Claire and I have just returned from a trip that took us to Montana and Idaho. Claire was bold enough to invite herself to come along while I worked shooting photos for my book, so I said sure, why not? We arrived in Missoula, MT and drove south to Victor where we stayed in a cabin on a ranch provided by a friend. Great cabin, but the pet peacock kept us up all night screaming.
Sleep or not, we had a heavy itinerary and found ourselves on our way to St. Ignacious the following day where we were to camp out (horses and all) with 150 other riders who had signed on for the 100th Anniversary National Bison Range Trail Ride. The range was sanctioned by Teddy Roosevelt in 1908, and it is on a Native American Indian reservation, land owned by the Salish-Kootenai tribes. It is open to the public exactly one day a year, and only for this ride.
Claire is quite handy, so she set up the portable electric fencing for the horses and she set up the tent, as well. We had dinner, and after pulled pork sandwiches and cake for dessert we sat around the bonfire chatting with the locals. They were intrigued by Claire and loved her accent, although they were still skeptical she might be able to ride a horse! Little did they know; because the next morning Claire became the rockstar of the entire weekend when she performed some pretty amazing stunt manuevers on a, well, rather difficult Medicine Hat Paint gelding she was riding. From then on in, she was legendary. Hi ho, silver, no doubt.
Fast forward to Salmon, Idaho where we met up with a cowboy named Ward. He breeds paints and we spent the day there from pasture to pasture looking at all of the new babies. Claire swears she is going to take a little buckskin and her mom back to Cedar Crest. Ward made us dinner and told stories until late at night. He had some amazing Native American Indian artifacts at his ranch, and some tall tales to go with them.
We ended the trip back in Montana, this time in Corvallis, to see my friend, trainer/cowboy Chris Bohenek start a new 3 year old mare under saddle. She was an Arab/Oldenberg cross. His techniques for starting a horse are not your typical cowboy/horse whisperer ones. In fact, he is quite educated about the fundamentals of dressage and seat to hand riding. It was pretty interesting stuff, and although I have seen him in action before, there is always something to be learned.
I think we were both sad to get back home since we had such a great time. But the good news is that we represented the east coast and Cedar Crest quite well. No-one west of the Mississippi thinks that anyone east of the Mississippi can ride a horse, especially being from New York. And while I do not ride nearly as well as Claire, we did have one old cowboy remark under his breath, "Huh, well you two girls sure can ride..." I think he is still trying to figure that one out!