Posted May 8, 2024
“I ain’t no cowboy…I am a wrangler”…
On the first Sunday in May each year, wranglers at the Sombrero Ranches move hundreds of horses from their winter range lands to the ranch headquarters just outside Maybell, CO. Spectators line the streets to watch wranglers drive 200-800 horses through the tiny town in northwest Colorado. This year’s drive had a smaller than normal group of horses⏤numbering around 200, but that was enough!
Sombrero Ranches supplies trail horses for the National Parks trail rides. Once the horses are moved to the ranch, they are inspected, shod, and readied for their summer jobs⏤then hauled by trucks to the individual parks..
The horses are herded in two stages. I was there for stage two on Sunday after they had been moved to an overnight pasture on Saturday. The horses rested just outside Maybell. During the morning hours on Sunday, wranglers herded the horses to a gate in the northwest corner of the pasture, then down the road to the excited crowd in Maybell, and finally east to Sombrero Ranches.
“I ain’t no ‘cowboy’. I don’t herd cows. I’m a ‘wrangler’. I herd horses”.
I received that lesson from a wrangler at Triangle X Ranch back in Jackson Hole. Good to know!
Many of the horses at this horse drive already knew the routine. Wranglers just had to guide them along the road.
For the photos on this page, I had to stay ahead of the drive, get a few shots, and quickly move to a new location. Even though the horses seemed to just be walking or advancing at a slow trot, the window for shooting was short. As the mass of horses and riders approached the edge of town, I stopped and let the “show” go by me. Wranglers stopped the parade of horses just outside Maybell to let them rest and graze. This allowed me to get ahead again for another set of photos.
When I felt I had taken enough photos, I headed to Sand Wash Basin for photos of wild horses. The Sand Wash Basin Horse Management Area is roughly 45 miles from Maybell.
Click here to view a gallery of Wild Horse images.
The photos on this page were handheld with a Sony A1 and a Sigma Sport 60-600mm lens.
