Wild West Land Blog

Does such a thing exist? Searching the Dummies.com site reveals a 4th Edition of ‘Arizona For Dummies‘ but nothing dedicated to learning the art of horse riding, western style, in The Grand Canyon State or even further afield.

Have I spotted an opening for a book then? It would appear so - I’m keen to give dude ranching a go, even more so after reading Alexandra Ferguson’s recent piece in the Daily Telegraph, titled Riding in the Canadian Rockies:

Soon we are all suited and booted - chaps slung low, neckerchiefs knotted, hats on heads - and ready to move camp. The wagons are loaded, the draught horses harnessed to take the strain.

The thought of getting on a horse always makes me nervous, they’re just so damn big. But the few times I’ve ridden outside of a riding school ring has always been far more enjoyable - and less nerve-wracking - than ambling around man made obstacles on a bored looking cart horse.

I once piloted a horse through Monument Valley, guided by a real life Navajo if I can remember as fact back as 1991 accurately. I say piloted as riding sans saddle under the control of our guide, the horses did pretty much what they and he wanted them to do. Have a look at the photos on Kate and Andy’s travel blog to get the feeling of riding where so many westerns were set.

We’re off to Arizona in January ‘09 and I’d love to spend a couple of days at a real working ranch just to get a feel for the western life again, even if it is like playing at being a cowboy. I’d also love to spend a night at the new View Hotel inside Monument Valley once that opens for business in November.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a new breed of investors and rising ranch land prices are causing many of the family owned outfits to sell up:

For a century of summers, American travelers have headed to Western ranches, saddled up their horses and galloped away from the tedium of modern life. Now, the future of dude ranching is being threatened by rising land prices and the reach of development.

With this in mind I’ve started collecting Dude Ranch links and hope to build up a whole host of Wild West themed categories over the coming months. I like to scan through the ranch websites and dream a little. Being in command of the horse is often a key feature!

It’s funny how something as simple as watching a kids DVD can send you off on a wild goose chase or, more accurately, a wild jackrabbit chase.

I have always loved the short film that preceded Disney Pixar’s 2003 film The Incredibles. Boundin’ must have been popular as it wound up being Oscar-nominated and is a great extra to watch on the UK DVD boxset.

The film features a sad little lamb taught the benefits of positive thinking by a legendary Jackalope - I haven’t seen Wall.e but I guess Disney films must have an upbeat message - and the lyrics voiced by animator Bud Luckey are hilarious:

Then a-boundin up the slope
Came a great American jackalope.
This sage of the sage, this rare hare of hope,
Caused to pause and check out the lamb.
“Hey kid, why the mope?”

“I used to be something all covered with fluff,
And I’d dance in the sunlight and show off my stuff,
Then they hauled me away in a manner quite rough
And sheared me and dropped me back here in the buff.
And if that’s not enough
Now my friends all laugh at me
Cause they think I look ridiculous, funny, and pink.”

“Pink? Pink? Well, what’s wrong with pink?
Seems you’ve got a pink kink in your think.
Does it matter what color? Well, that gets nope.
Be it pink purple or heliotrope.
Now sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down,
When you find that you’re down well just look around:
You still got a body, good legs and fine feet,
Get your head in the right place and hey, you’re complete!

How does watching Boundin’ lead me onto jackrabbits? Well many years ago I picked up a legendary cowboy postcard that features a rider ‘Saddling up Big Jack’.

After spending an hour looking for this travel treasure it turns out there’s an entire industry built up around the jackalope/jackrabbit! In fact you could collect a boxful of postcards featuring the furry critters: Jackalope Postcards - Flying, riding, seated, standing, the list goes on.

Roadside architecture in America has always been used to pull in the punters if you’re running a restaurant, rock shop or any kind of tourist business. So have a look through this great collection of Roadside Big Critters featuring rabbits.

Browsing on, there’s even a band on MySpace if you’re into experimental rock music. My favourite connection though has to be this modern day Photoshop masterpiece - the Area51 Cowboy:

Is there room for two cattle-related technology stories in one month? Well, if you found the GPS-based logic behind the Ear-A-Round intriguing then take a look at the BBC News story on the surprising news that herds of grazing animals all face the same way.

I always knew Google Earth had a purpose beyond checking out what your house looks like from above. The only shame is researchers now have less of a reason to leave the office and get out into the wild just as office workers are using video conferencing instead of enjoying overseas trips.

Regular readers will spot a new feature appearing above Wild West Land blog posts from today - the ‘listen now’ button is provided courtesy of Odiogo.com, a clever and free service that takes written content and transforms it into audio files.

I’m hoping it serves two purposes:

1. It makes my blog more accessible to those visitors using assistive technology - they should be able to hear the individual postings read out in a fairly realistic machine voice; and
2. It means I’ve entered the world of podcasting without putting the wind up people by forcing them to listen to my own dulcet tones.

Amazingly the link on the right column means you can even subscribe to Wild West Land audio updates using iTunes and listen to future posts on your iPod. Web 2.0 or what.

So, time for a test - the buttons work OK for me. The voice is a little tinny and struggles with pronunciation on some words but are there any glaring bugs? It takes a few hours to transform the latest post into an mp3 file but let me know if you come across other problems.

To test - whilst staying with the Western theme - listen to what kind of spirit Odiogo brings to Dr. Brewster M. Higley’s ‘unofficial anthem of the American West’:

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Whilst browsing for USA maps today I came across a great Google hack created by Douwe Osinga. The idea is you tick off those states you’ve visited to produce a map of America marked blood red to indicate the places you’ve been to.

Thanks to some adolescent visits in the 80’s (when a family move to California or Florida was on the cards) and some dedicated holidaying there in the early 90’s I can tick off an amazing 41 states, or 82% of the US!

I can’t claim to know every state like the back of my hand, but I’ve certainly seen a fair bit of the eastern seaboard, spent 9 months touring California and Nevada and 4 months living in upstate New York. A minibus tour from New York to San Francisco took in the southern states and a 9 day Greyhound adventure from Sacramento to Buffalo completes the Midwest.

Where next? Hawaii and Alaska would have to be top of the list - being ‘Lost’ on a tropical island looks beautiful and McGregor and Boorman’s bike ride from Anchorage was inspiring.

Create your own visited map of The United States (you can do the same with a world map or India too) and let me know your score.

My post today on resurrecting the open range through the wonders of modern technology reminded me of the wonderful TV advert that the IT systems company EDS ran during and after Super Bowl XXXIV on 30 January 2000.

If you haven’t seen it before (it’s a well loved YouTube video) then sit back, relax and enjoy “Herding Cats”, the cowboy way: