Elk are fun, but horses star at Hardware Ranch

Shoat explained that she needed to straighten her leg, stand up and then they would toss her over, instead of her climbing Justice like a rock wall.

The second attempt was much better and she landed stiffly on Justice's back. He didn't seem to care at first, and then he got a little restless. She made awkward baby-voice comments like those a city girl makes to a kitty.

"It's OK, Justice. You're OK."

He saw right through the act. He knew she was nervous. She laughed unnaturally at his rustling. After a few evidential photos were snapped, she slid off the enormous beast, and it was back to work for Justice.

When not guiding a sleigh, drivers rest in the sleigh shack. A 2-by-2-foot propane heater and four bottles of soda serve as decoration. Drivers reminisce as they thaw out.

"Remember when we got Nikki and Nelly's names mixed up?" Jenny asks.

Nikki and Nelly are contracted each winter from the American West Heritage Center. Two years ago they were the new kids on the ranch and the drivers confused the names. They were put on the opposite sides of the harness than where they should've been. At the end of the season, Jenny found out about the mistake.

"We'd been cussing out the wrong horse the whole year," she said.

Several of the horses get the lazy label. Horses are like people and have different personalities and work ethics, Hunt said. "Billy's attitude is 'if you're not gonna make me do it, I won't."'

Nikki has become a little lazy as well, but she is one of the most beautiful horses.

"It's just the way she stands," Hunt said fondly. "Some people train horses to stand a certain way so they look nice in photos, but Nikki just naturally does it."

Everyone in the shack complains about Justice, who is known to nip.

"He bit me, so I jumped up and bit his ear and he's never bothered me since," said Grover.

"He's never bit me, but he's got me with his lips," Hunt said. "If you let him, he'll suck your hair right off."

Johnson said Justice is always snooping for treats in her pockets. She jokes that he probably thinks she has treats because she smells better than the boys.

Like the horses, the elk have personalities in the eyes of the drivers. The female elk, or cows, often fight over the feed by standing up on their hind legs and boxing. "Typical women," jokes Pitcher. The males, or bulls, will spar for fun but the women are honestly fighting.

"The men just argue about who's going to win the Super Bowl," he said.

Keeper, the largest bull, always makes himself seen when the sled passes. He lifts his six-point rack solidly like a bodybuilder pumping weights.

"He's pretty proud of that set of antlers," Pitcher said.

"Wow, I want that one on my wall," a passenger says covets.

But the elk are only admired from a distance, even by the drivers. If a human were to walk through the field, it would spook all the elk and they'd likely jump the fence, Pitcher said. The real interaction is between the horses and the cowboys.

As impressive as the elk may be, visitors who leave without spending time getting to know the horses and the drivers miss the real spark of the ranch. They are like the dearly loved characters in a novel and they stay with you.

As Shoat, the cross between a sheep and a goat, said: "The elk are just a bonus."