CATTLE DRIVES
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We offer authentic cattle drives and roundups in several fascinating and beautiful parts of the world. Our Cattle drives are conducted much as they were a century and more ago and are still part of the local economies. There are several reasons for a legitimate cattle drive. One is to move the cattle between winter and summer pasture. In many parts of the world as the snow melts in the mountains and the nutritious mountain grass starts to grow both the wild animals and the domestic stock move up to profit from this precious gift of nature. As snows come in the fall animals must move down to winter at lower altitudes in the valleys. The wild animals have the age old instinct to do this on their own, but the domestic stock must be rounded up and herded. Another reason can be to drive cattle to a market as in movies like "Red River" and "Lonesome Dove". Of course once the cows are in winter or summer areas they often must be moved periodically to different sections. Cattle must also be rounded up from time to time for branding, castrating, inoculation or to send them to market.
There is an important distinction between a drive and a round up. Before a cattle drive can take place the cattle must be found and rounded up. Often by the end of the summer the cattle are dispersed over many square miles of mountains and forest so that it can take days and even weeks of hard riding to locate and assemble most of them. In situations where the cattle are spread out over vast areas of uninhabited mountains and forest the round up has many of the aspects of a hunt as well as a drive and one must ride for miles through trackless wilderness to find small herds tucked away in remote forest clearings. Many so called cattle drives take place on dusty roads where a group of cows and calves are moved at a slow pace ten or twelve miles a day, often for no good reason except to entertain the guests. The cattle drives and roundups below offer a more challenging equestrian experience and are the real thing.
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Cattle drive vacation in Argentina
Wyoming cattle drives
Long Valley cattle drive
in Arizona and Utah
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Argentina - Gaucho Cattle Drives - If any place in the world has the mystique of the American West, it is Argentina where the colorful gauchos have used horses for centuries to herd their world famous beef cattle in the vast mountains and plains of Patagonia. You can help drive cattle at the base of the Andes with native Indian gauchos on a 15,000 acre cattle ranch and become a part of this fascinating culture.
Arizona/Utah - Long Valley Cattle Drive - You can help accomplish this cattle drive with an old ranch family which has done much the same thing for over a hundred years in moving their cattle between summer and winter pasture. This authentic cattle drive takes place in some of the wildest and most beautiful country in the West between Zion National Park and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. You will really be living the life of a cowboy and appreciate the drama and excitement of an old style cattle drive at its best.
Ecuador - Round Up of the Fighting Bulls - Probably driving cattle in Ecuador is not the first place which came to your mind, but if you are looking for a truly challenging and exciting cattle work, this is the place. The bulls on this hacienda high in the Andes are raised specifically for bull fighting and every year they are rounded up, sorted and some are sent to market. These bulls are very aggressive and move fast. Only good riders on responsive athletic horses should attempt the real work of driving them. Less experienced riders can give the bulls a wider berth.
Wyoming - Bitterroot Cattle Drives - At Equitours' own Wyoming ranch cattle graze in the adjacent national forest from July through September while we put up hay for cattle and horses in our fields lower in the valley. The cattle roam over 50 square miles or more of spectacular country during this period. The most intensive work with the cattle is the first week of July when we disperse them and the last week of September when we try to find them. In the interim they have to be watched and moved quite often so that they do not impact any areas too heavily.
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