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Scale and silhouette

Bringing in the cattle

(still working through some of the cattle drive pictures)

Out on the drive, the scale of the landscape often made it seem abstract. Without big landmarks, there was just land and sky – it felt a little like being out on the ocean. The lack of context made it even harder to judge distance, or to feel comfortable as part of the landscape (rather than just adrift on it).

But if you put some cattle and cowboys in the same landscape, then it all starts to make more sense. It’s still huge, but not you’ve got some gauge of its vastness, and a way into it that feels right. And iconic.

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High gates

High gate goodnight

One of the things about being on the cattle drive was that it made me feel blind. We’d be out in the middle of a huge pasture, and Kim the rancher would say to Tim the working cowboy who was accompanying us something like: “You go on ahead over the next rise, head towards the windmill. You’ll come to a fence, then turn northwards and the gate’s a little way up there.”

Even when we got to the top of the rise, I couldn’t see a windmill, a fence or a gate. Not for half an hour. It’s partly that the gate might be a good four miles away, but it’s also that I wasn’t used to picking out details in a landscape at such long distances.

Which is why, I’m guessing, people built gates with high gate posts. So you can see them a long way off. Handy when you’re driving 50 pair of cattle and it’s getting dark.

Also handy for picturesque sunset shots.

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Appropriate Gear

Taking a break

To an outsider like me, cowboy gear always seemed a little like a costume. Not quite real, you know?

But after a week of riding and camping in all sorts of conditions, I now have a deep appreciation for my boots. Plain old Justin Ropers – the most unadorned, non-pointy, street-looking boots I could find, so I could wear them when I got home too.

The heel helps keep you in the stirrups, the slick (leather) sole makes getting in (and out in an emergency) very easy, and the high shaft helps with the chafing. And being pull-on, if things go very wrong and the boots somehow contrive to stay attached to the stirrups while you have to make a sudden dismount, there’s a good chance you’ll come right out of them.

And what else would you wear tramping through a muddy field, or sitting round a campfire after a long ride on a damp day?

I shouldn’t be surprised, really – the cowboy gear is as much a set of tools as anything else. Stuff that helps you do your job.

It’s the same with cycling equipment – an arena I’m much more comfortable with of course. It might all look funny to the outside world, but there’s a reason behind all of it. Except the faux-denim look (complete with fakey pockets on the back) for the shorts worn by the Carrera team in the late 80s, early 90s.

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Back from a Cattle Drive

Under the stars

It’s been quiet round here because I spent the whole week on a ranch near Roswell, NM on a cattle drive.

I’m writing an article about it for New Mexico Magazine, and there was a pro photographer with me to document the goings on.

But I had my camera with me around the camp – I’m definitely not a good enough rider to have brought it with me on the horse – and I’ll be sharing some of the photos I did take over the the next few days.

These were the cowboy teepees we were sleeping in after our days in the saddle.

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Drinking with cars

Well officer, you're not going to believe this, but . . .

We were at the Cowgirl over the weekend (Finn fell fast asleep), and while we were there I noticed an unlikely sight I’d not seen before – the fronts of a bunch of cars on the roof.

How you can miss a large part of a 1950s Buick I don’t know, but I’ll be looking for them again next time.