Monday, May 09, 2011

Sombrero Ranches’ Great American Horse Drive mixes new traditions with old

It was 10 a.m. Sunday when 800 horses driving east on U.S. Highway 40 rumbled into Maybell. The horses, led by three ranch hands from Sombrero Ranches, took up both lanes of the highway as they trotted through town. The sight of them brought tears to Christine Kozisek’s eyes. “I bawled when I saw them,” Kozisek said. “I bawled.” The event was Sombrero Ranches’ Great American Horse Drive. Kozisek, 58, said she’s witnessed the annual drive countless times, and even participated in the 60-mile ride from Browns Park to a ranch just west of Craig. Kozisek’s family helped settle the West, she said. Her great-grandparents, William and Lillian Sweet, homesteaded in Greystone in 1888. For that reason, the annual horse drive is a personal and emotional experience, she said. “That’s how they made their living,” Kozisek said of her ancestors. “William, my great-grandfather, used to go and catch wild horses and sell them down there (in Craig).” Later, her father, K.O. Fackerell, drove horses across the same route, she said. The modern-day version of the horse drive is a bit different from what Kozisek, now a resident of Neola, Utah, remembers from her childhood. “This is big compared to when I was a kid,” she said. “When I was a kid, it was just local cow people." Ed Pinkard, an employee of Sombrero Ranches, tended to the horses while guests of the ranch relaxed. Pinkard said 67 guests were involved in the two-day drive, and they each paid $1,750 for the privilege...more

1 comment:

montosacanyonranch said...

The ranches are for horse riding. Really a very beautiful place combined with a stable and horses.

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