The Herd Tee

South of the Crazies

Livingston sits in the crook of the Yellowstone, and if you look north from town you see the Crazy Mountains — an island range that rises straight out of the grass with nothing gradual about it. The country underneath them has been horse country for as long as anyone has been keeping track. It is big, open, hard-wintered ground, and the outfits that run it have always measured a season by how many head came through it.

That’s the herd this one is named for. Three horses at a dead run under the state’s name, printed on a heather dust. Around here kids learn the horses before they learn the highway signs — so this is the one they’ll pull out of the clean pile first, wear to the fairgrounds, and get grass stains on by noon.