Bittin' Up - Rimrock Ranch

At Wyoming’s Rimrock Ranch, cowboys and their horses look much the way they did back in the Wild West of Laramie and Cheyenne. Scouting for portrait models, artist James Bama first met ranch hand Greg Laughen in the summer, when the young man’s hat, shirt and jeans were still crisp and new. At the time, Bama offered to take his picture, but the cowboy didn’t feel right – he thought he looked too much like a city slicker. By December, Laughen’s clothes were broken in enough that he felt ready to be photographed. He was teaching a young buckskin its first lessons in responding to the rein. Shortly, he would lead the horse by its makeshift rope bridle into the corral to prepare him for “bittin’ up,” taking the bit without rearing its head. Patiently, the ranch hand has taught the buckskin to take the saddle and to keep calm when men approach. Now his student is ready for a new lesson in horse sense.