Chico Basin Ranch, Colarado: Cattle ranches and cowboys in the American West

By Julie Miller
Updated February 19 2017 - 1:15am, first published 12:15am
Ranch hand intern Margo Chalmers takes a dip to cool off in one of the ranch's ponds with her horse Rose. Photo: Helen H. Richardson/Getty Images
Ranch hand intern Margo Chalmers takes a dip to cool off in one of the ranch's ponds with her horse Rose. Photo: Helen H. Richardson/Getty Images
Rancher Duke Phillips, left and Western painter Duke Beardsley, right, ride together for the last round up of cattle for the season.  Photo: Helen H. Richardson
Rancher Duke Phillips, left and Western painter Duke Beardsley, right, ride together for the last round up of cattle for the season. Photo: Helen H. Richardson
Chico Basin Ranch in Colorado. Photo: Supplied
Chico Basin Ranch in Colorado. Photo: Supplied
Cowboys working at Chico Basin Ranch. Photo: Helen H. Richardson
Cowboys working at Chico Basin Ranch. Photo: Helen H. Richardson

It's an eight-person job to prepare a male calf for its future on Chico Basin Ranch – after a cowboy on horseback ropes and leads it, bucking in protestation, away from the herd, another two wrestle it to the ground, restraining it while the rest of the team step in to do their jobs: one to tag, one to vaccinate, one to sear its flesh with a brand, one to dehorn and one to do the rather gruesome task of castrating, throwing the evidence on the ground for the dogs to consume.

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