Home on the Ranch

My hostess here on the Mission Ranch in Livingston is my newest heroine. I have met so very many incredibly awesome women on my journey thus far, but Jaimie is a unique, dazzling combination of tough and tender. 

She is one badass cowgirl who can ride horses, herd cattle, rope a heifer, shoot an elk, skin an antelope, slaughter a deer, inseminate a cow, birth a calf, brand a bull, castrate a steer, and drive a swather.  She owns a .38 special (for protection) and a Winchester 270 (for hunting) and kicks butt in rodeo barrel racing. 

Besides all this intimidating competence, she’s also compassionate, empathetic, loving, loyal.  A dedicated wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.  Bakes the best chocolate chip cookie this side of the Continental Divide.  And her lanky 5’9” frame looks dynamite in chaps.

Jaimie has been ranching in Montana together with her husband for 6 years -- now on 4500 acres with 350 head of black Angus in the heart of Big Sky country -- maintaining a way of life in danger of disappearing (ranches often end up sold to corporations as a result of inheritance feuds).  They are part of the younger generation of an increasingly rare breed keeping alive the pioneering spirit so romanticized in American folklore. 

Their energy goes into sustaining livestock, crops, family on and by the land; the demands on their time are dictated by the seasons, the weather, and the unrelenting circle of life. Undaunted by an often harsh reality where there is not a lot of money and no guaranteed vacations, they are hardworking, determined, resilient, and self-reliant.  Jaimie thrives in this environment, it suits her temperament the way no office could.  And her life on the homestead enables her true calling in which she offers her gorgeous quarterhorses to those struggling with difficult personal transitions.

Riding since a toddler and training horses since a teenager, she has an intimate connection with these animals.  She doesn’t “break” them the traditional, violent way using fear, whips, and spurs to force servitude; rather, she believes the horse should be a partner with the rider and emphasizes a relationship of trust, respect, and unity.   This kinder, gentler method together with her intuition and inner serenity make her such an effective equine coach (what some would call a horse whisperer). 

She put me in the corral with an über-sensitive buckskin mare and after just a weekend a whole lot of emotional muck had been dealt with.  I then saddled up and the healing continued.  Am feeling so content these days that I wonder: Could there be a li’l cowgirl in me?

Jaimie: beautiful inside and out

Power couple: cowgirl & cowboy

The 1890s ranch house, my home for the past month
  

 

Life is good on the back of a horse!