A Community Worth Having
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
The final week of the internship was largely uneventful — most of it was spent stacking hay, fiddling with irrigation, and prepping for/watching polo. The first two are borderline muscle memory by now, and the latter is an easy task anyhow, so I had ample time throughout the week to reflect on the last ten weeks and the massive steps I’ve taken both as a hand and as a person.
When I got to the ranch, I had never thrown a loop around anything bigger than a 19-year-old coworker. Now, I’ve roped calves ranging from fresh out to branding size. I’ve been on both sides of the branding pen, I’ve learned how to tag from horseback, how to work irrigation around a field, and how to ride a young colt that needs a little more guidance in getting things done. I’ve tacked on shoes (which are still holding strong, by the way), fought fence, wrestled calves, and operated a tractor for the first time in my life. On top of all of that, I managed to hold a much more consistent running schedule and got stronger through calisthenics, proving to myself that it is possible to get everything done in a day. To say that this has been an amazing summer would be an understatement. Thanks to Pierson, John, and Cade, I’m a lot more confident in my skill and my ability, more confident in my problem solving, and significantly more capable all around. Their patience, tutelage, and guidance has kept me growing and learning on a steady path, and for that, I can’t even begin to praise them enough.
On top of all of these skill sets, though, I’ve taken away a few major life lessons from my time out here on the ranch.
The first is that my aspirations are possible. I guess I kind of had the notion that being a good cowboy and being a good family man don’t mix well — I didn’t have many examples growing up, and the ones I did were often good at one or the other, so I had a vision in the back of my head that it was this or that. When I got here, though, I was greeted by two healthy families headed by cowboys who are phenomenal at their jobs — both aspects of these men were compounded through the year as I interacted with them within the job and outside of work, and they’ve proven to me that you can raise a family and be present and be a solid hand on a ranch. It doesn’t sound like much, but for me, it was an epiphany like no other and has become a firm life goal.
The second was the importance of compromise. Sometimes, a task just isn’t going to get done in the time allotted, and that’s okay — you have to compromise between your work life and home life to make sure you don’t burn out. Sometimes, the farming side and the ranching side need two different things — you’ve gotta compromise and figure out a solution that at the very least doesn’t hurt the one to maintain those relationships. Finally, there comes a time when someone else needs something you’re sitting on, whether it be ranch housing or equipment or even time. If you’re going to maintain relationships and keep the ranch in harmony, you need to assess need — might be the other guy needs what you’ve got more. If that’s the case, it’s best to just let it go; odds are, whatever it was worth to you will come back your way when your need arises.
The most important lesson that I learned all summer, though, was the value of community. Early in the summer, Pierson’s youngest daughter had a particularly nasty horse wreck. In the interest of maintaining privacy, it boils down to a life flight to Denver and weeks in a hospital for Pierson’s family and an awful lot of stress for those of us that know them personally. But out of that accident, a miracle spawned.
It started local. Cade and John took over, picking up the work that Pierson normally did, making calls and decisions and maintaining the place while Pierson spent his time with his family. I did my best to be as useful as possible, and I think I did a pretty decent job, but it was child’s play compared to the other two—two already highly productive members of the team turned into ranching and farming machines; it was amazing to watch, frankly.
Then, as time went on (and not much), that radiated out. Pretty soon Cade’s ear was nearly glued to his phone, even when we were tagging calves or pushing the herd, because he was taking so many calls from people reaching out to give Pierson’s family a hand. They’d offer food, money, a shoulder, anything they had, and they were beyond happy to do it. It wasn’t borne out of a sense of obligation, but a desire to prop up one of their own that had stumbled. The whole county reached out, it seemed like — Cade told me once he got a call from a lady neither he nor Pierson had ever even heard of to offer a hand. It felt like the whole state had dialed in on the plight on the ranch, and everyone was looking to help — it wasn’t for the gossip, it wasn’t for the clout, it was just for the love of a neighbor and that innate Wyoming desire to prop each other up. Far and away, it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, and it made me even more proud to hail from this amazing state.
The ranch’s team are known for their charisma. They do an awful lot of neighbor helping, they’re involved in the community, and you don’t have to wander very far to find someone that knows one of them — though if you do, you can go clear to the other side of the state and you’ll still be finding guys that know them well. All that effort they’ve put in to helping those around them and building relationships came back a hundred – fold the second they needed a hand.
What I learned while I watched this play out was that giving to those around you can end up helping you more than you’d ever dream in the long run. Giving with no expectation of getting back does the same thing, but even better. It doubled down the importance of that old line from the Code of the West: “Ride for the brand”. Folks far and wide had watched Cade and Pierson ride for the brand — they know the operation and they know the kind of man that owns it, and because Pierson has worn it with such pride and skill, people knew he was worth helping. The greatest thing you can do for your family, I learned, is to be good to those around you, because when your family falls on hard times, those folks you helped will be there to give the ones you love a hand.
Going forward, you can bet I’ll be giving help every chance I get, especially while I’m young and I’ve got time to burn. I’ve been given gold in the form of knowledge at every turn this summer, but maybe the most precious nugget I’ve found was the importance of community and the beauty that it brings out in people. Maybe, just maybe, the world will be alright — how could it not, with people like this in it?
Submitted by: Leigh Stockton
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
