Wrangling Wild Horses in the Mountains of Montana | Short Film Showcase

Growing up I was definitely the most interested in the ranch lifestyle. From a young age I just really enjoyed riding horses and being in the outdoors. Making lots of money isn't my priority. I would rather live in a beautiful place and do the things that I love. My name is Cameron Kelsey. I'm a third generation dude rancher. I was born raised here on the Nine Quarters Circle Ranch outside of Bozeman, Montana. We raise our horses in the old world style of horsemanship. The horses spend year-round outside in the elements fending for themselves and grazing off the land and that's pretty damn tough for a horse out there in these elements. So we move them down to lower elevations in the wintertime and they spend the winter months down there grazing on the range. In the springtime we gather them up to run them back up to the range. Relax. Relax. Relax. There's an energy in the air that morning when you open the gate. Mostly the horses, they know that it's time to go to the summer pasture. They're just ready and charging and it's been a long winter and nobody's ridden and the horses haven't been conditioned. It's like sitting down most of the winter and then open the gates and running a marathon. It's tough. It kicks **** out of everybody. You could easily throw all those horses on a truck or trailer and not ever have to get on a horse at all. We do the roundup because it's a tradition. It's more about the camaraderie than it is about the practicality of it. When you've got a herd of 120 horses that you've raised and bred, you can kind of see the little clicks that they get into. Each horse has its own personality. Some are better at wrangling, some are better at leading a trail ride. They know me from a stranger. You know, they're a very smart animal. I prefer to be up here and be a solitary man, I guess. I like to depend on other people to do things and so if I need food, I go hunting. If I need, you know, a bed, I build it. I'm not really a cowboy. I'm more of a horseman, the way I would phrase it. You're out there riding across the country. You got nobody to bug you. It's just you and the horse and the herd in front of you. Not many people get to do that sort of thing. You know, it's always a little unsettling. You got six or eight new wranglers that have never been on your horses. You don't know how they ride. You got a lot of responsibility picking up horses that they're riding and what you're putting them on. So that's what makes me more nervous. It's making sure that they're safe and we're still getting the job done. I remember one morning I was riding a colt one time. A real young horse that had only been ridden four or five times prior. We were going up the trail and there was a log that had a fork in it. He just happened to step in the wrong spot and ended up just breaking his leg. I was still on his back and he's just laying there all tangled up in this log and I happened to have a gun at the time. Three minutes ago I was riding this horse and now he's... It hit me pretty hard. It was kind of like, wow, what happened there? Yeah, it was. It was hard to deal with. It was, you know, it was actually a horse that I had like two or three days before that kind of talked to my dad about keeping him as my own horse and then, yeah, so, you know, everything comes and goes. I love this lifestyle and I wouldn't say it makes me more of a man. I guess it depends on your definition of what being a man is. Mother Nature doesn't really care if you're Cameron Kelsey or president. It's still going to do whatever it's going to do. People get really big egos. I mean, you're nothing. You're just another man doing what every other man before you has done. I don't mind it. I mean, I know where I'm at in my place and what I do.