What an amazing experience I had sharing my passion for longhorns with Jerry, Kris (daughter) and Blake (Son-in-law) at a ranch in Yoder, Colorado. You may wonder where Yoder is located. Well, it is due East of Colorado Springs. No matter what direction you go, Colorado is an experience.
Our host and owner, Travis Casey, is an amazing rancher with some of the most gorgeous longhorns I have seen. I’m not sure I don’t say that every time I see a longhorn though. Travis not only has spectacular longhorns, he is also a longhorn judge; we saw him the day after he had judged longhorns at an International show. I was fortunate to have him point out some of the finer points on judging longhorns. We spent about an hour just discussing similarities in judging between cattle and horses. Needless to say, I think I have some wonderful subjects to paint.
One reason we are featuring longhorns by the water trough, is that water is hard to come by in Colorado, so it has to be brought in by truck and the trough filled daily. Not only that, Travis takes special care in making sure no algae grows in the water and I must admit, the tank was spotless from dirt or any foreign object. There is an old saying among horsemen, and that I first heard from my equine vet: “if you won’t drink it, then your horse won’t drink it.”