The unseasonably cold weather didn’t keep cowboys Puke Eiguren, Ty VanNorman, Mark Eldridge, Jason Eiguren and Asher Freeman from putting up a fight at the first annual B-Bar-B Ranch calf team branding contest on Oct. 11.
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Forty miles south of Ketchum, past the ski lifts and the banks and the second homes, sits a remnant of the Wood River Valley's past. The B-Bar-B Ranch is an 1,800-acre homestead run and owned by Katie Breckenridge and her longtime partner Rob Struthers. Descendents of some of Idaho's first ranchers, Breckenridge and Struthers are trying to raise 120 horses, produce organic lamb and beef and celebrate the life of a cowboy along the way.
It has not been easy. With an economy on the verge of recession, they are confronted with high fuel prices and declining demand. To complicate matters, the Nature Fire, which threatened Silver Creek Preserve in August, wreaked havoc at B-Bar-B. The ranch lost 18 miles of fencing and nearly 80 percent of its privately owned spring and summer range.
What angers Breckenridge the most is the lack of media coverage the ranch received. While there were reports about the fire's impact on a few fishermen in Silver Creek, there was no mention of the B-Bar-B.
"They never, ever report what has happened to us," said Breckenridge.
For Breckenridge, the Nature Fire example is part of a larger struggle for ranchers who attempt to maintain their lifestyle in the midst of tourism and development.
"What we see as livestock people is that the areas that have tourist centers or a resort, those areas of ranching are extremely difficult now because there is so much pressure placed upon ranchers," Breckenridge said. "There is a perceived notion that farmers and ranchers abuse the land and abuse the livestock ... that we are redneck rapists of the land. They do not understand our deep compassion for the land and livestock. That pressure then evolves into them telling us how we should manage our land and our livestock, and there is an arrogance in their approach."
Breckenridge's admiration for the land and her animals is plain. She rarely discusses the rancher's way of life without welling up. B-Bar-B Ranch chose to go organic as that movement took hold in the West, beginning the process in 1996 and becoming certified by 2000.
"We knew that if we are going to stay in this business and this lifestyle that we love, that we had to get into the 21st century," Breckenridge said. "We cannot do it the way our grandparents or even our parents did. Rob and I are always trying to look to the future and that was part of our push to find the organic market."
The disconnect that Breckenridge detects between ranchers and urban dwellers is something she and Struthers are trying to fix. One method they've landed upon: They sponsor rodeo teams and contests to both support their fellow ranchers and show people what their life and work is about.
This month the B-Bar-B held its first calf team branding contest with 44 of the best cowboys in the region. The men came from all over the country, from as far as Oregon and Nevada to as close as Richfield, Idaho. They brought their families, their horses and their beer.
The men were competing for the ultimate prize: a B-Bar-B brand colt. Such a horse is worth as much as $2,000, and can be used by the cowboys to work their ranches. Over time the horse will be worth anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000. The winning team took home $4,000.
The prize was not the only thing that drew them. They came for the camaraderie and Breckenridge.
To many it is Breckenridge who has kept the world of the Old West alive in the Wood River Valley. She brought the first Idaho Hunter Jumper Shot, the first cow-cutting event and several other traditional events to the valley. She is also one of the first to start her own breeding program.
Breckenridge comes from a long line of cowboys. While her mother came from the East Coast, her father was born in Twin Falls and her grandfather brought the first grain elevators to the town in 1903. As a young man, her father had set his mind against living in the West and headed to Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where he met Breckenridge's mother.
"She fell in love with the Idaho sheepherder," Breckenridge said. "They came back to Twin Falls and made a life. It was the East meets the West at our dinner table every night."
Breckenridge fell for Idaho as a child growing up among ranches. Her family built the original Busterback Ranch in the Sawtooth Valley, and in 1974 Breckenridge developed the B-Bar-B Ranch in Picabo.
"Rob and I, because of our strong educational background, we understand that there is a much bigger world than just around us," said Breckenridge as tears appeared in her eyes. "So we hang on to our passion and love of the land and livestock and we recognize daily that one of our biggest challenges is to be able to preserve this lifestyle in the middle of people who really do not understand us at all."
Gatherings like the calf team branding competition are what sustain them.
"We held this event because we wanted to see all those ranchers who have experienced those same things," Breckenridge said. "Who know exactly what I am talking about.
"Fire," she adds, "is deadly for us."
The communal spirit is evident among the competitors as well. Almost all of the cowboys knew one another. Many of the teams consisted of fathers and sons or brothers and brothers-in-law. Wives and girlfriends and children watched from the sidelines. The men showed tremendous respect for their competitors' skills.
When asked how his team won, Shaun Lequerica, a member of the winning team from Eiguren Ranch in Jordan Valley, Oregon, didn't hesitate to credit good fortune.
"We got lucky is all," said Lequerica. "Everybody here is really, really good."
At the end of event, Breckenridge was all smiles and a few tears.
"I am just so proud that we pulled it off," she said. "This gives us the courage to suck it up and face another year."
Breckenridge said she plans to hold more ranching events in the future and encourages people from less rural areas to attend.
"I'd like them to come and see that we are really real people and to grasp an understanding of who we are
