Yee-hah! Time for some good ol’ horsing around in history

Crouching behind yellow flowering rabbitbrush, our camera lenses rise. Which way will they head next?

Cheryl Broumley, of Country Excursions, has done this many times.  But for me, a novice cowgirl, it rewinds me to sitting on my mum’s lap, waiting for Black Beauty to bolt.

I’m neither a cowgirl, nor on a horse. But I am wearing an authentic Stetson, lent to me by Cheryl, a horse whisperer.

We’re in Nevada’s Carson Valley on her wild horse-spotting tour.

Sheltered between the Sierra and Pine Nut Mountains, this is home to Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates: a non-profit organisation that protects the Fish Springs wild horses before us.

“Joining the 80 horses in our valley last week are the colt and filly newborns over there,” Cheryl points out.

“All are documented, right down to who was born when and from which mother. But working out who is dad is a trickier business.”

We admire bushes of Utah juniper berry while meadow larks sing.

When hooves kick up dust, we know it’s action time.

“When a mare gives birth, she goes into a foal heat, but can still get pregnant,” Cheryl whispers.

“She throws out a smell, which drives the stallions nuts.”

We watch in awe at two males sparring over one fair maiden, until they call a truce.

Nearby, we meet Karen Martell, topping up a waterhole. When the natural springs and ponds dry up, volunteers haul in water.

Karen also conducts health and wellness checks on the valley’s horses.

Cheryl and Karen banter about  which dude has a new girlfriend,  which gentleman is a family man,  which band has inherited colts and  fillies from another, which charmer  has earned a lady and raised her baby, and recent observations of mating mishaps and unlikely bonds.

Listening in, it becomes  a tender tale of anthropomorphism on a touching scale.

I’m unexpectedly emotional waving goodbye to the foals – but even more so, handing back Cheryl’s Stetson.

Wendover Will on the Nevada/Utah border. IMAGE: MARIE BARBIERI

COWBOY COUNTRY

Inspired by all things horse and ranch, I begin the 40-minute drive north towards the I-80 that connects Reno to West Wendover.

Deep in cowboy country, its 400 mile (644km) length is dubbed the ‘Cowboy Corridor’. But en route, I derail to see Nevada’s oldest town.

Founded in 1851, Genoa is steeped in western heritage. Travellers and transiting emigrants also pulled over here after the first building was constructed at Mormon Station trading post.

Between 1860 and 1861, horse-mounted relay postmen came through Genoa: a rest stop on the 2000-mile (3220km) Pony Express.

They trotted, cantered and galloped across eight states between Missouri and California, carrying locked mailboxes sewn into leather knapsacks. Meal provisions were rudimentary.

Within the 1865-built jail and courthouse (now museum), I find a copy of The Pony Express Rider’s Oath. One line reads that each of the 100 riders of 400 horses swears to never use profane language or drink alcohol.

The hardy horsemen permanently hung up their reins with the arrival of the transcontinental telegraph.

Being the birthplace of Nevada, townsfolk have meticulously preserved their handsome, weatherboard buildings. I lose an hour neck-craning at their elegant architecture.

IMPRISONED ARTISTS AND LIBERATED AUTHORS

Motoring the renowned I-80, I pull over at Lovelock. The town marks the western border of Nevada’s true cowboy country.

Bringing art to Lovelock from behind closed doors was Buckley Nimy.

His work as a ranch hand during the 1930s ended when he was sentenced for attempted robbery. But Nimy developed an exceptional hand at sketching vivid black-and-white cowboy scenes from the confines of his cell and editing the prison’s magazine.

His talent led to his pardon, and he became known as the ‘Cowboy Artist’.

An hour later, I reach mountain-backed Winnemucca. The city was named after a highly respected  19th century Northern Paiute chief  and is the only Nevadan city with an Indigenous name.

In 1883, the chief’s daughter Sarah Winnemucca penned a book on Paiute life and became the first Native American woman to be published in America.

RIDE-EM COWBOY!

Winnemucca’s Buckaroo Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum showcases relics from the region’s early days. There, well-worn boots and saddles hang alongside photographs of Wild West Hall of Fame inductees.

The weather-etched faces of strapping cowpokes expose just how tough ranch labour was.

Some 125 miles (200km) east is high-desert country Elko.

Commercial Street is where, in 1896, internationally renowned leathermaker GS Garcia set up his saddle shop.

Attracting customers from across  the world, the business now operates as  JM Capriola Co, where skilled  craftsmen have been making saddles  for presidents and Hollywood A-listers since 1929, along with other authentic yee-hah trappings.

Opposite, in the old Pioneer Saloon and Hotel building, is Elko’s non-profit Western Folklife Center, where the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering takes place.

It has attracted personalities within the Nevadan cowboy world, including Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Don Edwards and the late Ian Tyson.

The multigenerational, week-long jamboree sees poets, folklorists, singers, line-dancers, guitar-strummers, filmmakers and cattlemen creatively share stories of life on the ranch, through workshops and jam sessions.

January 2025 marked the gathering’s 40th anniversary – Elko’s boots are made for dancing.

DESERT ART

So deeply rooted in buckaroos and boots, Elko also splashes art across its ‘well-heeled’ streets.

I meet with 1.8m tall cowboy boot sculptures, commissioned for the town’s centenary in 2017. Hand-painted by 36 artists, they reveal the Ruby Mountains, wildlife and ranch life.

And thanks to the 2019 Elko Mural Expo, more than 60 stirring al fresco murals decorate the town’s previously featureless walls.

They compellingly narrate the settlement’s strong Native American heritage, Basque influence, the region’s mining and railroad history and, of course, much eye-catching cowboy and steed action.

CONFIDENT COWBOYS

A whopping welcome from Will the cowboy awaits me at West Wendover. And charmed, I am.

But sadly, I’ll be long gone come nightfall, when he’s said to reveal his  true colours.

A local community and state icon, Wendover Will is a 19m tall neon cowboy sculpture at the Nevada/Utah state border.

He lights up at night, but not with modern LED. The installation was wired with neon tubing installed by the Young Electric Sign Company in 1952.

If I were to return after dark, apparently, he’d wink at me. Oh, the temptation …

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