Vacation 2000 - Out West in Colorado

My marriage to an American free spirit ended fairly amicably in 2003. This post has been edited to respect her privacy - hence reference to "friends" in this post. We flew to Colorado for a slightly rush arranged vacation. Uncertainties over jobs and Graeme winding Atlantic Services up to being a full time business left us booking tickets at the last moment and staying in the ski-resort of Vail in the middle of the summer. What had the potential to be pretty disastrous was fun. We got a decent Jeep and spent some time off roading and visiting the scenes of America's second silver and gold rush in the 1870's. Everyone who had rushed out west to California came back east to Colorado when immense silver deposits were discovered. The center was even harder to deal with than the coast and it was quite incredible to consider that people basically tore the mountains down by hand to get to the silver and gold (and they really did tear down mountains - there is a huge bowl in the middle of a mountain range that is about 5 miles across). The left over pollution and spoil heaps are only beginning to get dealt with. We even saw Doc Holliday's graveyard in Colorado Springs. Rather brings home that these people were real and in the not so distant past. We went mountain biking the easy way - up on the ski lift with your bike for a mad run down after. We also went riding at two different ranches. One was pretty rugged and out of the way and took quite a bit of finding at the end of dirt trails. That was a long day in the saddle looking at scenery that you can only access on horse back. The claw marks of bears on the tree trunks was a bit sobering! On returning from that ride we discovered that they played polo. Well sort of - not knowing the rules they played with soccer rules - ten a side. So I had to get my picture taken on a Belgian Horse wearing Western Tack while swinging a polo mallet. I put the terrible looking swing in this picture down to the fact the horse is so short! We also went on a performance ride at a ranch. This consisted of a trail ride to round up some cattle and then having driven them back to the rodeo ring we practiced barrel racing and roping cattle. We didn't actually get a rope - you have to learn to run the cattle down first and it is pretty hard to do. If you are not within 6ft of the cow no roping ability is going to let you get him. You basically have to be right on top of the cow. As the cow is running as fast as it can and weaving to avoid you and you are having to try and gallop right on its butt it is pretty hair raising stuff. The picture shows my friend "tracking" her cow which has just been released from the gate. It's running and she is galloping along the anticipated track - it veered right!!! In the real world you work as a pair - one cowboy gets the cow's head and the second one immediately ropes its back legs (think about that - you have to bounce the lariat on the ground just in front of its running back legs and it steps into the loop which is bouncing up to get it). You then ride in opposite directions to tumble the cow. It sounds cruel and it is certainly pretty rough but if done correctly merely tips the cow on its side. It is also the only safe way to hold a cow down while you inoculate it, carry out any other vet work needed and - oh yes - brand it. Later in the week we went to the mid-week rodeo in the town where the working cowboys come into town for some mid-week competition and beer. If you look carefully in the picture these guys have just got the cow in 6.27 seconds. They were slow! Winning times from the cow being released to being roped both ends are less than 5 seconds! We also stayed through the thunderstorm to watch our wrangler from the day before try his hand at bareback bull riding. Poor guy lasted less than 2 seconds!