March 16, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It was the winter of 1993 and by February the country was absolutely buried in snow. We were living at the ranch with my folks that winter. My then husband was working away from home and I helped my Dad on the ranch. The road into the ranch was about three miles long, through some […]
March 14, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
One fall and winter I was processing cattle at a feedlot until spring when my summer cattle would arrive. The processing crew and cowboy crew all ate together in the cowboy shack, a room built in the corner of the horse barn, therefore I saw the goings on there. One guy who was riding pens […]
March 7, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It would have been in about 1947 when this incident occurred. My Dad and Mom told me about it when it was finally funny. My guess is it wasn’t funny at all, for Mom at least, at the time it happened. My folks were living in a little house several miles from the headquarters of […]
February 24, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
The three year old gelding I had bought at an August horse sale was a quick, catty individual. He had kicked a catalog out of the ringman’s hand as he waved it over the the pipe fence of the sale ring, so I knew he was no housepet when I wrote the check. Boy howdy. […]
February 21, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
The late summer horse sales were going on and I had decided to try to pick up a young prospect to ride through the fall and have ready for my summer cattle season the next year. I’d gotten a sale catalog that had not only weanlings, but lots of riding age horses in it. So, […]
February 14, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It was time to be gathering bulls after breeding season, but some of the pastures on the ranch made that a challenging job. Also, some of the bulls had gotten big and hard to handle, plus didn’t want to be gathered, so it was some long hard days that resulted. We’d gotten the “easy” bulls […]
February 11, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
My horses were getting leg weary after a hot summer of riding on cattle, so I was riding a horse of my Dad’s to make my circles. This horse’s name was Fox. He was a nice sized horse, nicely put together, moved pretty easy and wasn’t broncy. But, Fox woke up in a new world […]
February 9, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
It was over 40 years ago and the big Civic Center was a brand new deal. I had been hired to take care of a stallion on the stallion row. That included feeding and watering him, cleaning the stall, exercising him and visiting with folks there to see the studs and book breedings. At that […]
February 6, 2023
Ruth Nicolaus
A special bucking horse went to a special retirement home in January. When Sammy Andrews from the Andrews Rodeo Co. in Bagwell, Texas, retired saddle bronc horse No. 012, Lock and Load, the 23 year-old gelding went to live with Isaac and Britany Diaz in Desdemona, Texas. Isaac has a special tie to the sorrel. […]
January 25, 2023
Jan Swan Wood
My dad was a great storyteller and brought my family’s history to life for me. One of the stories he told me was about my great-granddad Swan and a long ride he took looking for blizzard drifted stock. This would have probably been in the 1910-15 era, but I’m not sure. My great-grandparents ranched in […]