Rank: Bull Riding News: Magic Mountain

Photos by Melissa Katich

The Katich line is one of the purest in the bucking bull business. Situated in northeastern Washington state, and isolated, somewhat, by geography, it has adhered to a breeding program that started with a Brahma bull and a red Angus cow and has produced some of the biggest names in any Built Ford Tough short round: Major Payne, Smackdown, Wild n' Out, and Yellowjacket Jr., as well as the legends Dr. Proctor, Dog Face, and Rapid Fire.

Every spring, after the calves have been vaccinated and branded, the Katich family gathers up about 300 head of commercial cows and about 80 head of bucking stock and trucks them, in three or four semi-loads, to their upper ranch in the northeast corner of Washington. Half of the bucking stock stays home for the breeding season, but all of the commercial cow pairs (Charolais crosses) and bucking bulls under three are make the trip to a high meadow on a forested mountain. There the cattle will stay for the summer and into the fall. They've been doing this for over fifty years.

At the upper ranch, the Katich family leases 30,000 acres in addition to their own land. They drive the cattle up the mountain on horseback and then ride back down for the next truckload waiting.

"We have the old stubborn Charolais and stick them in the lead," Melissa Katich says. All the others follow.

Why send them to a mountain in the first place? There's less disease up there, more grass, and more room. There's something else, too, something wild.

"They become sure-footed and grow fast. They get to be wild animals for a few months, enduring wolves, bears, cougars, wild fires, and the terrain," Katich says.

The Colville National Forest is home to black bears, grizzlies, mountain lions, grey wolves, and lynx.

Someone goes up a couple of times a month to put salt out and check on them, but other than that they're on their own.

In the fall the cattle come down of their own accord to the river bottom, where there are brush thickets taller than a horse, and swamps to muck through. This is where the Katiches gather them for the trip back home for the winter.

There are always one or two that don’t come down and many of them remain mysteries. But this year a promising bull was hit by a car on his way to the river bottom. Occasionally a poacher will kill an animal and carry away the meat. Sometimes calves get taken by bears.

But most of them make it through the summer, and the young bulls come down huge and muscular. "They're just like elk, they're so confident on their legs," Melissa says.

Then it’s winter at home until next year when spring comes and the mountain beckons.

So the next time you are admiring a Katich-bred bull, you will know about the mountain that turns calves into bulls. They go up there babies and come down muscled-up and wild, with something in their souls that you can't get on a ranch.

Here are some photos from this fall's gathering.