Ranch Life Articles

A Tall Horse and a Tricycle

August 22, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

We had just moved to our place a month or so before, and with last of the cattle shipping from oursummer herd contract, I hadn’t had much time to get the house unpacked. So, I was working on that onthis particular day.Son Colin was a long three year old. He had a tricycle that he […]


The Horses That Shape Us

August 14, 2024
Anna Foulger

There are horses we ride for a short time, there are horses we ride till they pass, there are horses we sit on once and never see again and then there are the horses that shape us. Shape us as human beings, as riders, horse trainers, men and women; they shape who we are and […]


Crowding Pen Horse Wreck

August 12, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

We day worked for this couple for quite a few years. They had us handle all their cattle work, as they knew they weren’t cowboys. Their business, besides farming, was buying top end heifer calves andgrooming them toward being replacements. We handled them every time they were handled, with the idea of making them the […]


The Attack Cow, Bobbie

July 27, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

Years ago I had a cow I called Bobbie. Her ears and tail had been frozen off as a calf, so the name fit.She was gentle and I’d milked her some, though her short “handles” made her hard milking. She hadgotten into the pine needles during a storm the winter of her three year old […]


Reno Wasn’t Really a Kid Horse

July 24, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

My Dad’s horse of a lifetime was a home raised buckskin gelding named Reno. Reno was absolutely the best horse for any and every job that was necessary on the ranch, plus he moved easy across the country and had a fast walk. He was gentle with no buck, but in no way ever deemed […]


Quicker Than the Strike of a Snake

July 18, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

My summer herd cattle hadn’t started shipping out by the time school started that fall. I think I was asenior that year. I got out of a last period study hall with a work release and got home about 3 p.m., andevery day, I saddled a horse headed out to check cattle on the summer […]


Wiley Cows and a Savvy Horse

July 16, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

I’d gotten the call to go daywork for a ranch I’d not worked for before. I knew the manager, or at leastI’d met him a time or two, but had never been on the ranch. The ranch was located in a beautiful piece of rough country with timbered ridges, brushy draws, canyons and badland breaks. […]


Eggs and Biscuits

July 1, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

When my Dad was a boy it was a different day and time. The expectations of a boy in the 1930s wouldseem crazy nowadays, but, was probably the norm then. Times were hard, everyone had to do their part to make a living. Dad said that he knew his Mother worried about them, but his […]


Trusting Cows

June 24, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

It was time to get my little bunch of cows to their summer pasture. Due to the difficulties of trailing them the six or so miles to the pasture I’d leased, it was decided to haul them. It would be way simpler than keeping them out of alfalfa fields and other unfenced or poorly fenced […]


Easy Days Don’t Make Good Cowboys

June 22, 2024
Jan Swan Wood

We had branded the day before, and mid-afternoon, loaded the cows and calves on the truck to take tosummer pasture. Before going, my son and I’d talked about whether we really needed to take saddlehorses out with us, as we were unloading into good pens and then they’d be turned out once paired. We both […]