You might say my upbringing branded me a cowboy from the day I was born. I was part of the third generation to grow up on the 200,000-acre Lazy B cattle ranch straddling the high deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico. I loved the ranching and cowboy lifestyle so much that after graduating from the University of Arizona, I returned to manage Lazy B for the next 40 years. One of the main commitments I has been to land stewardship. In the 1980’s, I purchased a second cattle ranch in Nebraska and soon after, a ranch in South Dakota. The latter became the first government-sponsored sanctuary for unadoptable wild horses (the subject of my upcoming memoir, The Horse Lover, releasing in March 2014 with University of Nebraska Press.) While working with the cattle on Lazy B and the Rex Ranch in Nebraska, I developed a herd modification-training program and trained over 2000 head of cattle to follow a cowboy on horseback. I applied this program to training the 1500 wild mustangs I received from the Bureau of Land Management and within months, much to my delight, they too followed a lead horse and rider. Now retired from ranching, I divide my time between Tucson and Pinetop, Arizona. Instead of chasing cattle in the prickly desert, I chase a little white ball across groomed grass. But not so often that I can't get in some writing too.