The Beauty of Stockmanship

There are constant murmurs of ranchers or cowboys’ cruelty and lack of empathy for livestock swirling around the internet.  This is what I see. . .

I see men (and women) constantly honing their skills, humbling themselves, to improve their connection to their livestock.  Grown men on the verge of tears, when despite an all night effort they are unable to save a calf’s life or yet another cow succumbs to the poisonous beauty of larkspur.  I see people who chose to cowboy, because they can’t imagine a life without the empathetic kinship with animals that ranching depends upon.  Ranching isn’t for the weak-hearted.  The mornings are early, the days are long, the rewards are immeasurable.

Ranching is not just a job, not a simple career choice, it is a lifestyle.  It molds and shapes those who chose it, beyond their wind weathered faces and sun darkened hands.  It leaves upon their hearts and minds  indelible patterns shifting with the season’s tasks. 

We are ranchers, we are cowboys, we are animal lovers.