Featured Articles

Calving Time Sprint

March 24, 2023
Jan Swan Wood

The share deal I had with a neighboring place was a nice situation for both them and me. They lived out of state but planned to move back to the place upon his retirement. They had me buy cows for them, then I took care of them. I spent their money frugally and had bought […]


A Hard Winter Ride

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 […]


Taking Care of Yeller

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 […]


Bull and Feminine Vapors

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 […]


Luke, The Quickest Feet in the West

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. […]


Quick Footed Prospect

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, […]


A Bull Teaches a Lesson

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 […]


Fox and the Monster Sighting

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 […]


Disposition Counts

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 […]


Bucking Horse Retirement Home

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. […]