The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

SHELL, Wyo. - The calm before the storm is over at the Diamond Tail Ranch as the Flitner family struggles to keep up with the numerous chores to be done including cleaning up a mess of loose cattle and horses caused by broken fence in the mountain pasture.

“We have just bought enough light calves to fill the feedlot, which are keeping us busy getting them settled and healthy,” said Tim Flitner, who raises cattle and registered American Quarter Horses cutting horses with his the help of his wife, Jamie, children and parents near Shell, Wyo. “I think some elk went through the fence of our summer mountain pasture, because the cattle came off the mountain through our neighbor's pasture. I am missing five yearling horses and some cattle yet, and I don't have the manpower to be able to take the time to go find them - Dad has to have surgery tomorrow, so I am a couple of key players short. Normally, I can count on Mom and Dad to help me out when I need the help in situations like this.”

“We had a good run of it,” he added. “We were chugging along pretty good until all this broke loose.”

The Flitners' summer mountain range is located at the end of the cattle trail the family uses to herd their cattle. The neighbors have pastures along the same trail. “Our summer pasture is at the end of the trail and has an elevation of 6,500 to 7,000 feet which is lower than some pastures in the valley, but higher than the winter pastures,” said Flitner. “The cattle usually stay up there until Thanksgiving or until the snow pushes them out. There is a lot of feed up there along with about 300 elk. Higher up the mountain and in the middle of the mountain range is some public BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, where I think the hunters have jostled the elk, and they ran through the fence.”

While he isn't certain the hunters jostled the elk through his mountain pasture fence, he said it is probable with hunting season underway. Now, in addition to keeping a close watch on his new feeder calves, Flitner must move the cattle from the summer mountain range four miles down the road to the farthest winter pasture and ride horseback four hours into the rough mountain range to find the five missing American Quarter Horse yearlings before they either get hurt or wonder out into the public lands. “It takes about the same amount of time with a pickup but it is a rough ride,” he said. “I could take a four-wheeler in, but there are some places I couldn't go to look for them.”

Flitner is concerned about the welfare of his five lost yearlings - the horses have potential to be champions. “They aren't Secretariat, but I've got quite a bit wrapped up in those yearlings,” he said.

On more than one occasion, Flitner's horse business has taken back seat to other ventures on the ranch. “The horses come second to whatever else is going on around the ranch,” he said. “But when you're training cutting horses you need to stay disciplined. Good cutting horses need to be ridden four to five times a week to do them justice, and right now, we're so busy that my horses are getting ridden about twice a week.”

However, the Flitners have been training their cutting horses steady for the past couple of weeks and have a couple of horses ready to perform at the Wyoming sanctioned cutting horse show on this weekend. “I show the cutting horses when I have the time,” said Flitner. “If we get things under control by this weekend, we'll take them to the show and see what they can do. In cutting horse shows, the horses work a cow, the judges judge their performances, and the best horse wins - at least you hope it does.”

After the show on Saturday, Flitner plans to move the remainder of the cattle that came off the mountain range to the winter pasture, make sure the cattle are settled in the winter pasture, ensure the pasture has working water resources, check the feeder cattle's health and move them from the feedlot to a nearby pasture to graze windrow hay where they will stay until the end of December, fix fence and find the yearling horses wondering throughout the summer range in the mountains.

“In my spare time, I'll work the cutting horses in the arena until the arena gets too wet and freezes,” he said. “I think we're done farming, the fields are too wet to work. We plan to go to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nev., if we can get away. We haven't been to the finals in 15 years, and the last time my wife was at the finals was when it was still in Oklahoma and she sang the National Anthem. We have a horse performing in the NFR this year.”

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