Lauren Sarner
Hold your horses.
As the hit ranch drama “Yellowstone” nears its end – without star Kevin Costner – real cowboys are weighing in on what they think of the show.
Russell True, 64, who is the second generation owner of the White Stallion Ranch in Arizona, told The Post he thinks “Yellowstone” is “absurdity, surrounded by reality.”
“Obviously, they have to up the ante for drama. So, we have gun battles with AK-47s. There’s bombings. There’s a lot of violence [on the show] that’s way overstated,” he added.
“But [creator] Taylor Sheridan is an absolute unmitigated genius. The stuff that comes out of Costner’s mouth, or Beth’s – I feel very strongly that it speaks for us.”
Now in its fifth and final season, “Yellowstone” follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, including patriarch John (Costner) and his adult children Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beth’s husband, Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
It’s spawned several spinoffs, and according to the network, 17 million viewers have tuned in. Costner exited after the first half of Season 5. The second half premieres Sunday, Nov. 10 on Paramount Network (8 p.m.).
Hunter Grayson, 33, who owns Black Hat Ranch in Georgia and appeared on the Fox reality show “Farmer Wants a Wife,” told The Post that if you dial back the drama and violence in “Yellowstone” by “about 80%, you’ve got a pretty accurate assessment of what real ranch life is like.”
Grayson added, “There’s not a day that goes by that we’re not worried about somebody developing the pasture next to us. Or, people complaining about the smell of the cows. You name it, we’ve all heard it! There is a good touch of reality to that show. It’s over-embellished in the drama and violence department to gain and contain viewers.”
“But, I don’t have any complaints,” he continued. “It’s a little over the top for me to relate to on a realistic aspect, but for purely entertainment purposes, they’ve hit their mark.”
Peter De Cabooter, 64, who owns The Hideout Lodge & Guest Ranch in Wyoming, explained that the show made several tweaks to reality.
“The horses they’re using are really beautiful horses, but they’re more like arena performance horses,” he told The Post.
“So, they wouldn’t be the kind of horses we’d use in this area where it’s very rugged, where a horse needs to last 20 to 30 miles a day in rough country.”
Although the Duttons struggle, they fly helicopters and have the latest trucks that are always clean too.
“For our guest operations, we have nice trucks with leather seats, just like in that show. But we transport our high paying guests in that. The local [cowboys] will never drive those high-end very clean latest model trucks. They will buy one, and keep it for twenty years,” he explained. “What the show depicts well is the tension between ranching, farming, and the old way of running these things, and new people coming in.”
Ty Ferrell, 43, a professional roper from Missouri who appeared on the Fox show “Farmer Wants a Wife,” said that when he watches “Yellowstone,” he thinks all the actors are “phenomenal at their jobs.” But, “being somebody who has lived his life on the horse, sometimes it’s easy to tell when they have a stunt double that may be riding or roping.”
Ferrell cited singer and actor Ryan Bingham, who plays ranch hand Walker on the show, as an example of an actor where he can tell it’s the real deal.
“He lived the life. He’s a cowboy, he’s a bull rider. He’s damn sure handy with the rope,” Ferrell said.
He also observed that the way the characters discuss horses in the show is “not just this made-up type business. They’re bringing what really is the rodeo and horse industry. They’re bringing that lifestyle into the TV show, which is pretty neat.”
Samantha Dopp, 28, who is the barn manager at The Ranch at Rock Creek in Montana, told The Post that the show’s plot lines that involve encroaching developers are among the most realistic.
“As much as we have multi-generational ranches that are hanging on for dear life, the threat of development is so real,” she explained.
“While it is a dramatized version of it [in ‘Yellowstone’] the core issue from that is definitely still there, as far as developers breathing down our necks, out here.”
True said that he relates to many of the challenges the show’s characters face.
“When they’re talking about land issues, the cattle, keeping the ranch together and resisting the pressure and temptation from other uses of the land in the west…when they’re talking about riding horses or rodeo or history and heritage…. I don’t overstate it when I say that the words Taylor Sheridan gives the [characters] to say are virtually poetic.”
Regarding how there’s a lot of murder on the show, Dopp compared “‘Yellowstone’ to “Sons of Anarchy’ on horseback.”
“That’s certainly not what’s happening day to day on any ranch in the West. And if it is, I don’t know about it,” she joked.
“But, they do a great job from a horsemanship perspective.”
She added, “I think ‘Yellowstone’ has done a really good job of bringing so much more life to western heritage in the U.S., and the fact that it’s very much still alive and well in the western states and the Rockies. We have families that have been ranching for years and years…. in general, our way of life is much more quiet than what the show might portray. And, that’s typically why most of us are drawn to it.”
All of the real cowboys and cowgirls said they’re disappointed that the show is coming to an end, but they also expressed understanding that it can’t go on forever.
“We’ll miss [Costner], and we’ll miss the show, if that’s the end of it,” True said.
“From a strictly business perspective, it’s good for us. In a dramatic way, [the show] portrays the modern West in a way that’s interesting and attractive to people.”
True said that his dude ranch is busy enough that it’s hard to quantify how “Yellowstone” has boosted business.
De Cabooter, meanwhile, estimated that it could be as high as increasing guest and dude ranches’ visitors by 10 percent.
“People have said right to my face, ‘I’m here because of ‘Yellowstone,’ I want to come out and see the real West.’ So, I know that it’s had an impact,” said True.
Dopp agreed. “Being on the guest ranching side of things, it’s easy to recognize the boom in outdoor and western recreation recently.”
“I think we’re all interested to see how [the show] ends,” she said. “And what happens, as far as the interest in [tourism to ranches] – if we see it continue to build, or if it will die off, and if it truly was just ‘the Yellowstone effect’ over the last five or so years.”
This post was originally posted by NYPost
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