Wagonhound Ranch - holistic ranching

Wagonhound ranch and hope

Two of the most influential men in my childhood were ranchers. My love for
horses led me to people who had a love for ranching, for the land, for the western lifestyle. I was very lucky that the older woman who became my mentor in my twenties was also tied to the land and animal husbandry.

So where does this fit in with later decades when I became vegetarian,
and an advocate for animal rights and wildlife? In my heart, there has been no change. There is some personal conflict, of course. But I have always believed that smart, wise, caring people can find ways to reconcile these differences into a whole (holistic) life.

Today I read about such a person in the April Western Horseman, and the ranch they have created.

Art Nichols and the Wagonhound Ranch

Holistic ranching

Art Nichols' Wagonhound Ranch combines raising natural fed, organic cattle, versatile ranch horses, and loving stewardship of the 140,000 acres of Wyoming land it occupies, and the wildlife that shares it with them.

All of the feed for their cattle and horses is raised on the ranch. The cattle free range much of their life, are finished in their own feedlots on the ranch with no antibiotics or chemicals, and are selectively bred for disposition and conformation.

The horses are bred and raised on the ranch. Trained by the cowboys who will use them to work the cattle. After starting, a few professional trainers are invited to select talented individuals for the show ring. It is not unusual for a ranch horse to have started by winning in the show arena, come home to work on the ranch, serve as a pack horse, and become a member of the broodmare band. Wow. This is another pet peeve of mine - that show horses have diverged so far from actual working horses and in the process been turned into neurotic wrecks of the animals they could be.

The ranch employs a natural resource manager whose job it is to balance the ranch's many business interests with the care of the land. Art Nichols, who owns the ranch, has a vision of a ranch that makes enough to support itself - and protect the land and the wildlife it shares the land with.

True, there is hunting on the land. I am not against hunting - I am against wholesale slaughter for "sport" and the frequent attendant "accidents" caused by idiots with guns. With the outfitting business part of the ranch businesses, I feel assured that the hunters are attended by responsible people who will assure the hunter a good experience, while also guarding the safety of ranch hands, livestock, and wildlife not on the hunting list.

History is a part of the ranch - from prehistoric fossils in caves to buildings from the 1880s. All of the modern buildings have been constructed to honor those roots, and the historic sites are protected.

The existence of a ranch like the Wagonhound gives me hope and joy.