Cow Sense
Cow Sense
3/16/2026 | 7m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Three sisters defy gender norms while ranching in rural Colorado.
Set in rural southern Colorado, Cow Sense follows three sisters challenging gender norms within a male-dominated ranching culture. Against rugged mountains and open plains, the film offers an intimate portrait of resilience, sisterhood, and how identity is shaped by land, labor, and place.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Cow Sense is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
Cow Sense
Cow Sense
3/16/2026 | 7m 45sVideo has Closed Captions
Set in rural southern Colorado, Cow Sense follows three sisters challenging gender norms within a male-dominated ranching culture. Against rugged mountains and open plains, the film offers an intimate portrait of resilience, sisterhood, and how identity is shaped by land, labor, and place.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Cow Sense
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(soft, uplifting music) My name is Lindsay Temple.
I am 17 years old and I live in Del Norte, Colorado.
The work I do is pretty laborious.
It's different from what other girls do and what other kids do.
I guess I would just say I'm a little different than normal.
I think I would describe myself as kind of tough, kind of take it head on.
Sometimes I'll stand back and think about, like, the outcome, but normally I just dive right in and, work out the problems as I go.
To me, gender doesn't matter.
It's just you're like.
You're your work ethic and your ability to do things and how, how well, you do those things.
And if you're willing to learn.
(soft, uplifting music) I'm Shelby Temple, I'm 19.
I do cowboy a lot.
That's the term we use here.
I honestly, personally do not like being called a cowgirl.
I don't know why.
It just, from what everybody thinks, a cowgirl is, is like a rodeo queen.
Or, you know, the rodeo cowgirls and I. I really don't fit into that term.
My first cow horse show was in Castle Rock, Colorado, and did all right my first year at the national level.
The second year I got into the top ten, went to the top 20 to the finals my second year, and I was sixth in the world.
We went to eight different states for horse shows for my sister, and so I got to go everywhere and watch everything and pay attention to what she did.
A big part of being a cowgirl is reading the cow and having cow sense.
Cow Sense is where you read the cow.
You know what it's going to do before he does it.
You watch his ears, you watch his tail, you watch his body if he tenses up and if his ear flakes, you know which way he's going to move.
You watch their eyes.
You know how you read a person and their emotions and their actions.
It is the same exact thing, but with a cow.
There was this one winter.
We had a bull way up in the mountains.
Way, way up there.
And there were like 3 or 4 different cowboys that went up there and try to rope it and try to get it back and bring it back down.
And they just couldn't.
And so one day my dad took me and Shelby up there with the trailer and two horses, and we went and trailer loaded that bull in less than 20 minutes.
And nobody else could do that.
They couldn't rope him.
The bull would take their horses.
I believe Lindsey was 12 and Shelby was 14.
And the only reason I filmed it is because I had to prove to those cowboys that those two girls would be able to do it.
They had a 2,000 pound bull loaded in a trailer with no ropes.
Those guys are so mad that they couldn't get it, and we could.
And I didn't understand why, but I thought it was kind of funny.
From then on, we trailer loaded almost every bull we have.
(soft scraping on dirt) That fixes it.
I am Ashley Temple.
I am 11 and I live in Del Norte, Colorado.
We moved up here because we were going to be closer to the mountains with our cows.
The cattle drive means there's no more hay in the pasture down at your ranch, that means you have to go look for more hay because there's very tall grass.
So that's why we have to move them all the way up there.
(soft, uplifting music) It's my favorite thing because you get to push cows.
You get to make them get more feed.
You get to see wild animals you have never seen before.
You get to see leaves, all that type of stuff.
You get to see some caves that you can't climb up because your horse could get hurt.
It's usually takes us two days.
But when you're a rancher, it's like year round.
Constant.
Go go go.
Being a cowgirl means lots of different things to lots of different people.
To me, it means taking care of cattle.
Taking care of what needs to be taken care of.
To work hard, to work for what you have.
To work for things you want and to achieve your goals and your ambitions, and to, help people out when they need it.
(soft, uplifting music) What I love about living on the ranch is the wilderness.
You could go up to the mountains, or you could go down on the fields.
You can be on a tractor.
You can be on a horse, or you could.
You could be almost anywhere you felt like other than the beach of course.
I like the valley just because it's, like, really quiet.
I know a few people and they know few people, and we have fun when we hang out every now and then.
But it's not that often.
And I like that too, is I don't have to constantly go out and hang out with people.
I can be here and be happy.
(soft, uplifting music)
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