can point directly at James for his decision to compete. For Schiller, based in California, it was a guest on his podcast that ﬁrst inspired him to make the trek.

“Stevie Delahunt had done the Gaucho Derby and the Mongol Derby and was a guest on my podcast,” Schiller recalls. “I had not long been back from Mongolia, where my son and I rode camels across the Gobi Desert in the winter. We stayed at night in yurts with the nomads. That was 300 kilometers, and as a lifelong horseman, when I found out the Gaucho Derby was 500 kilometers, I thought that would be easy!”

Soon, the native Australian had roped his fellow Aussie and longtime friend into joining with him. James liked the idea of stepping out of his comfort zone.

“There is a quote from C.S. Lewis that sums up why I wanted to go down there: ‘God is more interested in your character than He is in your comfort,’” James says. “I think it sums up how comfort is one of the worst addictions we can have. To a degree, especially living in the States, you settle into comfort. I wanted it to be uncomfortable; I wanted to be challenged.”

When James visited Holtzman to conduct a clinic in Texas, he spent seven days convincing him to make it a trio.

“Besides just the ride, I am more of a planner and researcher, and I looked up the region and the climate. I wanted to know what I was getting myself into before actually signing up,” explains Holtzman. “I’m used to going to di erent countries and meeting people from di erent cultures. I thought [Patagonia] would be the same thing — far out, not having communication, no big deal — but I didn’t know what to expect from the actual terrain. Now, having been, the easiest thing to compare it to in the United States is if you saddled up and rode straight over the Rocky Mountains.”

As professional horsemen who are used to traveling the world and starting a variety of horse breeds at a range of ages, the concept and race seemed to fall in their collective wheelhouse. Cooper is quick to note that you do not have to be a professional to take part in the race, but strong horsemanship skills are needed.

“You have to catch your own horse in the pen; get into the round pen and catch your horse, show your skills,” he says. “We set certain things as part of the race as a challenge. This is a race for the best horsemen in the world, not for beginners. We have had every kind of rider represented in these races. It’s such a cool event, and the parameters level the playing ﬁeld. Not everyone will have ridden like a gaucho.”

ABOVE: Patagonia still has remnants of early pioneer life, adding to the overall experience reminiscent of the gauchos’ rides.

had taken a 300-kilometer camel ride across the Gobi Desert, so he was accustomed to varied sleeping conditions, like this tent he used during the

RIGHT: Schiller

Gaucho Derby.

Following a phone interview at sign-up, it became clear that there were some skills that each horseman needed to focus on, such as making weight to start, brushing up on survival skills and being physically ﬁt to ride long hours over 10 days.

Prepare for PATAGONIA

Spin a globe around, and the southernmost tip of Argentina isn’t always visible, yet that is part of the heart of Patagonia. A region that holds some of the hottest and coldest weather, the driest and wettest areas, vast desert plains and high mountain peaks is packed into a location closer to Antarctica than America.

“As much as I Googled, researched and looked into it, I don’t think anything can prepare you for Argentina until you see it,” James says. “I’ve experienced a lot of places, but the diversity in it was huge. When they say it’s ‘windy,’ there is windy, and there is like living in a hurricane. I’ve never seen or felt wind like it. At one stage there, you were hanging o , leaning into the wind, to counterbalance the horses going up a mountain. The wind was so strong, it would fold the horse’s ears over.”

Each horseman added something to their daily routine to prepare for wind, rain, cold and long days in the saddle. For Schiller, it was riding bareback. After hours in the saddle, he discovered he was sore in an area of his legs that was more common when riding bareback. For Holtzman, it was boosting his physical stamina, so he began running.

It’s not often a 175-pound man is thought of as a big man in a room, but James was considered so for the race. The maximum weight for a rider fully dressed was 180 pounds to start the race, plus gear bags that could only weigh 10 kilograms, or about 21 pounds, which includes the items needed to survive, like a sleeping bag, food and tent.

“I got down to 169 before I left, and I got to 157 when I came back,” James says. “For me, personally, being on [cattle] stations in Australia was a similar packing experience. Knowing what we needed wasn’t so hard, but getting equipment that was light enough was hard. We were going to one of the windiest, coldest areas, but we needed to pack the lightest equipment we could. Adding in the weight of your bag can be half a pound. It gets down to people cutting their toothbrush in half to make weight!”

Looking back, James regrets leaving his Leatherman multitool when he needed to make weight at the start line. Holtzman wishes he had carried binoculars to see better what was ahead or how to ﬁnd a gate when he encountered fences. Schiller learned he was packing too much food with him.

While a saddle and bridle were provided to each rider, some gear was their own. Both Holtzman and James brought their own mecate reins and hobbles. James says the mecate reins came in handy when they had to walk alongside the horses. Each rider had to add their own stirrup leathers to the saddle.

“I took neoprene Western fenders,” Schiller says. “Neoprene is light, and if it gets wet, it doesn’t get damaged. Some took English leathers, but I thought I would get rubbed riding that much in those.”

Armed with their gear, a map, Garmin communication device and a backpack for water, each horseman set out daily to

The 500-kilometer race crossed varied terrain, challenging the horses and riders while allowing them to see the region’s beauty.

tackle the course. It was a game of pounds, and it made all the di erence when crossing treacherous terrain and when saddling and riding a new horse.

A HORSE is a Horse

Imagine taking a working cow horse, strapping 21 pounds of gear on behind the saddle, then taking o at a run across the pasture, and you’ll visualize an uncomfortable situation and the occasional buck. That is what was required daily for each rider during the race. The ranch horses brought in were put in a corral, each marked with a number corresponding to a number the rider would draw out of a hat.

Once the rider caught their horse, then the true test of horsemanship started. Schiller’s plan for each horse helped him get through the race. First, he would always saddle and ride the horse without his water backpack and the gear bag.

“Like starting a colt, change one thing at a time. If [the horse] was good with the pack riding around, then I would add the water pack to my back,” he explains. “It’s hard to ride a bucking horse with a gallon of water on your back, so I would ride the horse around ﬁrst before adding the water pack. The other thing I would do is let the horse go where they wanted, leaving the corral. Some were herd-bound, and instead of letting the horse rear up after it left the corral, I’d let it go where it wanted, then trot up and down the corral fences until it realized staying was not as fun as it thought. Then, they would o er to turn away. And, o we would go.

“Those were the two horsemanship things that kept me safe. It’s like the Ray Hunt thing — ﬁrst you go with them, then they go with you, then you go together. Well, ﬁrst, I would go with them to the corral, and they would go with me back and forth at the corral. Then, when they wanted to leave, we would go together.”

The horses, obtained from local estancias, were a mix of South American Criollo, draft-horse crosses, Arabian crosses and Quarter Horse. Each of the three horsemen from the U.S. had di erent views of the horses and di erent experiences. They all drew on their experiences starting colts, running down a checklist to ensure they were as safe as possible each day.

Holtzman says he was lucky with his horses.

“I had one for two full days, and on day one, it did try to buck me o for a full half-day, but by day two, it was pretty broke. One guy that rode with us, who starts Thoroughbreds for the track, he got bucked o every horse — he had bad luck,” Holtzman recalls. “The horse I went over the ﬁnish line with I really enjoyed. This horse was the youngest of all but bigger moving and more of a traditional Criollo style. We did almost 60 miles, and that horse was a trooper. I wouldn’t have minded bringing him home.”

Likewise, James enjoyed two horses his kids named “Fish Legs” and “Michaelangelo.” However, one horse set him back far in the race and created a moment of self-enlightenment. It was day seven of the race, and the horse had been doing ok for a few hours, James says, before it bucked him o .

“I was not prepared, and he clean bucked me o . Then, he proceeded to run o . I had 7 or 8 kilometers to walk back to get to the next horse station. It’s pretty humbling. I’m doing, essentially, what I do every day and make a living out of, but [the horses] continually humble you in those moments,” James explains.

“The funny part that went along with this story is that I had a letter from a mate of mine who is a Marine, and he gave me a letter to crack out when I needed a pep talk. As I was walking, I thought this would be a pretty good time to get that letter out, but I realized it was in my kit bag strapped to the horse. So, my pride and my letter both ran away with the horse. I ﬁnally recovered it when the horse was caught at the end of the day. I had to tell myself to get up and go on.”

True Test OF WILL

True to its tag phrase, the Gaucho Derby did not go exactly how any rider wanted, but in the end, all three horsemen learned something they needed to learn. They traversed the trails apart for many days but crossed the ﬁnish line together on day nine. It was a moment of relief and pride.

“Crossing the ﬁnish line was a relief that we didn’t have to ride the next day. We accomplished our goal and got it done,” Holtzman says. “Overall, for me, it wasn’t as hard [a race] as I thought it would be. There were a lot of people on the ride whohad to give themselves pep talks and had a really hard time. But to me, I was surprised I didn’t have to do that. I knew the task, and once I was in it, riding, it was just continuing to look at what came next. It was overall helpful in knowing that if I knew the task in front of me, I could do it if I took little steps forward, and it was accomplishable.”

For Schiller and James, the lessons learned did not center around horsemanship or survival skills. Rather, both men began to better understand what was of vital importance to them: family. They had similar situations that left each man unable to communicate their safety to their wives. For James, it was when he was bucked o , but for Schiller, it was a failure in his equipment.

“Being a male growing up in Australia, boys don’t show fear or cry, so I have been somewhat emotionless all my life,” Schiller explains. “I’ve been trying to unravel that, but it really worked out during the race. My GPS was having trouble charging, and I radioed headquarters. They said they would have one at the next vet check, but I didn’t get one for several days. When we were on the Plateau of Death, my tracker died. I looked at my phone and realized it was 6 a.m. in California, when my wife would just be waking up, check where I was, and she would see I disappeared on the Plateau of Death. I was very worried. When that tracker died, I wasn’t concerned about me or the people at home. I was worried about my wife. At the next vet check, I broke down to one of the organizers and [spilled out] my concern for my wife. It probably got more emotion out of me than four years of therapy; it was quite cheap therapy! I did get in touch with her.”

Later, Schiller and James spoke about their experiences, and both realized that their wives were at the forefront of their worries, Schiller says. That shared experience brought the long-time friends closer and solidiﬁed their friendship with Holtzman, too. The evenings spent around a campﬁre visiting brought an added element to the race.

“One of the things you learn in that race is that it comes back to the people you surround yourself with,” James says. “There’s a saying if you want to go fast, go by yourself, but if you want to go far, go together. The race is a testament, and we witnessed

both sides of that. We saw people who went by themselves get into tricky spots, and at some point, they needed someone else.”

To a man, all agree that if the adventurous spirit takes you, join the Gaucho Derby. Though a challenge, each described it as a once-in-a-lifetime event they would do again.

“I think everyone’s experience is di erent, even though it’s the same race,” James says. “It’s a metaphor for life going through it. We all got about the same start, but then, riding through it, we have all these obstacles, the highs and the lows. Getting to the end of that race — it is amazing to see the crews, sta and other riders there cheering you on.”

While 2025 will be a year for the Gaucho Derby Academy and the Mongol Derby, in 2026, the Gaucho Derby will return. Cooper says that the equestrianists are also looking to launch a new race in North America.

“It’s a race, but it is also an experience,” Cooper says. “You can stay in your comfort zone at home, or you can push yourself and ﬁnd your limits.”

ABOVE: The race forced riders like Schiller to dig deep to overcome both emotional and physical challenges. BELOW: James and Holtzman race through the course on two of the seven horses each rider rode in the race.

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15 Jeans material

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My First Horseback Adventure

Recently, my mother sent me a picture from my youth. I am about 8 or 9 years old on top of a ﬂea-bitten half-Appaloosa. The horse’s head is straight up in the air as if he’s checking the weather. I can see my cinch is nearly worn out and looks like broomweed from all the busted mohair. About two threads are holding what’s left of the leather heap that used to look like a saddle 100 years earlier. I have the reins pulled all the way to my waist, trying to get this donkey under control and what looks to be a death grip on the horn.

There was a guest ranch up the road from us in Montana — the Diamond Bar X — maybe only 15 miles from the house. During the summer months, when the pack string wasn’t bringing out deer, elk, mountain lions and bears, they were used for a children’s horseback riding camp.

asked them to do anything besides follow the horse in front of them. I’d never seen horses bite like this; I mean, reach around and get you by the leg while you’re on their back — alligators, all of them.

We had plenty of horses of our own — nice, sweet horses, I might add — but I’m guessing my parents thought it might be good for me to meet some other kids and have a fun summer horseback adventure.

Here’s how I remember it: I was the youngest one in the camp by at least a few years, and by way of seniority, was cut the worst horse (the horse no one could catch). I remember being bitten, kicked, cold and generally unhappy, and that was the ﬁ rst day.

Most of the morning consisted of the dude crew cussing and trying to get the remuda into the pole corrals. Then it was mass chaos as 20 youths stood around trying to ﬁ gure out how a halter works and which way was up, a lot of, “Don’t let go of your horse,” and “Someone catch that horse.” Once you were on horseback and lined out, you were safe. The horses would all fall into pack string mode and go all day unless you

I don’t remember the name of the ﬂea-bitten plug they cut me, but I do remember his rude attitude and how those teeth looked coming at you. We covered quite a few dusty trails riding drag over that week. By the end of it, I was still alive, bite marks were almost gone, and I had a new appreciation for good horses.

The old photo my mother sent reminded me that my own boy is just about the right age to send to camp himself. Hang tight, buddy.

TEAL BLAKE is a cowboy artist from Montana. He always liked to show what makes the traditional West: cowboys not always clean-shaven, shirts not always creased and his horse’s mane not always long. Blake’s medium of choice is watercolor. He is a member of Cowboy Artists of America, and his work has been featured across the Western industry.

COWBOY ARTIST TEAL BLAKE BASED IN MONTANA

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