I am very proud to present my first book. It is filled with photos that I took at a branding at the ZX out in the desert near their Viewpoint headquarters. I also interviewed most everyone who was there that day to make the book more interesting. It is 11x13 and has 160 pages. I plan to do dozens of books eventually that will all be designed to match in look and feel to make a nice collection. I hope you will find it is a treasure to keep and enjoy for years and years to come. Click on the book graphic at the left to see a preview and order if you like. Just thought I would tell you that I love your knew book and am looking forward to the next ones! Move on over KURT MARKUS there is a new book to add to our collections! Important for the Great Basin Buckaroos, this new book is a slice of life! Not doing so bad for the 'vanishing breed' now is it???? -Denise Smith I have purchased a number of these kind of books over the years. What I like about your book over many others I have is that you take the time to tell about the people and their backgrounds and also give the reader a sense of the history of the ZX and it's location. I hope this book is only the first of many to come. Thanks. Gary Winckler The Traditional Ranch Style Horse Branding photos are going up ...check them out here! It was a very exciting event except for one thing...the pouring rain! Here are the names of the traditional ranch style horse branding winners: Old style ranch Bronc riding winner take all of $1000..Victor Madrigal ( and wait until you see the photos of the old style ranch bronc riding .....no flank straps to make these horses go...they blew just like they do on a cold morning on the ranch! Pretty spectacular!) This is what traditional ranch style horse branding is about: Eastern Oregon and northern Nevada are places where the ranch cattle numbers can be in the thousands, acreages in the hundreds of thousands, and horses in the cavvy for riding, dozens. You will see two days worth of photos that document old style traditional horse branding techniques that emphasize low stress handling of large numbers of young horses destined to be saddle horses. These techniques are still used today by many of these big ranches. First the horses are caught with a neck loop at which point they are allowed to fight the rope until they settle down and face the roper. (If a loop ended up tangled with a front leg, for example, it would have to be removed and another clean loop thrown). Then another rider throws a loop, generally over the shoulder, to pick up both front feet in a loop, and the horse is pulled to the ground where he is handled quietly and carefully by the ground crew who, along with the foot roper, maintain almost complete control of the horse by keeping his front feet a little bit off the ground. It was amazing to see, but the horses, without someone sitting on their neck or their hind feet being tied, laid very still without struggling thru the process of being branded with a hot iron on their hind leg. Then they were allowed to very quietly get up and walk off. Rock Creek Ranch owner, Gary Miller, and Rattlesnake Creek Ranch manager, Glen Shelley, organized the event showcasing traditional horse handling techniques which also include a demonstration of high action old-style bronc riding and vendors featuring traditional handmade buckaroo gear. Friday there was a pre-roping to get the horses thru their lst experience being roped, and Sunday the colts were branded in a competition. Two buckaroo cook wagons brought by Mike Buckner and Cameron Bean were on display and authentic camp cooking was enjoyed by all during the rainy, cool day. The day started with cowboy church services by Slash Lazy U Ministry. The bleachers set up high on big bales of hay were filled in spite of the rain and the extreme mud on the ranch roads.The general feeling by the many people who are interested in preserving these old buckaroo traditions was that this ought to become an annual event. It was held at the historic Bel A Ranch near Burns, Oregon. Here are some photos I took of the old style ranch bronc riding: |
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Click on the ads below .....most are linked to websites or have their own page on my website..... |
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