Unbranded (2015) - full transcript

[dog barks]

[groans]

[man] He keeps getting 'em in
and getting...

Gilley, you cannot eat this stuff.

[man #2] If you can get in there,
just pull it out like a comb.

Ohh!

- [man #2] You all right?
- Sh... [groans]

[man #3] Shit!

He's got that crap all in him.

- [man #2] Yeah.
- [man #1] You all right, Jon?

I think maybe we should pick out the 20
that we most like.



- That's what I was gonna say.
- And take the 10 out of those, or 12.

[man #1] I like some of this bunch.

- [man #2] Which one do you want?
- The bigger one.

Yeah, with the... Yep.

What's going on here is we're taking...

Each of these pens has about 30 horses.

We're bringing them into an alley
and analyzing them,

looking at their feet,
looking at their back, their heads.

Then we're gonna take them
into a separate pen,

then do our final cut to get our string.

Three years ago,

a couple of friends and I rode
through several states in the West.

We were on a budget and we needed horses,

so we went and adopted some wild mustangs
from the Bureau of Land Management.



The mustangs we adopted were pretty cheap,

but they outperformed
our domestic horses in every way.

After that ride,

I couldn't stop thinking about all
those horses still in the holding pens.

And I wanted to do something about it.

I wanted to prove the worth
of these mustangs.

My idea was a much more difficult journey,

this time using only mustangs

that my three friends and I
would adopt and train.

We're gonna take these horses,

and we're gonna ride them
from Mexico to Canada,

through the wildest terrain
in Arizona, Utah,

Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

My entire life, I've always heard
negative things about mustangs.

I really considered that
to be our largest liability

as far as taking this trip on.

And steppin' into a round pen,
a very small area with a wild animal,

it's almost crazy.

[man] Take the right rope.

[Glover] Just keep your head on a swivel.

Keep your awareness about 'em
and never get complacent,

because as soon as you get calm
and comfortable around 'em,

that's when they'll kick or bite you.

[man] Don't release when he's kicking out.

We have 13 wild horses for this trip,

and it's gonna take four months
to train 'em.

Two professional trainers,
Jerry Jones and Lanny Leach,

are gonna take 'em for the first 30 days.

After that, we're gonna train the horses
for another three months

and get 'em ready for the trip.

The word that many people
use for wild horses is mustangs,

and that's not
a particular breed or a species.

That's just a folksy word
for the wild horses we have

on the western landscape.

Not even to take on the whole
“are they native or are they feral,”

but the question of,
“Do these horses have a right to be here?”

Yeah, absolutely they do.

Right. So...

[Masters] Tom, Ben, Jonny and I
all went to school together

at Texas A&M University.

We just graduated,

and it is the perfect time in our lives
to go on a big adventure like this.

[Thamer] I knew Ben in high school.

Then Ben moved to San Angelo,
but we stayed in touch.

And Ben was always doing stuff
that I was like, “I should be doing that.”

You know what this is.

I mean, I was doing
what Mom and Dad might say,

or what society would say
is like, “Well, that's good.

That's gonna help you get
another step ahead

when you go look for a job.”

While I'm doing all that,
I'm looking over,

and Ben's like, “Well, I'm riding
from Mexico to Canada.

I'm gonna skip school
and guide elk hunts.”

And I'm thinking the whole time,
“Man, if I was honest with myself,

that's what I'd want to do.”

For the next 60 days, they're a loaded gun
with the safety off.

-So...
-Yeah.

All right, buddy, here it comes.

[chanting] Tom. Tom. Tom. Tom.

Keep that left foot forward.

My dad's very excited about the trip.

Um, he thinks we're crazy
for using mustangs.

One of his great passions in life
is breeding and raising horses.

You know, there's no selection
other than natural selection

that goes into mustang breeding.

It's good for us in the sense
that these are very hardy animals.

It's bad

in that they all have
a very deep-rooted wild streak.

Good.

[Masters] We have a lot in common
with these horses.

There's not enough room
out there for them.

And sometimes I feel like
there's not enough room out there for us.

I'm not a hundred percent confident
these horses are ready,

to be really honest.

One, two, three.

I vacillate between being scared to death
and absolutely thrilled for them.

But the way I'm going to approach it

is every day that we don't hear
something tragic or negative

will be the great day.

We'll just move on to the next.

I'm excited, but I'm scared to death.

[praying] ...and you will hold us
in your hand.

There's a lot of unknowns.
You wake up at 3:00 a.m.

You're laying there in bed
and something wakes you up,

and you're just kinda,
“Okay, what's going on?”

- I'll be safe.
- Oh, I know you will be.

[woman] We talk about the horses.
Are the horses ready?

I'm worried about the horses
flipping out on a narrow trail

and them going down, so that's my fear.

- Don't do anything stupid.
- I'll try not to.

- I love ya.
- I love you too.

The boys are probably
a little overconfident.

But if they weren't, they wouldn't try it.

I'd rather 'em be that
than scared to do it.

All right, buddy, I'll see you.

[switching radio channels]

[norteño playing]

¡Vamos a Canadá!

I'm in Mexico!

[Thamer] You just push the button
that has the camera on it. Right.

- [Joseph] I got one too.
- [men laughing]

- [man] What do you think, Jonny?
- I think it's time to go.

The past six months
we've been planning to do it.

Let's do it.

Been waiting for this for a long time.

It's hard to believe we're here.

- Good luck, buddy.
- Thanks, Dad.

- See you up the trail.
- Yes, sir.

[Glover] Yee-haw! ¡Adios, Méjico!

[Masters] Well, the easy part's over now.

[Thamer] Oh, you stole my line.

You stole my line.

[Thamer] I don't think
there's enough quit in any of us

that we're not gonna make it.

If we didn't make it, it darn sure
wouldn't be for a stupid reason.

It wouldn't be because,

you know, I just couldn't get over
Tom's smelly feet.

It's not gonna be
'cause of that kinda stuff.

If we don't finish, I'd like to see
what it is that makes us not finish,

which maybe that's
the whole point of the trip.

[Masters] Come on. You can do it.

- [Thamer] We're not lost.
- [Masters] That a boy.

No, we're definitely not lost,
but it is very dark.

Damn fences.

[sighs]

[Masters] You're only as good
as the tools you have.

In my case, I'm only as good
as the maps that I have.

What I read is a 30-mile day,
which is listed inside of the guidebook,

turned into a 40-mile day that took us
into two o'clock in the morning.

I just wanna get somewhere
where I can lay down and sleep.

I don't really care about eating.

I would like to never do that again.

Okay, off to the next stop
and meet the boys for the night.

My name is Val Geissler.

I come from Cody, Wyoming.

Gotta make sure
there's water at the next trailhead.

I'm primarily here to help the boys out
in the state of Arizona

because it's real rugged country,
little water,

and it takes a fair amount
of logistical support and planning

to adequately supply the horses

and to make sure
that portion of the trip goes smooth.

I gotta have somebody who will shuttle.

There's a old saying:

Good judgment comes from experience.

Experience comes from bad judgment.

And sometimes that bad judgment
can be pretty horrific.

[Thamer] This side of the wall.

I first met Ben
in a pack trip he was doing.

And he had mustangs with him,

and I have a long background
with mustangs.

I think they're great horses and
well adapted for this sort of situation,

and that's where this whole thing
kinda got started out.

[Masters] Hey, Val!

You guys wanna, uh, tie
the horses up outside here?

It's one thing about today
worked out smooth as snot

was them coming in as we got here.

To Korjal and all your help. Thank you.

[Thamer] I think we're fooling ourselves
because we have Val.

Is that more? [Laughing]

This is gonna become a whole
different trip after we lose Val.

[Glover] I grew up
in the suburbs of Houston.

We had horses out at our family farm,
and that's where I learned how to ride

and really fell in love
with riding horses,

and, uh, I'd try to get out there
as much as I could.

The whole time I was there,
I was riding bareback,

uh, falling off,
giving my mom a heart attack

how much I fell off those horses.

But really learn, you know,
just to enjoy riding.

Sixty miles away from us
is the Superstition Mountains,

which I've heard are just incredible.

But between here and there
is a flat cactus-infested...

Apparently,
it's just big, big cholla flats.

Which is a cactus
that has little segments.

You go by it and they break off
and just attach to you,

attach to the horses.

And once we get past this next 60 miles,

I'll feel better
about getting into Canada.

Yeah, it'll be a test.

You all right, Jon?

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Yeah, this is gonna be a frickin' bear.

He's got this crap all in him.

Shit.

Okay.

Oh! Shit.

[man] We found a pair.

[Masters] How are you
gonna get these off, Ben?

[Thamer] Give him some xylazine
or some bute.

[Fitzsimons] He has 'em all over his ass.

[Thamer] They're everywhere.

You can't get those off
standing back there.

All right, let's, uh,
get the hell out of here.

[Fitzsimons] Yeah.

[Masters] It took a few days
to get the cactus out,

but after that, we were all wondering
what the hell we'd gotten ourselves into.

If they're reproducing at 20% a year,
then obviously we can all do the math.

We're going to have
too many wild horses on the range.

It's completely irresponsible

to say let 'em run
and let them self-regulate.

A lot of people will say
just let nature take its course.

And I always like to say we can't do that
because of man's influence.

Wild populations now
don't have the ability

to migrate hundreds and hundreds of miles

because of railroads
and highways and fences.

There's a term, an acronym,
it's AML, and you will hear that.

If you're on the BLM, you'll hear it.

And what AML is
is Appropriate Management Level.

And what that appropriate
management level is

is the number of animals
that that land can handle and support.

The only solution
that BLM has come up with

that's been somewhat socially acceptable

is to take those horses, put them
in captivity for the rest of their lives.

Well, it's a no-rules trip.

When I have a down day,
I do whatever the hell I want.

You horses know how to take turns.
I like that.

I'm maybe the only one on the trail

who'll say this, but there
are times doing this, this sucks.

It's miserable.

Oh, shit. Oh!

[Thamer] As far as the horses go...

Don't do it!

Every one of them has a weird quirk

where it's just a pain to deal with
on some level.

Whoa.

- Damn.
- [horse whinnies]

They're your partners on this thing.
You have to get used to what...

Just like with the other guys
on the trail.

Really?

Get up! Get up! Get up!
Come here. Come on.

Get up. Get up.

- Goddamn it.
- [men laughing]

[Masters] You refreshed?

Something I've learned
about myself on the trail,

and I've known this.

But I'm either really in a good mood
and wanna have fun.

[singing, indistinct]

Or I'm just a grouchy, negative bastard.

Get the fuck outta here with that shit.

And my horses, Gil and Simmie,
kind of, you know...

The horse is the mirror to your soul.

Gil is very much like happy-go-lucky Ben.

Oh, you better stop that, Gilley.

He is kind of the trip dog.

I let him run loose most of the time
if I'm not riding him.

Then Simmie... Simmie's business Ben.

Like, he's grouchy.
Doesn't put up with much shit.

This guy, he's not a morning horse. He's
lazy. He complains a lot in the mornings.

That's definitely me, so...

Violet was the horse that at the beginning
I thought wouldn't make it.

He was skinny.
He wasn't obeying very well.

And since we've begun, he has muscled up.

He's gained probably a hundred pounds.

He's still stepping out strong,
and he is... he's the perfect trail horse.

And that is fastly becoming
my favorite horse.

[Geissler] I don't know if you can...

Let me hold his...

- You see this big muscle right here?
- Mm-hmm.

- You don't see it there.
- Oh, yeah.

What he's done is...
It's basically a pop-eyed muscled.

That muscle's been torn in two,
so this horse is done.

- Oh, man.
- And, uh...

Uh, I'll talk to Ben about what we do.

I mean, to put it real blunt,
I could have killed Violet.

I'll never leave a halter
on a horse again.

Good.

I just wish it wasn't my best horse.

Are you certain
that there's no... there's no going back?

I mean, he's done?

He's done for this ride.
I'll let you read...

[Masters] There's no doubt

I put it in a position
where it could have gotten hurt,

and all it did was reach up
to scratch its face,

and the shoe that I put on there
caught it by the halter and tore its leg,

and, you know, fortunately,
the halter broke.

But if it hadn't,
that horse would have killed himself.

I got the trailer. I got Smokey.

Ain't any problem for me
to pack him back home for ya.

We can always pray for a miracle.
I don't have a problem with that.

[Masters] Before Violet got injured,
Jonny said,

“Listen, that horse can get injured
with that halter.”

And I kind of blew him off,

thinking this is the way
that I've seen it done in the backcountry.

He said, “All right.

I'm just gonna warn you
that that horse could get hurt.”

And he was right.

[Fitzsimons] My grandfather,
Jonathan Calvert, who I'm named after,

uh, was a marine.

And he's always been a big inspiration.

In addition to being a marine,
he's also a big adventurer.

He climbed the tallest mountain
in every continent except for Everest.

He made it halfway up Everest
and had to turn around because of weather

when he was 73 years old.

People have said that I'm like him

and that we were both born with “G”
on one foot and “O” on the other.

We both like to cover country.

[Glover] Wow! Look at this view.

Whoo! Look at this trail!

[Fitzsimons] Leading up
to the Grand Canyon,

I was a little nervous about it.

We couldn't find anyone
who had taken horses rim to rim.

[Thamer] I hope we don't die.

[Masters] Oh, dear God.

Oh, oh, oh. [Gasps]

[Thamer] Man, if there's a snake
or a loose rock

or a plastic bag or anything,

we're all dead.

Holy shit!

This is scary.

[Masters] Whose idea was it
to go through the Grand Canyon?

[Glover] Just the way it had to be done.

[Thamer] Oh, God, Simmie, no!

[Fitzsimons] Don't look down, Tamale.

[Masters] Aah!

- [laughs]
- [Glover] Holy smokes.

[Thamer] Oh, my gosh, dude.

[Masters] Now I understand why nobody
takes horses through the Grand Canyon.

It's bad. [Chuckles]

It's real bad.

We did it.

[man] We're proud of you guys.

It took us two days.
How long did it take you guys?

- [man] Six and a half hours.
- Oh.

Go on. Get your fill.

[laughing]

[shouts]

Go, go, go, go!

[men shout]

[Thamer] Hi-yo Silver!

[men shouting]

You're bleeding from your mouth.

I just got shot!

[men laughing]

[Thamer] Morons.
I am surrounded by morons.

[men] Round 'em up! Hey!

[Glover] But you do get bored
sitting on the horse.

I'll be honest. You get bored.

And we all have books in our saddlebags,

and it's funny looking back
and seeing everybody on their horse,

the reigns around the horn,
reading a book.

Fifty Shades of Grey.

I'm not really sure why I'm reading it,
but I'm kind of sucked in,

so when I finish it,
I think Tom's got it next,

and then Ben's gonna read it after him.

[sighs]

He's kind of holding his gut up
a little bit.

[Geissler] Yeah.

I mean, we can all tell
that he's certainly not normal.

I think that's the first thing
I'd better do is run by Kevin's

and let him make an evaluation
and go from there.

[Fitzsimons] I came down here
this morning and Tamale is lame.

We're going to take him
into the vet in Kanab,

see what it is,
and hopefully it's not too bad,

and I'll get my buddy back
in a couple days.

It's been great being with my boys
for this period of time,

and I need to get back up into Wyoming.

Cindy and I take care
of a Forest Service cabin

in the mountains.

I look forward to see 'em
in a couple of months

when they ride through.

You guys'll do great.
You got off to a great start.

You done a great job, and I, uh...

I can't tell you...

what it's meant to me, and that...

- [Geissler] Love ya.
- Thanks so much. I love you too.

- [Geissler] Do good!
- You're the man.

- We'll see ya. See you on the other side.
- Val, love you.

Love you too.
Here I go getting soft again.

- [Masters] Bye.
- Okay.

- We'll be in touch, Val.
- Oh, you bet we'll be in touch.

- See you later.
- You drive safe.

Thanks.

[Glover] He had mentioned to us

he was picturing his son doing
what we're doing as if he was alive.

You know, it got really emotional
and teary and all that stuff.

You just see his love
for what we're doing, and for us.

[Geissler] Forty-some odd years ago,

my four-year-old boy
was kicked and killed by a horse.

I see... I see in the boys maybe what...

What my boy might have been.

- Got it all taken care of.
- Sounds good, Val.

Well, thank you very much.

“Tamale bowed a tendon.”

- Blew a tendon?
- Bowed.

Bowed.

- [Masters] Gee, I'm sorry.
- [Fitzsimons] He's out.

[Fitzsimons] Let's hope we'll keep
the rest of the horses healthy

and don't have any more injuries,

because definitely breaks your heart
to see one of these guys go

after they've pulled through so far.

Look at him. [Laughs]

Oh, J.R.

Who's the happy horsey?

Well, here's to 700 miles completed
and only...

2,300 left to go.

One state down.

Whoo! Yee-hoo!

[trilling] Ha ha ha!

[Glover] Adios, Arizona!

[Masters] Without Val,
our main concern is finding water

in this arid landscape in southern Utah.

And there'll be days
where we're gonna have to go 20 miles

just to go from one water source
to the next.

[Garrott] We have a lot of public land
in the West,

and that public land seems limitless
when you drive across it,

but it is limited.

People don't understand
how hard it is to make a living here

and just how much space it takes

for a thousand-pound animal
to make a living.

When you look out across the dry lake,
there's a dry lake.

There's no forage out there whatsoever.

So along the edges of this,
we had some green up,

and through management practices
of the BLM,

we've concentrated livestock,
both domestic and the wild horses,

in these areas.

Here you see this plant is eat-out
and the crown is completely exposed.

There's another one here and here.
These are going to die.

About all we have left, plants like this,
which is halogeton,

highly toxic to domestic livestock.

And this is a prime example
of a poisonous, noxious weed

that comes in and disturbs surfaces.

That's very appetizing to a cow.

A couple of plants of that,
she'll go to water and be dead.

Livestock can be managed

by the season of use
that they graze an area.

If we have an area where there's
not enough forage or not enough water,

the livestock are going to be removed.

Wild horses, on the other hand, you know,

that's a challenge
because they graze 24/7, 365 days a year.

These cattle are going home
for the winter.

They're not gonna be here.

But the horses in the Diamond Complex
will be here trying to winter.

They will eat sage when they're starved.

And as you can see, there's absolutely
no forage value in this.

And when horses are hungry
and they chew this up and eat it,

it'll literally make a crow's nest
in their intestines.

And when it does,
they will colic and they will die.

[Thamer] Tonight for dinner,

we will have corn bread
and yellow rice jambalaya

with our Sea-Monkeys.

I'm rather skeptical

'cause I'm not the biggest fan
of peeled shrimp to begin with,

much less dehydrated peeled shrimp.

When you're in college, you're always
dreading the day you graduate

and actually have to get a real job
and start your adult life, if you will.

Clean that off pretty good.
Get the ashes out of it.

[Glover] This trip is the perfect thing

to hold on to that freedom
a little bit more.

Geez Louise.
It's getting hot in this kitchen.

[Masters] Personal hygiene, gone.

It's gotten to the point
where I stink so bad

that there is no point
in even trying to contain it.

- [Masters] Smell that stuff first, man.
- [Thamer] Nope.

[Masters] My sleeping bag...

I mean, you could clear a street with it.

[men] Oh!

This is a good meal
to put lots of hot sauce on.

[Glover] Probably
settle down after this, but...

- [farting]
- as of now...

[Thamer] Dude, that's so wrong.

[Glover] I'm not ready to do that yet.

[farting]

No, I'm not ready to buy a house
and get married and have kids yet.

You know, I wanna have fun

and do some crazy adventure like this
while I can.

[Fitzsimons] Hey, Masters! Masters!

[Masters] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Whoa! Waah! Oh! Oh!

Phil, say it.

[Phil] Three, two, one, go!

[gunfire echoing]

[bell clinking]

[man] ♪ Turning in ♪

♪ The grain again ♪

♪ The bells begin to chime ♪

♪ Time, she says ♪

♪ There's no turning back ♪

♪ Keep your eyes on the tracks

♪ Through the fields ♪

♪ Somewhere there's blue ♪

♪ Oh, time will tell ♪

♪ She'll see us through ♪

Django loves his snow cones.

Simmie likes to complain.
He's figured out he can groan.

[groaning]

[shouts]

[man vocalizing]

[chattering]

- Ben Masters.
- Ben, nice to meet you.

- Tom Glover.
- Tom.

-Okay, let's...
-All righty. Well, let's see 'em.

[Weber] I just wasn't sure
if you wanted him or not.

[Masters] Unfortunately, in Arizona,
we lost two good horses.

The good news is
both of those horses are going to be fine.

[Fitzsimons] We got in touch
with Heath Weber

who's a very fine mustang trainer
here in Utah, works for the BLM.

Really a wealth of knowledge.

He really helped us out a lot.
Brought us three really good horses.

You guys are still cool with me riding,
I was just gonna ride him tomorrow.

- [Masters] For sure, man.
- Yeah, definitely.

We'd love to have you.

Trail's awesome.

Love mustangs.

[Fitzsimons] First day
with our three new horses

that Heath Weber brought us.

Uh, so far, they're doing really well.

Uh, this little bay that I'm on right now,

he's really been motoring all day
on a pretty steep, rocky trail,

and they're keeping up.

[Glover] We have Heath here
who brought us three mustangs.

And then we got West
and his eight-year-old son

coming along with us for the ride today.

[Masters] We took this...

According to the map...
Four-wheel drive road

which a vehicle has never been up,

and now we just got cliffed out.

These maps show roads
that have been around for 20, 30 years,

and the Forest Service
closes them occasionally.

So I figured, you know, it'll be fine.

[Fitzsimons] The country we've been
going through was really rough.

High desert, not much water.

Up above was a plateau.

The plateaus are heavily wooded

and have a lot of streams
and springs and have a lot of water.

It was already about four or five o'clock
in the afternoon.

The horses hadn't drank all day.

If we're going to backtrack and go around,

we had no idea when we'd find water again
or how long it would take us.

So we had to make a decision.

[Fitzsimons] Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Good job. Good job.

- [grunts]
- [laughing]

Went a little hot on that one. Whoo.

We have to talk to Masters

about how he reads the GPS, aren't we?

Yeah.

Because this sucks.

One, two, three, go?

One, two, three, go.

Well, so far, so good.

Only one more horse to go.

- [Weber] Get up, get up!
- [man] Shit, just take a break.

[Weber] Up, up, up, up, up!

Oh, shit! Up, up, up, up!

[man] Tie a rope to that horn
and get around the tree.

[Weber] Come on! Up, up, up!

[Masters] Don't get below that horse!

- [Weber] Up!
- [man] Get a rope on that horn and saddle.

[Weber] Up, up!

Easy. Easy, boy. Easy.

Get up! Yeah! Get up, get up!

- He's going! He's going! He's going!
- [Glover] Oh, fuck!

Looks like he's moving all right.

-[Masters] Holy...
-[Fitzsimons] Holy smokes.

[Weber] Come on, come on! Ya! Ya, ya!

Come on! Ya!

Holy shit!

Oh, my God.

[bell clinking]

Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa.

He got burned right here
on his shoulder too.

[Fitzsimons] Yesterday
was a prime example

of why we're using mustangs.

Out of all 14 horses,

we only really had trouble
with one of them crossing that ledge,

and it's this guy.

He took a pretty good tumble
off of it, but...

it'd take a lot to... break these bones.

He's pretty stout.

Well-built mustang.

So, yeah, we're definitely learning
from our mistakes.

You know, it's a trip of self-discovery.

If you think
about these horses in the wild,

sometimes they're traveling
15, 20 miles a day easy, or more,

between water and forage.

That's typical of what you guys
are doing on this trip.

So it's not unnatural for these horses
to travel this many miles.

You know, this isn't an undue hardship
on these horses by any means.

In fact, I think they're bred
for this exact type of activity.

[Fitzsimons] ♪ It's cold and windy ♪

♪ But we're happy ♪

[Masters] Looks like y'all
wanna get through this gate too.

[sighs]

Okay. Well, have a good day.

“No, you can't go through my property.”

This is the perfect example...

of... public/private land in the West.

You have
this beautiful nice valley that's private,

and then we got a bunch of steep hillsides
and cliff faces that's public

on the sides.

This quarter mile of private land
that we can't go through

is... gonna cost us

about... 2,000 feet of elevation gain...

and half a day's worth of travel.

[Masters] This trip wouldn't be possible
without public land.

Lucky for us,

there's over 600 million acres of it
in the United States,

including a continuous stretch
north to south through the West.

But mostly it's in the mountains.

The canyons, deserts, the gnarly country.

It took over two years to plan the route,

but sometimes the trails on maps
don't exist in real life.

And sometimes Mother Nature
just doesn't give a damn how well we plan.

So we're going across Dead Horse Ridge.

Beautiful.

Dead Horse Ridge, huh?

- Yep.
- Great.

[Fitzsimons] Challenge accepted.

[Thamer] I wonder if there's
a We're Fucked Falls somewhere.

[Glover] Are you sure it's a good idea
going up to 11,000 feet this early?

[Thamer] Definitely a gamble
going this high.

[Masters] Skyline Road offered...

over a hundred miles
of dead-straight north travel,

and it was just beautiful on the map.

We were gonna cover
so much ground so fast,

it was just gonna be awesome.

But in reality,
it was a snowy, wet, muddy mess.

[Masters] Whatever we do,
10,800 feet is too high.

- Yep.
- Right now.

[Fitzsimons] We were loose herding
five of the horses

as we'd been doing for a while.

When we got down off the snow,

there was a group
of four-wheelers and dirt bikers

that were kind of off in the distance,

but that “hum, rum,
vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom... ”

And these horses
were rounded up by helicopter.

So that low throbbing sound of an engine,

they immediately associated
the sound of that four-wheel with fear.

Ford just looked at me
and just turned around and just “swoosh.”

[Masters] That guy is going right to where
those horses just spooked out of there.

Hey!

I did what I thought was best
and that was get the horses that I could,

get them tied up to trees, make sure
that we didn't lose all of our horses.

[Fitzsimons] They ran off about 3:15.

I took off after them on Cricket,

and, uh, Tom started following
not too far behind me.

Unfortunately, my mad dash on Cricket,
he threw a shoe.

So I ended up having to continue on foot.

It's now about 6:15.

Got a ride about two miles down the...

Or probably three miles down the road
from a guy on a four-wheeler.

Was able to catch
the horse's tracks again.

There you can see their tracks.

They're still going down this road.

I really hope they didn't go
all the way back to our campsite on I-70

because then it will be a very long night.

[Thamer] Tom and I were behind Jonny.

We could follow his tracks.

And knowing that Jonny was ahead of us
out there somewhere by himself,

that really kept me moving.

I feel worthless just sitting here,

especially if they have to spend
the entire night outside

without sleeping bags and tents.

[Masters] If I was in their shoes,
what I would want me to do right now

is stay put.

It's, uh, almost 11 o'clock.

I've tracked the horses
all the way down to where we camped,

and, uh, they kept on going down the road.

I'm kind of at a loss right now
as to what to do,

so I'm gonna turn in for the night

and, uh, try and find them
first thing in the morning.

[Thamer] We didn't think
we were going to find Jonny.

And so we just stopped
and made a big fire.

[cell phone beeps]

[Thamer] Howdy.

Thamer, tell me the news.

Yo. Everything handled, man.

Uh, I got a home for us
and a home for the horses in, uh, Manti.

And, uh, I got a...

Why don't y'all
just push the horses back up

and we just go on to Manti from here.

I just spent two hours
setting all this stuff up.

So you guys
are just not gonna ride the 30 miles

and do Mexico to Canada
except for 30 miles?

Oh, you're the man.

We tracked these guys
all the way back to that power line.

Past where we found that baby elk. Yeah.

And it only took us 27 hours.

Masters is calling, all,

“We gotta get back and have a little chat,
so I'll meet y'all up there.”

- What's he whining about?
- What do you think?

- Us trailering the horses?
- Yeah.

Well, he can lick on my...

[Glover] When we caught
those last two horses

and got 'em all back together,

I looked down on my GPS,

and there's a green line
that tracks where the GPS goes

and tracks where we go,

and it looked like a four-year-old
playing on an Etch A Sketch.

[Masters] To get those horses
under control,

they took 'em to a ranch which was driving
about 40 miles from where I was at,

but on the north side.

[cell phone beeping]

[beeps]

All right, Masters,
you got all three of us.

All right.
Well, I'm glad everything's all right.

[Fitzsimons] What's looking the best to us
is you ride down to, um...

[Thamer, Glover] Palisade Lake.

[Fitzsimons] To Palisade Lake.

And then we'll ride down there
and meet you.

So you guys don't wanna ride with us
or come up here and ride down?

Y'all don't wanna do
entirely border to border?

[Fitzsimons] Well, we couldn't really get
a trailer up there.

No, but we've got enough...
We have enough horses

where if y'all brought your saddles,

we could send all the pack saddles
with John down to the bottom

and we could just ride the horses
that we have up here down.

[Fitzsimons] If someone wants to say
I didn't do border to border,

they can say whatever they want.

But I've walked and rode 40 damn miles
in the past 26 hours,

so I don't really give a flying shit.

- You there?
- All right, if you're sure about it, yeah.

Yeah. Um, I just wanted to finish
border to border with everybody.

Well, I mean, you're still gonna go
border to border with everyone

because we went 40 miles without you.

[laughs]

Y'all did it in a vehicle though,
not on horseback.

[Thamer] Did it in a vehicle?

I don't wanna hear your lip

about us not doing
the real deal right now because...

I'm not giving you lip. All I'm saying...

No, no, no, no! It's a done deal.

[Masters] It's just really important
for me to finish as a group

all the way from the Mexican border
to the Canadian border.

And to miss 30 miles,
there's just no point in it.

They were gonna have
to come back and get me.

And then just ride the horses
that I have here north.

It would be the same amount of time.

Well, I guess the perfectly simple plan
just never occurred to 'em.

I just felt like he was trying
to create drama with this.

What you said earlier is so true.

It just drives him nuts
when he's out of control.

[Masters] They ended up hitching a ride
up to where I was at.

So with the horses that I had contained,

we were able to continue on the ride
so that we did every single mile together.

- I miss that.
- Manti, so...

I miss that windy, blowy weather
when everything went right.

Good to see you, fellas.

- Been a hell of a couple days.
- [Thamer] After a 40-mile epic journey.

[Thamer laughing] You get that?

[bell clinking]

We're just engaged in another game
of “who's got the bigger dick”

when it comes to choosing the route...
Jonny or Ben.

Every single day, I'm stuck on the GPS.

I'm looking at the maps.

You know, I don't know where we are.
I've never been here before.

But from the information that I have,

this is the best route
that I think we can take.

And then you got Jonny in the back
with a freakin' iPhone

saying, “No, no, no.
No, we need to take this road.”

[Fitzsimons] I like to think I'm not
a drone. I follow Masters every day.

And he's usually pretty spot-on
with that GPS,

but when a GPS is wrong
and we have to bushwhack,

you know, if I see a better route,
I'm gonna take it.

I'm not gonna just follow someone blind.

[Thamer] Came down too steep.

We thought we were
on the right side of the creek.

Me and Jonny just kind of
bushwhacked it down.

Had to do a little equine self-arrest.

Did a little equine skiing, if you will.

[man] How was your route?

Worked out real good.

Just followed the creek bottom and...

That looks interesting.

Whoa!

Whew!

That is what it's all about, right there.

It's not worth stressing about

'cause you're not gonna change
how those guys operate,

so might as well just relax
and have a good time.

[Thamer] How long have you been looking?

- [Weber] Since this morning.
- [laughs]

She's really tame, but she...
I think leading her is gonna be the...

[Thamer] Did you bring a sombrero
and a serape? Oh! Donquita.

[laughs]

[Weber] She's coming.
Steer with your hand.

[men laughing]

[Weber] She made her entrance.

[donkey braying]

Yay!

So happy.

Finally get a little fun.

[Weber] When I dropped off
the three horses,

Thamer asked me about the burros
and if I had a burro to bring him.

- And I just happened to have one.
- [Glover] Oh, that's perfect.

Well, she breathes a lot better than mine.

Take that, Buck Brannaman!

What? Donkey whisperer.

The donkey definitely adds
a little flavor to our outfit.

A little south-of-the-border flavor.

[Fitzsimons] That's pretty good, Ben.

[Glover] Yeah, she has no idea
what she just got herself into though.

Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

Yeah!

[Masters] Now, I like donkeys, but I
think it's gonna be a complete disaster.

I just don't think a donkey
can do 20 miles a day over rough terrain,

keeping up with full-size horses.

It's just not big enough.

I give the donkey a couple weeks.

Maybe you'll just follow along peacefully.

Or maybe we'll be minus a donkey.

Come on, donkey.

Come on, donkey!

You have a lot of time
to just think by yourself.

You find yourself thinking
much more deeply.

I probably already mapped out my life...

about a hundred times.

Think about what makes the world go round

and whether you're
gonna help keep it spinning.

[woman] So in June, we
and the Cloud Foundation filed a petition

with the US Fish and Wildlife Service

to list North American wild horses
on public lands

as threatened or endangered
under the Endangered Species Act.

The argument
that we're managing them to extinction,

you know, it... the data and the experts
that look very carefully at that data,

that are indeed experts,
say just the opposite.

And that report says we have
more horses now on the rangeland

than we've ever had before,

and that the population
has done nothing but grow,

even though we've tried to reduce it

because of the limitations
on the tools and the money we have.

I have seen the horses starve to death
with my own eyes.

I've watched them
eat each other's manes and tails.

I have seen a foal
nursing its dead mother.

And I would much rather see
these horses managed

so we did not get to that point.

They're not in danger of becoming extinct
in the Diamond Mountains of Nevada.

I can promise you that.

Oh!

[howling]

Let's do the shave first.
I'm a little nervous about it.

-I want it...
-A typical business haircut in the front.

- Leave the party in the back?
- Party in the back.

- She's got it down.
- I told ya.

Damn.

The only barbershop I've been in
that allows you to drink beer.

That's right.

You're looking redneckier.

[Southern accent] I do declare,
I look like a Southern gentleman.

- Oh, my God.
- [laughs]

[“Stars and Stripes Forever” playing]

Time to celebrate America.

Whoo! Adios!

I got a phone call yesterday
from Katie Bischoff,

which is Tom's girlfriend,

telling me
that she's gonna be here at 6:45.

Tom doesn't know it.

But Tom, being Fourth of July,
is extremely drunk,

and I don't even know
if he's gonna be able to speak to her.

Fourth of July here in Jackson, Wyoming.

We're gonna have us a good time.

I'm so nervous.

[Masters] Did you win?

Booga, booga, booga, booga, booga!

[laughing]

What's up? Oh, my God!

[announcer] ...who call this
great nation home.

Let's hear it one time
for our great nation,

the United States of America!

[man] ♪ Guess who is knocking
on the door ♪

♪ Guess who is knocking on the door ♪

♪ Guess who is knocking on the door... ♪

[man] Give 'em hell, Tommy!

[chattering]

♪ Well, I am the brave young lad... ♪

Lean forward! Lean forward!

♪ Out of the wild I run... ♪

Yeah, Jonny!

Whoo!

- Here's to America!
- Whoo!

♪ Swept underneath your hood ♪

♪ Guess who is knocking on the door ♪

♪ Guess who is knocking on the door... ♪

- Yeah.
- [Katie] Best surprise?

[Glover] Best Fourth ever.

♪ I'm knocking on the door... ♪

That was so much fun. Oh, my God.

[announcer, indistinct]

Jackson was a nice break,
but I was ready to get out of there.

Come on. Come on.

[Thamer] Oh, Cricket!

I'm worried about my donkey.

Not that I can help her.

Right over the stump.

- Is he gonna go under it?
- Holy shit. She jumped the high part.

[Thamer] That was graceful.

Come on, donkey.

[Masters] Cricket's dead.

What?

What the fuck happened?

I don't know, man. He's dead.

Thamer and I were cooking dinner,
and all of a sudden the horses took off.

And I had mine tied up,

so I saddled him up
and so did Thamer and Masters,

and went to go look for 'em.

Found some of 'em.

Found one down.

[Fitzsimons] Sure enough, dead.

Buddy.

Could've broken his neck
and severed his esophagus,

or his, uh, windpipe or something.

[patting]

I'm gonna miss you, bud.

A little piece of Cricket's going
to Canada,

so hopefully, wherever the horses go,
he'll know that.

[Masters] We don't know how Cricket died.

And I think, in a way...

it was fitting of a mustang...

not to die in somebody's stall...

or in a holding facility.

He was in the backcountry,
15 miles from the nearest road.

He was living with other mustangs,
eating good mountain grass.

It was just his time.

But I'd like to think
that he died a happy horse,

not in a pen somewhere.

[Warr] The whole issue
of gathering wild horses or burros

is very controversial.

It's very emotional.

But it's a necessity
for managing the resource.

We have a number of people
that show up to these gathers,

and they all have their point of view.

And I have seen
where we've had screaming matches.

We've had people that are just trying
to do whatever they can

to shut down the gather operation
because they don't like what's going on.

In these places
where wild horses are allowed to be,

our government has a mandate
to protect wild horses.

Private ranching
actually is a privilege which is allowed.

When drought conditions
or something happens

that we lose the capability
to offer that grazing on public lands,

it's the private ranchers
that should be backing off.

[Goicoechea] Where you start to see
the pushback from the ranchers

is when there are so many horses,

and the BLM comes out in the spring

and they tell you,
“The range doesn't look very good.

We're not going to allow
all your cows out there this year,

or any of your cows out there.”

And the reason why is you had horses on it
for 12 months already

and they've eaten everything
as it came up.

You know, if there was
a more fair allocation of resources

that left some room for wild horses,

we'd have a more balanced system.

You're asking us to give to a point

where we're not financially
and economically viable.

Do we, as a people,

really only care
about things that make money?

The bank, to be quite honest,

doesn't care that you can't turn
your cows out on that permit.

If you owe them several million dollars,

they're expecting
several hundred thousand dollars

every six or every 12 months,
however you have it written up.

Our adoption demand used to be
eight or nine thousand a year nationally.

We've recently adopted
less than three thousand.

What do we do with the excess wild horses
that we have to remove?

When we've only been adopting
less than three thousand,

that means five or six thousand horses
a year are not being adopted,

which are being added to our short-term
and long-term pastures.

Putting them in holding facilities
is a temporary fix,

but then those get overcrowded,

so we definitely need to figure out
something to do with all these horses.

It's just not possible to adopt
enough of these horses out

to really be a viable solution
to the problem.

[Thamer] But they're still multiplying
at a huge rate in the wild,

and those holding facilities are full,
and long-term holding facilities are full.

I mean, there's gotta be a point
where we quit, you know, pansying around

and just do something about it.

♪ Oh, there's a river
that winds on forever ♪

♪ I'm gonna see where it leads ♪

♪ Oh, there's a mountain
that no man has mounted ♪

♪ I'm gonna stand on the peak ♪

♪ No time for ponderin'
why I'm a-wanderin' ♪

♪ Nowhere the buses lay ♪

♪ To the ends of the earth
would you follow me? ♪

♪ There's a world
that was meant for our eyes to see ♪

♪ To the ends of the earth
would you follow me? ♪

♪ If you won't,
I must say my good-byes to thee ♪

[Masters] It's not
all about reaching a goal.

It's not about getting this big list
of things that you've accomplished.

That goal of reaching the Canadian line
isn't as powerful

as, you know, the impact of going
through this land has made on me.

It's made me kind of realize

that more important
than the accumulating of stuff

is, you know, conserving
what we have right now.

Right there.

[chuckles] Oh, my God!

Whoa!

Stay on.

Oh, crap.

Whoa! Oh! Oh, man!

Dang it! [Groans]

Whoa.

What the heck?

[thunder rumbles]

Oh, there it is.

Oh, my God. It's another huge fish.

Hopefully I've got this one set
a little better.

There's been times in my life

where... fly fishing has kind of gotten me
into some binds.

Skipped a lot of school.

That is a big... trout.

Look at that red.

[laughs] See you, buddy.

Wow! Look at these skies.

This... This is one of the coolest times
I've ever had.

This is as good as it gets.

I just couldn't stop fishing.

- I mean, there's clouds building up.
- [thunder rumbles]

The risk of getting hit by lightning
was worth the reward

of catching 20-inch cutthroats.

It was just the best day of fishing
I've ever had.

[shouts]

Yes!

[laughing]

[Fitzsimons] There's a lot of work
to be done to ensure

that the wild lands of America
have a viable future.

The opportunities we have are just unreal

compared to people
in other parts of the world.

I don't think everyone realizes that.

The old Val square knot.

- We made it!
- [woman] Hey!

- Look at that guy running.
- [horse blusters]

- Hey, Ben. How are you?
- Good to see you.

- [Glover] Uncle Val!
- Hey. Hi, son.

- Hey, bud!
- How are ya?

- Good to see ya.
- Okay. Hi, fellas.

- Hey, Val.
- How are you?

- How are you?
- Good.

Okay.

- Good to see ya.
- All right, by golly. All right.

- Okay.
- Got me a new haircut.

Oh, yeah. All right.

- How do our horses look?
- [Geissler] They look good.

- They look excellent.
- [Masters] Yeah, they...

- They've done a heck of a job.
- Yes, they have, by golly. Okay.

- Good to see you, Val.
- Same here, son. Same here.

- How's your summer going?
- Summer's going great.

- Violet's doing good.
- Good.

- Jonny, where are you, son?
- Right here.

- Okay.
- Thank you, Val.

Knock out that last piece of bacon.

We can cut it
into, what, six or seven pieces.

[men chuckle]

- I'm tickled to death my boys are here.
- [Masters] And we have bacon.

[Geissler chuckles] Well, let's see
if I can work through this thing.

[guitar playing]

This is a little bit more of the upbeat.

♪ Well, border to border ♪

♪ From old Mexico they ride ♪

♪ Two Bens, Tom and Jonny ♪

♪ Towards the Canadian sky ♪

♪ Wild horses moving easy ♪

♪ Young cowboys ridin' free ♪

♪ Yeah, it's a border to border ♪

♪ 'Cause that's the way
they planned it to be ♪

[Geissler] Ah, Yellowstone Park,
here we are.

[Glover] Made it to Yellowstone.

-Well, Val...
-Hey, son.

- Keep 'em on their toes.
- Do good.

- Love ya.
- [Glover] Love you too.

- [grunting]
- See ya, buddy.

- Love ya. Do good, son.
- Yeah, we will.

You guys be safe,
and I'll be thinking about you.

Thanks again
for everything that you've done for us

- and the song and all.
- [coughing]

We'll see you after we get to the border.

It'll be good.

- We're out of here.
- [Glover] All right, Val.

- See you, buddy.
- [Glover] Take care.

- I love you, Val!
- I love you too!

- We'll see you in a couple of months!
- Yep!

[horse blusters]

[Masters] Over a hundred years ago,

Teddy Roosevelt came
and visited this exact area,

and he camped just right up the river,

and, uh, it was part of the inspiration
that made him as president...

enact hundreds of thousands of acres
of national forest and national park.

And it's pretty cool to think
that what we see today

is exactly what he saw
a hundred years ago.

And a hundred years from now,

it's gonna be exactly the same
as what we're looking at today.

That's pretty neat.

No matter how beautiful a country is,

at some point
it becomes a test of endurance.

That's where we're at.

Just get through it, man.

Tuck and go.

- That's disgusting.
- [Fitzsimons] Yum.

Wahhh!

We've already been on the trail
close to four months,

and I'd say
I just really starting having fun.

I'd say my only regret so far

is that my buddies Tamale and Cricket
aren't still with me.

Hopefully, Tamale's ready
to meet back up with us

the last couple of weeks.

When Violet got hurt,
I sent him back with Val, to Cody,

because we were gonna be crossing
through the same country

and thinking, you know, he's gonna have
a three-month break,

and let's see how his leg heals
and make an assessment after three months.

And hopefully, if he's doing well,

bring him on board
through the state of Montana.

And I felt
that he possibly could bring him back,

but he'd definitely need reconditioning
and stuff before they did that.

The difference between a healthy horse
going in to what we're doing

and a horse that's coming off an injury
is very, very different.

Very different.

It all started when we poured Jim Beam
into plastic bottles.

All I'm trying to tell you

is bringing a horse off an injury

that was the result
of your own negligent action...

back on the trail

after not conditioning him,
not having seen him...

[Masters] According to Val who knows...

Those two are like oil and water
at this point, seems like.

[Fitzsimons] So we're talking about money.

You're gonna risk a horse's health

because you're worried
about how much he's gonna bring you.

- No, no, no.
- No, no! No! Shut the fuck up!

And I'm gonna throw
the gauntlet down right now.

I don't know why you're attacking me
about bringing him out.

- I'm not planning on bringing him out!
- It's a fucking retarded decision.

- I'm not planning on bringing him out.
- Get out my face.

You're yelling at me
for something I'm not even about to do.

I asked if you're planning
on getting him out here. You said yes.

It's so hard to convince Ben
something's a bad idea...

unless you just really get after him.

That's how you communicate with Masters
if you want anything to sink in.

We've done this entire thing as a team.

If you guys truly believe

that he's gonna be a hindrance
on us getting through Montana,

let's not take him.

- I don't think Tamale should come back.
- [Fitzsimons] And if Tamale goes lame,

I'll be the first one to admit
it was a bad decision.

If it isn't one thing,
it's another out here.

Rain. Hail. Heat.

- Shit.
- [thunder rumbles]

I can't feel my hands.

♪ The highway lines, they come and go
with every mile and stretch of road ♪

♪ The lights are out, but it's all right
We're gonna make it home tonight ♪

♪ Another chance to sing a song
in hopes to keep your worries gone ♪

♪ So pour you one and drink it down
We'll sing until the early morn ♪

One, two, three, four!

♪ Gather round and stomp the floor
and shout hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ We're never gonna die
A toast, hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ For love we stand and death we fight ♪

♪ Hold them high, boys
We're gonna raise some hell tonight ♪

No one's gonna top this in our posterity,
I don't think.

Maybe, but I doubt it.

You can run a marathon, hike
across the Great Wall, do a lot of things,

but you can't do this.

I mean, this is... for crazy people.
Really, but...

[helicopter whirring]

[Masters] Well, as long as our wind
doesn't pick up too bad,

we should be okay
going through these fires.

But we're cutting it close.

[Fitzsimons] My dad just rolled up
with Tamale.

Good to have him back on the trail
after three months of having him gone.

[Joseph] Just keep poultices on him.

Poultice him once a day.

- [Fitzsimons] He looks good.
- A little back fat.

Tamale!

[Joseph] What, are you testing
that poultice, Jon?

- Huh?
- You testing the poultice?

- [Masters] How's Tamale doing?
- He's traveling a little bit better.

See how much heat he has in it.

Earlier, it was pretty hot.

I could actually feel heat
through that bandage.

I'll soak him in the creek
for an hour or two

and then put him in a poultice.

[Masters] Jonny decided to bring his horse

into the largest wilderness complex
in the Lower 48 with no exit plan

while there's
a bunch of raging fires going on.

I talked to some packers and found out

that the pass that we wanted to take
is engulfed in flames.

Yeah, that right there is the pass.

Damn. That is new.

Crap.

My route was to go
right along through here

because you got the entire Chinese Wall
blocking it off.

But now this is burning.

And I don't have a rock face
for this six miles.

So theoretically it could jump.

I don't think it would, but it could.

[Joseph] If it does,
you don't have an escape.

The wall on one side
and fire on the other.

So we can go up the south fork to the sun.

Take that trail onto the rez.

I feel more comfortable doing that.

Not much room for error.
And I just hope the wind doesn't pick up.

I mean, I don't mind dropping out.

Doing what needs to be done.

At each exit we'll evaluate him,

and we'll err on the side
of sending him out.

There is nothing that I could have said
that would have made him feel any worse

than him listening to his own lecture
that he gave me.

What good would it have done
if I was like, “Jonny, you idiot.”

Fitzy hates having to eat crow
on that deal.

We would have made sure
to be like, “Oh, yep, told you.”

So Masters did a good job
of staying humble through that.

I don't think I would have been able
to resist that opportunity.

See you in a couple of days.

[Masters] I started this thing
with one mission...

That's to get my entire crew
to that Canadian border

and to get all these horses
to that Canadian border.

And I failed on getting
all the horses there,

but I'm gonna get my entire crew there.

And if that means sucking a little pride,
I can suck some pride.

[Fitzsimons] I would like to see
as many mustangs adopted as possible

if it's done responsibly.

But the fact of the matter is
when you adopt one of those horses,

more often than not,

you're gonna have
to spend 90 to a hundred days

working with that animal every day.

And there aren't very many people
that have that kind of time

to commit to it.

Adopting mustangs is a big responsibility.

If we took
the appropriate management level

that's defined now... 25-28,000...

And we aggressively use
the contraceptive tools

that are available,

we could reduce the growth rate
of that base population

to the point that that surplus
that we need to take off of the landscape

would meet the adoption demand,
and that would be totally sustainable.

So there is a solution.

[Goicoechea] We want to coexist.

We strongly believe
in the multiple-use concept.

Recreation, wildlife,
wild horses, livestock.

Everybody gets to share in these lands,
but it is share in these lands.

I think we should look at how many horses
we need to have there

to have viable wild horse herds.

[chattering]

[Garrott] There will be groups
on both sides

that will never be happy
with anything in the middle.

If there's no compromise and we throw up
our hands and stop managing,

then that's the worst-case scenario

for horses, for wildlife, public lands
and everybody that cares about them.

We're almost to Glacier National Park.

And park regulations, we can only take
eight horses through.

And so we're gonna have to leave
five of 'em behind in East Glacier

and pick 'em up
on our way... on our way home.

So for a lot of these horses,
it's their last day.

Are you ready to be done?

Your duties as protector of the herd
are over.

Oh, yeah. That feels good.

Yeah. Shake your tongue.

You get used to this way of life,
but it's a hard way of life.

You know? I don't care what Masters says.
This isn't easy.

[chuckles] People like to think

we're going for a walk in the park
on these horses.

- It's work.
- It's been fun.

But, you know,
I'm over living in the woods.

Thamer, are you feeling all right?

Anybody that says like,
“Oh, I wanna be a cowboy

and live out in the woods my whole life... ”

Except Ben Masters.
I think he could happily do it.

[Masters] We're four days from being done,
but we're a long ways from the border.

We have got some brutal days
through Glacier National Park.

[Glover] We can smell the finish line.

It'll take a couple of weeks or months,

and then we'll wish
we were right back out here...

when we realize how dull and boring
normal life is compared to this.

[camera shutter clicks]

[groans]

[exhales, chuckles]

That's pretty cool.

There's two big bulls right here.

Just behind camp.

[groaning]

- [Glover] I'm glad we came through here.
- [Masters] Yeah.

- [Glover] And not on a stinkin' highway.
- This beats a road any day.

[Masters] That is a view.

Man, that's got to be Canada.

It's only ten miles, straight line.

Canada!

- That's the drainage we're going up.
- [Masters] Yeah, that's the Belly River.

Yee-hoo!

[Glover] Wow! We can finally see it!

- [Masters] The other guys up yet?
- [man] Jonny is. That's it.

[sighs] That's all right.

No hurry on the last morning.

We all know it's the last morning

and, you know,
looking forward to being done.

But, at least for me,

it didn't really feel
like I thought it would.

You know?

I don't think it in any way
compares to the feeling we all had

when we were leaving the border.

I'm not getting to the end, I guess,

with as strong a sense of accomplishment
as I was expecting.

Looking back on the trip so far,

I'd probably say things
that stick in my mind the most

are those times

where it was extremely difficult
and I was by myself.

We're there, man.

No, no, we're not there yet.

- We still have ten miles.
- We're there.

We got sound horses and ten miles.
Ten easy miles.

If something goes bad now,
it'll be a freak event.

-Gosh, I should not say stuff...
-I don't like this talk.

- [Thamer] Let's blow this taco stand.
- Come on, gray horse. You're almost there.

[indistinct]

Yeah, go ahead. What's up?

Okay. Everything okay?

Now, how do I get to Lee Ridge?

[woman] Here, I've got a map.

Let me look.
It's just down the hill a bit.

[Joseph] Do we know that's Lee Ridge?

What's going on?

I'm stopping here.

My dad's meeting me
at the Lee Ridge, uh, Trailhead,

just right up the hill.

He's gonna pick me up,
and I'm gonna meet y'all at the border.

Um, it might be a little hard
to understand,

but a part of me just kind of feels
like leaving the last mile undone.

So we've come this entire way as a team
and you wanna finish by yourself?

Well, I'm finishing
a mile from the border.

Why?

I got a million reasons,
which we don't have the time,

and y'all probably don't have the patience
to hear me enumerate.

But... this is something I wanna do.

I think sometimes there's beauty
in leaving some things undone.

Jonny!

I don't... I just don't...
I can't put it together.

In a way it kind of hurts.

It makes you wonder
why he would wanna leave us and...

[Thamer] He's just eccentric,
that's all it is.

[Joseph] There he is.

Howdy, howdy.

[woman] Howdy, howdy, buddy boy.

- Congratulations, man.
- Thank you.

Great.

- [woman] Hi, buddy.
- [Joseph] Congratulations, buddy.

[Masters] I see it!

[Fitzsimons] Leaving a mile.

- What?
- What's that?

Leaving a mile for good luck.

- You're gonna leave a mile for good luck.
- Leaving a mile for good luck.

Yes!

Whoo!

- Whoo!
- Whoo!

- [shouts]
- Oh, fuck.

[Masters] I was furious, man.

I know I put on a good show, but, like...

Nice work, Ben! Whoo!

I feel like I failed

because I didn't meet the goal
that I had set for myself.

He realized how important it was...

for me to finish as a unit.

Like, we had done every single inch,

all the way from Mexico to Canada.

And that was the success.

It was us finishing.

In my mind, he stripped me
of that success by quitting.

[Masters] I still don't understand
why Jonny quit

with just a mile left to go.

But in the end, in spite of everything
I believed this journey to be,

a mile doesn't really matter.

Ice water.

[Masters] What matters is the land

and these horses that have
proven themselves time and time again.

There's an honesty in their actions
that I really admire.

And I'm grateful.

The future of our wild horses,
wildlife and us

depends on the management choices
that we make today.

And I hope to God that in a hundred years,

there's still a backcountry route
to ride from Mexico to Canada.

And that'll require sacrifice...

in a society
willing to face difficult decisions...

and a really good horse.

[guitar playing]

[Geissler] Yeah, ride, you young cowboys.

Ride on.

[yodeling]

♪ Well, it's border to border ♪

- ♪ From old Mexico ♪
- [announcer, indistinct]

- ♪ They ride ♪
- [cheering]

♪ Two Bens, Tom and Jonny ♪

♪ Towards the Canadian sky ♪

♪ Wild horses moving easy ♪

- ♪ Young cowboys ridin' free ♪
- [men laughing]

♪ Yeah, border to border ♪

♪ 'Cause that's the way
they planned it to be ♪

♪ So ride on, ride on ♪

♪ Young cowboys ♪

♪ 'Cause this is your dream ♪

♪ Ride on, young cowboys ♪

♪ Ride on, young cowboys... ♪

This is what you get
for filming out in the lake.

A little leech action.

♪ Now you've gathered up these mustangs ♪

♪ Broke 'em, for they are the kind ♪

♪ To cross the wide deserts ♪

♪ Deep canyons ♪

♪ Climb mountains high ♪

♪ Through rattlesnakes and cactus ♪

♪ Sparse feed, short water... ♪

I've never seen this many flowers
in my dreams, much less in my life.

♪ Through the snow-covered mountains ♪

♪ Tall grass and clear-flowing streams ♪

[grunts] Jonny want food!

♪ Now, breaking these mustangs ♪

♪ Hey, it sure tested... ♪

[Masters] Wrong way, Simmie!

♪ But you hung in there ♪

♪ 'Cause you knew
they were the kind for this trip ♪

♪ They've proven their mettle ♪

- ♪ And, boy, you've sure proven yours ♪
- [gunshot]

♪ Through scorching hot days... ♪

- How do you feel, Phil?
- Whoo!

This is what it's all about right here!

♪ Now, step down, step down ♪

♪ Young cowboys,
you've fulfilled your dream ♪

♪ Step down, step down ♪

♪ You've made the Canadian line ♪

♪ Step down, step down ♪

♪ You now fulfilled your dream ♪

[yodeling]

[song ends]