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Tony R. is a 5’5”, 160 pound Cowboy from Magdalena, Mexico. He is not tall in stature, as many of the Cowboys I’ve met, but he is a Giant when it comes to talent and wisdom to fulfill his role in life, that of a Workin Cowboy. Tony ran cattle as a youngster with his Dad in Mexico and the USA. After a couple of ranch jobs in Arizona, he hired on with the Apache Maid Ranch in the Verde Valley in 1999, and eventually became Ranch Foreman. The Apache Maid has a history that dates back to 1870, when two brothers from Maine started the operation. Ownership has changed over the years, and today, between the winter camp at Rimrock and the summer camp at Mormon Lake, the Ranch encompasses 243 sections totaling 155,000 plus acres. In the early days, when travel was much more rigorous and slow, the Ranch was a popular stopover for travelers going from northern Arizona to destinations along the Verde River Valley. This time of year, Tony and his crew are busy “chasin cows” {as he calls it}, moving all of them north for the summer. I was in the Stoneman Lake unit in late May when ,by chance, I met him pulling a horse trailer full of saddled horses, a pickup stuffed with cowboys, and a tassel of dogs in the pickup bed, all yappin at the same time. He said they were an important part of his “Chasin Cows Crew”.
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Our return, in August, to the Summer Headquarters of the Apache Maid turned out to be anything but “Normal”. The weather was lousy with rain, and the almost 72 miles of Back Country Roads, slick with mud, got complicated after I missed 2 turns, because of downed signs, and getting lost twice. When we finally arrived, we found Tony laid up with a fractured ankle. He told me that a few weeks back, they had been out rounding up the last few strays from the Winter Range around Rimrock. He and “Pee Wee”, his horse, had climbed up out of a dense wash, and stopped on the side of a hill, waiting for his men to drive the Strays in his direction. When crossing the wash, he did not see the “Bad-Ass Bull,” with an attitude, hidden in the brush. The Bull caught him off guard on the hillside, charging & hitting Pee Wee in the left flank, knocking the horse’s rear legs out from under him. Tony tried to step off, but wound up with the horse falling on him, breaking his ankle. Tony has his left leg in some kind of cast and can’t get a pair of jeans on or get on a horse. The Photo Shoot is a Bust with pictures of a Cowboy wearin “Red Gym Shorts”, not able to get on a horse. All I can say is “What You See Is What You Get”. Tony will be back, so next time we’ll do it better.
