this past week I moved across the country (!!) hauling a trailer to work for the next six months at the same ranch I worked at last summer. the first few days were filled with mind-boggling-ly boring orientation, but I finally got the opportunity to bring my camera out to work with me & wow oh wow Wyoming did not disappoint!
the gather & push are by far & away my favorite part of being a wrangler, & it also makes for the most incredible photo-taking opportunity to capture the horses running in & the wranglers working to move them where they need to go. it's so cool to see the entire wrangler crew working as a team, from the gals on horseback to the gals standing in the road to block horses from running the wrong direction.
the gather is an intense experience, & it can go a lot of different ways. on a good morning, the boys see you coming & begin to move towards the big gate to head down to the arena. on a bad day, they refuse to accept their fate as equine employees & scatter to the farthest corners of the pasture, leaving you to chase them & pray that you catch them all. most chilly days are bad days, but once it warms up you really have no idea what kind of morning you're riding into. it's up to the wranglers who are on the gather to trust themselves, their horses, & their teammates to successfully gather the herd without losing stragglers and bring them in safely.
my most "main character" moment I've ever experienced was while I was gathering one morning. the sun was just rising over the foothills, & the spirit soundtrack was playing. I was hauling across the meadow after some naughty boys who didn't want to come into work & there was an eagle soaring overhead. it doesn't get much more cinematic than that, I mean really.
basically the bottom line is I love my job & it's pretty much the coolest!
xo, Caroline
Comments