The Cattle Drive — Sunset

A trail herd on the move was less a crowd of cattle than a column, often three quarters of a mile long, and every rider had a fixed place along it.

Two point riders worked up front, out beside the lead steers, steering the whole column by drifting in or easing off. Swing riders came next, keeping the line from bulging. Flank riders held the sides further back. At the rear rode the drag men, pushing the lame, the young and the lazy, eating dust all day. Drag was the job nobody wanted, and it usually went to the newest hands.

A crew of twelve to fifteen, counting the trail boss, the cook and the horse wrangler, could handle a herd of around two thousand head. About fifteen miles a day let the cattle graze as they walked, so they reached Kansas or Montana carrying weight instead of losing it.

In the painting the sun sits just above the horizon and the herd is still coming on through the sage, raising a low gold haze. The nearest rider, in a mustard coat and red bandana, keeps his dark bay tight along the edge of the column, beside a spotted steer. More riders, one on a gray, follow behind in the dust.