#Hard west rescue florence how to

“And Cody's called a cheat, dishonorable, all sorts of things. “So it becomes this huge thing in the papers,” she said. You didn't do it.’” Laegried recounted.īuffalo Bill had won some of the other competitions so Laegried said he stopped it because he realized he was going to lose the bet. “One of the riders rode two of them and they're about ready to do the third one when Buffalo Bill says, ‘Sorry, competitions over. One of the competitions he made a bet on matched the two different cowboys to see whether they could mount three wild stallions and stay on. He wanted a face off between the American Cowboy and the Butteri. UW Historian Renee Laegried said Buffalo Bill Cody traveled to Rome with his Wild West Show. The beginnings of the Butteri are not so clear, but a competition in the 1890s is seared in the Italian Cowboy memories. “If you go to Maremma, what the Butteri will tell you is that they are the oldest cowboys in Western Europe,” Saveri said. She called and soon enough Saveri traveled to the Maremma region. “I told him, ‘I had this dream always to go riding with these Italian cowboys.’ And he says, ‘Oh, I can help you.’ And he says, ‘I know them.’ And he says, ‘I'll give you the name of the guy to call,’” said Saveri. Until she met a French guy who knew a lot about horses. As an Italian American, she was intrigued by the Butteri, but was never able to find a connection to them. Gabrielle Saveri is the photographer of the exhibit in Cody. “So Maremma cows can be a solution to enhance those areas because they don't need particular care and they eat plants that usually the other cows don't,” Zanelli said. She said the Maremma cattle, which the Butteri specialize in, are gentle in the way they graze. As people migrate to cities a lot of rural land is being left behind. For her, it is a starting point to more sustainably manage the land and the cattle in the future.

#Hard west rescue florence how to

“I started to go with them out with horses and help them with the work with cows and cattle in general,” Zanelli said, adding that the reason why she went out and helped was because she knows how to ride.įor Zanelli, it is very important to maintain the tradition of the Butteri. She goes out with him almost every day and does everything he does, but she will not claim the Butteri title because it is so traditional and hard won. There is one Butteri tending to the cattle at the farm. She is an agronomist for a sustainable farm in the region. Sophia Zanelli is a 27-year-old who grew up in and lives in Maremma. But there is a renewed effort to keep and revive the tradition. Today there are only about 30 or so “real” Butteri left. “So they have these long sticks for chasing after the cows, but also they can pick things up without getting off their horses because you don't want to get off into the marshes.” “This is where you see the equipment and the dress that the Butteri have,” Laegreid said. University of Wyoming (UW) historian Renee Laegreid said one main difference between them and the cowboys we know is that the land they work used to be mainly marshes and swamp land. The Butteri are located in Maremma, a region just outside of Florence and Rome where they have been practicing this kind of cattle herding on horseback since some say the 1400s. Their hats are not as tall or wide brimmed as the American cowboy hat.

“These incredible clothes with roots in historical dress.” “Their clothing in particular is one thing that our visitors may notice a difference,” McWhorter explained. Some are printed in larger format on metal,” McWhorter said as she started a quick tour of the newest photography exhibit, Italy’s Legendary Cowboys of the Maremma.Īlong the burgundy walls are scenes that could very much take place just outside the doors of the museum in Cody, but if you look closely there are subtle differences. “We'll walk through and check out a couple of these. Karen McWhorter, the Collier-Read director of Curatorial, Education, and Museum Services at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, walked into the center’s temporary photography exhibit space.