By Chastain Spiller, senior animal science major

There is a certain satisfaction that comes with exhaustion at the end of a hard day’s work in the hot sun. This fact was quickly learned by a group of Texas A&M Department of Animal Science students who spent a week horseback, riding and working on the tough Wyoming terrain helping ranchers on the historic Green River Drift.

Department-led trip immerses students in historic ranching

The week-long experiential learning trip was part of a Department of Animal Science special topics course on working ranch horses in beef cattle operations. Jennifer Zoller, Ph.D., associate professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service horse specialist, and Paige Linne, senior lecturer of equine science and coach of the Texas A&M Ranch Horse Team in the Department of Animal Science, were the instructors for the course and coordinated the trip. The trip was also supported by the Texas A&M Institute for Equine Sciences.

The group of animal science students had the unique opportunity to work with local ranchers and experience a small part of the historic Green River Drift, a 58-mile-long cattle trail that has continuously been used by ranchers to move cattle since the 1890s. Students who participated in the learning opportunity were:

  • Amanda Baxter ’24
  • Owen Dabney ’24
  • Martina Hernandez ’27
  • Avery Martin ’26
  • Dalton Regehr ’27
  • Chastain Spiller ’25

Coming from different backgrounds ranging from barrel racing and horse showing to ranching, the students all stepped up to the challenge of this trip eager to learn. 

Zoller and Linne provided expert insight on the equine industry and the Texas A&M equine sciences program and supported the students throughout the trip by broadening their knowledge of riding, working cattle and ranching. Their dedication to helping students grow, not only in skillset and knowledge but also in character, fueled them to make this unique educational experience happen and set a precedent for its continued occurrence.

History of Green River Drift

Pinedale, Wyoming, one of many small towns in Sublette County which covers a sweeping valley nestled amongst the southern reaches of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, is the proud home of the historic Green River Drift cattle drive. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Green River Drift is used by ranchers of the Upper Green River Cattle Association to move their stock from spring grazing on the arid desert in the low country to the lush summer mountain meadows of the national forest. Here, cows and calves will have the chance to grow and gain fat stores before heavy snow in the fall and winter pushes them back down the mountain and restricts their diet to hay that the ranchers have cut from irrigated fields in the lower part of the river valley. Bulls vetted by the Association will also be turned out on the mountain to breed the cows and ensure a productive calf crop for the next year. 

Students experience life on working ranch

During the long week, the students and guests did not shy away from the 3 a.m. mornings or twelve-hour days. Most days, as the sun rose over the mountains, the group was already saddled and making their way across thousands of acres of sagebrush and grass. Though the full extent of the Green River Drift takes weeks to complete, under the guidance of local rancher Cody Post, the students participated in a shortened version. With horses rented from trainer Boone Snidecor, the first several days were spent gathering cows and calves off  Post’s desert pasture, after which they were sorted and shipped on trucks to the base of the mountain trail. Over the course of several days, the group pushed the cattle up the mountain trail, leaving them to settle at a source of water each evening before continuing the trek in the cool weather of the next morning. 

In addition, part of the group spent one day helping Snidecor with a set of yearling cattle. They gathered the cattle out of a large, mountainous pasture and moved them to a set of pens as it rained. When the sky cleared and they reached the pens, the students assisted Snidecor’s crew sort cattle that needed to be treated for eye infections. 

As a full circle finish, the students were introduced to Jonita Sommers, a descendant of some of the original settlers of Sublette County. Sommers and her brother funded the creation of a living history museum out of their childhood home, the Sommers homestead, which they still manage. As the students gathered around in the grass outside of the original home, Sommers shared a history of the valley, its settlers and the Green River Drift itself. She told stories of the Equalizer Winter, a catastrophic winter that led to the creation of the great cattle drive, and the sheep wars, a time when the cattle ranchers and sheep herders were competing over the use of the mountain permits and the vital grass that comes with them. 

This trip allowed these students to step back in time and be immersed in life on a ranch in Wyoming and all of the long hours that come with it. They rode along trails used by generation after generation to sustain the ranching way of life in Sublette County for over one hundred years. It was a unique experience that will not soon be forgotten by those who attended the inaugural trip.