Meet The Smith Family: About Almosta Ranch

Almosta Ranch is privately owned and operated by Janet Smith, her husband Glenn, and daughter, Jamie. The ranch location offers horse boarding, training, lessons and expertise in all aspects of Western riding. In addition to this, Janet has over a decade of experience organizing wagon trains, multiple day trail rides, and mounted shooting events in the Western US.

Janet and daughter, Jamie, manage the day to day care of horses boarded at Almosta Ranch.

Involved with horses since she was three years old, Janet and her twin sister would sit together in the same saddle, with dad leading their horse, as he checked livestock on their Wyoming ranch. To Janet and her horse-loving sister, the ranch felt like Disneyland. Riding horses and playing on the banks of alpine lakes and streams, developed a deep love of the outdoors.

Learning to ride bareback at all gaits (and not falling off!) earned Janet the privilege of her own western saddle. Soon her competitive side was awakened. She joined the local 4H club, later competing in high school rodeos.

Barrels, breakaway calf roping, pole bending, and goat tying were favorite events. She qualified and competed in the '76, '77, and '78 National High School Finals Rodeos, placing in the top five each year. She attended college on a rodeo scholarship, competing in the Intercollegiate National Finals Rodeo.

After graduating with a degree in business, she took a break from the rodeos to focus on marriage and raising a family. When the kids were young, she co-purchased a team of Halflinger horses and a wagon. It took two hours and the help of her kids to harness the team for the first time.

Learning to drive a team without any instruction was challenging and scary. But, this was so different from anything she had ever done with horses.

Janet loves being a teamster and participating in Historic reenactments. Daughter Jamie and son Jason also share a love for horses and have joined her on week-long Wyoming wagon train treks annually since 1995.

A new equine timed event of shooting guns on horseback - Cowboy Mounted Shooting - was introduced to her on one of the wagon train events. She instantly sparked to this type of competition knowing it would bring back her rodeo days with a new twist. She currently competes as a Ladies Level 3 and has been a World Championship Qualifier for several years.

Organizing events and showing participants how the West is fun inspired Janet to capture these memories. She soon discovered that filming, editing, and producing video of the horse adventures she organizes gives her a special thrill.  

"I love seeing people watching videos of themselves doing things with horses they didn’t think they could do. Capture that on film, add a little music and they see themselves in a whole new way, with confidence that can only be achieved outside the comfort of their everyday lives."

 Janet's philosophy on life: "If it is to be; it’s up to me."

She loves being a grandmother of five, traveling the world, organizing horse adventures, capturing them on film, riding the trails, and going bang, bang on the back of her fast horse.

Giving her grandchildren and others the same opportunity she had on her Father's Wyoming ranch as a child brings her great joy.

Past horse adventure experience and events:

• Eleven years of camping with horses and wagons.
• Organized and produced a week-long wagon train in the Uintah Mountains, Utah/WY, 2000.
• Wagon Master for the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive 2005, '06.
• Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive teamster, 9 years.
• Organize a Mounted shooting competition, Spanish Fork UT '06, ''07.
• Organized a mounted shooting pre-rodeo show, Spanish Fork, UT 2006, 07.
• Currently organizing and sponsoring the upcoming Craig Cameron Horsemanship Clinic, to be held in Bridger-Teton National Forest, WY. in August, 2010.