Land With No Rider

In a remote valley in Southwestern New Mexico, the last cowboys struggle to carve out a fragile survival. They practice a sustainable form of cattle ranching in rough country, honed in times of limited contact with the outside world. Now in their 70s and 80s, an array of forces is stacked against them: the allotments where they have run cattle for generations are being curtailed, and an epic drought that has consumed much of the American West has hit this valley especially hard. These cattlemen are now under existential threat, with many having reduced their herds by as much as 50 percent. The film highlights their intimacy with the natural world and deep connection to land and place. It looks beyond the hypermasculine cowboy icon of Western movies, instead focusing on the men’s real struggles on the land and the fragility of their position in a changing environment. Land With No Rider is a journey into what runs deep in these men and what would be lost when they are gone.