T.E. Barrett

I made my living horseback for years. I lived the life........reflected below.

*Working on the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana when a record amount of snow fell, I would ride horseback between the two ranch houses where I worked to feed the herd bulls. It was a five-mile ride each way. I had to ride cross country to the county road. That winter had so much snow that rotary plows were used to open the roads creating a snowy canyon about 10 feet deep. I would get to the road slide my horse down the snow wall ride about a hundred yards or so and then go straight up the other wall to continue. The problem was I was riding a bronc who was spooked by vehicles. If a car or truck appeared, I had to ride back and pop out of the snow canyon where I had entered and wait till it was clear, and then off we'd go.

*Another rider and I trailed thirty-five head of loose horses out of hunting camp in the Gros Ventre Mountains of Wyoming in mid-November and headed for Pinedale 50 miles away. I rode in front of the horses as the lead, and the female camp cook rode the drag. The hunting camp we left behind was the beautiful Darwin Ranch located at 8,000 ft. The temperature that day was hovering around 10 degrees F with a light snow falling when we rode out. It was an autumn of normal, heavy snowfall that had the horses pushing chest-deep snow as we pointed south. It was a two-day ride of 30 miles the first day, and 20 miles the next. The first day ended when we pushed the horses into a corral for the night where they had hay and access to open water. The next day found us taking the horses right now the main street of Pinedale to the corrals on the east edge of town. From there, they were loaded onto a semi and trucked to their winter range.

*Two friends and I bought six head of horses in the Bitterroot Valley which is located south of Missoula, Montana. From there we rode down the Continental Divide to Jackson, Wyoming in 1974. This was before the Continental Divide Trail was established. All the horses were ridden and packed. If a horse was ridden one day, he would be packed the next. The journey was 25 days in the saddle averaging about 20 miles a day. We, of course, packed all our food on our sawbuck packsaddles and grazed the horses in the mountains as we went. We left the Bitterroot Valley crossed Lemhi, Bannock, and Monica Passes and rode down the Divide to Yellowstone National Park, and continued to the back side of the Tetons. The final day was riding down Death Canyon to the Grass White Ranch in Jackson Hole.

*It was the end of summer in 1969 when two wranglers and I left the White Grass Ranch in Moose and drove to Jackson, Wyoming to ride in the night rodeo. The wranglers whom I met the summer before are still great friends, Jon Ferry and Joe Baker. We were told earlier in the day that some wild horses had been caught in the Red Desert of Wyoming and needed to be ridden to see how they bucked. Nothing like being young and....you know the rest of that story.

Joe rode his horse like it was his day job and the pickup men came alongside and pulled him off after his 8-second ride.

Jon rode a snaky horse that bucked, sucked back, and popped him out of his rigging, gravity grabbing a hold of him and sending him to Terra Firma. I was the last to ride and I remember my horse was a handsome overo sorrel. He jumped out of the chute, bucked once, and then headed due west at a dead run. The pickup men were left in the dust as the horse outran theirs. Being a night rodeo, the big arena lights formed a black wall around the rodeo grounds. The horse and I arrived at the other end of the arena to face a 6+ feet high fence. I thought he was going to turn right but the next thing I knew we cleared the fence, flying into 'the ink of night.' We vanished into the dark........ he landed in a catch pen, and I grabbed the fence, and held on as he turned under me and ran off. So ended the night rodeo.

*These snippets are just a little bit of my background. I love horses and I love the West.

My first book 'Creed- Ride It Out' was published in June 2020 when I was 72. Thank you for taking a look.