Eastern Oregon and northern Nevada are places where the ranch cattle numbers can be in the thousands, acreages in the hundreds of thousands, and horses in the cavvy for riding, dozens. You will see two days worth of photos that document old style traditional horse branding techniques that emphasize low stress handling of large numbers of young horses destined to be saddle horses. These techniques are still used today by many of these big ranches. First the horses are caught with a neck loop at which point they are allowed to fight the rope until they settle down and face the roper. (If a loop ended up tangled with a front leg, for example, it would have to be removed and another clean loop thrown). Then another rider throws a loop, generally over the shoulder, to pick up both front feet in a loop, and the horse is pulled to the ground where he is handled quietly and carefully by the ground crew who, along with the foot roper, maintain almost complete control of the horse by keeping his front feet a little bit off the ground. It was amazing to see, but the horses, without someone sitting on their neck or their hind feet being tied, laid very still without struggling thru the process of being branded with a hot iron on their hind leg. Then they were allowed to very quietly get up and walk off with a gentle pat on their rumps or shoulders. Rock Creek Ranch owner, Gary Miller, and Rattlesnake Creek Ranch manager, Glen Shelley, organized the event showcasing traditional horse handling techniques which also included a demonstration of high action old-style bronc riding and vendors featuring traditional handmade buckaroo gear. Friday there was a pre-roping to get the horses thru their lst experience being roped, and Sunday the colts were branded in a competition that was more about horsemanship and horse handling skills than time, though time was important. Two buckaroo cook wagons brought by Mike Buckner and Cameron Bean were on display and authentic camp cooking was enjoyed by all during the rainy, cool day. The day started with cowboy church services by Slash Lazy U Ministry. The bleachers set up high on big bales of hay were filled in spite of the rain and the extreme mud on the ranch roads.The general feeling by the many people who are interested in preserving these old buckaroo traditions was that this ought to become an annual event. It was held at the historic Bel A Ranch near Burns, Oregon.