Real Cowboy Life: Behind the Scenes of the Reno Rodeo Drive - a full episode of Today's Wild West!!

This week on Today's Wild West, we're on the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. It's just a great experience. This is really, truly the cowboy life. A cattle drive that includes an authentic wagon train. Plus, western singer-songwriter Dave Stamey. Today's Wild West is up next. The Wild West, it's still out there. We'll show you how to find it. This is today's Wild West. What's more Western than a great American cattle drive? We've all watched City Slickers and dreamed about driving a herd across the rugged American West. You can make that dream come true at the Reno Rodeo Kettle Drive. It's just a great experience. You don't even mind sleeping on the ground. Every June, some 60 men and women come from all over the country and around the world to spend five days horseback pushing some 300 cows across the picturesque Nevada landscape under the guidance of expert cowboys and cowgirls. It's a good thing people get to come out and do something they've never done before. You know, some you see on TV and then they get to come do it. George Dorso was there at the beginning when a boot company executive created the Cattle Drive to promote the Reno Rodeo and sell a few boots. Today, the spot on the Cattle Drive is a hot ticket. We're excited. We've been really excited for this for the past year. You could feel the anticipation when we all came together that first day. Yes, my second year. So you brought your pals with you? I did. It's guys like Len that make it fun and worth coming back. It's a great, true Wild West experience. I came here for the good-looking girls. A bus stop on the way to camp in a small town western saloon helped to break the ice. as strangers quickly became friends. She couldn't two-step yesterday, now she's a natural. Once at camp, the new drovers split into teams, each led by an expert wrangler. That first night, there was some friendly competition to kick things off. Later, everybody received their official Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive jackets and canteens, quite the nice souvenirs. Out on the trail, the teams take turns driving the herd from the various positions on the drive like right flank left flank or the rear known as riding drag number one job of the team leaders is keeping everybody safe i've seen people get hurt out here so yeah it is there is a good amount of responsibility horses and cattle can be hazardous but matching the right horse to the right rider goes a long way toward minimizing the risk you have to have a wide variety dave donnell's frontier pack train has been providing horses for this cattle drive for some 20 years because not everybody's an expert and there's some people here that are first-time riders and you have to give them really good tolerant horses that will you know seen it all done it all a thousand times to be safe because safety is number one. This is Dusty and he's a good horse and I tell you whoever the outfitter is for these horses does a fantastic job. Jennifer McCoskey from Tampa was one of the beginners on the drive and loving it. I'm enjoying it. I am out of my comfort zone. I've never done this before so it's something exciting in you but it's friendly and you know as cordial and helpful as everyone is. They're very welcoming so it just makes it a lot easier. I felt like I've made a lot of new friends. It's easy to get out of your comfort zone when you're not used to riding. More than one new cowhand was doing what they could to ease the pain. My wife's got an entire pharmacy she brought for this. She's got Motrin Advil. She's been all the way down each one of the lines. Her pharmacy is about this large. So we're ready. We're ready for anything, any and every challenge on this trip. All kidding aside, the crew reminded everybody that staying healthy in the desert also means staying hydrated. And it's going to be even more important today. It's going to be pretty warm. It's going to be flat, dusty, and hot. So make sure we drink lots of water. Just Just in case there is a serious problem, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jim Rapoport, better known here as Doc Rap, is along for the ride. We do a lot of preparing for this. It's really an expedition. Think of it, we've got about 60 guests, we've got 300 head of cattle, about 300 other horses and things, the Teamsters, so all together we've got about 150 people moving across essentially wilderness out here. So we make sure that the hospitals have a supply of rattlesnake venom, and we've got a satellite phone to connect directly to the rescue helicopter. Doc Rapp's not the only physician on this trail. That's Dr. Sherry Hald, a Reno OBGYN. The man in the derby hat is an emergency room doctor from Houston. So this was on your bucket list, huh? Yes. So I did it, what, in 2013, and I had a chance to come back this year again. So too much fun. Oh, it's incredible. You look around at the people, what they do. It's pretty amazing. You have Ann over here who's a forensic scientist. I mean, she solves crimes like you watch on TV. Trail boss Butch Van Leuven, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and a Reno fire chief, was talking about Dr. Ann Buchholz here with her pal Tracy Worthington. For a lot of people, and it gets you away from everything, and I think you just kind of tend to regroup with yourself and get back on track, and it's just a wonderful time when you meet some great people. We get to hang with a good friend, and we get to be out here with horses and kind of dream about the old cowboy lifestyle and wish we had been there 100 years ago. The type of people who come to an event like this are just good quality people. You know, they don't mind roughing it, they don't mind getting a little dirty, and they like a good laugh, and they like to have fun. You will ride for hours. You'll get dirty, you'll get hot. And when the day's ride's over, you'll set up a tent and sleep on the ground. And pay for the pleasure, right? I think it's great. It's just something I enjoy doing. It's something completely different than I do the other 51 weeks a year and having a ball and definitely going to do it again. There were some nice amenities. Hot showers at camp, cold drinks at the traveling bar, hot breakfasts, and homemade apple pie after delicious dinners courtesy of Brothers Barbecue. Counting all the guests and crew members, the cooks served about 150 people every day in remote country. Quite the challenge. It's very long days, but this is a great crowd. They make it easy on us. It's fun for us. So the lack of sleep is nothing to worry about. None of this would happen without the dozens of volunteers that do the heavy lifting. Moving tons of gear every day from camp to camp. Tables, chairs, tents, everything it takes to make the cattle drive happen. We fold that up and move it to every single camp. We have three sets of porta-potties. We have a whisper generator system for electricity here that gets moved. John Harp's been the camp boss for nine years. My crew is unbelievable. He just loves to give back. Kettle Drive raises money for children's charities, but it's also all about sharing the love of the West. This is really, truly the cowboy life. out when you're out on a trail with about three or four hundred cows and it's just you your horse and the cows it's unbelievable come out here and enjoy this there is something truly profound about time spent horseback in unspoiled country slower pace that gives your mind a break from the computer and the cell phone space to breathe and think the experience that the guests have is really heartwarming to me some people don't get to do this and it's life-changing for some people Head Wrangler Mike Torvina has volunteered on the ride for nine years. My first year, I had a lady email me and said, Mike, next to the birth of my children, that was the best experience of my life. It's been really cool. You know, it's probably, who knows if I'll ever get to do it again, but it's something that I've always watched and always wanted to do. So I appreciate it. One night after dinner, riders shared how they felt about it all. Then savored the western sundown with a campfire concert with singer-songwriter Dave Stamey. A profile of the award-winning musician later in the program. The Reno Rodeo Kettle Drive also features an authentic wagon train, with some of those wagons dating back to the 1800s. We'll take you for a ride when today's Wild West continues. It slows you down and makes you, you know, look around and just appreciate the quieter things in life. Life does indeed have a different rhythm in the front seat of Kathy Davis' covered wagon. With her mules Alice and Judy providing the horsepower and a little dog tequila along for the ride, Kathy's wagon was one of nine making the trip, the wagon train giving the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive even more of an authentic Western flavor. These wagons not only look like the real thing, some of them actually are. This wagon's an original Mitchell wagon built in Lawrence, Kansas. Wagon master John Schwartzler's rig dates from the 1880s. Right up by the trailhead where Dodge City, They shipped all the cattle out there to the railroad. John's been driving wagons and teams for decades. Today, it's a family tradition. Well, we have done this since we have met, so this is like 30 years of doing, all of our kids were raised doing this kind of stuff. The couple's daughter, Melanie, grew up with these horse-drawn vehicles, and at age 31, still loves it. Oh, just being one-on-one with the horses, you know, going down the trail. It's just a slow pace of life, that's what I really like about it. On this wagon train, Melanie is one of the outriders, as is John's sister-in-law, Pam. It's an important job. You have a lot of responsibility because I'm basically John's mouth, you know what I mean, to go tell the other wagons what he wants and where he wants them to go, and I love it because then I get to use my horse. As Pam saddles up, John and the other wagoners are hitching up their teams, just like they did back in the day. It's pretty tough to improve on what they did a hundred and some odd years ago in designing this working harness. They really thought it out. John can not only explain the function of every piece of leather that goes into that harness, he can tell you the history of the American Cream Draft horses that pull the wagon. He raised this pair, full brothers, members of a breed that he helped to rescue from extinction. When we got involved with this breed years ago, there were less than 100 horses left. They had almost died out. John worked with the University of Kentucky Equine Genetics Department to save the breed. And we're now up around 600 head of horses, so the breed's getting to the safe point. It's all fascinating stuff, as is watching the process of hitching up the teams. And all the teams were revved up and raring to go when we finally pulled out of camp, waving goodbye to the riders who would soon follow with the cattle her. Riding on Kathy's wagon, I'm in good hands. I started out in the racehorse business, so I started out galloping colts. So I learned how to do a lot at a gallop. This woman who started driving teams 14 years ago is now a world champion. I have two world championship team driver buckles. She says while it does take some physical strength to handle the team, feel and finesse are more important. You'd be surprised at how little it really takes to control these guys. You know, once you've got a good broke team and they've been around you a while, it doesn't take all that much. It's great fun to ride along as the wagon train rolls down the road. You get a sense of what it was like to cross the country so many years ago. No danger today of a buffalo stampede or an Indian attack. Instead, it's a cattle guard that brings the train to a halt. Are we looking for a spot to get off the road? We're looking because we're gonna go boonie crashing over to see the gate over there see right here it's pretty pretty nice yeah about a straight shot right to the gate but suddenly the cavalry rides to the rescue pickup truck with plywood to cover the cattle guard so our horses can get across later gravity presents another obstacle a big hill I might be a little tough it's a little bit steep and we're loaded a little bit heavy. Time to step on the gas. I'm going to let him run. Ready? All right, hit it. Alice and Judy make it to the top, all part of the challenge of taking this wagon down the road while making sure to keep the mules happy. Alice is really steady Eddie, nothing really bothers her. Judy's a little more nervous and fussy. And when those two four-legged ladies are relaxed with with big ears flopping, all is well. There's something kind of nice about sitting on a wagon and listening, you know, to the cup chains and, you know, the footfalls and the wheels turn. Yeah, there sure is. There sure is. We'll saddle up for the last day of the cattle drive in just a bit. But first, the award-winning cowboy music of Dave Stammer. I'll never be branded, I'll never be the rock. I'm a carefree ranger, I'm a driftman working in the syndicate of mine. Can't remember the smell of sage Pulling knives, working in the syndicate It's the perfect setting for a Dave Stamey concert, around a campfire as the day winds down on the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. Oh, it seems she's on that pony running, running down the river's course Singing about life in the West to the people who live it and love it. I love to go to these small rural communities, you know, and meet the farmers and ranchers and stuff who come out. They appreciate the fact, I think, that you're singing their stories. It's very rewarding to be accepted by those folks. Whether it's a campfire concert, Maverick's Coffee House in Visalia, California, or wherever you're lucky enough to hear him, Dave sings about the life he knows. Born in Montana, he was a ranch kid who grew up horseback. They had their struggles, and Dad would sell the place and move the family to California. But for Dave, Montana remains a special place. We were up there until I was about 12. In a way, it's still home to me, in that every time I go up there, it gets me. It catches me. Whatever the location, the saddle has always been home, and the guitar's been a constant companion since childhood. It's like no one remembers anymore Jack ran the rodeo parade It was a hit with boys and girls of every age That had a Sears Roebuck Silvertone 3 quarter size guitar It's a terrible instrument Just an awful instrument If you learned how to play guitar on that You really wanted to learn how to play guitar on that People would look up to me Cause I'd be something that they could aspire Possible, ever just had a horse Stevie spent years horseback working at California's Alice Hall Guest Ranch after a number of summers riding for pack stations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where his wife Melissa talked him into playing for the guests around the campfire. I really didn't want to do it. I kind of fought it, you know. But I did, and I started playing for the guests around the campfire. And it kind of snowballed from there. some 20 years and about a dozen albums later Dave Stamey is one of the top singer-songwriters in the world of cowboy music where he's a frequent award winner and almost all of his material is original so this is this is my little tune about this is my western novel in four minutes I'm a writer, that's what I do, is to write And this is just a different delivery mechanism I said goodbye to my mother But even after all this time, songwriting for Stevie remains a somewhat mysterious process I've probably written 200 songs And every time I do it, it's like a whole new process Lately, he's expanding his subject matter Songs about a nightclub singer in Tonopah, Nevada Or a small-town auto shop And I think if you do it correctly You can encompass everything It doesn't matter what area you're writing in You can embrace more than what's right there What you're writing about You might be writing about a cowboy in a feedlot but you're writing about bigger stuff than that. The trees sing together Round up to watch as we sway But whether it's a dramatic tale of the frontier, a romantic waltz around the campfire, or a crazy song about fishing for chickens with Grandpa, a Stevie concert is an intimate affair, with a sense of humor, usually in front of no more than a couple hundred people, many of whom are friends. He's an incredible man. He's so human. He's a magnificent horseman, vaquero, buckaroo, packer, everything that I admire, and he does it all so well. He's very humble. He comes across very humble. He's just very entertaining, good sense of humor. I like his writing. We're all twisted in the wind. I don't believe it's ever gonna rain again I love his music. He's got a magnificent voice, and he talks with his guitar. I love the way he does that. He gets, the way he plays, you can just, it's like he enunciates, he makes points. It's his asterisks, his exclamations, it's all done on his guitar, in addition to his incredible voice. While it's a successful career, Dave works as hard as the ranchers he sings about. Steve is on the road almost half the year, performing some 120 concerts. And while all that travel can't be easy, it does provide great rewards. I love Grange Halls. I love to play Grange Halls. There are small places like that, little theaters. Tico, Washington, there's a little bitty theater in Tico, Washington called the Empire Theater. Seats about 200 people, tops. What a neat place. And the people all come out, you know, because then you're singing them their stories, and they just really appreciate that. They really appreciate that. They're good folks. A lot of big city folks are fans, too. Riding away into the hills through a Dave Stamey song on the CD player can make those traffic jams a little easier to take. Cold fingers stiffen, it's 103. And in the end, sending people home with a smile is what it's all about. I hope they're entertained and they go home feeling good, that's all. That's what's important. Maybe humming some. Jug-headed, hollow-back pony. Provide hours of good shade. Half a ton of grit. We'll saddle up one last time with the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive, just ahead. Any morning that begins with stepping into the saddle is a good one. But there are some mixed emotions on this last day at the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. We've made new friends, connected with our horses, gotten used to sleeping on the ground. But returning to civilization will have a few benefits. I'm thinking shower. Yeah, hot, hot shower. Long hot shower. Actually come out clean of, not like this. The last day of the cattle drive is big news in Reno, and the local TV crews are out at camp giving it full coverage. They even interviewed me on the morning news. We're just looking forward to having a great day and seeing all the folks in Reno. Then, after the wagon train rolls out, we're off. For one last day on the trail, one last taste of the cowboy life, at least for now. It's a beautiful morning as the drive heads out, Made even better by the presence of the Reno Rodeo Queen and her 2016 successor, who joined us for the day's ride. Miss Reno Rodeo, I was crowned last year, so this is my 10 days of rodeo. And then the very last night of Reno Rodeo, Miss Eva officially takes the crown and she'll be the next Miss Reno Rodeo 2016. Riding the cattle drive is just one of the perks that come with the crown. A chance to meet the guests, see old friends, spend time horseback. And get excited about the wildest, richest rodeo in the West. That would be the Reno Rodeo, but first we still have miles to ride. We've got to bring this herd into town. A time or two we'll stop and circle the cows in what's known as a road drag. That pause gives everybody a breather and a chance to get instructions from the trail boss. Your wrangler knows what location you'll be in when you're going into town. Down there lies the city of Reno. We're approaching the very end of the Reno Rodeo cattle drive. We're about to bring the herd right into town. As we hit the outskirts of the city, residents come out to watch us ride by. We stop one last time to give the horses a drink. Then we're on the pavement for the big parade down the streets of the city. What a privilege to have been part of this great experience, ridden with so many great people, and enjoyed time with my great horse, Star. Yes, truly some mixed emotions on this last day, but then again, it's only over for now. I think I'll come back again. It's a great time to meet up with friends and be together. The Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive came to an end right here, where we said goodbye to the herd, our horses, and our new friends. Sad to see the trail come to an end, but the end of the cattle drive marks the beginning of the Reno Rodeo, the wildest, richest rodeo in the West. This place may be quiet and empty right now, but in just a few hours it'll be rocking with bucking bulls, bucking broncs, and those cowgirls racing the barrels. But, that's another story, and we're out of time. That's it for now. We're back next time with more cool stuff from Today's Wild West. I'm Mark Bedour. We'll see you down the trail. For more information on the people and places featured in Today's Wild West, or to order show DVDs and books, visit todayswildwest.com.