 Cover Stories Our Ranch Still Depends on Versatile Horses
by Heather Smith Thomas
Once part of the summer hunting area of a tribe of Shoshone Indians, our little mountain ranch has a fascinating history. It is now home for 200 beef cows, 16 horses, and many elk, deer, antelope, coyotes, grouse, and other wildlife. Mountain buffalo once roamed the area, as evidenced by old horn shells we've found on our range. Deep buffalo trails and travoi trails are still visible, showing routes the Indians traveled when moving camp from summer or wintering areas. Sacajawea, the Indian woman who guided Lewis and Clark through these mountains in 1805 on their expedition across the continent, was born in our valley, only 10 miles from our ranch.
Settlers from the East came here after gold was discovered in 1866. The town of Salmon was established in 1869 to serve the mining camps; the first pioneer ranchers sold beef to the miners. The first homesteaders on our ranch crossed the plains by ox team in 1877 and settled on 160 acres here in 1884. They cleared the fields where we now raise hay--grubbing out sagebrush with hand tools. They had 11 children, three of whom were born in the log cabin they built in 1885. My husband and I still live in that log house, though it looks different now, with more rooms added on.
Eventually the various homesteads on the creek coalesced into three ranches, all of which ran a few cattle and a lot of horses up until the 1950's. The horses lived on the range, rounded up only when needed or for sale. One of the ranchers had an Army Remount stallion--a Thoroughbred named Cheyenne Chief. A son of Pillary, Cheyenne Chief was the top money winning Thoroughbred in America in 1922 and winner of the Belmont and Preakness.
Cheyenne Chief was an outstanding and versatile stallion the rancher used as a cowhorse, raced him at the county fair and usually won and used him as a pickup horse at the local rodeo, helping bronc riders off their bucking horses. Many ranchers bred their mares to Cheyenne Chief, including the Withington family at the mouth of our creek. They raised many Thoroughbred horses. When my father purchased a little ranch on this creek in 1955, he bought a young mare, Nellace from the Withingtons, sired by Cheyenne Chief.
When I was growing up Nellace was the smartest and most athletic horse we owned. She was a good cow horse, and later had 5 foals, by Arabian stallions. Those Anglo- Arabs were the best ranch horses we ever had.
My younger brother and I enjoyed growing up on the ranch, taking care of cattle, building fences, riding range. The summer I was 14, he and I were taking care of the place while our folks were gone for a week, and while we were checking and moving cattle on the range, his mare Ginger lost a shoe. This was a crisis, because the next day we had to ride our horses the 28 mile round trip to town for our weekly 4-H meeting and drill practice for the county fair. Ginger needed a shoe. I had trimmed feet, but Dad did all our shoeing. Necessity is a good teacher, however, and I had been watching Dad shoe horses for several years. My brother and I found a used shoe in the shed that fit Ginger, and I carefully nailed it on. Ginger made the trip to town just fine. From then on, with pointers from Dad and my 4-H leader who was a farrier, I shod all of our horses, and have been shoeing our ranch horses ever since.
I remember several good horses as I was growing up, including a black part-Thoroughbred mare named Scrappy. My Dad bought her from a high school boy, Lynn Thomas whom I later married. Scrappy was my 4-H project and I raised my first foal from her in 1959, a half Arab filly named Khamette. She was a very versatile cow horse, kid horse and pack horse. Though she is long gone, she had three grandsons here on the ranch, one of which is still working cattle.
My dad raised Herefords, but when Lynn and I were married in 1966 and started buying the ranch we began raising crossbred cattle. Our crossbreds are ambitious range cattle and very athletic--able to use our steep mountain pastures with ease. We continued raising horses, since keeping track of the cattle on the range requires good horses with a lot of endurance. For 35 years we rode nearly every day during summer months when the cattle were on the range--checking gates and fences, water troughs, etc. and trying to see all the cows and calves often. On occasion we brought home a cow or calf to be doctored for pinkeye or foot rot.
Our two kids learned to ride at an early age, for they had to tag along with me riding range. Lynn was usually busy haying and irrigating and I was the range rider. My old Khamette taught both kids to ride. They started riding before their little legs were long enough to reach below the saddle pad. The old mare could hardly feel them kicking, so they used a small switch to make her go. At first I ponied her alongside my horse on a lead line; she led so well that I could chase cows with Khamette and kid in tow. She could walk, trot or gallop right beside my horse, or drop back behind if we had to wind our way through a narrow timbered trail. The kids gained confidence on her, since they had their own "reins" but mama was in control and the smart old mare couldn't just stop and eat grass along the way.
Our kids are grown up now, with families of their own, and we continue to raise cattle and good horses. We've always appreciated good ranch horses with willingness and heart--the desire to do whatever they must to get the job done. We often move or chase cattle in very difficult terrain; our horses must be agile and sure-footed as well as speedy, with the endurance necessary to put in a hard 12 hour day when gathering and moving cattle. This is why we really like part Arabs as ranch horses; they have the endurance needed to work hard, day after day.
They also have a lot of enthusiasm for their work, like the time I was trying to head off a big horned Hereford bull on Ahmahl. The bull turned on us and threatened to hit us with his horns. Not intimidated, Ahmahl put his ears back, reared up and struck the bull in the face with his front feet. It startled the bull so much he backed off, and we got him turned the right direction.
Nikki was probably my best cowhorse ever. She was sometimes high-strung and nervous, but if we were working cattle she was totally serious and all business; she loved working cattle as much as I did and knew exactly what to do, without any cues from me. She was the most surefooted and agile horse we ever had. I could chase cows on her through logs and bogs, down steep rocky slopes, on frozen hillsides--and she always kept her feet.
Even in her older years when she was stiff and semi-retired, I could grab her out of the pasture in an emergency and use her when I needed a really good horse for a really tough job, even in mid-winter on ice and snow.
We've had a lot of good horses over the past 40 years, including Lynn's QH mare Bambi, our son's Appaloosa, many Arab- Thoroughbred crosses, and one Morgan. We are not fussy as to breed, as long as a horse has the ability and endurance to do the job, and can stay sound with miles and miles of hard use. Speed and cow-cutting ability is not enough; our horses have to be able to do it in rugged terrain, uphill and down. That's when you really appreciate an exceptionally good horse--one who gives you everything he's got and enjoys the job as much as you do.
Our daughter Andrea's Anglo-Arab mare Snickers embodies that kind of heart and desire and will go anywhere necessary to head a cow. For instance, one fall when we were bringing home a few open cows to sell--and having a tough time working them down through the creek bottom in thick brush--one old cow ditched out through the brush and the only way to head her was to get through or around a big fallen tree. Snickers didn't hesitate; she jumped the tree, even though the trunk and limbs were too thick and wide to jump. She landed on the thick tree trunk and pushed off again, making a spectacular double jump that cleared the whole tree--and was able to head off the escaping cow.
Our daughter Andrea and I did most of the range riding and horse training. It's a job we thoroughly enjoyed; riding range is the best way to train our young horses. We do some groundwork with them at age 2 or 3 to get them started in the basics, but never any real work with them until age 4, when they are old enough to physically and mentally handle the work (no hard cattle drives until 5 years old). But getting a green horse out there in the hills checking cattle and fences is the very best education for a young horse.
"Sagebrush 101" is the best teacher, as the young horse learns about rocks and logs, hillsides and bogs, crossing creeks and gullies, having deer jump out of the brush and grouse flying up in his face. Young horses never get bored and sour, and they see a purpose in what we are doing. This on-the-job training makes for well-educated, sensible horses. It's a beautiful combination. The ranch needs good horses for the ongoing cattle work and range riding, and good horses need a place to be used--an outlet for their talents and abilities. We will always need good versatile horses on our ranch, and our horses will always enjoy the work.
SIDEBAR Passing the Reins to the Next Generation
My husband and I have been ranching for 36 years, with our son and daughter helping us as they grew up. We have shared our life work on the land and naturally want to pass it on to the kids. The tough part is how to do it.
We started leasing a ranch from my parents in 1967, eventually buying it and leasing adjacent land. Our son Michael married after college, and he and his wife Carolyn had good jobs in a city. But after their children were born, they wanted to get back to the land. In 1999 when they were looking for a place, we'd decided to slow down. We leased them some land and built a home on our upper place. But that first year working together was difficult, as we felt our way along in this new situation.
Meanwhile, our daughter Andrea married. She and her husband moved to the ranch and had been helping us for 7 years until she was severely burned in 2000 while trying to help control a range fire. Andrea is still recovering from burn injuries, but with great determination has regained many abilities. Though she has 3 small children she still helps on the ranch when she can.
Not long after that, a serious problem in our extended family opened our eyes and helped pull our immediate family into clearer focus. These two experiences worked together to help strip away some unimportant baggage like pride, selfishness, worry about how details of our work should be accomplished. We realized that our family relationship was much more important than any hurt feelings, any need for being "right", or inability to see the value in another person's view that's different from our own. It made us much more forgiving, humble and loving.
Day to day differences can get in the way of true priorities. This is where farm families often go wrong, letting mundane, though important management decisions cloud the most important thing: the love and care that made you want to farm together in the first place.
We may not know the final direction our ranch operation will go, but we do know we'll arrive at it together and in peaceful accord, because we know we are pulling as a team. The teamwork is what's important: the family rather than the ranch.
We feel blessed to have our whole family working together, and a place for our grandkids to grow up. We are content to see our kids doing more of the ranching as we do less, while still helping one another. One key to making it work for us has been to let the kids have their own identity, their own cows, their own place. We work together, but separately, like good neighbors. We are striving for a peaceful, amicable passing of the ranch to the next generation, and have hopefully gained the wisdom to let go and let them do it.
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