Back to the Big Hole

After leaving Steve and Jan's, we went north, drank a cup of coffee in Jackson Hole, hit up Idaho Falls for a cupcake, and were blazing a trail to Boise when we got a text from Zane Davis, an old friend/partner in crime of Zac's. He and his family were planning to take some horses to the Big Hole Valley the coming weekend and invited us to come along. It was too good a chance to pass up -- and where's the beauty of having no plans if you can't change your mind at the drop of a hat? -- so we pulled into Twin Falls during a windstorm and talked a woman into giving us a hotel room for half price because it was 101 degrees outside and the air-conditioning was broken.

The next morning, we drove back to Wisdom, Montana and made up our bed in The Daniels, an old ranchhouse where Zac, Zane, and Zane's wife, Holly, used to wrangle dudes. Zac showed me the arena they constructed with recycled boards and nails and took me around to the old bunkhouse where the porch he built still stands and where he and Zane used to have contests to see who could kill the most bats. He chinked the logs by hand with Holly and her grandpa, Milt.

On Saturday, we went to the cafe for breakfast and asked the waitress if she could tell us the way to the Dooling Ranch where Zane was supposed to be working his colts with Jess Kirkpatrick. She didn't even blink, just gave us directions to a place easily thirty miles away. When we got there, we watched Zane working his Futurity horses on Jess's cows and chatted with Holly and the kids.

Zane trains cowhorses, which means he teaches them to do reining (lead changes, spins, backing up, etc.), cutting (taking a cow from the herd and keeping it separate), and fence work (taking a cow down the fence at Mach 10, changing its direction, and gaining control of it). The things he can do on these horses are pretty incredible to watch.

We finished the night with dinner and a bonfire in the sunset light. Everyone tried to get Zac to recite some cowboy poetry, but no such luck. Maybe next time...