The inaugural 48-hour Cowboy Trails sale, offering works from CAA’s annual trail ride, kicks off July 11. View paintings now at caacowboytrails.com.

You couldn’t get in on the Cowboy Artists of America 2018 invitation-only trail ride at the o6 Ranch in Alpine, Texas, but you can do the next best thing: See and buy the artwork produced from the ride.

The CAA is launching its first online-only Western art sale, featuring original artwork created on and inspired by the CAA 2018 trail ride.

Save the date: The Cowboy Trails: Works From the CAA’s Annual Trail Ride sale kicks off on July 11 at 11 a.m. CST for 48 hours only, when the public is invited to shop an exclusive selection of pieces created by the elite Cowboy Artists of America painters and sculptors. 

“The o6 Ranch was an incredible place for this year’s ride!” says CAA president Martin Grelle. “It is an iconic ranch which has beautiful terrain and true working cowboys. It was an honor and an inspiration to be there, and it gave the CA artists subject matter that is honest and true to the spirit of the West.” 

For more than 50 years, CAA members have saddled up and headed out for an annual week-long passage on ranches throughout the country, where they ride, paint, and sculpt together, deepening their Western brotherhood and their shared passion to preserve and perpetuate authentic cowboy culture through art. 

Western art lovers can purchase from a variety of small works specifically sized and priced to be inclusive for all collectors.

Cowboy Trails: Works From the CAA’s Annual Trail Ride

Online Sale Launch: July 11, 2018, 11 a.m. CST
Ends: July 13, 2018, 11 a.m. CST
(View works beginning June 25.)

View and purchase artworks on their website. 

Show Artists

Wayne Baize
Teal Blake
Tyler Crow
Mikel Donahue
Michael Dudash
Phil Epp
Loren Entz
Bruce Greene
Martin Grelle
Oreland Joe
Paul Moore
Dustin Payne
Clark Kelley Price
Grant Redden
Jason Rich
Jason Scull

For more information about Cowboy Artists of America and the Cowboy Trails sale, visit cowboyartistsofamerica.com and caacowboytrails.com.

The post Cowboy Artists of America Launch Online Art Sale appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

C&I talks to organizers about the successful inaugural rodeo in Grand Junction, Colorado.

After the inaugural memorial event on June 23, 2018, for the young cowboy tragically killed in a car accident, we checked in with organizers to see how things went.

Here’s their report about who showed, who won, and how much it meant to everyone.

Nearly 500 spectators, 51 competitors, local business owners, and countless family and friends turned out for the 1st Annual Hunter Norman Memorial Bulls & Ranch Broncs event on Saturday, June 23, 2018, at the Mesa County Fairgrounds in Grand Junction, Colorado. The event honored and paid tribute to respected Western Slope ranch bronc rider Hunter Norman, a 20-year-old Fuita Monument High School graduate who lost his life in a tragic accident in early May.

The event showcased fierce competition and big payouts and prizes. Competitors came from Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and throughout Colorado. Premier bucking stock was provided by Ty Farris, Lonny Lancaster, Bryan Flynn, and Wes Clegg of 7C Buckers. Nine-time PBR World Finals qualifier Tony Mendes made his return to bull riding at the event after a two-year hiatus to honor the memory and spirit of the beloved cowboy.

“It’s a blessing and an honor that everybody showed up and attended this,” Mendes said. “It speaks volumes on what Hunter represented as a cowboy. He had heart. He'd always show up with some young kid wanting to learn how to do it. He put a lot back into this sport and I guess that was my biggest thing with coming back. I haven’t been on a bull in two years and the love that that kid showed my sport, I really wanted to be a part of this event.”

Mendes said Hunter had such an impact on his life because he always wanted to help somebody else. “Hunter would show up at the practice pen out in Fruita and pay 10 bucks for some other kid to ride. He always gave back to the kids and always tried to help everybody. You’d never see him turn his back on nobody. To be a part of an event like this and to see everybody brought together doing what we love to do — that’s being a cowboy — it’s an honor and privilege. He had a heart. Hunter had a big heart. That’s why he made such a big impact and that’s why you see these people here. When he did something, he did it with his heart. He did it because he wanted to be a cowboy.”

One of the special moments from the evening featured “Hunter’s Last Ride”: A horse wearing Hunter’s saddle was sent out from the bucking chute just before the short round. As the horse ran across the arena, fellow competitors and friends threw out their cowboy hats to show their respect for Hunter Norman.

“We wanted to make this event the No. 1 stop in the month of June,” said two-time Colorado Bullfighter of the Year Tyler Williams, one of the event organizers. “The crowd turned out and the ranch bronc riders and bull riders showed up. I’m going to say this is one of the biggest events Mesa County has had in a long time. Hunter, being only 20 years of age, had a big impact on a lot of people. It’s crazy to know the impact that he had. Community members and the family came together to make this event happen, and it means the world to us.”

The annual memorial event will continue to celebrate the young cowboy’s life and his love and passion for ranch bronc riding. Plans are already underway for next year’s rodeo to potentially include a concert, raffle, and silent auction.

Winners List — 1st Annual Hunter Norman Memorial Bulls & Ranch Broncs

Ranch Broncs

1st Place: Tyler Williams ($2,700 + custom hat from Rocky Mountain Hat & Boots and Hunter Norman Buckle from A Cut Above)
2nd Place: Wes Rosengreen ($1,620 + Hunter Norman Memorial Spurs from A Cut Above)
3rd Place: Dallin Anderson ($1,080 + Hunter Norman Memorial Jacket from Bud Signs)
High Point Ride in the Long Round — 81 points: Travis Harrison & Kasey Rosendahl (custom-made bronc halter from Tel Campbell + rein donated from The Horse in Sport)

Bulls

1st Place: Nate Hoey ($2,600 + Hunter Norman Memorial Buckle from A Cut Above)
2nd Place: Wyatt Hamilton ($1,560 + custom hat from Rocky Mountain Hat & Boots)
3rd Place: Wyatt Bronson ($1,040 + Hunter Norman Memorial Jacket from Bud Signs)
High Point Ride in the Long Round — 82 points: Wyatt Hamilton (custom-made bull rope from Beast Master Rodeo Gear)

For information on next year’s event and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Scott Norman at 970.471.5900.

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Montana-based fine-art photographer Erika Haight went on assignment for C&I to Wyoming’s Cheyenne Frontier Days — and captured some of the experiences in and out of the arena.

If you’ve ever been a photographer on a press trip with a bunch of writers, you can relate: When Erika Haight’s photography needs intersected with the writer-centric itinerary of a press trip to Cheyenne Frontier Days and the transportation designed around them, her shot list contracted.

No worries, though. Singer and accomplished photographer Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn was also on the case, and he got to devote plenty of time to the action for a photo feature of his own in our July 2018 issue.

And there was so much to see and do in and around Cheyenne that Haight’s Plan B worked out just fine. Here are some of her impressions of the action inside and outside of the arena and show grounds.

Bling Capital in July

Cheyenne Frontier Days — July 20 – 29, 2018 — is a good-time spectacle of dust and sparkle. Where rhinestones are the only things that outnumber the cowboys.

Historic and Happening Downtown

Who knew Cheyenne used to be in Dakota Territory. When it was first plotted by Gen. Grenville M. Dodge and his crew on July 5, 1867, it wasn’t yet in Wyoming Territory. This is where the Union Pacific Railroad crossed a South Platte River tributary called Cow Creek. Named Cheyenne for the Great Plains tribe, it got the nickname “Magic City of the Plains” when rapid growth from the railroad — which arrived on November 13, 1867 — rapidly accelerated the city’s growth.

Downtown, you can really get a feel for Cheyenne’s Victorian frontier past — on foot or on wheels. There are historic downtown walking tours and the Cheyenne Street Railway Trolley has fully narrated historic tours that start at the Cheyenne Depot.

A multitude of vendors are strategically placed throughout the city, and the pubs are packed. My favorite stop was at the Freedom's Edge Brewing Company, where the High Noon Chili Ale with Jalapeno was simply amazing! When it’s time to eat there’s definitely no shortages of steakhouses and fine dining. T-Joe's Steakhouse & Saloon will come through with really good steak and nice cold beer.

Prepare to Shop

At the big red “Famous for Ranchwear Since 1943” Wrangler store I picked up my new two-toned American hat and had it personally steamed and shaped into a Cool Hand Luke. The store is striking inside and out and I could have shopped for days. I was already rocking Western jeans and boots, and now I a brand-new hat. And, believe me, when you are in the arena at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, Western wear is a requirement. Cheyenne prides itself on keeping the experience authentic.

Luxe Bunking in the Historic District

The Nagle Warren Mansion B&B is absolutely beautiful! Innkeeper Jim Osterfoss is a delightful man. I would have high tea with him any day — and the mansion’s high tea is unforgettable whoever you’re enjoying it with. From the wallpaper to clawfoot bathtubs, the owner has done a masterful job with the restorations of the grand old property. It was originally built in 1888, and then restored in 1997. There are 12 guest rooms, a beautiful dining area, and an intimate garden spot in the back. And did I mention high tea?

Piece de Resistance: The Rodeo

The rodeo is truly something else! Bareback, saddle bronc, barrel racing, team roping, bull riding, and action-packed intermissions. Trick shooting, horse races, and the Dandies light up the arena with their synchronized horsemanship work and flags. Top competitors come out of the woodwork and go for broke hoping to win some of the $1 million in cash prizes. I gather this is why they call it “The Daddy of Them All.”

There is an Old Frontier town you can shop and get a quick bite to eat in, an Indian village with traditional music and dance, and a carnival. And the parade downtown is spectacular!

Nightly concerts and street dances are all part of the experience. And honky-tonkin’ is right around the corner. At The Outlaw Saloon I happened to run into both Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith. Of course I was instantaneously star struck — only to find out later that they were impersonators.

I’m told at the Little American Hotel & Resort there’s a good chance of running into some actual famous people, as Miranda Lambert has stayed there on several occasions.

Where the Buffalo Roam

A half-day trip to the Terry Bison Ranch was entertaining. The ranch is so big it has a train to take you out to see the bison. There’s a trading post, a restaurant, and horseback riding with lovely views, but for me getting while feeding treats to the bison herd had to be the highlight.

A Victorian Good Time

We found this interesting article on the Nagle Mansion Website about the history of high tea in Cheyenne and at the regal B&B property.

“When the Transcontinental Railroad opened the Great Plains to productivity, Cheyenne became the business and social hub of the Rockies. Merchants shipped goods north as far as Canada and as far south as Mexico.

“Cattle raising became the most common product and people came from all over the world to participate in the land rush. As the country doubled in size, ranchers were taking control of tens of thousands of acres and thousands of cattle. Many of these ranchers were landed gentry from Europe. These men saw the living standards at the ranches and quickly hired managers to run them. They built their elegant homes in Cheyenne. These wealthy cattle barons brought the customs of fine living to the West. One of these Victorian customs was English high tea.

“During the Victorian period, people were accustomed to eating a meal at noon and a meal around 9 p.m. Queen Victoria is credited with having the munchies is the late afternoon. She added sandwiches and biscuits (that’s English for cookies) to an afternoon tea break. When there was a special occasion, or company, the menu was expanded. It then became known as high tea. It is still a very special event and includes lots of delicious goodies.

“The English high tea that is served at the Nagle Warren Mansion has developed a reputation for being an elegant and fun occasion. Fresh teas of fine quality are imported from the United Kingdom and frozen to keep their freshness. Tea is brewed with care and served to the guest at their table by cheerful ladies clad in period dress. Cream, lemon, and hand-decorated sugar cubes may be added to suit each person’s taste. The mansion’s staff bakes scones, tarts, biscuits, and cakes. …

“High tea is served in the distinguished parlor, sitting room, and library at Victorian tables topped with refined lace table cloths, antique china, and a silver tea service. Classical and jazz music plays softly in the background.

“The best part of high tea is the company. Conversation varies from humorous to serious and casual to formal. Mothers bring their daughters and guys bring their girlfriends, or vice versa. It’s a group of close friends or an office getaway. Whichever it is there is always a convivial chatty atmosphere.”

More Adventure:

Fourth Of July Cocktails From Breckenridge, Colorado
Eternal Yellowstone
Spas Of The West: Let The Healing Begin 

The post Cheyenne Frontier Days appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

A special chat with Red Steagall on the occasion of C&I's silver anniversary.

Cowboys & Indians: You’ve been a friend to the magazine for so long; what do you see as its legacy, and what is your impression of the readership we’ve built?
Red Steagall: I think it’s a great magazine. It’s probably the single biggest force that preserves and perpetuates the Western way of life that we all love and appreciate. It reaches an audience that you can’t reach through normal channels; it’s an audience that lives in the city who still adores the Western way of life. If we stop to think about it, most of the people who settled the West, after the Indian wars were over and the Civil War was over, were people from the East who wanted to get out of the cities and be out in the open country. Cowboys & Indians gives them the ability to do that. They read the beautiful magazine, see the unbelievable pictures, and they can transport themselves into the West.

C&I: Do you ever get approached by people specifically because they’ve read about you in C&I? If so, what are the most common comments that you get?
Red: I have a lot of people talk to me about the column. ... They all seem to think that they gain an awful lot of insight into the people of the West and the way they talked. Those are interviews that we’ve done, sometimes years ago, still alive and people still concerned about the West and want to be part of it.

C&I: What gave you the idea to do something like In the Bunkhouse?
Red: It was the publisher’s idea to put that in the magazine. The interviews are from my radio show, Cowboy Corner. And so we just take excerpts from those radio shows. ...

C&I: What do you find to be the most common denominator for all of your guests who come to visit the Bunkhouse? Is it a devotion to the West, a particular outlook on life?
Red: It’s a combination of an outlook on life and their interest in the preservation of the Western lifestyle. And everybody that I interview for Cowboy Corner has something to do with the West. They might be a rancher, they might be an actor, might be a singer, might be a cowboy, might be a bootmaker — I had great interviews with Mr. [John] Justin when he was alive. ... And great actors, like Ben Johnson and Richard Farnsworth and Dale Robertson and just on and on and on. It’s all about the West, and it’s all about the people, places, and events in the West.

C&I: We love your poems that we get to feature. Do you have a poem or a song that you’re most proud of?
Red: There’s a couple of things that I’m more proud of than the rest of them, and that’s “Born to This Land,” because it talks about something that’s very important to me: It’s private ownership of land. And that’s what we have in this country, what we must protect at all costs. And then “The Fence That Me and Shorty Built.” It’s talking about being proud of yourself and doing the job right in the first place so you don’t have to do it again. So those are probably my two favorite poems of everything I’ve written. And “Ride for the Brand” is a very close second. ...

C&I: Can we expect any more songs or poems in the future?
Red: Yes. I’ve got several songs that I’m working on. I don’t have the time to write like I used to because the television show takes up most of my creative time, as well as the radio show. But I’ve got to block out some time and finish another project.

C&I: What excites you about contemporary cowboy life and young guns?
Red: It’s the same thing. It’s the same objective. Working cattle horseback providing beef for the dinner tables of America. You do that and you accomplish that by protecting the investment in the cattle to begin with and in the land to begin with; being good stewards, good conservationists, good environmentalists. Because you live with the land, you don’t live on the land. You live with the land, and there’s a difference between a person who owns land and a landed person. A person who owns land owns it to utilize it. A person who’s landed knows that they belong to the land, so they do everything in their power to protect it. Because if they don’t, they can’t make a living from it. I don’t think any of that has changed. That’s always been the idea, and I don’t think the set of values of the cow country has changed. And that’s honesty and integrity, loyalty, work ethic, dedication to your family, conviction about your belief in God, and practicing respect and common decency for your fellow man every day you live.

C&I: As a great storyteller, do you have a specific story about yourself and your experiences that you love to tell?
Red: Not necessarily. I think a story that I sometimes hesitate to tell because it sounds like I’m bragging on myself, but my ability to overcome the polio and the loss of my left shoulder has — it’s still a challenge every day, but it’s one that I’m proud to face because it gives me an insight into what I’m doing, because I have to concentrate on everything that I do and figure out a way to do it, because I’m not like everybody else. So, I think that that has been the strong point in my life because it gives me the ability to be introspective and to decide what’s best for me and follow that course. The one thing that I try to live by — and don’t always do ... but I read what John Deere said in 1856: “I will never put my name on something that’s not as good as the best in me.”

C&I: What is something that our readers might not know about you?
Red: Probably nothing. I’d like to think that what you see is what you get. I have a love of the land. I have a love of America. I’m proud to be a Texan. I love the agricultural way of life. I don’t have a specific mission, but [it] seems my motivation in life is to make people understand how important our agricultural community is. Because without it, if we can’t feed ourselves, none of the rest of what we do matters. ... That’s our most important asset, and most people don’t think about that because you can go to the grocery store and buy anything your mind can imagine and your heart desires. ... But it’s because we have men and women who are dedicated to it and put everything they have on the line every day to put food on our table.

C&I: As for future plans, what’s down the trail?
Red: I’d just like to think we can keep the television show going as long as we can, and the radio show. I still love to do a few concerts, and I do about, on average, two a month all year long. Our Cowboy Gathering in Fort Worth. ... I just enjoy life. I really enjoy my friends and my family, and I don’t know what else there is. Everything else is window dressing.

Born To This Land

Tonight there’s a terrible pain in my heart,
Like a knife — it cuts jagged and deep.
This evening the windmiller brought me the word
That my granddaddy died in his sleep.

Now that he’s gone, things are certain to change.
An’ I reckon that’s how it should be.
But five generations have called this ranch home,
And I promise it won’t end with me,

’Cause I’ve got a little one home in a crib,
When he’s old enough he’ll understand.
From the top of that hill I’ll show him his ranch
’Cause like me, he was born to this land.

Excerpted from Red Steagall’s book Born To This Land.

TV And Radio Schedule — Episodes of Red’s travel show, Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street, air Mondays at 9:30 p.m. EST on RFD-TV. Find out more about the TV program at rfdtv.com, and keep up with Red’s radio show, Cowboy Corner, at their website.  

Upcoming Events — October 26-28: The Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival at the historical Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas.

From the July 2018 issue. Photography: Courtesy Vaughn Wilson.

More from the July 2018 Issue

Michael Greyeyes
Kevin Costner
Eternal Yellowstone

The post In The Bunkhouse With Red Steagall appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Collectors from all over the world and Silversmiths from all over Indian Country converge at Ernie Montoya's Sunwest Silver, one of the biggest turquoise operations in North America.

On a recent summer day at 8 a.m. in Albuquerque, the azure sky outside is hazy from a forest fire in the Gila Wilderness, and Ernie Montoya is already working at his store, Sunwest Silver.

Sitting in a crowded storeroom at a large wooden table, sorting through his inventory of Native silver-and-turquoise jewelry, Montoya prefers to fly under the radar, sought out by those in the know but otherwise an understated presence. Clad in a simple long-sleeved white tee and blue summer pants, he sets about his day. During the next couple of hours, the soft-spoken Montoya will touch base with employees, wholesale customers, and a smattering of the 150 or so Native silversmiths with whom he regularly collaborates.

With his quiet way and unobtrusive demeanor, Montoya might seem like an unlikely turquoise tycoon. In fact, he owns and manages a wholesale and retail operation that mines turquoise, cuts it, designs it, silversmiths it into jewelry, and sells it worldwide. Yet he insists, “Look at me. I’m just a plain guy.”

The Southwestern entrepreneur is on his cell phone most mornings by 6 a.m., fielding calls from India, Russia, and China for orders that can spike to five or six figures. But in his heart of hearts, Montoya is still the same turquoise dealer he was when he first got into the business, still attracted to the blue and green stones that he’s mined out of the West for four decades now. He keeps them in jars, spraying the stones with water to clean them and inhaling their earthy scent.

“These stones are like a spirit,” he says. “It’s hard to let them go. It’s like a feeling. It makes you feel good. And it brings good health. The Natives believe that. They’ve been cutting turquoise forever. Finally, turquoise is getting its recognition. Luck, protection — it makes you feel good. I sold one stone for $30,000 and I had to buy it back.”

Considered to have the largest private collection of North American turquoise in the world — “That’s what they say,” he acknowledges — Montoya owns five major turquoise mines in the West, including Carico Lake (his most precious), New Lander, Badger, and Falcon. He buys from all the other major mines, too, including Sleeping Beauty (known for its blue stones with scarce matrix) and Royston.

Montoya’s Sunwest Silver has retail stores in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, plus warehouses throughout Albuquerque. The operation has cutting rooms with stonecutters; machine shops; a line of jewelry for the national parks; 300 types of miniatures and stud earrings; 5,000 active styles of charms; bead makers; more than 300,000 rubber molds for casting production; Native pottery, including pieces by Maria Martinez; sculptures from the likes of Presley LaFountain; high-end Zuni and Navajo pawn jewelry from the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, including squash blossom necklaces priced at $30,000 to $50,000; and high-quality strands of Sleeping Beauty beads, nugget beads, and button beads that run from $1,000 to $10,000.

And of course there are thousands of pieces of gorgeous handmade silver-and-turquoise jewelry. Many pieces begin with a rough sketch by Montoya; then an in-house designer finds the matching stones for it, and the piece is handmade by a Sunwest silversmith, about 98 percent of whom are Native American.

The famed Sunwest Silver vault is where wholesale customers buying for Garland’s, Evine, Teskey’s, and other stores browse, choosing among 5,000 styles of handmade turquoise earrings, along with thousands of turquoise, multicolor, beaded, and sterling bracelets, rings, and necklaces. “Everybody in Texas buys from me — about 30 stores,” Montoya says. “They love my jewelry. It’s big. Their style!”

Even more secluded is Montoya’s private collection room with more than 3,000 Mason jars of turquoise stones purchased from miners selling pouchfuls over the years, along with sugilite, amethyst, citrine, gaspeite, and other gemstones Montoya couldn’t resist. It’s a homey inner sanctum: just Montoya, a small scale, a Windex spray bottle now filled with water, and the stones. “Everybody who’s a goldsmith or silversmith who comes here, I blow them away,” Montoya says. “These guys tease me, ‘All roads lead to Ernie.’ They say I’m the turquoise king. I’m no king.”

The Albuquerque-raised Montoya has been working in the turquoise trade since the early ’70s, when he returned from service in Vietnam and loaned some money to a friend: “He comes back and says, ‘Ernie, I can’t pay you. But I’ve got all this Indian jewelry I can give you.’ So I took it. That’s how I started, peddling that jewelry.”

Now, after 45 years in the Native jewelry business, Montoya’s prized pieces include a tufa-cast sterling silver, turquoise, and coral concho belt by SWAIA award winner Rebecca Begay called The Story of My Life, priced at $50,000; an Ernest Begay high-grade Carico Lake squash blossom necklace with large Navajo-made silver beads; a collection of cuff bracelets with super-large, high-quality stones and intricate stamping, some by Ernest Begay and some by Arnold Blackgoat, each magnificent cuff selling for about $5,000; and inlay rings, pendants, and neckwear by Benson Manygoats.

One of Montoya’s biggest sales ever was to a Chinese group that plunked down $1.3 million, then later invited him to their gated estate in Las Vegas. “I used to have Chinese guys come in here spending $50,000 all the time,” he says. “But then they put a clamp onto how much they can spend out of the country.”

These days, Montoya observes the price of North American turquoise rising and speculates why: “There’s a huge demand for it and there’s not enough.” He recommends collectors buy only from sellers who can identify the artist who made the piece. Sunwest provides artist bios on its Native silversmiths, including Leonard Nez, whose work can be found in the Smithsonian; Matthew Charley, known for his highly textured surfaces; Arnold Blackgoat, who works with thick-gauged silver; Michael Calladitto, who does deeply stamped designs; and Joseph Coriz, who creates cut-out petroglyph storytelling designs.   

As the day turns to late morning, silversmiths appear with jewelry that Montoya has ordered, and to buy stones. They hail from all over Arizona and New Mexico: Gallup, Albuquerque, the reservations. It’s becoming a who’s who of Indian Country in the Sunwest anteroom. Pony-tailed jeweler Larry Vasquez of Santa Fe, who’s of Aztec, Maya, and Mescalero Apache heritage, brings in a stunner of a $60,000 coral and turquoise necklace he just completed for a Montoya customer in Nebraska. “Ernie’s always got something different,” Vasquez says. “He challenges me. He’s a meek, mild, radical extremist. I used to travel all over the country looking for stones. Now I just come to Ernie. I only have to go 50 miles.”

From the August/September 2018 issue. All Photography: Studio Seven Productions.

More From The August/September 2018 Issue

Bridges On Birmingham
The Iroquois White Corn Project
Gil Birmingham

The post All Roads Lead to Ernie appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

On the occasion of the Crow Fair centennial, photographer Erika Haight shares some favorite images From Past Fairs and highlights from conversations with A Crow family about the big celebration in Montana.

In the months leading up to the much-anticipated 100th anniversary of Crow Fair, the Crow are busy planning, beading, praying, saving money for giveaways and specials for the parade and powwow, and gathering supplies for their camps. Soon the banks along the Little Bighorn River will once again fill with tepees as they did a century ago. Families will gather, meals will be prepared, songs will be sung — a tradition that seems to have no end.

For me, this historic milestone means frequent trips to the reservation, scheduling photoshoots and interviews, spending time with friends and family. It’s an honor to sit and visit with those who are willing to invite me into their lives. And it’s a photographer’s delight to take time away from all the activity to find quiet visual moments in closeup. On a beautiful late-spring day in Montana, the Spottedtail family shared their stories and thoughts on the upcoming celebration.

100 Years Of Tradition 

Donald Spottedtail: What’s special about the 100-year anniversary is that we have come a long way as a Crow people, especially considering the transition from the old Crow way of life to the 20th century. Our people and the transition they made from pre-reservation to reservation life and how our language has survived the times, our way of life as a people — to me, that’s the significance of the centennial Crow Fair celebration. Over the years, I have seen the rapid growth of campers, which is a good thing. It means more participation, and more families being proud of who they are as Crow. We are still here, and we will always be here.

A Special Spot 

Donald: Our spot has been there for over 40 years now. It’s been in my family — it was my grandparents’ camp. It belonged to my grandfather. Of course my aunts and uncles, it’s their camp, too. Then my generation, and now my children. At Crow Fair everybody is there. Kids are playing. Everyone moves to our spot in the evening to eat and have coffee.

Getting Ready For The Fair 

Donald: Crow Fair takes planning. Like for your brush arbor: Where are you going to get your branches? Throughout the year, wherever I go — Crow Agency or up toward Ashland — I say, “Yeah, that one is for Crow Fair.” Then when it comes time for Crow Fair, I go to that spot. I scope out where I get the branches because a lot of the times now it’s getting more scarce, because more people are going after branches every year because of the increase of camps. So you have to be really strategic.

Alexsandra Spottedtail: And fast. You also have to make sure your structure is still holding up and that the wood isn’t rotted.

Donald: When I do cut branches, I always make sure not to totally cut everything off; I always make sure that there is enough so that there will be more growing in the years to come. It’s a way of respecting what the Creator has given us as a people.

A Family Focus

Donald: To us, the significance of Crow Fair is our family reunion. We have family that come and camp with us, stay with us. On Sunday everyone is having their big dinners at their camps.

The history is important because [it shows our] survival. There is one Crow Tribe, but there were two or three bands. One band would be in a different location in Crow territory, and this was for survival; [they’d be] hunting buffalo or wildlife, picking berries or wild turnips for sustenance. But there was a certain time of year when all the clans would come together. 

That is pretty much how Crow Fair is today — family that you haven’t seen for a while. We are like any society, we are like any people. We have our differences, we have our own personal issues, whether it’s politics or whatnot, but Crow Fair is a time when everyone puts all of that aside for that one week. They all camp together, and they are all one people, and they show that hospitality, they show that love for each other. Whether you come from near or far, you get that love from your family. That is one thing that every person gets is that family is everything. That’s what Crow Fair represents to me: Everyone puts aside their differences and worries, what’s going on back home, whatever is going on out in the world. They put everything to the side, and they focus on family.

Crow Fair [is about] staying at camp, and having that good cup of coffee. Coffee is part of the hospitality. A lot of the life lessons I learned from my grandfather; he would teach me to always have hospitality. No matter who comes into your house, welcome them in. Give them a meal, or [if you’re not] eating, a cup of coffee. Even offering a glass of water speaks a lot. Talk a good conversation, and when they leave, compliment them, because you want to make people leave your house with a good heart. When they go back home, they will say, “I was treated so well.” It’s a blessing that they are speaking over your home. That is what my grandfather taught me: always to have that hospitality. That’s part of the overall Crow culture. We are known for our hospitality. It doesn’t matter what family you go and visit — they will take you in and give you what little they have to make you feel welcome.

Changing With The Times 

Alexsandra: The families are larger now. When I was younger, my dad would bring the horses and everything, and I don’t remember it being [so] crowded.

Donald: I have seen the rapid growth of campers, which is a good thing — more participation and more families being proud of who they are as Crow.

The Making Of Memories 

Alexsandra: My grandfather always would bring the horses for me and my cousins to ride. This is what I remember most. It’s a big deal because of all of our relatives that we don’t get to see that often, like our favorite cousins and aunties — they are all in one spot. No matter what, everyone always [has come] together in one spot during Crow Fair.

One thing I will always remember is they found a snake under my bed at camp. I was just a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old, and I was playing dolls with my cousins. I kept seeing something; it kept catching my eye. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I guess I pushed my cousins out of the tent and ran and told my uncle. He came in and grabbed it and just snapped his neck. I remember one time my mom and dad bought my sister and me a 20- or 22-foot tepee, a big tepee, and it was for just us. We were maybe 12 or 13 years old. Every year my uncles would sigh and say, “I guess it’s time to put up Ali and Birdie’s mansion.”

Hopes For Another Hundred Years

Donald: Our people are resilient. I believe there will be a 200-year Crow Fair celebration, but I think that because of technology, and because of more of our people being assimilated into society through education and careers, that [future] generations will be more advanced. I just pray the way things are going that our language continues, because you see fewer and fewer people speaking our language as time goes on. If anything, during this Centennial Crow Fair I would want my Crow people to recognize and remember togetherness. We are still people. We are still Crow people. And we share one homeland. May we continue for generations to come.

Crow Fair takes place annually the third week of August near Billings, Montana, on land surrounding the Little Bighorn River. The 100th anniversary of Crow Fair & Rodeo will be celebrated August 15 – 20. visitmt.com

From the August/September 2018 issue.

More Living West

The Family Ranch
Honoring a Young Cowboy Taken Too Soon
Best of the West: Go Wild

The post Crow Fair At 100 appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Everything on that spring checklist seems to happen at once: new chicks, livestock babies, moving manure, planting the garden and new trees, uprooting invasive species, fixing fences, and getting the equipment running. My dad used to say, “Preparation is nine-tenths of the game,” and he was right. Knowing what’s coming, having a plan, and having the supplies and equipment you need on hand, organized, and in working order means you’ll be ready to take action on the long list of chores you’ll want to finish during the spring months.

Livestock and Poultry

• Clean up and spread chicken litter and winter manure on pastures and fields as soon as the ground has thawed and the soil has firmed up. Manure not needed in the field should be piled and composted for fall spreading on field and garden.
• Check all fences: Tighten slack wires and repair breaks or bad posts before turning livestock out to pasture. If you use rotational grazing, start setting up a temporary electric fence to subdivide the pastures.
• Livestock and poultry can go on pasture as soon as the ground firms up. Keep hay available until they quit eating it.
• Prepare pens or paddocks for livestock due to calve, foal, kid, or lamb. Have your veterinary kit updated and ready for any birthing complications, and have the vet’s phone number handy.
• Male kids and lambs should be castrated by the age of 3 weeks and vaccinated by 8 weeks. Calves can be castrated at birth or a couple weeks before weaning.
• Set up the brooder several days ahead of chick delivery date to get the temperature right and stabilized. Have starter feed and grit on hand.

Garden

• To minimize the chance of contamination by fecal pathogens, don’t put fresh manure on the garden in the spring—use compost instead.
• Wait to till the garden until the soil has thawed and then firmed up.
• Start some warm-season vegetables indoors for mid- and late-spring planting: tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs.
• Plant cold-tolerant seeds as soon as the ground is thawed and not soggy: peas and lettuce first, followed by cabbage, carrot, potato, radish, and spinach.
• Stay on top of weed control.

Orchard

• Finish pruning trees before bud break; Remove the prunings and burn, or brush-pile in the woods.
• Plant new trees.
• Look for and destroy tent caterpillar egg cases and nests.

Equipment

• Make sure all engines start a couple weeks before you think you’ll need them. Check tire pressures and radiator levels.

Woodlot

• Finish up winter pruning, thinning, and firewood harvest.
• This is a great time of year to uproot invasive species like buckthorn, since the soft ground of early spring makes pulling easy, whether you use hands, a mechanical puller, or a chain on the back of a tractor or ATV.
• Plant grass and clover seed on bare spots in your woods trails.

Kitchen and Cold Cellar

• Clear out the last of the root vegetables and save seeds from those that kept the longest.

A Final Note

Timing is everything in the spring, from getting seeds in the ground when the soil temperature is right to arranging lambing, calving, foaling, or kidding to happen when it works best in your system. Many folks like to birth their livestock in late winter; I prefer warmer weather when there’s clean green grass but before fly season really takes off – around here in Wisconsin that’s on average from mid-April to early May. I like to get the fruit trees pruned before it’s warm enough for fungal spores to be floating around looking for wounded wood to infect, and before new leaves obscure the branch structure.

Lastly, learning how to synchronize your rotational grazing system with the rate of grass growth will maximize pasture production and save you from buying a lot of hay in a drought – though you may still have to buy some. I cover the topic of grazing in my most recent book, and there are plenty of resources available on-line or through grazing groups as well.

Ann Larkin Hansen is the author of several books, including The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner: What to Do & When to Do It. She lives with her family on their farm in northern Wisconsin.

Photography (top to bottom): New to the World by David Strozdas, Simple Life by Jeanne Harford, Solitude by Erica McCrary, Sculpted Fields of the Palouse by Carla Francis, The Golden Light by Crystal Gibson

More Spring:

Ramp up for WildFlavor and the Cowgirl Spring Roundup at The Resort at Paws Up
Fashion Finds: Spring Boots, Bags, and Hats
How and When to Roam Free at any National Park in 2018

The post Western Homestead: Your Spring Checklist appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

America’s westernmost ranch does not lie along the slopes of a remote mountain range, nor under a bone-bleaching desert sun, nor on a tropical beach. Instead, the massive ranch lies northwest of the contiguous United States and Hawaii, clinging to the heart of the Cradle of Storms, as locals call this region of Alaska.

Resembling a strand of emeralds set against a steely gray sea, the Aleutian Islands reach for Asia with the snowcapped peaks of dozens of volcanoes peppered by the domes of small Russian Orthodox churches.

The jagged islands separate the frigid waters of the Bering Sea from the relatively warm waters of the Pacific with its Kuroshio current. The mixing of these waters gives birth to some of the most violent storms recorded in North America, often draping this world in fog for weeks and keeping the lush grasslands of these islands green.

Wrapped in mist is the 686-square-mile Umnak Island just west of Dutch Harbor. Seventy-two miles long and 16 miles wide with a volcano of its own, the island is also the home of the nearly 200,000-acre Bering Pacific Ranches Limited with its 8,000 to 10,000 head of cattle, operated by 62-year-old Pat Harvie.

“It’s cold, miserable weather on the island,” says the native Albertan, his heavy mustache still dark despite his years. “There’s been some tough stretches.” But, he later adds, the ranch’s position at 53 degrees latitude and the warm ocean current to the south also produce favorable working weather to both the cowboys and the cattle.

For a quarter century, Harvie and his cowboys and processing crew have shared Umnak Island with the Native village of Nikolski, home to fewer than 30 residents and a wilderness lodge. There are about 10,000 reindeer, a small bison herd on the far end of the island, and a few wild horses. The Okmok volcano and other mountains in the center of Umnak Island separate the ranch from the village a little more than 40 miles away.

The ranch house, housing for cowboys, slaughterhouse, and pens were originally part of Fort Glenn, a World War II Army air base that was effectively abandoned a few years after the Japanese surrendered. The slaughter plant was built up from the concrete foundation of one of the military structures. The site is leased from the Alaska Department of Transportation, and grazing rights for the ranch are leased from Native corporations that own land on the island.

Unlike the rest of Alaska, the island has no predators.

“The cattle go wherever they want. There’s few fences on the island,” Harvie says. “Besides grass, kelp on the beaches sustains the cattle.”

During roundup and slaughter operations, the ranch hires on a cowboy crew of 10 to 15 hands, along with 20 people to work in the slaughterhouse.

“We don’t advertise for cowboys,” Harvie says. “We usually get the crew we need through word of mouth. It gets to be an interesting mix of cowboys up here.”

Cowboys who arrive soon discover their only contact with the world is through either satellite phone or by way of Coast Guard radio. There is only diesel-generated electricity, and no parts store nor a mechanic down the street or in the next town to repair things, leaving ranch hands dependent on goods arriving by boat — or the kindness of others. In 2015, a scientific team studying the local volcano shared food supplies with two ranch hands when their own food shipment from Dutch Harbor failed to arrive for weeks.

Shipping containers stacked on top of one another hold an assortment of parts and materials. For the entertainment of ranch hands, the Buoy Bar was built in a gap between containers complete with a wooden floor and pool and foosball tables.

The ranch maintains a small herd of 11 saddle horses, but the real work bringing in the cattle is done with a two-seat helicopter. With stock ranging 50 miles or more from the pens, Harvie found horses to be impractical across such distances of rough terrain. The helicopter is ideal for working the valleys, driving the animals out toward the holding pens.

When circumstances line up, the ranch becomes fully operational in the fall months, each season processing 500 to 1,000 head with 40 to 60 head per day after the cattle have been rounded into pens following a summer spent fattening up.

The real trick is getting the beef to a market. Umnak has no natural harbor. Harvie and his cowboys load pallets of frozen beef onto a landing craft, then navigate through the surf and high waves to a waiting freighter rocking from large swells offshore. The beef is then shipped to Seattle.

After the season is over, the cowboys leave the ranch to the winter caretaker, a retired Texas cowboy who does simple maintenance and looks after the facilities with his wife.

Harvie and a partner, Bruce Hubbard, started the ranch in 1992. The two were looking for a location to start their own cattle operations. They explored the area around Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the Alaska Highway begins, and did not like the offerings there.

“We walked into the lobby in a Fort St. John hotel and found a notice that a ranch in the Aleutians was for sale,” Harvie says. The two made their way to the island and purchased three cattle herds already there, two located on Umnak and one across the straits on Unalaska.

Their gamble was to market the beef for its purity with no hormones, stimulants, or antibiotics. Unable to get financing through a bank, they put down their own money and persuaded 22 shareholders to invest in the enterprise. The State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture assisted by providing the seed loan to build the slaughter facility.

Others had tried raising livestock before on Umnak and failed. In the 1930s, Carlyle Eubank operated a sheep ranch on the island with 15,000 head and a crew of six. He shipped out 120,000 pounds of wool in 1937, but World War II would kill his market. Another ranch gave it a go in the 1960s with 5,000 head but could not turn a profit. The ranchers walked away and left the cattle behind. Many of their descendants make up the current Bering Pacific herds.

Setting up the new ranch operations has led to adventure and tragedy alike. During one roundup an aggressive horned range cow chased a cowboy into a bog and gored his horse’s hip. They stitched it up with dental floss. On another, two cowboys had to be medevaced to Anchorage after a bull tossed them around with its horns.

Alaskan pilot Lonnie Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash in 2010 while attempting to free one of the ranch’s bulls that had become ensnared in a fishing net. The pilot tried knocking the bull down with the chopper, but its landing skid hooked the animal briefly, lifting it off the ground. The added weight caused the helicopter to pitch forward and to the right, slamming it into the ground. Kennedy sustained fatal head injuries. The crash killed the bull as well.

In 2008 when Okmok erupted for several continuous days, the ranch was evacuated periodically, once during a noontime darkness as heavy volcanic ash fell. The volcano has erupted ash a few times over the last 100 years.

Hubbard has since retired from ranch ownership, but Harvie is still making improvements to the property. He often stands by the ranch house looking out to his left across grasslands unbroken to the horizon line while on his right a blue sea stretches as far as the eye can see. Beyond that horizon, there is nobody between him and Asia. He stands at the virtual edge of the continent.

From the April 2018 issue.

The post The Ranch at the Edge of the West appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

In the West, we love our pets as much as our people, treating them as part of the family. In honor of National Pet Day, we’d like to share some of our furry friends with our readers.
Enjoy! Don’t forget to share pictures of your loved ones at @Cowboysindiansmagazine #PetsoftheWest.

The post C&I’s National Pet Day appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Helping to save and rehabilitate horses and seeing Jack Ingram in concert at the same time? Where do we buy tickets?

Ingram, 2018 Country Music Song of the Year winner, and rising star Julia Hatfield will take the stage at the seventh annual Habitat for Horses fundraiser event on Wednesday, September 26, at 4 Star Concert Hall & SideBar in Brenham, Texas.

Habitat for Horses is a 501-3c nonprofit that promotes and secures the safety, well-being, and health of horses and establishes connections with humans who can benefit emotionally from involvement with horses.

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“There are few things more rewarding than watching a previously neglected animal go to a loving home. Habitat for Horses helps move these horses into homes where they are cared for, fed, loved on, and appreciated. Not only does it benefit the animal, but it changes the life of every member of the family,” says Ginger Barber, Houston interior designer and vice-president of the nonprofit.

“Being around horses provides a refuge. They are calm, strong, and majestic creatures that deserve to be treated with love and respect. The work that Habitat for Horses is doing is critical. It is so important to take care of the equestrian population.”

Barber, who has been a fixture on the H-Town design scene doing interiors for Houstonians’ homes and second homes since opening her studio 40 years ago, says she derives a lot of her design inspiration from horses: “They are such strong, stunning creatures. They are natural, graceful, and serene, and their beauty is bold, never overstated or flashy. Those are elements and characteristics I try to incorporate in all of my projects.”

Tickets to the seventh annual Habitat for Horses fundraiser start at $125 (sponsorships go up to $10,000); certain prices include open bar, light bites, and access to the Jack Ingram meet and greet. Evening activities also include a live auction — getaway trips such as a Nantucket escape and a Cabo retreat are among the goodies — benefiting equine rescue efforts.

Purchase tickets online here. For more information, call 713.523.1925 or visit gingerbarber.com. For more information about Habitat for Horses, call 409.935.0277 or visit habitatforhorses.org.

The post Jack Ingram Sings for the Horses appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

The Cowboy Crossings show brings together the top tier of artists and craftsmen working in the Western arts for the premier annual show at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Collectors and the public alike mark their calendars and wouldn’t miss the opportunity to see what the members of the Cowboy Artists of America and the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association have been working on all year for the big event. Selections of the work to be featured at the show are previewed in the slideshow below.

We caught up with TCAA president and bit and spur maker Wilson Capron to talk about the 20th anniversary of the TCAA, the work he’ll be showing at Cowboy Crossings, and what he’s looking forward to about the show.

Cowboys & Indians: What have you been working on for the Cowboy Crossings show? I imagine you’ve been busy. ...
Wilson Capron: I have a small anxiety problem that I won’t meet next year’s deadline of August 1. The first week of August is usually the deadline. I spend four to six months of the year doing work devoted to the TCAA show. A lot of time and thought go in to it. As soon as I’m done with the work for one show, I’m already thinking about how I’m going to do better the following year.

I like to say the TCAA has one small obligation: Bring the best three pieces you’ve ever made in your life each and every year. If you bring a show that represents your discipline and pushes your limits and the limits of the industry, we’re fulfilling the mission of the TCAA: to preserve and promote the skills of saddlemaking, bit and spur making, silversmithing, and rawhide braiding and the role of these traditional crafts in the cowboy culture of the North American West.

C&I: What role does the Cowboy Crossings show play in the overall mission of the TCAA?
Capron: Cowboy Crossings is the heartbeat of our organization. The show is extremely important. It’s our greatest medium and the greatest place for education. Not only do we get to push ourselves to our limits, but we get to expose the industry to the work being done at the highest level. It’s great to see everyone in one place surrounded by the art. As craftsmen and artists we generally spend 360 days of the year in solitary confinement and then get in community for five days. That exposure and professional camaraderie are so inspiring.

C&I: What has it meant to exhibit together with the Cowboy Arts of America since the TCAA and CAA came together in one Cowboy Crossings in 2011?
Capron: It’s been wonderful. What we in TCAA do is all about the culture of the West; what the CA does is all about the West. We are all telling the story of the West. And the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is making sure the story is told to everyone. To have the shows coincide and share in the greatest, most unique Western art show is indescribable.

Craft is a wonderful word to me. But it’s not always seen as equivalent in relation to the word art. When we started showing with the fine artists of the CA, it gave craft the proper elevation: We crossed the threshold into fine art. That’s only appropriate because “craft” at this level really is fine art. Having the Cowboy Artists there with us has helped expose a lot of people to what we do as art. It has helped people understand that art is not limited to paintbrush or clay.

In the TCAA, we have four disciplines: bit and spur making, saddlemaking, silversmithing, and rawhide braiding. There’s not one Cowboy Artist at that show who would say that we’re not artists. But because what we make was originally utilitarian, there’s always a certain amount of educating we need to do about the potential of our art.

Cowboy Crossings is fun — I love it. I love having the CAs there. And I love when cowboys come and see the “utilitarian” thing I made that was formerly seen as just a tool to them. Now they’ll cherish it because they understand how it fits into the story of the West. The show gives a real context to the art that we make. With the CA paintings and sculptures there, you see how these bits and spurs, etc., fit into the story of the West.

I not only tell the story of the West. I am the West. When the public sees my work and looks at a painting that shows how what I make fits in the story, there’s an “Oh, wow!” moment.

C&I: This is the 20th anniversary of the TCAA. What does that milestone mean to you and the guys?
Capron: It’s hard to describe. I’ve been part of the organization for 14 years now. [Saddlemaker] Cary Schwarz was one of the first guys who go back 20 years. The organization started with him and a couple others. I don’t think they ever — I certainly never — dreamed it would turn into what it has. I don’t mean how much money we make. I mean how much impact it has. It’s so much bigger than a couple of guys making saddles, bits and spurs, and braiding rawhide. It’s 365 days a year and requires lots of time. Twenty years is an inspiring landmark. It’s been a fun ride so far. Hallelujah! We take it a day at a time and one step at a time and try to learn from our mistakes. I’m glad we’ve arrived at where we are, and I’m looking forward to the next 20 years.

C&I: What are you looking forward to about this year’s show?
Capron: When I walk through the museum doors and am actually there with the pieces I’ve made alongside all the other amazing work, the feeling is indescribable. It’s always fun to see what everyone’s done. It’s a great feeling. It’s a one-of-a-kind feeling. It’s about the heart and soul and effort the guys put into the amazing things they create. The members of the TCAA are my heroes. When I get to be with them, the energies that come off of them are just so inspiring. These are folks who will not accept good enough. To see that passion put into those pieces — to see the artists, to know them — it’s awesome. I love it.

C&I: These are the traditional arts of the highest caliber. How do you learn a craft/art and what kind of hours are you talking about having to put in to become a master? What really distinguishes the work at this level?
Capron: I promise you everything’s been done before, but how I tell the story uniquely — each and every year, that is the challenge. But it’s also the reward. How the other guys tell their story is fun and exciting. It’s like a country song: There are probably 100 million songs talking about the same thing, but all the songs are different. That’s what it’s all about.

I think the 10,000-hour rule gets you started. There’s no way to get there without doing it day in and day out. You’ve got to put in the time.

I got accepted in TCAA at a very early age, when I was 30. I didn’t have two pennies to rub together, but I had a dad who’s an artist. And I had my mentor, [TCAA emeritus member bit and spur maker] Greg Darnall, who studied function and mechanics. Those things have helped me distinguish my own work.

The real opportunity came for me in the way my dad coached me. He would say, “That’s nice son, but ...” And then we’d get to talking, sometimes for hours, about how to make it better. That is priceless. To be given proper guidance and proper evaluation of your efforts is the only way it works.

There is a reason the vast majority of the TCAA guys are older: It’s taken years and years of working their butts off to accomplish what they’ve accomplished. It’s extremely difficult. That makes it sound like it’s only blood, sweat, and tears, but I love every minute of it.

I was a rodeo bum. I like to rope, still do, but I just don’t do much of it anymore. I don’t have time. I get up at 4 a.m. and work till 6 p.m.

I moved into a new shop over the weekend, and it looks like a bomb went off. Last June, my wife walked in and said, “Hey let’s go look at a place on the river.” In about 10 minutes of me walking around the property, I was ready to move. It’s been a great adventure and a real blessing. The house sits on a bluff overlooking the river. There are pecan and oak trees. It’s really cool. I got to build my own shop for the second time. The first time, I wasn’t old enough to understand what the devil I needed. Now it’s a different story.

C&I: You’re out in Christoval, Texas. Cowboy Crossings is held in Oklahoma City at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. What’s special about that museum for you and the experience of having the TCAA show there?
Capron: It’s the only place we could have our show that really would tell the story of the West. We’re just one element of the West. Having it there at a place that represents the whole story is invaluable. They are great partners. They listen to us and we really feel heard. It’s special that they invited us from the word go and have helped us grow. This will be my 15th year there. Every year I tour the museum and see something new. The museum is a wonderful thing. The staff, the people, really make it.

Troy West, half-sized A-fork saddle with basket stamping and swivel knife cuts (detail)/Carla C. Cain

Ernie Marsh, hand-engraved Santa Barbara spade bit with gold inlay/Carla C. Cain

Mehl Lawson, Texas Ranger quirt with braided rawhide, with Texas Ranger badge and endcap by TCAA Founding bit and spur maker Ernie Marsh and hand-crafted leather popper by TCAA Emeritus saddlemaker Chuck Stormes (detail)/Carla C. Cain

Greg Darnall, shank bit with sterling silver overlays and inlays and two-piece conchas and 14K gold accents (detail)/Carla C. Cain

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C&I: What’s on the horizon for TCAA to ensure the traditional cowboy arts continue on in the future?
Capron: Educating myself as much as I can and sharing that with whoever will listen long enough for me to tell them. The only way TCAA continues to grow is if other people are out there pushing their skill sets past their comfort zones. We continue to grow as artists and as an organization through our education programs and through continuing to educate ourselves. Giving a critique is one of the most difficult things I have to do. But in order for artists to keep improving, they have to want to get better and have to be critiqued. I want to inspire them to do better on the next piece. Moving forward, we have to inspire people to want to take on the mission of preserving whichever of the four disciplines they represent.

C&I: What do you like to do when you’re in Oklahoma City for Cowboy Crossings?
Capron: There are some great places to eat — Ranch Steakhouse has wonderful meals. But I’ll be completely honest: If all you do is go to that museum and walk around Cowboy Crossings for four days, you’re still going to miss some of it. I can’t stress how wonderful that museum is. I love all of it. I’m into metal, so I especially enjoy the gun room and the old bits and spurs. The history. The trail drives. Parts of old Hollywood — John Wayne. The grounds of the museum and the ginormous sculptures. Being a painter’s kid, of course the Charlie Russells and the Remingtons. There’s just nothing like it.

Read more about Cowboy Crossings, read more about the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association craftsmen, and read our interview with Cowboy Artists of America president Martin Grelle about the show.

Opening weekend of Cowboy Crossings is October 4 – 6 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Galleries open to the public Saturday, October 6. For more information, visit nationalcowboymuseum.org, cowboyartistsofameria.com, tcowboyarts.org. Find more about Wilson Capron and his art at wilsoncapron.com.

Photography: (Header) Wilson Capron, Spurs with high-relief engraving and inlayed with 24K gold (detail), 2018 TCAA exhibition/Carla C. Cain, Wilson Capron/Courtesy Cowboy Crossings.

The post Bit and Spur Maker Wilson Capron Talks Cowboy Crossings appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Enter Now for a Chance to Win a 2019 Polaris RANGER XP® 1000 EPS on Christmas Day!

Polaris calls it "the hardest-working, smoothest-riding utility SXS ever made." We call it a dream gift. To wrap up a spectacular year of giveaways celebrating our 25th Anniversary, C&I has partnered with Polaris to give one of these bad boys to a very lucky winner on Christmas Day!

Enter below for your chance to win. The drawing is on Christmas Day.

Special Features and Specifications:

82 Horsepower
3-Person Capacity
12.5-Inch Ground Clearance
High-Performance On-Demand True AWD/2WD/VersaTrac Turf Mode
4-Stroke Twin Cylinder DOHC
Electronic Fuel Injection
Automatic PVT H/L/N/R/P; Shaft
1,500-Pound Payload Capacity
81-Inch Wheelbase
4-Wheel Hydraulic Disc Brakes with Dual-Bore Front Calipers

Wishing you good luck and great holidays!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Giveaway starts 12:01 a.m. CST on October 11, 2018, and 11:59 p.m. CST on December 24, 2018 (“Entry Period”).
PRIZE: One (1) brand new 2019 Polaris RANGER XP® 1000 EPS.
The combined approximate retail value is $15,499.00.

Click here for full Terms and Conditions.

The post 25th Anniversary Giveaway – 2019 Polaris RANGER appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Step inside Adobe Interiors while shopping in Fort Worth, Texas, and you’ll likely feel transported to another place and time — where Spanish hacienda meets mountain hideaway meets rustic ranch.

Founder Jerry Dipple has always had a passion for building furniture, often drawing inspiration from his dairy farm in Dublin, Texas, but his passion was just a hobby until early 2013, when he and his family established Adobe Interiors. The business centers on individuality, recognizing customers’ unique aesthetics when it comes to decorating their homes. At Adobe Interiors, you’ll find an eclectic selection of handcrafted furnishings with Spanish colonial, traditional Western, and modern influences. Plus the store offers custom design services. The staff is at the ready to pore over floor plans and create 3-D layouts to help homeowners envision furnished spaces.

“We’ve grown a lot, and it’s still growing,” says Jerry’s son, Tanner Dipple, who handles most of the day-to-day operations — with the help of his siblings, who’ve taken on design, warehouse, and bookkeeping responsibilities. He credits social media as a key factor in the store’s success. Adobe Interiors currently boasts a following of more than 60,000 on Facebook, and the calls start rolling in each time photos of new additions are posted.

According to Tanner, it’s not uncommon for customers to come in from out of state and even out of the country to acquire one-of-a-kind statements. The Dipples have helped furnish homes in places as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

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The key is to help customers connect. “I think everybody’s personality is unique,” Tanner says. “[When] they find a piece of furniture they feel like expresses themselves and that uniqueness, they identify with it.”

Such was the case for the Harrels, a Fort Worth-based couple who credit Adobe Interiors with transforming their house into a home. When first moving to the area, Race Harrel and his wife, Cathy, set out on the hunt for new furniture and, after a streak of bad luck, eventually stumbled into the store. “We went inside, and my wife just started going, ‘Oh my God, I love this,’ ” Race Harrel says. “The furniture is excellent, the quality that we saw there, the friendliness of everybody.”

“It’s just the most fabulous shopping experience I’ve ever had, and I don’t do furniture stores.”

Now, he says, their home is filled with original pieces of style and sentiment, such as a custom bed, a media-room piece embossed with his alma mater’s logo, and a table made of an old church door from Mexico. Harrel appreciates that the Adobe team listened to their vision and created the perfect Southwest aesthetic for their home.

“On a scale of one to 10, they’re a rock-solid 12,” he says. “It’s just the most fabulous shopping experience I’ve ever had, and I don’t do furniture stores.”

Adobe Interiors
4651 Bryant Irvin Road
Fort Worth, Texas
817.294.0053
www.adobeinteriors.com

PHOTOGRAPHY: (All images) Courtesy Adobe Interiors.

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The kid who wants to be the best bull rider ever and the mentor who is helping him get there wait in line for a breakfast buffet at a casino in downtown St. Louis. The kid, Jess Lockwood, talks to the mentor, Cody Lambert, about what he did last night. Lockwood is a young, rich, and handsome cowboy, and he could have raised all kinds of hell. Instead he meticulously studied his rides from this year and the two previous years.

Coming off of his world championship in 2017, Lockwood struggled early in 2018. He had been trying to figure out why he was riding poorly, he tells Lambert — what did his buck-offs have in common? It finally dawned on him: He was getting bucked off on turns “against” his free (right) hand, meaning when the bull turns right. Before this season, that had never been a problem for him. Last night a bull named Cut the Cord threw him off by turning against his free hand, and Lockwood felt like a quarterback who missed a wide-open receiver in the end zone.

“I should have rode him easy,” Lockwood says. “Usually I’d eat up a bull like that.” Instead he found himself in the dirt, and he wanted to know why. He searched YouTube for successful outs in which bulls turned against his free hand. He remembers all of his rides in detail, so finding them wasn’t hard.

In a few minutes, he identified his problem, and now he demonstrates it for Lambert while they wait in line for breakfast. It’s a comical scene if you didn’t already know what they were talking about — or even if you did: Lockwood makes a fist with his left hand, jams it between his legs and moves his hips and shoulders like there’s a bull down there. He keeps his right arm rigid, as if his elbow won’t bend. That’s the wrong way to do it, he says.

Now he pretends to ride the bull again, but this time he flops his right arm around, using it to counterbalance the imaginary movement of the imaginary bull. That’s the right way to do it, he says. He pulls out his phone and finds a video of his ride last September on a bull named Snowball in which he used proper form. Lambert watches the footage intently, moving his eyes from the Lockwood holding the phone to the Lockwood riding a bull on the phone.

All of this takes only a few minutes, just two cowboys talking bull riding. But it’s conversations like that that could turn Lockwood from a precocious young champion into an all-time great bull rider.

The mentor, Lambert, 56, and the kid, Lockwood, 21, met when Lockwood was 18 and ready to launch his career on the PBR tour. He moved from his family’s 10,000-acre ranch in Montana to Lambert’s 200-acre ranch in Texas so he could soak up the collective wisdom of Lambert and other cowboys who live nearby, such as Justin McBride, J.W. Hart, and Ross Coleman. For the first few years of his career, until he bought his own ranch in Montana where he lives today, Lockwood lived and worked on Lambert’s ranch like any other ranch hand.

The Lambert-Lockwood relationship sounds like a cliché — the old man and the kid, the teacher and the pupil, the grizzled veteran who has seen it all and the fresh-faced youngster who wants it all. But there is power in the bond between them.

Lambert takes zero credit for any of Lockwood’s success and says most of what they talk about simply reinforces what Lockwood already knows. Bull riding is not complicated, and neither are Lambert’s instructions. Lockwood smiles when asked to repeat Lambert’s most-given advice: “Hold yourself accountable, and it all starts and ends with your riding.”

Lambert, who helped found PBR 25 years ago and now works as its livestock director, recognized Lockwood’s physical gifts immediately. He soon learned that Lockwood had uncommon maturity and drive as well. “You have to give every ounce that you have, 100 percent, and then come up with a little bit more, to get it done,” Lambert says. “At 20, very few guys are that driven, that determined.”

Lockwood is. PBR insiders call him bull riding’s LeBron James, and while he says he’s not there yet, he thinks he can get there. Already the youngest champion in PBR’s history, he wants to win more championships than anybody. The current record is three, held by Adriano Moraes, who won in 1994, 2001, and 2006, and Silvano Alves, who took the gold buckle and million-dollar bonus in 2011, 2012, and 2014. “He’s a world champion and still not near as good as he’s going to be,” Lambert says. “That’s a weird place to be.”

Weird, but great. At least that’s how Lockwood sees it. He spent his first two seasons trying to prove he belonged — was he good enough and tough enough? Now that he has won a championship, he has washed himself of those nerves. He competed this season with more freedom, as if he’s creating a living-color reputation for himself in addition to compiling black-and-white stats. For example, in his first two seasons, he viewed picking bulls as a business decision: He chose whichever bull gave him the best chance to win. He still does that, but he also occasionally picks the rankest bull: To be the best, he has to ride the best.

Breakfast is over. It’s almost time for Lockwood to go ride, and to try to apply what he learned about his free arm. But first, Lambert finds a photo on his phone. It is from 1982 or so, and it shows a bull in the middle of a nasty buck and Lambert holding on for dear life. Lambert points out his free arm. It’s as stiff as Lockwood’s was last night.

The mentor struggled with the same issue as the kid. It’s a “been-there moment” that Lockwood drinks in like ice-cold water on a hot day. Few people in the world have been in that kind of position. Fewer still are willing to share their experiences about it with Lockwood.

For all the changes in bull riding in recent years — more money, more fame, and the resulting pressure, among them — the basic premise remains the same: Stay on the bull. And the way to do it remains the same, too: Get back to the center. As much as anything, those simple facts connect the kid who wants to be the best bull rider ever and the mentor who is helping him get there.

One other thing about Lambert’s photo: It’s in black-and-white.

From the October 2018 issue. Photography: (TOP) Jess Lockwood is presented the PBR World Champion buckle by mentor Cody Lambert at the 2017 Built Ford Tough series PBR World Finals. Photograph by Andy Watson, courtesy Bull Stock Media. (MIDDLE) Lambert with Cooper Davis and Lockwood during the 2017 PBR World Finals. Photograph by Matt Breneman, courtesy Bull Stock Media. (BOTTOM) Photograph by Andy Watson, courtesy Bull Stock Media.

The post Real Westerners: Jess Lockwood and Cody Lambert appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

As a horse owner for more than four decades who still loves to ride, I am always looking to hear famous and influential folks’ stories about working with and taking care of their four-legged companions.

As the co-author of The New York Times bestseller People We Know, Horses They Love, I discovered long ago the ties that bind these people together. There’s little to do with celebrity, and everything to do with how important, enduring, and enjoyable their relationships are with horses they own or perhaps just ride. All have an appreciation for these marvelous creatures, along with the respect for nature, freedom, and openness fostered in their presence.

With that in mind, enjoy some heartwarming horse stories and quips from 25 of our favorites.

1. Wes Studi (Actor)

“The horse I’m riding in Santa Fe is Carbon Copy, a beautiful and elegant black color, accented with a small white blaze and random white spots throughout her body. A gaited horse, each of her feet moves independently of the other three, causing a sensation of gliding over all type of terrain, creating a very soft ride. I didn’t train Carbon Copy but I love to ride her, as she is extremely intelligent, communicative, and very good with people. She has the ability to do a short-single foot that is so comfortable; your body is moving back and forth with no bounce to her movement.”

2. Robert Redford (Actor/Director)

“I bought my first horse soon after playing the ‘Kid’ in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when I really had to learn how to ride well. Many years later, I came to appreciate the vastness of Utah on a monthlong horse journey I made from Montana down to southern Utah on the old trail that Butch Cassidy and the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang rode in the late 1880s.  Although I don’t ride as much as I used to, I still continue to be amazed at the Utah wilderness and what can still be seen from the back of a horse.”

3. Wendie Malick (Actor)

“I didn’t start riding till I turned 40. We had just moved up to the Santa Monica Mountains and suddenly it was a real option. I trail rode nearly every morning with my best pal, Christina. She taught me to shut up and be present while riding. Being out on my horse, with dogs in tow, remains the singular most restorative thing I can do. When I haven’t been able do it as regularly, because of my work schedule, I feel out of whack. I know of no better spiritual guides than my horses, dogs, and the donkey.”

4. Thomas Haden Church (Actor and Rancher)

“When I was a boy, hunting with my father around San Saba, Texas, I always felt that the area was the true West. I would jump on the back of a ranch horse and ride up into the Hill Country. But more than 35 years later when filming John Carter in northern Arizona and western Utah, I really learned to appreciate what it took for the hardscrabble pioneers to ride across the implacable mountains and settle this part of the country — what they had to go through, who they had to fight, and the weather they had to endure.”

5. Bill Pullman (Actor)

“Working with horses and shooting a western is always interesting. [Laughs.] Of course, when you’re on location, you get a certain amount of testosterone flaring all around you, because everybody wants to look good on a horse. It’s the same on our [Whitehall, Montana] ranch, really.”

6. Katherine Ross (Actor)

“I’ve been on horseback, or should I say pony-back, ever since the age of 7 when I went ’round and ’round on a pretty amateurish pony ride in in the San Francisco Bay Area. My mom told me that I was grinning from ear to ear even though the ride was incredibly bumpy and I held on to the saddle horn. My own horse was the first thing I bought after I did my first movie, Shenandoah, and I have been in the saddle ever since, most recently riding at our ranch in Oregon. I feel very fortunate that for most of my adult life I’ve been able to get away into nature and take a great ride.”

7. Carolyn Hunt Olson (Cowgirl)

“When you’re teaching horses and they start to realize what you said or what you want, they chew or blink; that means they have digested what you said or what you want. Isn’t that neat? It’s their language.”

8. William Devane (Actor)

“Where I live in Thermal, California, we will get up every morning and ride at 8 a.m., as by mid-October the horses at my Deer Creek farm are in full polo training, getting ready to play at one of the local polo clubs, and there might be a hundred people on our track. Although I’m a bit too old to play competitive polo anymore, I still love to ride and have several horses there that I will trailer to Montana for Western pleasure riding during the summer when it is 110-plus degrees here in the desert.”

9. Pierce Brosnan (Actor)

“I enjoy horses very much. On The Son, I was fortunate to have good horses — one more sure-footed than the other. But, yeah, riding horses is great fun. And riding in the company of great wranglers and cowboys is even greater.”

10. Terry Bradshaw (Broadcaster and Actor)

“[Early on I enjoyed] both the physicality and adrenaline rush of being on the backs of these fine-tuned animals. However when I got hurt riding at my ranch, the Steelers wouldn’t let me rope anymore. Still wanting a life with horses, I started to read up on halter horses, which are worked with on the ground and for 25 years now have been breeding and raising champion halter horses. I even turned part of my cattle ranch in Thackerville, Oklahoma, into a horse farm and every time one of my horses wins best of class or even show, I know it was the right decision.”

11. Christie Brinkley (Supermodel and Actress)

“Even though horses have always been a love of mine, I was always the person getting bucked off or thrown when I was riding. But I loved horses so much and wanted to learn to ride them so badly that I just kept getting back on no matter what happened to me. When I started riding as an adult in Celebrity Cutting Horse events, I won this giant belt buckle, and kidded myself into thinking that this large piece of silver looked good on everything from sweats to evening gowns.”

12. Morgan Freeman (Actor)

“I had quarter horses for more than 30 years at my farm in the Mississippi Delta. One of my favorites was a feisty gal named Sable, who I would ride whenever I had a break from filming somewhere around the country or world. However, I didn’t want anyone at the farm to ride her and sometimes it would be three or four months before I got back there. One day I was riding her back to the farm and she decided to take off, just stopping inches away from a four-and-a-half-foot fence that I knew she couldn’t jump!”

13. Brady Jandreau (Actor and Horse Trainer)

“Being around and selling horses, and training horses for people, you have to present yourself in a certain way. Not only to the person who’s going to buy your horse, or the person you’re training [it] for, but you also have to present yourself in a certain way to the horse. You know, each [one] is so individual. And you have to earn the horse’s trust.”

14. Kim Coates (Actor)

“I’m smart enough so that, whenever I get cast in a western, the first thing I do is hang up the phone and go out into the country and get on a horse. Just to get that nice little blister in the back of your bum and get those heels down and feel the energy of the animal. The horses feel the energy of the rider. If you’re tense on a horse, that horse is not going to listen. [Laughs.] I know that.”

15. Carson Kressley (TV Personality)

“My family has always had horses and my grandparents raised and would show dozens of Shetland ponies in Devon and other little show towns in Pennsylvania, which made for a pretty magical childhood. Sitting in the hay loft watching them graze fostered a love for all things equine, and as I got older I desperately wanted my own horse.  As I grew up I’d attend horse shows and fell in love with American Saddlebreds as they are so stylish—truly the supermodels of the show ring. This was the mid-’80s and I have been riding them ever since.”

16. Kacey Musgraves (Singer-Songwriter)

From a 2016 Instagram post: “Today marks a day I have waited for my whole life. I have always dreamed of having my own horse. I used to draw pictures and write poems begging my parents to let me have one and stick them under their pillows for them to find. Meet Mismo. (“Same” — because he’s always the same every time you ride and also because we have the same hair color.) Cowgirl dreams DO come true, y’all!”

17. Ty Murray (Champion Rodeo Cowboy)

“What I love about horses and how I work with them has changed and evolved over the course of my life. When I was young, all I wanted to do was ride bucking horses and use my skills as a rider; but as I’ve gotten older I love the subtlety of developing relationships with them and discovering how intuitive and perceptive horses really can be. Now I want my horse to operate off of my thoughts, and I will give off enough body language so that they can read me, so we can react and interact together. A key for me is to start off and continue with good groundwork as it all begins on the ground, where we can interact even if the horse is a hundred feet away from me. Interaction is the key!”

18. Lou Diamond Phillips (Actor)

“Although I’ve never owned my own horse, I have ridden many a fine steed in such movies as Young Guns and Young Guns II, to more recently in Longmire. High on my successful equestrian experience in Young Guns, I decided to do most of my own stunts in the sequel—a bad decision that could have cost me my life. I somehow got tangled in a real noose wrapped around my neck.  When the gunfire started, my horse reared and spun, dragging me by the neck away from the wranglers and into the desert. What saved my life was when he ran into a railway tie, chewing up my leg, but finally breaking the rope.”

19. Jill Rappaport (Journalist and Author)

“I get the same enjoyment whether I’m on the ground looking up into my beautiful horses’ magnificent eyes, or when I am in the saddle watching their inquisitive ears as they move back and forth responding to the sound of my voice. I am the proud pet parent to six wonderful horses and, to this day, whenever I ride, I get the same thrill and joy as my first ride when I was 6 years old growing up in Michigan. Dreaming at that young age of one day having my own horse in my own backyard, I would sit on our fence and pet the air and imagine it was a real horse and it was mine! Well, my dream has become a reality.”

20. Neda DeMayo (Founder of Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary and Preservation)

“When I was 8 years old, my mom took me to a farm to meet a large black pony named Sam. He bit me. He was perfect. I never told anyone that Sam bit or kicked because I so badly wanted a horse. I’d been riding since 4 or 5, my first word was ‘horsy,’ and I even turned our wooden fence into an imaginary herd, feeding, watering, and riding the ‘horses’ daily. Sam was the slowest, laziest, and meanest horse I ever met, yet I walked miles each day to care for him and ride on rural Connecticut’s country roads.”

21. Noah Wyle (Actor)

“My son is just finishing up his first year at The Thacher School boarding school where I rode as a child. He was assigned a horse his first day there, and that teaches responsibility as well as horsemanship and is character-building as well. I always felt that Owen, who’s 15, was more of an athlete than [an] equestrian, so it is amazing that he has taken to riding in such a profound way. This is now one thing that we love doing together and we took a great vacation to The Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana.  All we did is ride around in the snow and had a really great time.”

22. David Midthunder (Actor)

“I come from a people that have integrated the horse into our spirituality and into our culture. My mother’s family in Montana at one time had up to 50 horses, no car, and just one saddle. I currently have two horses in my life, and the thing that I love about riding is that horses have an intellect and a spirit of their own, and you have to work together with this immense power. Kind of like surfing the ocean or white-water kayaking a powerful river. Because with all of those things, you have to work with its energy or life force.”

23. Amber Midthunder (Actress)

“I’ve grown up around horses, and my mom bought a rescued mustang when I was 4 or 5 and spending weekends and vacations at the Rainbow Ridge Ranch in Acton, California. Horses are both beautiful and magical, especially as a little girl, so I wanted my own horse when I was very young. That dream came true when I got an older retired rodeo horse named Maverick. On my first ride with him, he rounded a corner and took off, so of course my friend’s horse thought he was back on the track ... one fast and scary ride.”

24. William Shatner (Actor)

“I was about 12 and we lived in the suburbs of Montreal, far enough out that there was empty land around, and on one of those pieces of land there was a stable. One day—and I forget how I actually got the money, though I think I told my parents I swabbed out the stables to ride the horse, which wasn’t true but it made a nice story—anyway, one day I was able to wangle myself a ride on a rental horse. And I rode as though I’d been born in the saddle. I was neither afraid nor awkward, and people were commenting, ‘Oh, you ride well.’

I remember thinking at the time: first, how much bigger I felt and how much smaller everything else seemed; second, how much power was beneath me, tolerating me (because I did have the sense that it could toss me any time I became a burden); and third, of course, how much I wanted to do it again.”

— excerpt from Shatner’s book, Spirit of the Horse

25. Erin Krakow (Actor)

“Although I have never owned my own horse, I ride on my series When Calls the Heart, and have a couple of funny stories from the set I’d love to share.  In the beginning of Season 2, my costar Daniel Lissing was supposed to help me up on the horse I was riding, but we both overcompensated and he hoisted me over the side where I landed in a puddle of mud. In another episode, I was filming a pretty emotional scene with Jack Wagner where I was presented with my husband’s horse after he had died, and that horse bit down on my hand pretty hard. I decided to stay in the scene until it got too much, and I had to let go.”

Photography: (Top to Bottom) studio seven productions, 20th Century Fox/Photofest, Ken Amorosano, Van Redin/courtesy AMC, courtesy Doug Blumenthal, courtesy Terry Bradshaw, Howard Schatzberg, Andi Lane Artze, Kimerlee Curyl/courtesy Neda Demayo, W. Ben Glass, courtesy Teresa Neptune/TeresaNeptune.com, courtesy Angelique Midthunder, Melissa Coulier/courtesy Erin Krakow

From the November/December 2018 issue. 

The post 25 Who Love to Ride appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

When Tab Hunter passed away last July at age 86 in Santa Barbara, California, the obituaries were filled with nostalgic accounts of his glory days as a 1950s screen idol who loomed large in an era when Hollywood routinely manufactured stars known less for acting prowess than alluring hunkiness. But we prefer to remember the native New Yorker born Arthur Andrew Kelm as a journeyman actor, an engaging conversationalist, and a bluntly candid memoirist — read his autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, and you’ll see what we mean.  He never sounded prouder, or more enthusiastic, than when he talked about his lifelong dedication to riding and raising horses.

Indeed, as he told C&I before a 2016 screening of the documentary based on his autobiography, Hunter more or less owed his acting career to his being “discovered” while cleaning out a horse stall.

“I was a stable boy on the weekends at a place called Du Brock’s Riding Academy, on the corner of Riverside and Los Feliz in Los Angeles,” he said. “There was this guy by the name of Dick Clayton, who really became a part of my family. He later became one of the top agents in Hollywood for James Dean, Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds, and so many other people.

“But when I met him, he was an actor and he was doing a photo shoot at the stable for a magazine layout with Ann Blyth. I was fascinated when I found out it was for a movie magazine because I was a big movie nut as a kid. He talked to me when I was cleaning out a stall and asked, ‘Did you ever think of acting?’ I said, ‘Gosh, no. I didn’t.’ And then years later, while I was in the Coast Guard, I was on the East Coast and Dick was doing a play on Broadway. I went in to see him, and he started introducing me to the right people.”

One thing led to another, and pretty soon Arthur Kelm found himself renamed Tab Hunter and groomed for stardom. He spent an impressive amount of his spotlight time in the saddle. Here are some of those highlights.

Gun Belt (1953) — In one of his first major movies, Hunter got to demonstrate his equestrian skills as Chip Ringo, an impressionable young man who takes a while to realize that his uncle, reformed bandit turned rancher Billy Ringo (George Montgomery), is a much better role model than his father, notorious outlaw Matt Ringo (John Dehner). “I learned an important lesson while making that movie,” Hunter told us in 2016. “We were doing a scene in which they wanted a stuntman to gallop up on a horse and stop this wagon. And I said, ‘Well, hell, I could do that.’ And I did. But then later, [veteran stuntman] Jack Conner ... came over to me and said, ‘We know you can ride, kid. But you see that guy over there? The guy dressed just like you? Well, he’s got to make a living, too. So why don’t you let him do the stunt? And then you can tell the director, “If you want to shoot that from a closer angle, I can do the close-up.” Everybody’ll be happy that way.’ That made a lot of sense to me. And that’s what I did from then on.”

Track of the Cat (1954) — Esteemed filmmaker William A. Wellman — whose diverse credits include 1927’s Wings (the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture), the original A Star Is Born (1937), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) — directed this psychologically intense drama about a squabbling Northern California ranch family dominated by surly middle brother Curt Bridges (Robert Mitchum). Youngest sibling Hal Bridges (Hunter) is unable to assert himself, even when Curt taunts his lovely fiancée (Diana Lynn), until a killer panther returns to the area to make a nuisance of himself. At the time of filming, Hunter recalled in his autobiography, “Mitchum was the biggest star I’d ever worked with, which was a little intimidating. ... It worked to my advantage, however, as it mirrored the relationship between our characters.”

The Burning Hills (1956) — By the time Hunter saddled up for this Warner Bros. western, which screenwriter Irving Wallace adapted from a novel by Louis L’Amour, he was considered a major star — and the studio brass didn’t want anything to blemish his golden-boy-next-door image. And so, even though Hunter was playing a hard-edged cowboy on the trail of the horse thieves who killed his brother, director Stuart Heisler was handed down an edict: no unsightly whiskers for the hot property. “It looked like I packed an electric razor in my holster, not a six-shooter,” Hunter would later say. “So much for authenticity.” Hunter took delight, though, in working with Natalie Wood, cast as a Mexican beauty who aids the vengeful cowboy. And he got to ride his own horse, Swizzlestick, who had been a Green Jumper Champion at the Del Mar National Horse Show. “I just threw a stock saddle on her,” Hunter told C&I. “And you know what? Swizz turned out to be a better movie horse than she was a show horse. I mean, you hit her with the lights and all of that attention went to her head. She was like a glamour girl.”

Gunman’s Walk (1958) — Hunter gave one of his finest performances in director Phil Karlson’s edgy drama set during the period when the Wild West was becoming civilized, and not everyone was happy about the change. Autocratic rancher Lee Hackett (Van Heflin) loves his mild-mannered son Davey (James Darren), but, truth to tell, he’s a mite more partial to his other boy, Ed (Hunter), a tightly wound macho man who wants to be just like (and maybe tougher than) dear old Dad.

They Came to Cordura (1959) — The movie begins with an elaborate dramatization of a fateful 1916 clash between U.S. forces and rebels led by Pancho Villa in Mexico, a battle described as “the last glorious cavalry campaign” led by the Army before mounted riders were replaced by trucks and airplanes. But the real drama doesn’t come until after the battle, as Maj. Thomas Thorn (Gary Cooper), a battlefield observer charged with recommending soldiers for the Medal of Honor, leads a party back to their expedition’s base in the Texas town of Cordura. The long trek through a hostile desert landscape brings out the best and worst in his men (including a potentially mutinous lieutenant well-played by Hunter).

Hostile Guns (1967) — Throughout most of the 1960s, Paramount Pictures gave producer A.C. Lyles free rein to produce a series of small-budget westerns (sometimes as many as four in a single year) featuring familiar faces and fading stars who greatly appreciated gainful employment. Hollywood veteran R.G. Springsteen directed this enjoyably unpretentious opus about a hard-bitten marshal (George Montgomery) and his hot-tempered deputy (Hunter) who are temporarily turned against each other by one of the prisoners — a sly vixen played by Yvonne De Carlo — they are transporting cross-country.

Vengeance Is My Forgiveness (1968) — Near the end of the ’60s spaghetti western heyday, Hunter followed the trail blazed by other career-stalled American actors who took a few pages from Clint Eastwood’s book and flew to Italy to play down-and-dirty gunslingers. Unfortunately, despite Hunter’s reasonably efficient lead performance as an unforgiving sheriff who goes gunning for the robbers who killed his loved ones, this badly dubbed, borderline-incoherent shoot’em-up (also released in North America as Shotgun) lives down to the actor’s dismissive description as “a spaghetti western short on meat sauce.”

The Sea Chase (1955) — Yes, it’s a World War II thriller, not a western. But, shucks, how could we not include Hunter’s only appearance opposite John Wayne? The Duke plays Karl Ehrlich, the German captain of a decrepit freighter who hates Nazis but loves his fatherland, and sets out to sail home from Australia shortly after Hitler sends troops into Poland. Hunter has relatively little to do here as one of Ehrlich’s crewmen. Still, the actor recalled in his memoir that “Wayne completely charmed me, claiming [his production company] should have gotten me under long-term contract before Warner Bros. did. As a gesture of good luck, he gave me his navy jacket to wear on camera.” Alas, they never got to costar as cowboys together.

Photography: photofest/© columbia pictures.

From the November/December 2018 issue.  

The post The Sigh Guy In The Saddle appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Their footfalls hit the wood planks in a way that suggests the iconic third-act march of every brave cinematic lawman. Under a flawless blue sky, tourists walk along the boardwalk that lines the preserved Old West buildings of the Grand Encampment Museum in Wyoming.

An authentic blacksmith’s shop, ice cream parlor, log cabin, and other historic 19th-century buildings surround the museum’s guests. Visitors take photos with their phones and languidly pose in the shadows of the building’s classic Western false fronts.

Yet those searching for authenticity in the modern West need to look no further than inside the museum, where C.J. Box sits at a table greeting groups of readers. The 59-year-old New York Times bestselling author chats, jokes, and takes selfies with those who come inside to meet him. Box has written 25 novels, many of which focus on the indomitable Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.

Box is in grip-and-grin mode, wrapping up the end of his book tour for The Disappeared, Pickett’s most recent foray into the world of western crime. However, away from the crowds, Box is not unlike his famous protagonist: quiet, reflective, but quick to express profound appreciation for the vestiges of the American West.

It’s spring in Wyoming and the lush hills surrounding Box’s house roll away in all directions like a green sea. A white-toothed saw blade, the Medicine Bow Mountains stand in relief on the horizon. There aren’t many people in this part of the world. Wyoming is the least populated state in the country. But the people who live on past the fringe can sometimes be larger than life. Telling the stories of those real people has long been a passion for Box.

The author grew up in Wyoming, edited his high school newspaper, then went to the University of Denver on a journalism scholarship. His first job out of college in the mid-’80s was working for the The Saratoga Sun newspaper. He got that first gig after both his interview and fishing skills were put to the test while floating down a river.

“I drove up from Denver where I had just graduated, and I met the owner of the newspaper at a put-in, and we floated all the way to Saratoga, drank beer, and fished the whole way,” Box says. “By the time we got to town, I was ready to move.”

For three years he worked as the paper’s editor before starting an outdoor publication in conjunction with The Saratoga Sun.

“At the time, believe it or not, they didn’t pay much at the newspaper ... but there’s a lot of fishing in this area — so I would fill in at times for fishing guides,” Box says. “But those three years of working on the newspaper were probably the best on-the-job training I could possibly get for future books.”

As a journalist, Box got the chance to meet pretty much everyone in the Saratoga area where he now lives. “This area is very interesting. ... [W]orking on a little newspaper you talk to everybody, in every stratus, everyone from billionaires to survivalists — so I got ... a crash course in people and different attitudes that I still use today in the books.”

His novels are packed with descriptions of breathtaking vistas, the beautiful
but often cruel Wyoming weather, and a host of eccentric personalities. Box has garnered commercial success and literary praise, including the recent 2017 Spur Award for Best Western Contemporary Novel from the Western Writers of America.

By its creation, the American West is an amalgam of historic and modern quarrels. Each of Box’s novels addresses some theme or major political or environmental issue. “I come up with the issues first, whatever the issues are going to be, ‘the controversy,’ then research those things,” Box says.

Sometimes he arrives at a modern point of contention on his own and sometimes they appear from his readers — but whatever the source, he says he’s never lacking in material. “I keep files, clip files, and pull a lot of stuff off the internet,” Box says. “When it comes to those sorts of issues and controversies ... Wyoming and the mountain West are the tip of the spear.”

Conservation, energy, wildlife preservation, mineral extraction, tourism — the list goes on and on. Box says often an issue will take root in the West. “We’ve been talking about wilderness preservation and those kinds of controversies [such as] endangered species for years. ... [T]hey seem to come to a head here and then sort of spread out,” Box says.

When crafting the plot of his next story, Box says he starts with his chosen issues and lets the story naturally unfold from there. “I always start with ... an environmental or resource kind of thing, and I research the heck out of that until I’m comfortable with it,” Box says. “Sometimes I combine two or three of them — things that are happening in the West that make it grounded and interesting.”

One signature aspect of a C.J. Box novel is the plot’s unpredictability. It’s something Box takes particular pride in. If you think the story is going in one direction, it isn’t quite what you think, and sometimes he experiments with that assumption. “I don’t always try to have a big twist, but it just kind of occurs naturally, and sometimes the twist is that there’s no twist,” he says, adding the idea was to always keep the readers off balance. “Even through the entire series, Joe Pickett rarely dispatches the bad guy in a shootout; something else happens usually.” Which isn’t to say the villains in his books aren’t disposed of in spectacular fashion.

Box’s office is above a barn that houses his family’s horses. It’s a beautiful room, paneled in beetle-kill wood and filled with items that make the writer’s personal workspace unique. Box points to one wood panel near his desk that has a rifle bullet captured in the wood. It’s an unusual touch, but appropriate for the author whose books are filled with many similar details.

Box says researching his next novel is one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing process. “If Joe Pickett is going to do something like climb a wind turbine or go white-water rafting, I do those things. And if the location is going to be a specific place, I go there and put on my old reporter hat and just take notes and interview people.”

He enjoys being able to provide realistic but obscure details to his writing — nuances that add just the right amount of color to a scene’s description.

“There are too many writers that live in ‘writer world’ and all of their characters kind of have whimsical jobs that really don’t exist; and somehow everybody makes money but you can’t figure out how — and that always bothers me when I read those kinds of things.”

For Box, Wyoming’s mercurial weather is a regular character that’s almost as important as Joe Pickett, his family, or the eccentric falconer, Nate Romanowski.

“I think that [weather] affects everybody every day, and everything they do — especially a game warden. That’s got to be a huge part of every story. I think it adds a lot of nuances and a lot of character to the stories to have the weather, to have the thing end up in a spring blizzard — it just makes everything more difficult.”

Tony Hillerman, Larry McMurtry, Louis L’Amour: intentionally or not, western writers often find themselves the flag-bearers and spokespersons of the dwindling American frontier. Box is aware of his inherited responsibility regarding Wyoming and the West.

“That wasn’t ever the intention, but it has kind of worked out that way, and I don’t shy away from it,” Box says. “I had a background in marketing and tourism promotion, and that’s something I’m still very interested in and involved with.”

Being involved in tourism allows Box to view the West from the perspectives of those unfamiliar with it. “I was sort of able to see the mountain West through their eyes, and it opened my own eyes to a lot of things that I was used to — but didn’t realize how unique they were. I think that has really helped in the books in that I don’t take anything for granted or simply assume that readers know the area or know when elk season starts or how a little community reacts on the first day of hunting season.”

Even though Box’s stories are infused with the quick-draw culture and mythos of the Old West, he says he’s careful not to have stock characters, endings, and confrontations. He’d rather put a twist on the western and do away with the laconic boilerplate perceptions of the people who traditionally inhabit the genre. Box wants his characters to be realistic and modern. “It is too easy to create western stereotypes and have them all speak real slow and basically pretend that it is the 1880s,” Box says. “I’d rather not do that.”

While it varies, some of his novels are directly inspired by the events of the Wild West, such as in the second Joe Pickett novel, Savage Run, which was influenced by the real-world murderous stock detective Tom Horn. “Except it is modern-day industrialists hiring a hit man to get rid of prominent environmentalists. So that one was basically a retelling — other ones are and others aren’t. There’s one called Off the Grid later on that’s probably the most western of all the books — and it’s very high-tech.”

Box says that deep down, people are still drawn to the idea of the western. “It is on the edge of the frontier; people take justice into their own hands to a certain degree, they’re principled, and they’re sort of operating outside of civilization,” Box says. “They’re more independent, have more freedom, but at the same time are dealing with things by not necessarily calling the police, but by maybe dealing with it themselves. That still exists to a certain degree.”

The Disappeared debuted in April at No. 1 on The New York Times bestsellers list, proving Box’s point. “That shows this kind of thing has appeal beyond just the region,” Box says, “which always kind of amazes me.”

Find out more about the author at cjbox.net. Photography by Dave Neligh.

From the November/December 2018 issue. 

The post A Man of His Words appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Clayton Ahlgren has two passions in life: preaching and bull riding. To his way of thinking, you can’t have one without the other: “If you ride bulls you’ll find God out there, whether you want to or not.”

All the broken bones, recovery time, and surgeries he’s sustained during his career haven’t stopped Ahlgren from encouraging young hopefuls in their dreams of one day making it big in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Their youthful enthusiasm and his twin passions are what inspire Ahlgren to share his talents, knowledge, and experience in the arena with a two-day bull-riding clinic at the newly remodeled Grass Range Stockyards & Event Center in Grass Range, Montana.

A typical small cow town in central Montana, Grass Range had about 110 residents at last count. There are three cafes, two churches, two bars, and a modest rodeo arena to frequent. The big city of Billings is almost 100 miles away.

Passing through on Highway 87, it might seem an unlikely place to find the next PBR champion in the making. But it’s actually a perfect setting for bucking some bulls, as I’m about to find out.

A 1977 Grand Marquis pulls down the long dirt drive with a cowboy hat tucked in the windshield. It reminds me of a scene out of the 1994 film 8 Seconds. Behind it follow 12 young men, ages 7 to 30, with a hankering for adrenaline. They all come with the same addiction for thrill-seeking action.

They’ve come to ride.

There’s a brief rundown of the day’s events, a few moments of stretching, and the workshop kicks off. Barrel drills are first on the agenda. The training simulator looks like some kind of medieval seesaw, but its actual purpose is to mimic a bull “dropping from the air.” Riders, straddling the padded steel barrel while someone operates manually from behind, are thrust vertically into the air. One after another, they grapple with the laws of physics in the hopes staying on.

Algren gives pointers throughout, stressing that finding correct placement of feet, arms, and center is essential for a good ride.

Next comes a brief lesson on dismounts. A trusty old ranch horse uncomplainingly accommodates riders as they jump on and off one after another. They walk away with an inseam full of winter hair and a new appreciation for landing on their feet (some aren’t so fortunate).

“If you ride bulls you’ll find God out there, whether you want to or not.”

With each skill Ahlgren coaches them through, you can clearly see confidence building. Warmed up and pumped up, the young riders are now ready for the much-anticipated ride. Even from where I stand with my camera, I sense the uptick in adrenaline and my own pulse quickening.

Bull ropes are pulled out and stretched from the fence in all directions. The smell of rosin seeps out of gear bags. Steers and bulls are carefully selected based on each rider’s skill level. This is without a doubt a dangerous sport a dangerous sport — touted as The Toughest Sport on Earth — but a controlled atmosphere such as this provides a much safer ride, with the possibility of some success. This is a far cry from the “draw,” in which riders are randomly paired with a bull off an events list at the PBR.

Danger and risk come with the territory when you jump on a 2,000-pound animal. This is much-needed experience before hopping on a rank old bull at a rodeo.

Equipped with all the basics, the cowboys receive some final instruction and encouragement behind the chutes. Some take a moment to themselves to mentally prepare; others drop to a knee and say a quick prayer.

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

Photography: Erika Haight

1/10

One by one they fly from the chutes. Most of the younger boys take an abrupt dive into the freshly grated earth below them. Surprisingly enough, though, it doesn’t deter the little daredevils from having another go at it. Appearing more confident, the older cowboys — some of whom have previous experience and are here to hone their skills before their next rodeo — turn out some decent rides.

Everyone walks away unscathed.

That evening, Ahlgren shows videotapes of each individual ride at the Community Christian Fellowship church. The cowboys use the review to reflect on their day and figure out adjustments they need to make. Some will never make the attempt again. Most are already digging in their pockets for the next entry fee.

For his part, Ahlgren hopes to have more clinics in the future. In the meantime, he’s focused on personal growth and a full recovery so he can hit the rodeo circuit again. Top of mind will be the most important lesson he’s had to learn and now imparts to the next generation of riders coming up the ranks: The bull is always going to win. The idea is to trick him into giving you eight seconds.

Erika Haight is a frequent contributor to C&I. More of her work can be found at her website.

The post Photo Essay: A Hankerin’ for Adrenaline appeared first on Cowboys and Indians Magazine.

Riding barrels with her long platinum-blond hair flying out from under her cowboy hat, Amberley Snyder looks like a cross between a California beach beauty and a rockin’ rodeo queen. Look closer through the dust she’s kicking up and you’ll see that she’s literally strapped onto her horse.

She needs those straps to stay in the saddle because she’s riding without the use of her legs. Amberley Snyder is the only paralyzed barrel racer in the country.

After a terrible accident with her pickup truck in 2010, she wasn’t supposed to be able to ride again. But with extraordinary fight and grit, she got back on the horse and eventually returned to competing.

Her inspirational story, which comes to Netflix in 2019, ends not in tears but in cheers. And it’s not nearly over.

It was the phone call every parent fears. Your child in a horrible accident. A life-altering injury. A young athlete’s dreams seemingly dashed. Amberley Snyder and her mom, Tina, have related the story countless times. They gave one of the most moving accounts about what happened on January 10, 2010, on an episode of The Ride With Cord McCoy:

Amberley Snyder: I had been offered a job in Denver for the stock show. I was going to work there for the two and a half weeks. I got up at 4:30 in the morning to start my drive. And about 10 in the morning I stopped in Rawlins, Wyoming, at a gas station, and when I got back in my truck, I didn’t put my seat belt back on. And less than 10 miles down the road, my life completely changed.

Tina Snyder: At 10 o’clock I texted her and said, “How’s it goin’?” And I didn’t get a response back.

Amberley: I looked down to check my map. And when I looked up, I’d faded over a lane and was heading toward the mile marker on the side of the road. So I grabbed my wheel and tried to bring it back straight. And right as I thought I was gonna be OK, the dirt caught the back right tire on my truck and pulled me completely sideways. So I closed my eyes and I could just hear banging and crashing going around my head in my truck. And I felt myself pick up and leave my window. And I could hear my truck still rolling and I left [it] going 70 miles an hour and hit a fence post on the side of the freeway, and that’s what broke my back. I wake up and I’m sitting on the side of the freeway and I can see my truck in front of me and I am just thinking, Oh, my gosh, what just happened? I realized I was thinking fine. And I looked down at my fingers and I moved them and they were fine. And so next I looked down at my toes and tried to move my toes and nothing happened.

Tina: I was at the top of the stairs when I sent that text. I walked into my room ... I just remember another phone rang and my oldest son answered it. ... He came to the top of the stairs and he said, “It’s Dad.” And he handed me the phone, and Cory said, “Am’s been in an accident. And she can’t feel her legs.” And then I just fell to the floor and started sobbing. It was that devastating. It’s not a phone call you want to get.

Amberley: [I] waited for my Life Flight helicopter. It was later in Rawlins that I was first told “the news,” you’d call it. A doctor walked in and he started talking about being paralyzed. And I said, “Well, wait a minute. What are the chances of me feeling or moving my legs again?” And he said, “Slim to none, but more to the none.”

Tina: She had just barely come out of surgery when we got there and the doctor said the surgery had gone well. He did everything he could, but, you know, that there was no hope. That this was a permanent thing and that she’d be paralyzed for the rest of her life. And I just looked right at him and I said, “You don’t know my Amberley. Now just take me to Amberley.” Then they took me to her in ICU. We both ... we just looked at each other. I was just so grateful she was still here. But there was a point when she was asleep and I was sitting on the side of her bed, I was in a chair on the side of the bed and I lost it. I put my head down on the bed and I just was crying. And Amberley’s hand came over and she just put her hand on top of my hand. ... She didn’t say anything, but it was just, “Mom, I’m still here.”

Coming To Netflix: Walk Ride Rodeo

The inspiring Amberley Snyder story gets the streaming treatment.

“Since I am the only paralyzed barrel racer in the United States, I wanted to play me,” Amberley Snyder says, with her characteristic determination and candor, on the subject of her life story’s being made into a Netflix movie.

In the feature film, which she hopes will be released in March or April 2019, she’s her own stunt double, her horse Power (who has several movie doubles) plays himself whenever she’s riding, Snyder’s little sister is her pre-accident stunt double, and 27-year-old actress Spencer Locke plays Snyder in the non-riding scenes. Along with Sean Dwyer and Elizabeth Cullen, she’s also one of the film’s producers.

Snyder was on the set in and around Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico, for most of the filming. “What an experience! It was exciting yet challenging to relive my life on screen,” she says. “There is so much that goes into the making of a film. The actors were amazing. Spencer flew out to spend a few days with me beforehand. She did a great job always checking in with me to make sure her emotions were accurate and wanted to know how I felt in every remake of scenes. Her riding improved over time, and I think I even gave her the horse bug!”

Missi Pyle plays Snyder’s mom (“always uplifting for the set and she portrayed the strength and kindness needed for her role”) and Bailey Chase (Longmire) plays her dad, with Alyvia Alyn Lind as her youngest sister.

“My movie siblings were so fun to get to know,” Snyder says. “We were able to visit in between takes, during lunch, and we still keep up now. It was so important to me to have my family involved as they truly are the reason I am who I am.”

The compliments flow both ways. “The level to which Amberley and her family were involved in the movie was really exceptional,” says director Conor Allyn (Java Heat). “We were able to do things at such a better level because of her and their involvement.”

It wasn’t just Snyder’s story that was inspiring, Allyn says. It was also her presence on the set. “Particularly when Amberley was up on the horse, I would forget she’s paralyzed. She’d need help getting up, but then she’s just up on a horse. I would find myself totally forgetting; crew members would mention it, too.

“It’s all about not being handicapped, even if you’re stuck in a wheelchair. Your attitude determines what you can do. Any time Amberley was doing her riding or practicing a scene and she would go run the barrels, if she was rehearsing, you couldn’t not watch her do it. It really was magnetic. Even if you were trying to work on something else, everyone was just naturally pulled in to watching her run. There’s a woman we saw in a wheelchair a few minutes ago, and now she’s racing around barrels blowing us away. That never got old. I’m very excited about releasing this movie because I think everyone will have that same feeling when they watch it.”

— D.J.

Cowboys & Indians: In 2009, you had made high school rodeo nationals, and the week after high school finals, you left the Little Britches finals in Colorado with 11 buckles and a finals and world all-around title. You were on top of the world. Then came January 10, 2010. Tell me about that day.
Amberley Snyder: When I think of my accident day I have mixed emotions. I was going to work for a couple of weeks during the stock show. I sometimes imagine what my life would be like if I had made it. It’s hard to know exactly, so I remind myself everything happens for a reason and I am on the path I was meant to be on. 

I was extremely calm that day, and looking back if I had known how hard it was going to be I wonder if I would have been more upset. Life changed so fast! There are sometimes things I wish I had done before my accident. I know I can’t do them all now, but I believe I will walk again and get to do all the things I didn’t before.

C&I: What was your prognosis at the time?
Snyder: The very first news I received was in the hospital in Rawlins, Wyoming. I asked the doctor what the chances were of feeling or moving my legs again. He said, “Slim to none, but more to none.” After my surgery, the doctors marked me as a “complete” injury, which means you have no chance of regaining any feeling or movement. Two days after surgery, I began to feel in one of my legs and by day four they moved me to an “incomplete” injury.

C&I: Can you share with us the state of your recovery today?
Snyder: I can feel to my knees in most places and can move a few muscles. My hip flexors are strong enough I can crawl. My abductors will fire as well. If I am in the water I can get trace movements in my hamstrings and glutes.

C&I: You weren’t supposed to be able to ride again. How did you overcome the many obstacles you faced in getting back on the horse?
Snyder: When I told doctors, therapists, and nurses that I rodeo, they told me that would be impossible and I should try to find another hobby. Of course, horses and rodeo for me was not a hobby, it is my life. It took me four months to convince doctors and my mom I was going to get on. I wish that had been the greatest day of my life, but truly that first time on a horse was devastating. I realized it was never going to be the same.

It took some time to get all the pieces of my saddle together — seat belt, Velcro straps, nylon buckles. Each part was trial and error as we figured out what worked.

I took a break that fall and winter for me to mentally and emotionally overcome the change. I thought I might be done. I even told my mom to sell my horses. I told her if I couldn’t train them like I used to, I wasn’t going to have them. It wasn’t until spring of 2011 that I tried again and it felt amazing! I knew I couldn’t leave it behind and had to figure it out.

My balance is still the hardest part. Most horses want to work with me and they figure out pretty quickly to ignore my legs and listen to my hands and voice.

C&I: How did growing up as a competitor help in your rehabilitation?
Snyder: I feel being raised to work hard, persevere, and be dedicated has helped me to keep moving forward. I have had to learn I cannot force parts of my body to work if they don’t have the connection, but I can utilize what I can do. A spinal cord injury is more than just a physical change, but a mental, emotional, and spiritual one as well. My family background has truly played a part in me having the strength to keep going.

C&I: You started riding at age 3 and got into barrel racing really young. Barrel racing is highly competitive. What was it about it that made you want to try it and get good at it?
Snyder: When I was little, my mom used to trace the barrel pattern on my hand. It just became ingrained into me. When I was 7, my dad told our family we were moving from California to Utah. I told him I would only go if he bought me a palomino barrel horse when we got there. He followed through and I began competing. Combining horses, speed, and competition made me immediately hooked!

C&I: After your accident, why was barrel racing the first thing you wanted to do, even before walking again?
Snyder: I realized very quickly I couldn’t control what nerves would connect. Riding a horse again was something I could control. And on the back of a horse has been my happiest place. I felt that if I could ride, I could handle my wheelchair.

C&I: What special equipment or techniques do you have to use to ride and to get around?
Snyder: When I ride, I have a seat belt that hooks behind the cantle and across my lap. I have Velcro straps around my legs and fenders. I have rubber bands around my feet in the stirrups. There is a nylon strap across my left hip. It runs from the cantle to the pommel. Lastly, I sit on a ROHO seat of air. This was the last piece I put on after a challenge with a saddle sore that turned into a pressure sore, five months of bed rest, and four surgeries to fix!

When I’m not riding, I use a wheelchair, and to drive, my vehicles have hand controls.

Fight On!

What USC football coach John Baxter has to say about meeting Amberley Snyder and the impressive example she sets.

As special-teams coordinator and tight-ends coach at the University of Southern California, John Baxter’s seen a lot of examples of the Trojan fighting spirit. But one of his favorite stories about someone who exemplifies the qualities he prizes most has to do with barrel racer Amberley Snyder.

In June 2013, Baxter was at the National Barrel Horse Association barrel race at the South Point Hotel in Las Vegas to see his daughter compete in one of the hundreds of races being run over the three-day event. “I was down below the hotel, where they’ve got 1,000 horse stalls, maybe more, just walking in the paddock area, and I see this girl come trotting by me on a horse. Two things caught my eye: one, that she was riding down there at all, because you’re not supposed to be on a horse in the paddock area, and, two, she had a seat belt on. And I remember thinking, What kind of cockamamie thing is that?”

Baxter had never heard of Amberley Snyder, but he was about to. He bought himself a Coke and went to sit in the stands. “They introduce this girl over the PA and I see it’s the girl with seat belt on,” he remembers. “She goes and makes this run. When there’s 800 racers or so at a big event, each racer comes out and gets a few claps from friends and family in the stands. But for this girl, everyone was cheering. I still didn’t see what the big deal was. Then I heard a couple of ladies in front of me talking about how amazing it was that that girl could ride when she was paralyzed. Wow! I thought. That is phenomenal!”

The next day Baxter saw Snyder race again; this time, he understood what everyone was cheering about. He didn’t want to head out before meeting her. “As we’re packing up, I see a blond girl sitting in her wheelchair. I told my daughter, ‘I’ll be right back. I gotta go meet this girl.’ ” He introduced himself, told Snyder he thought what she’d achieved was amazing, gave her his card, and asked her to send him an email because there was someone he wanted to tell her story to.

“I love stories of achievement and fight and grit,” Baxter says. “We have a national program, an annual swimathon, at USC called Swim With Mike. Mike [Nyeholt] was a swimmer in the early ’80s who had a spinal cord injury. His teammates put on a fundraiser for him; they wanted to buy him a wheelchair and a van and raise extra money for a scholarship. That effort has grown and gone on for 39 years now, funding a foundation for young people with life-changing accidents or illnesses and paying for them to go to college not just at USC but all over America.”

The guy Baxter wanted to tell Snyder’s story to was Ron Orr, one of Mike’s teammates and the founder and head of the Swim With Mike program. Though Snyder didn’t play traditional sports and probably didn’t know anything about USC at the time, Baxter wanted to get her in the program and to see that her education was paid for. He met with Orr and paperwork was sent.

Fast-forward to 2016. Baxter had returned to coaching at USC after a short stint in Michigan. “I’m walking across campus and I see Ron Orr. He tells me, ‘I just want to let you know [Amberley] not only finished her bachelor’s degree but also her master’s, and she’s coming out to Swim With Mike to make a presentation.’ ”

Baxter shrugs off his part in the whole thing. “It was just a random meeting that led to just trying to do something good for someone. Obviously, if Amberley didn’t have that kind of grit, fight, and determination, if she didn’t work and put herself out there, this story would never have happened.”

At the end of the day, Baxter says, it’s about the caring community at USC and Snyder’s exemplary toughness and fighting spirit. “At USC, they say, ‘Fight on.’ It’s the standard greeting and leave-taking. It’s the greatest mantra and battle cry in all of sports because it’s a metaphor for life. This young lady is fight-on to the core.”

— D.J.

C&I: How do you stay in the saddle with the intense physics of going around barrels at top speed? How does your horse know how to respond to you?
Snyder: All of my adaptations keep me in the middle. I try to not think about how I am held in while I compete. I also have my hands for balance when I am turning. My horses listen carefully to my hands and voice. In the practice pen, I also have a dressage whip to use where my legs would [normally be] to help them understand better.

C&I: What have been some of your rodeo accomplishments since your accident?
Snyder: I ran in The American in 2015 as the fan’s exemption. I was in the Top 10 each year in our Rocky Mountain Collegiate circuit. In 2016, I was in the Top 5 for the Rocky Mountain Pro Rodeo Association. I won the 2D at the All In race in 2016, winning $10,000. I earned my pro rodeo card in 2016 on the first horse I trained since my accident, French Open. We have won multiple races and are pro-rodeo earners. This past season I was second in Herriman’s PRCA rodeo. I also ran in Colorado vs The World and ended up third for Team Colorado. The biggest goal I have is making the National Finals Rodeo.

C&I: You’ve earned your bachelor’s in agriculture education and recently your master’s in counseling. What are some of your other goals in life, personally and professionally, and in rodeo?
Snyder: One of my goals included buying my own home, which I can now check off the list! Some of my future goals include speaking in all 50 states as well as more international events. I always have the goal of walking again. I want to qualify for the circuit finals, win the amateur finals, and make the NFR. I want to make it back to The American rodeo. I have the goal to finish my second book.

And I just bought my first house, in Tremonton, Utah. It is two hours north of my parents’ home in Elk Ridge, which is on the mountain practically and has the most amazing view of the valley! It has been an adventure to build my own place!

C&I: Will you be at NFR this year?
Snyder: Yes, I go to Vegas every year! It’s only a six-hour drive. I do autograph sessions for my sponsors, and the past two years I have run in the All In Barrel Race. I truly love seeing the teams who make the NFR. It takes so much time, money, and [hard work] to make it. You have to respect what that means!

C&I: How do you keep a positive attitude? What keeps you going?
Snyder: There are hard days. Sometimes I can be angry, frustrated, upset, and sad. I hold onto my mom’s advice: “Today doesn’t have to be your day, but tomorrow can be.” I allow myself to be upset and then decide what I can do next. My family and friends are huge supporters and keep me afloat when life gets hard. Setting goals and celebrating them keep me positive to keep moving forward. The messages I receive on social media are uplifting and give me strength as well.

C&I: Tell me about your first horse and growing up with horses.
Snyder: In California, my first pony was named Gabby. She was a paint pony. I wanted a pony so at 5 I could saddle her by myself. In Utah, my dad bought me my first barrel horse, Lacey. She was a palomino just as I had requested.

C&I: What’s the role of your horses in your life now? Do they “understand” your special needs?
Snyder: My horses are my legs. They give me the opportunity to leave my wheelchair behind. There is such a freedom I am able to get from my horses. My horses definitely know something is different. Power especially understands that he is supposed to take care of me. He realizes there is something different from before until after. My horses all learn to put their heads at my height for me to reach them [from my wheelchair].

My horses have given me so much joy and freedom. They have given me strength to handle the difficult moments and days. They still help me when I have bad days and have the ability to lift my spirits when nothing else can. To leave my wheelchair at my trailer is very freeing. I am blessed to have the ability to ride and compete still.

C&I: What about the role of your family?
Snyder: My family is more than the traditional Western family. My dad was a baseball player and my mom did cheer, gymnastics, and had a horse. My older sister, Ashley, was an amazing gymnast and now coaches. My brothers played baseball. J.C. is now a chef and Taylor is playing in the minor leagues with the Rockies. Aubrey loves art and dance! And Autumn does rodeo with me. She won the pole-bending state title last year for the UHSRA [Utah High School Rodeo Association].

C&I: What has changed most about your life? What’s been the toughest adjustment?
Snyder: I have had to gain so much patience and understanding. I know the lifestyle I picked requires me to get help. To safely ride and compete I need someone around, which I am very grateful for, but it does require patience. Relying on others is one of the hardest adjustments to make after being a very independent person for 18 years.

C&I: What has your accident and the fact that you’re in a wheelchair meant for your social life?
Snyder: With traveling to speak and teach, I get to meet a lot of people. I have made some amazing friendships through that. I lost some friends after my accident, which was hard, but I have been great with the ones I have. I will admit there are some social events I avoid, but my closest friends, especially my best friend, Emmy Peterson, know what I am comfortable with, so we just do that.

C&I: Besides being a competitor, you’re also a motivational speaker now. What do you tell people facing life-altering accidents or daunting odds?
Snyder: Don’t give up. You are stronger than you think and tougher than you know. Only you will decide what you are capable of. I realize there are things we cannot control, but we get to choose what happens with what we can!

C&I: And the heart of your message?
Snyder: I feel we all have obstacles. Some are seen and some are not, but everyone faces their challenges. I hope that with my story people can find strength to overcome what they are facing. We don’t always get to choose what happens to us, but we do get to choose what comes next.

C&I: With a movie coming out about your life, what’s the main thing you hope people will take away from your story?
Snyder: I want people to understand that we have the ability to bloom where we are planted. There are so many parts of life that are out of our control, but what we choose to make of them is up to us.

Excerpt from The Ride With Cord McCoy, used by permission. Find out more at cordmccoy.com.

From the January 2019 issue. 

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Ricko DeWilde steps off of a small wooden boat on the Nenana River and onto dry land. The steep, muddy ridge he must ascend to continue our goose hunt is too tall for him to see over the top, but it’s not too tall to climb. He eyes it warily. “I don’t like going up the bank without a gun,” he says. “There might be a big bear up there.”

At first, I think he’s joking. But we’re deep in the Alaskan wilderness, he has already told me a handful of stories about shooting bears, and he indeed reaches back into the boat to grab his rifle. Following closely behind him, I think of that old joke about how fast you have to be to outrun a bear — faster than whoever you are with. I could not outrun DeWilde, who is lithe and powerful from decades spent carrying animals out of the woods. Then again, DeWilde would probably just shoot the dang thing so I wouldn’t have to run.

Whatever bears live in these woods remain out of sight. We follow a faint trail for a half-mile until we arrive at a hunting cabin. This is not the picturesque cabin of your Alaska dreams. It has four walls, one roof, one big room, two beds, one table, and that’s about it. There is no power source and what passes for décor is — oh, hell, nothing passes for décor. The owner died, and now it is essentially a community cabin. Whoever wants to use it can, but even getting there is no small task, as there are no roads. Boats and snowmobiles provide the only access.

The cabin sits near a small lake. DeWilde — a Native American rights activist, entrepreneur, former drug addict, and reality TV personality — and I stand on its edge and scan for geese to add to the one he shot an hour ago. Meanwhile, Hugh “Binka” Kriska, DeWilde’s friend whose boat brought us here, starts a fire.

As I pluck the goose, I roll it over in my hands. It feels like a warm Nerf football. Using a fallen tree as a table, DeWilde cuts off the goose’s head and sticks his hand inside. Blood spills onto the ground. He pulls out the gizzard, heart, intestines, stomach, lungs, and windpipe. He slices open the gizzard and wipes out the gravel inside.

DeWilde fashions a spit out of a stick and pierces the goose. He slides the spit into the ground at a 30-degree angle with the bird over the fire. He rotates it occasionally, and it turns from red to gray as we sit on folding chairs and watch.

When the goose is done, DeWilde jams the stick into the ground so it stands straight up. I slice off a piece of breast, pop it into my mouth, and chew. I marvel at this whole experience. I’ve never eaten anything that was so recently alive. My reverie ends when I almost choke on something hard. I spit it out — a shotgun pellet.

In color, texture, and taste, the goose reminds me more of pork than chicken. The gizzard tastes like tofu and has the consistency of an eraser. Goose is usually fatty. This one isn’t, which explains why DeWilde only shot one. To shoot more geese that aren’t good for eating would run counter to the Native American hunting philosophy (specifically Koyukon Athabaskan) that has guided his life for decades.

I asked DeWilde — who joined the cast of the National Geographic Channel reality show Life Below Zero for its latest season, which began airing in September — to let me tag along when he went hunting so he could teach me about the traditional subsistence-hunting way of life that he grew up in. Within a few hours of hitting the river, we shoot, kill, pluck, cook, and eat a goose. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and spend most of my days in front of a computer at my home in St. Louis, so today is as wild as wild gets for me. But to DeWilde, it’s just another day in a life in which he is constantly searching for balance between two worlds — the one he grew up in and the one he lives in now.

I had picked DeWilde up at Fairbanks International Airport the day before our hunt. He was wearing aviator sunglasses and a sweatshirt with “Hydz” — that’s his apparel company — printed on the front. As we discussed over dinner where to go hunting, he called Kriska, a fellow Koyukon Athabaskan hunter who knew this area better. DeWilde usually hunts hundreds of miles from Fairbanks. Kriska offered to be our guide, and DeWilde gladly accepted. He cares deeply about the informal economy of his Koyukon Athabaskan community. He shares — knowledge, meat, hides, whatever — because others have shared with him. “That’s how it is with Natives,” he says.

The next morning, I ride shotgun in DeWilde’s Dodge Ram as we head to the Nenana River. I see the sprawling Denali range out the window. A valley, mostly green but dotted with snow and laced with brown ribbons of river, stretches between us and the mountains. Fairbanks falls into shadow behind us as we leave the comfort of the city and head for the challenges of the wilderness.

As he drives, DeWilde talks about looking for balance between the two. He lives in Fairbanks and returns often to Huslia (population 275). He calls that his hometown, but the remote cabin he grew up in with his 13 brothers and sisters was 100 miles by river from Huslia.

His dad, Lloyd, was a white man of Welsh descent from San Francisco who moved to Alaska in search of a different way of life. His mom, Amelia, was a Koyukon Athabaskan, born and raised in Alaska. His parents home-schooled him and taught him the traditional Koyukon Athabaskan lifestyle.

Much of what he talks about from those years revolves around learning how, and how not, to hunt. When DeWilde was a young boy, his mother taught him to trap rabbits. But at first, instead of killing them, he set them free. His mother chastised him and said that was like playing with the animals, which runs counter to the Koyukon Athabaskan ethos of treating animals with respect. “You’re not just talking about the animal on a superficial level,” says his sister La’ona DeWilde. “It’s more like: This animal has a spirit. It was alive, and now we’re going to thank it.”

Ricko DeWilde first noticed the tension between his two worlds when he visited Huslia as a boy. Even a town of 275 seemed fast-paced to him, and that pace accelerated when he moved to Fairbanks as a young man. “It ain’t all romantic, growing up like Little House in the Big Woods,” says his brother Lee. “We got to the city and we’re young, we’re naive, we’re easily impressed. There’s these street-smart kids who take you under their wing. It’s easy to take advantage of people like that.”

Ricko, who turned 43 on the Fourth of July, compares his life in those days to a man at an airport wracked with loneliness. But that man knows if he gets on a plane and goes home, his loneliness will wash away. DeWilde thought he would be stuck in the airport forever. He developed a substance-abuse problem with oxycodone and felt trapped. “I can do something with my life, but this thing’s got me. It’s a very defeated feeling,” he says.

He spent two years in prison on cocaine-possession charges, and that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. He quit drugs — he says he has been clean for 15 years — and turned his life around. “I felt so much better when I was able to laugh and let my feelings out,” he says. “I learned to wake up every day and think, I might feel like crap, but eventually I’ll be smiling and talking.”

Twice in talking to me, DeWilde uses the phrase “rugged hustle,” and that’s a great summary of his joie de vivre. He’s always working on something, whether he’s hunting, promoting his clothing line, or advocating for Native Americans. “He’s somebody that will never stop,” says Roger Watkins, a friend whose screen-printing company produces DeWilde’s clothing line. “He’s always moving, always thinking of new ideas, building things, trying to make something out of his ideas.”

In 2007, Huslia held a memorial potlatch for his mom, dad, sister, and grandma. In Native American communities in the Pacific Northwest, a potlatch is a celebration of a person’s life, like a wake but held long after the person’s death. The third day of a potlatch traditionally features gift-giving from the family to people who were close to the person who died and who helped during the funeral and time of loss.

DeWilde asked an artist friend to create images that showed beauty and strength. He took those drawings to Watkins, who put them on hoodies, which DeWilde gave away at the potlatch. The reaction to them was so strong that he launched Hydz and started selling them. Some depict wolves, bears, and eagles looking fierce and powerful. Others are muscular hunters searching for their prey. Still more look like Iron Maiden album covers, if Iron Maiden were trying to appeal to hunters.

He laments how the traditional way of life is disappearing and hates what he describes as the stereotypes about Native Americans. He wants his clothing line, his activism, and his life to reflect the strength and beauty of the Native American lifestyle.

As passionate as he is, he chooses his words carefully and checks to make sure I understand. As an activist, his public comments are sometimes misconstrued. “I can easily piss off the white people or the government because they think I’m saying, ‘You guys made us like this,’ ” he says. “Then I can easily piss off the Natives, because they’re saying, ‘You’re saying we’re lazy and we don’t do enough.’ ”

This is where he needs that balance. He does not condemn either side, nor does he hold either blameless. He scoffs at critics who suggest he hates the European influence in Alaska, and that if he likes the traditional Native American life so much, he should do it full time. He laughs and waves around at his Dodge Ram. No Europeans would mean no truck — and he loves this thing, because it’s badass. “You can’t beat that,” he says. “But they brought bad stuff, too, so I’m going to argue. I’m not going to sit there and lose 1,000 years of knowledge.”

Only Alaska could give him that knowledge, and nowhere can he apply it more than here. Except for one year of college in the 1990s, he has spent his whole life in the 49th state. “I don’t belong in Alaska. I belong to Alaska,” he says. “I don’t own land in Alaska. Alaska owns me. I’d be lost if I moved away.”

Our bellies full of goose, we tromp back through the woods to the boat. The mud-brown river is a few hundred feet wide and lined by cottonwood, spruce, willow, and alder trees. Chunks of ice and logs, some big enough to damage the boat, maybe even sink it, flow toward us. Kriska navigates around them like a snake slithering through a rock pile. DeWilde gives him an appreciative nod, like how a basketball player nods to the teammate who threw him an alley-oop.

DeWilde would not have even tried to pilot the boat through those dangers, as it would have been outside of his comfort zone. A lifetime of hunting has made him cautious, because he has seen the devastating results of overconfidence. A mistake in the Alaskan wilderness could kill him, and he never forgets that.

DeWilde knows he is a good hunter, but he can barely bring himself to say so. This is not false modesty. Koyukon Athabaskans view successful hunting as luck, or as nature sharing itself, and if you brag, your luck stops, or nature stops sharing. To brag would be hutłlaanee (pronounced hooh-kla-nee), a Koyukon Athabaskan word that translates as “taboo,” and it’s something no wise hunter would do.

The river rolls on beneath us. We are leaving the wilderness and returning to the city. Being on the water makes DeWilde reflective. “You get lost in society,” he says, waving his phone. “Everything is so fast. You have so much information in your hand.” But to what end? Part of what bothers him about modern life is that while it is easier, much of it seems pointless. The traditional way is more difficult but also more meaningful. “It’s harder to eat. It’s harder to get warm. But everything you’re doing is 100 percent for a purpose,” he says. “There’s a lot more gratification.”

He calls hunting “a walk-the-walk religion,” and every trip into the woods carries spiritual weight. No matter how much DeWilde hunts, there’s always more to learn and do and see, even today. DeWilde calls our hunting trip “surreal.” He says the boat ride reminds him of his childhood living in the cabin. Back then, impassable lakes and rivers limited his hunting radius in the summer. But once the water froze over, his feet could take him somewhere new, into another world. He says his ride in Kriska’s boat today took him to another world. That’s true for both of us.

From the January 2019 issue.

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