Posted on Wed, Sep. 10, 2003

Santa Barbara filmmakers feature local cowboys in documentary
Jeff Ballinger The Tribune

Wil Bernhardt is a real-life vaquero, a cowboy who uses animal-friendly ranching methods that have been a local tradition for nearly two centuries. The 23-year-old is not yet among a dying breed, according to "Vaquero," a documentary film that provides a history lesson and a glimpse at modern California cowboy culture.
KSBY will broadcast the half-hour film Sunday at 11:30 a.m. "There's a strong attraction to this lifestyle.

It's still a thriving culture here on the Central Coast," said Susan Jensen, one half of the wife-husband filmmaker team of J&S Productions of Santa Barbara. Jensen's husband, Paul Singer, said the couple owns some horses and by chance became acquainted with people following the vaquero way. Bernhardt described the concept as working with animals more smoothly and showing them more respect. Instead of using a synthetic rope to catch cattle and jerk them to the ground, vaqueros use a riata, a braided, rawhide rope that allows the cowboys to use more slack and slowly stop an animal. The former method increases stress to the animal, often causing it to lose weight, Bernhardt said. "Our goal is to keep the most pounds on cattle as we can," he said.

Bernhardt is one of several buckaroos -- the Anglicized version of vaquero -- who are featured in the film and who live the lifestyle on ranches in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. A Cal Poly senior majoring in animal science, Bernhardt spends his summers working his father's Wasioja Ranch in the Cuyama Valley east of Santa Maria. "They do it because they love it," Singer said. Bernhardt acknowledged that while there aren't many true cowboys anymore, they will not die off anytime soon. "You can't make a machine do what a cowboy does," he said.

The film found a spot on the local NBC affiliate due to good timing, the right length, and a good product, said Carl Edge, KSBY's operations manager. He said the last locally-produced documentary aired about a year ago, and that there is not another similar time slot open for such productions for another year.