Photo Mission: Arizona Cattle Country

I spent nine days in the southwest with a team of veterinarians on two Native American reservations. The most heart-pounding day was the day I accompanied cattle vaccinations.  Imagine the whistling from the opening of The Good the Bad and the Ugly. That was what I heard in my head when I started photographing this steer. He was a wild one. They ran him through the chute, attempted to restrain him for vaccinations and vitamins, but had to let him go before he injured the team. I took refuge in the back of a pickup truck when they released him. He tumbled out of the chute in a bolt of fury and ran off. My friend Ferdinand here appears in my book Photo Mission: People, Places and Pets of the Hopi and Zuni Reservations.