Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Photographer turns seasonal cattle work into ... Cowgirl art


Even in Creede, Colo., Dina Smith says, it’s not ev­ery day that the folks in town see a cow­boy. “I walk into town in chaps and ev­ery­thing, and I get some strange looks,” Smith said. “Our first year there, my hus­band got off his horse, jumped into the truck and headed into the bank. Peo­ple looked at him like, ‘What are you do­ing?’ ” Smith, of Blair, and her hus­band, Steve, work sum­mers tak­ing care of 2,500 cat­tle for the Colorado Cat­tle­men’s As­so­ci­a­tion on U.S. For­est Ser­vice land near Creede. Steve Smith has been work­ing as a cow­boy for three years. Dina started rid­ing with her hus­band last year af­ter tak­ing over for a sick cow­boy. “A lot of peo­ple want that job, so I was lucky,” Dina said. “That was great for me, be­cause I loved it.” The Smiths work for four ranch­ers, who lease the land from the U.S. For­est Ser­vice. “The peo­ple you see in my pic­tures are the ranch­ers, their sons, grand­sons,” Dina said. “They come and help us.” The Smiths take care of the cat­tle on about 10,000 acres of For­est Ser­vice land. They ride about 20 miles a day, main­tain­ing fences and drink­ing ar­eas, mak­ing sure the cat­tle are where they are sup­posed to be and tak­ing care of the 100 or so calves that are born on the range, Dina said. “I started tak­ing pic­tures of what we were do­ing, and I just loved it,” Smith said. The Smiths stay in a cabin on forestry land. Elec­tric­ity comes from a gen­er­a­tor and so­lar pan­els, and the wa­ter is grav­ity fed from a stream above the cabin, which is be­tween Creede and Lake City in the San Juan Moun­tains. “It’s in the mid­dle of nowhere,” Dina said. The cou­ple is pre­par­ing for an­other year on the range, and Dina said she is get­ting pro­fi­cient at pho­tog­ra­phy from the sad­dle. “I’m very, very clumsy,” she said. “But I’ve got­ten pretty good at tak­ing pic­tures on a horse.” The Smiths pro­vide their own horses and equip­ment. They are due to start in the mid­dle of June, but they go out early so they and the horses get used to the el­e­va­tion...more

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The article didn't say but my guess they are from the East, and living the romantic life of the west. Nice photo, not much grass.