Buckaroo Bonanza
The Great Basin buckaroo is best described in contrasts: proud yet respectful, reserved yet direct, artistic yet understated, customary yet experimental, independent yet collaborative. These qualities have helped this culture, prominent in Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon and parts of California, persevere without mainstream popularity and embrace traditions at risk of being lost to modern mentality and technology.
Seeing that some traditions are slipping through the cracks on Great Basin ranches and a new generation of working buckaroos are unaware of or unable to practice them spurred Scott and Andrea Van Leuven and their daughter, Kadie Zeller, to create the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering. This annual event spotlights the core customs, values and philosophies that embody the buckaroo culture, such as the transitional bridle horse training process, big-loop roping and low-stress stockmanship. It also honors the men and women steeped in these traditions and who practice them daily.
“The buckaroo culture was born out of convenience and necessity and fortified by traditions,” says Kadie, co-founder and director of the non-profit organization Om Namo, which serves as an umbrella for the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering. “While many events focus on the finesse and beauty of the traditions, we want to take it a step further and honor the people, specifically those in the Great Basin region, who have created a community based on this lifestyle and the traditions.
“Seeing how my parents handle cattle is unlike anywhere else I’ve been,” she continues. “Their deep respect for their horses, the land and livestock are evident in how they work.”
More than 20 teams of working buckaroos come off their remote ranches and into town for the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering. They’re there to test their skills, showcase their horses and visit with longtime friends.
Stewards of Tradition
Scott Van Leuven has worked on ranches throughout the Great Basin and is currently the cow boss of the C Punch Ranch outside of Lovelock, Nevada. His wife, Andrea, has ranched and trained horses most of her life and is an integral part of the crew. They spend long hours in the saddle, gathering and working cattle scattered across thousands of acres of high-desert pastures. An ATV or four-wheeler wouldn’t be able to navigate the rugged terrain, the corrals are few and far between. They rely on a small horseback crew and timeless techniques, such as sorting and roping cattle out of the rodear, to finish their work. These methods aren’t quick and easy, yet they are tried and true and still relevant.
“There’s an art to working cattle out of the rodear; it’s as much about training the cattle as it is training the horses,” Scott says. “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. You have to know how to read a cow and know the type of horse you’re riding. If you go in there with a lot of energy, the cows pick up on it. If you ride in there quietly, all the cows will settle, and you can ease through them and sort out the one you want and send her off without a big deal.”
However, Andrea observes that in our fast-paced, bottom-line and technology-driven world, cowboy crews have shrunk, and those that remain are trying to get their job done in the least amount of time.
“It’s become more about getting things done as quickly as possible,” Andrea says. “In the process, the cowboys have quit using their buckaroo skills and lost some of the etiquette and intricacies of working cattle from horseback.”
It takes patience to work cattle out of the rodear, explains Kadie, noting that some of the young buckaroos lack the attention span to sit and quietly hold a rodear.
“They want the romance of being a buckaroo but not the patience and work that goes into it,” Kadie says. “They’d rather go do something exciting.”
The latter is apparent in roping competitions, focusing more on speed or who can throw the fanciest loop rather than what’s best for the horse, cattle and situation.
“The tradition of throwing a big loop came from riding the horse the ranch gave you,” Andrea explains. “If the horse wouldn’t get you close enough to the herd to get a shot, you had to throw from far out to make a catch.”
Art in ActionThrough the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering, the Van Leuvens and Zeller aim to educate up-and-coming buckaroos and those interested in the culture on how traditional methods are connected to sustainable horsemanship and ranching practices. The event kicks off with a stock-horse class that showcases the versatility and athleticism of ranch horses brought up through the traditional bridle horse process, transitioning from the snaffle to the hackamore, two-rein, and ultimately, the spade bit. The competitors cut and box a cow, take her down the fence and rope her.
The Warr Ranches team, consisting of Taylor Lloyd, Gabe Clark and Quirt Boyles, won top honors at the 2023 event.
“A cowboy on a ranch rides the horses he’s given, and he has to make something out of them,” Andrea says. “We want to show that progression and the handiness of the working guys out there doing their jobs every day and making good horses.”
Most events involve three-person teams competing in four roping events to simulate ranch work. In the calf-doctoring, teams rope and “doctor” three head out of the rodear. The top 18 teams advance to a second round of doctoring. From there, the top four team qualify for the sort and rope, where they sort three head from the rodear, doctor one and send two out the gate at the opposite end of the arena. The top four teams from that round earn a berth in the Greatest Buckaroos’ Cow Doctoring finals, which requires roping two cows with 18-foot loops.
Contestants are scored individually and collectively as a team by three respected judges: Ed Robertson, Dave Stoddart and Ty Van Norman.
“We try to find judges whose goals were in line with ours and who have come up through the ranks of the buckaroo industry and have made their living doing it,” Andrea says. “We want judges who can help us elevate the buckaroo culture and traditions and continue to grow them.”
Scoring is based not only on proficiency and efficiency in completing the job but also on reading the cattle, assessing the situation and adjusting as necessary. Success necessitates good horsemanship and stockmanship skills and teamwork. Penalties are assessed for such infractions as mishandling the rodear, roughing the cattle, and anything that puts the livestock and participants in danger.
“On a ranch, if you are rough on the cattle and cause them stress, they don’t gain weight, and the ranch loses money,” Andrea notes. “When horses and cattle are handled with intention and respect, they improve daily.”
The Buckaroo Traditions Gathering will be held November 15-17 at the Winnemucca Events Complex in Winnemucca, Nevada. More than 20 teams will compete for cash and prizes while showing their big-loop roping and other traditional skills. Their masterful displays of horsemanship and stockmanship shed light on the buckaroos’ pride and dedication to training horses for longevity, handling cattle with the least stress possible, managing the land and perpetuating a lifestyle for the next generation.
Cultivating a CommunityOne of the unspoken traditions of the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering is nurturing the community by forming mutually beneficial partnerships and sharing resources that strengthen the people within it.
“We are spread so few and far between on ranches,” Kadie says. “A big principle of the buckaroo community is taking care of each other and knowing what resources are available and how to get help.”
The event’s trade show incorporates Western artists and gear makers, interactive agriculture exhibits and public service agencies. The gathering has also partnered with organizations such as The Outside Circle Show, a group of talented poets and musicians rooted in ranching, to provide live entertainment during the gathering and an ongoing, supportive platform to address addiction and mental health issues within the cowboy community.
The Buckaroo Traditions Gathering has joined forces with three prestigious ranch-style roping events to offer a cash incentive for the team with the highest cumulative points from four big-loop roping events. Teams that compete at the Brannaman ProAm Vaquero Roping in Ogden, Utah; the El Rancho Vaquero Roping in Ceres, California; the High Desert Rodear Roping in Burns, Oregon; and the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering in Winnemucca, Nevada, will be in the running for a $2,000 bonus.
“These events are important because they not only preserve and promote the heritage, customs and culture of this necessary lifestyle, but they also improve it through elevating the stockmanship, skills and gear through competition. I think that is one of the finest legacies of the Californios,” says Pat Horlacher of Burns, Oregon, producer of the High Desert Rodear Roping and a member of the third-place team at the Buckaroo Traditions Gathering.
Special HonorsThe Buckaroo Traditions Gathering does more than showcase traditions; it also honors the best in the business, including the hardworking women who are out there riding and roping on ranches and the veterans who came up through the ranks, honing their horsemanship and stockmanship skills through buckaroo ways and are now highly revered for their skills and integrity.
At last year’s event, Maria Markus, the widow of iconic cowboy photographer Kurt Markus, presented Hannah Kelley, the high-point Women’s Incentive roper, with a signed, silver gel print made from a photograph Kurt captured in the 1980s on the Marvel Ranch in Nevada. The print was framed by their son, Ian, who is also a talented photographer and working on preserving his father’s iconic work for people to continue to enjoy.
For years, women have helped on buckaroo outfits, whether they were horseback, working on the ground, taking care of kids or feeding the crew. Darby Winters was among the five women eligible for the Women’s Incentive Award at the 2023 event.
The acclaimed fine-art photographer traveled extensively to ranches throughout the West in the 1970s and ’80s and developed a deep appreciation for the buckaroo culture. His stories and images from his travels graced the pages of Western Horseman. From there, he found success in photographing fashion, celebrities and landscapes.
A few years before he passed in June 2022, the photographer began revisiting his cowboy images.
“Kurt admired the buckaroos for their gear, dress, and the care of their horses and livestock,” Maria says. “When he discovered the buckaroos, he didn’t want to go anywhere except the Great Basin. He was taking a deep dive into his archives and coming back to the cowboys. He realized his heart belongs out there with them, and he started printing his best work ever.”
To keep her husband’s legacy alive in the buckaroo community and honor the culture he revered, Maria has committed to awarding gathering-exclusive framed and numbered Kurt Markus Memorial commemorative prints to each member of the winning team and the high-point woman at this year’s event.
“Only six prints will be made: four numbered and two artist’s prints,” Maria says. “The photo I’ve selected is of Hank Brackenbury riding toward the camera at a branding. The light was perfect. He was a purist, waiting for all the elements to come together for that magic moment to take a photograph. His photos of the cowboys were honest — he was out there with them at dawn and rode with them in the heat and freezing cold.”
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