(upbeat music) -[Narrator] Coming up on "Nebraska Stories", old school Western art through the eyes of a modern cowboy.

(upbeat music) The ancient secrets of Nebraska's historic Signal Butte, (upbeat music) dancing in the dirt with Olympic dreams, (upbeat music) and a look at the sport of dog agility.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music) -[Narrator] Brandon Bailey credits fate with bringing him to the western edge of Nebraska's panhandle.

(gentle music) He and wife, Priscilla, and a host of critters live on a ranch nestled in the rolling hills and canyons near the Wildcat Hills.

(gentle music) The Wyoming native came to Nebraska to study art education and ended up dropping out to pursue art instead.

(gentle music) -[Brandon] Self-taught is an interesting concept because I would say more self-motivated than anything.

Trying to find artists that you admire and look up to, and that's where I started.

Some of those artists that took me under their wing and kind of showed me the ropes, someone would give me a pointer, "Hey, why don't you try this?"

And I would just start doing those little things, and then that just kept expanding upon the language of art for me.

(brush scraping) -[Narrator] Bailey began drawing at an early age as a way to document experiences.

(brush scratching) And now, before he spends time in the studio, Bailey takes his brushes into the field.

(brush scratching) -[Brandon] Seeing old buffalo wallows, you know, and walking in the same footsteps that the Kiowa, the Lakota, and even the Stone Age prehistoric peoples would have walked.

You're seeing all that history written in the land.

I consider the hiking aspect of it is just as much a part of my painting as it is the actual painting itself.

Going out and seeing how the grasses are at two in the afternoon on a sunny day, it's almost like you're painting in your head as you're walking along.

I can capture different times of day and sometimes it doesn't translate the same way in my photography.

So like a shadow will be kind of darkened, whereas in plain air, if you really observe something, you'll see the colors that are in that shadow.

And so these are color studies, so you're getting the colors of that environment and then you take that into the studio.

(brush scratching) -[Narrator] His latest piece depicts native wolf scouts.

His process is meticulous.

He researches key details for historical accuracy, from tribal beating patterns to the feathers that might have been worn.

He uses photographs, either historical or modern recreations as a reference.

The weather, time of day, the interplay of light and shadows are all used to recreate the moment as it might have unfolded.

(gentle music) In the early part of his career, Bailey found success painting wildlife, landscapes and cowboys.

But as a member of the Ottawa and Chippewa nations, he was hesitant to explore his heritage in his work.

-[BrandonÑ I didn't wanna paint my tribe because I didn't grow up around it.

So growing up around the West, I was more interested in the Plains Indians and the tribes of this area.

I kicked it down the road, I didn't want to paint it because I knew the respect and the reverence that it took to portray that correctly.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] A few years ago, that all changed.

-[Brandon] I kind of went on a photo shoot for the first time and started getting the reference of Native Americans dressed in different tribal outfits and you know, whether it was Blackfeet, tribal war shirts, or headdresses to Lakota and I just kind of started painting it, and then from there it became an obsession of how much can I learn about cultures of the plains.

(gentle music) I don't speak for all native people either, that this is just my experience with painting what I'm painting, and this is the contribution I can give, but it's not everybody's story.

(gentle music) My experience as someone that's half white and half native, you know, that's what I'm bringing to it.

But I've been finding my native roots through the painting and trying to discover that side of me.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] In 2019, the Cowboy Artists of America invited Bailey to join their exclusive ranks.

-[Brandon] We're portraying the truth of the West, I guess that's the main mission behind the CA.

(gentle music) I'm still speechless about the whole thing.

I mean, I was in tears when I got invited in.

It's one of those deals where I know there's nothing more prestigious I can do in my career.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] A few years ago, Bailey began sculpting as well.

[Brandon] And it just came natural to me.

With sculpting, I actually have more fun doing sculpting than I do painting because it's like you have something 3D to work with.

And so I did the bison, you know this big, and now it's in downtown Cheyenne.

And so the same as with this pronghorn antelope, I did the Marquette, somebody saw it and now wants to do a half life size.

(gentle music) -[Narrator] Still, even as Bailey's sculptures gain recognition, painting remains his true passion.

(gentle music) -[Brandon] There's no such thing as making it in this business.

You just get up every day and try to get better.

It's one of those pursuits that, you know, when I still have a painting on my easel at the end of the road in my life, I'll probably still be trying to learn how to paint.

And I think that's what makes it fun, is you're never gonna figure it out but you know, you'll keep trying.

(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (birds chirping) -[Narrator] In the western part of Nebraska, iconic landmarks like Chimney Rock, (gentle music) (birds chirping) Scotts Bluff Monument, (gentle music) and Courthouse and Jail Rock dominate the landscape.

(gentle music) Yet, a lesser known butte lies quietly in the shadows of these giants.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) Nestled in Scotts Bluff County, Signal Butte stands as a watchful presence over the plains, holding secrets that date back thousands of years.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) Designated a national historic landmark in 1961, this site is one of Nebraska's most significant archeological treasures.

(gentle music) (birds chirping) Rising about 120 feet above the plains at the western edge of the Wildcat Hills, Signal Butte has captivated archeologists for nearly a century.

(gentle music) Its layered history is encapsulated in the gravel and windblown soil that cover it.

(gentle music) (car engine whirring) The historical discoveries of Signal Butte began in 1931 when archeologists from the Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Archeological Survey Field Party, conducted the first official excavations.

(gentle music) They uncovered not just artifacts, but windows into the lives of those who inhabited this land thousands of years ago.

(gentle music) Three distinct cultural horizons were identified at Signal Butte, with the two deepest layers dating from 5,000 to 1,500 years ago.

(gentle music) These layers revealed stone projectile points, bone tools, (gentle music) and the remnants of ancient hearths and storage pits.

(gentle music) The significance of Signal Butte extends beyond its artifacts.

It was one of the first sites in the world to use the groundbreaking radiocarbon dating method, helping to establish a timeline for human activity in the region.

(gentle music) In the 1940s and 50s, archeologists from the University of Nebraska Lincoln returned to further explore the site, deepening our understanding of the prehistoric peoples who once roamed the Central Plains.

(gentle music) Though Signal Butte sits on private land and might not be widely known to most Nebraskans, its towering presence and the secrets it holds preserve the history of those who lived here long ago.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - [Narrator] As the sun rises across Eastern Nebraska, Jami Kment and her daughter Lexi carry out their daily chores on the farm.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - [Jami] No matter if you're sick, if it's a blizzard, if it's raining outside, it's hot, you're tired, you have to take care of them.

(gentle music) They depend on you and so it helps you get grounded, especially as a teenager, being more excited to go see your horse then to go see boys and friends was always a good thing.

- I'd say my relationship with the horses is friends for sure, best friends.

They're the ones that when I have a really hard day at school.

I can just come down here and hang out and just kind of tell them my life problems and they're just like, "Okay, treats now."

They're always willing to listen.

(upbeat music) - [Jami] They have the look in their eye, how they twitch their skin, how they move their ears, and yeah, but it takes time to get to know a horse and to know their personality and what they think about things, but it's a really neat connection to have with them.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] This mother and daughter share a mutual love for horses and a passion for the sport of dressage.

It all started years ago when Jami was a little girl and her father would drive by a pony club on their way to a local lake.

- [Jami] My dad actually knew the guy that owned the place.

His name was Lowell Boomer and he's actually the founder of dressage in the US and so from that day on the boat never went back into the water and for $5 every Sunday we could come out and rent a horse.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] G Lowell Boomer also had a deep love for horses.

As a young man, he witnessed a military dressage competition held in Lincoln, which ignited his interest in the sport.

Later he founded the Nebraska Dressage Association and played a pivotal role in establishing the US Dressage Foundation.

(military band music) Dressage is the art of training horses where the horse and the rider perform a series of precise and predetermined movements from memory, but the origins of the sport are rooted in military combat on the battlefield.

- [Jami] The horse could give the illusion of stampeding towards you when really it was in place.

Or if you had your sword, you could go quickly to the side to be able to get your enemy or you could be able to turn it quickly to get someone behind you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] As athletes advance in dressage, the difficulty of movements increases.

- [Jami] You will have a half pass and that's when a horse goes sideways and crosses its legs as it's going apart, (upbeat music) or you'll have flying changes where a horse is skipping in the air and going, it's at the canter where you go from one lead to the next lead and you can do it even every stride and that's where it looks like a horse is skipping.

Then there's the passage, which looks like a slow motion trot that's very elevated in the piaffe where the horse trots in place.

(upbeat music) Horses are really good about yielding to pressure.

If you weight your left seat bone, they want to move to the left seat bone, so if you do a half pass to the right, you weight your right seat bone and then you use your left leg to show them where to go, and then they'll start crossing their legs to go that way.

- [Narrator] Dressage has both national and international championships, but the level of competition at international events is much higher.

- [Jami] You have to have a passport for your horse and there's a lot of more stringent drug rules.

- [Narrator] Jami has won many international competitions, but when she's not competing, she guides others in the sport.

- [Jami] I have 12 full-time clients that work with me four to five days a week, 52 weeks of the year, and then I have other clients that are outta state that I teach virtually.

(upbeat music) - [Lexi] I won my first national championship when I was 13, (upbeat music) so that was at Festival Champions.

- [Jami] Probably one of my funnest accomplishments as a coach is having my daughters there, and Lexi was a triple gold medalist, meaning she won every gold medal there was at the North American Youth Championships.

- Sometimes I get emotional, my first national anthem play.

There's a picture of me on the podium and I look like I'm really mad, but I'm just trying not to ball my eyes out.

- [Narrator] Injuries are also a part of the sport.

Lexi had to put a halt to training when her horse Monty was hurt.

She worried they wouldn't be able to defend their titles in the coming year, but after a grueling off-season, Lexi stood atop the podium again.

- The first time was more of a surprise and more of like a, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe we did that," a not quite real feeling.

The second time was a more of a, "Okay, I can do this.

I can come back from hard things and we can still be good.

We don't have to just have one time that we're great and have it be over.

- [Narrator] Jami and Lexi's journey in the world of dressage showcases a deep bond between horse and rider and between mother and daughter.

(upbeat music) - [Jami] I feel like a very proud mom and a proud coach, and it's fun to be able to wear both of those hats at the same time, but at a competition, I'm definitely more of a coach than I am a mom, and then we get to go home and I get to be the mom.

(soft music ) ♪ Van Halen's "Jump" ♪ >> Narrator: Though she may not be as well-known as the band she was named after, Halen's already following in the paw steps of her champion roomie, Pixel.

>> AMI SHEFFIELD: Pixel has a little fan club, which is super cute.

Her breed, it's not a crazy popular breed.

It is gaining popularity.

She is an eight-year-old miniature American shepherd, or they call them miniature Australian shepherds or mini Aussies.

They derive from the Australian shepherd, which is the larger version.

They're a herding breed.

So they were meant to help out on farms and ranches to help herd cattle and sheep and stuff like that.

So they're working ranch dogs.

Yeah!

Good girl!

Woo!

>> NARRATOR: Ami Sheffield and her dogs Pixel and Halen compete in a sport called Agility.

♪ ♪ >> ANNOUNCER: Let's see if Punk can punk this.

Here we go, into the weed pole.

>> SHEFFIELD: Agility is a sport of getting your dog through an obstacle course as fast as possible and without incurring any faults.

So the fastest and cleanest dog wins, and they have them separated by height division, so little dogs, medium dogs, big dogs.

That way a little dog's not competing against a dog with a mammoth stride.

NARRATOR: Ami's always been involved with four-legged friends, but it was a much taller version that first held her interests.

>> SHEFFIELD: When I was in fourth grade, my parents got me horseback riding lessons, and then I was like, "I love this."

I did Paint horses and Quarter horses and Appaloosas, so we kind of did all-around.

Halter, showmanship, western pleasure, western riding, just kind of a little bit of everything.

I had won three trophies at Douglas County Fair, and they got a really neat picture of me sitting there on my horse.

It ended up being in color on the newspaper -- I don't know if it was the living section, but my dad went down to The World-Herald and bought the photo from them, which is really cool.

I had it framed.

♪ ♪ Gradually, as my horse got older, I kind of started getting into the dogs.

And I found out that they were much simpler, easier, cheaper to compete and train with and it just kind of was a natural progression into the dog world.

>> NARRATOR: Ami began competing in Agility in 2004 with her first dog, Neelah.

>> SHEFFIELD: I found a little club in Omaha that taught lessons, and I took my very first dog there, and I was totally hooked.

I was like, this is awesome.

It's so much fun.

It got me out of the house.

It let me be active and then train my dog.

I never thought I would compete.

And once I did, I was like, "Oh, I'm totally hooked now.

Here we go."

Make sure that as your dog is coming off the line you connect with them.

>> NARRATOR: Today, Ami not only competes in Agility, she teaches classes where she trains her students on how to train their dogs.

>> SHEFFIELD: We've got some stuff to do here to ensure that there is not a collision on the course.

I love interacting with other people.

It also adds a little bit of -- it gets me out of the house more than anything, but then it also lets me challenge other people to positively train their dogs, make sure that they are being kind to their dogs, and making sure that they are rewarding their dogs appropriately, and also having fun.

So, I do love to challenge individuals, and I love training.

I come from a long background of training wide different things, so I just love to be able to teach others, and break it down, and give them the tools that they need to be successful.

♪ ♪ >> SUSAN SCANLAN: I've been taking classes from her for probably eight, 10 years.

Both of my dogs are very, very energetic.

They need stimulation, they need mental and physical stimulation and it helps in the home, too.

It's a great relationship.

And that's where you need to start, is at the bottom, it's just a foundation and build the way up.

♪ ♪ >> GRAYSON TREVETT: She's experienced.

She's super knowledgeable.

She's fun.

She's upbeat.

She makes things logical.

She really slows things down, breaks it down so that you can be successful each time.

>> SHEFFIELD: We're going to get our hand in that tunnel a little bit to give her that visual, that "Hey, by the way, we're turning" because you don't have the luxury of being, like, "Hey, I need you to turn."

>> When people do something correct, you give them praise, or a high five, or, "Yeah!"

Really?

So, the praise that you're giving the person, and then also seeing their success is like, the reward, the cookie, or the toy for the dog.

So yeah, there are similarities.

♪ ♪ JOHN COPENHAVER: You know, it is one of the most challenging things I've ever had to learn in my life because anytime if you're doing a sport on your own, it's you, but now you've got you and a four-legged creature that needs to know what to do, either on hand signals or verbal signals.

So, the level of difficulty is up there with anything I've ever had to do in my life.

>> SHEFFIELD: First and foremost, it's all a game for the dog.

It should be fun.

They're our buddies and our pets first.

Agility is just something they do.

And you're cute, too!

I pick something that I want to train that day, and we work on it for about five to 10 minutes.

Go!

Yay!

Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig!

I am much more quality over quantity.

I may sometimes only train one day a week.

>> NARRATOR: Ami must be doing it right because she and Pixel have won many national championships including back-to-back wins at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Yes, that Westminster!

>> ANNOUNCER: From Omaha, Nebraska.

Pixel the defending champion in the 12-inch class has also competed internationally representing the United States.

>> SHEFFIELD: You do two runs, a jumpers and a standard, and she had ended up doing very well in both of those which put us in the finals very easily in our height division, and next thing you know, we're in finals and we won and it was just crazy and I've never been to an event where there's so many people.

The energy there is just electric.

It's just crazy.

It's just nice to say, "Hey, cool, you know, we went to New York and we went to Westminster, and you know, we were back-to-back champions" which was just a really neat thing.

>> NARRATOR: Ami has also been a member of the USA World Team, competing in international competitions in Europe.

>> ANNOUNCER: Next up is Pixel.

Pixel, a Nebraska fruit bat handled by Ami Sheffield.

♪ ♪ >> SHEFFIELD: And once you get out there, it's just the adrenaline and the joy of running with your little teammate out there and saying, "I trained my dog to do this."

The vast majority of competitors are women, in the United States.

There's a lot of older women that compete in agility.

It's not a super young person's sport.

You may -- a lot of people think, "Oh, you have to be young and fit to be able to do this."

Most of my students are older than I am.

Some people are -- they don't have to run.

You can put verbal words on your dog to send them around the course, so you don't have to be there all the time.

>> KATHY SHIPLE: I get enjoyment, first of all.

I really enjoy it.

I find it's like a hobby.

My husband says it's my hobby, because it's something I can do with Watson.

Our kids are moved out of the house.

I'll tell ya', my daughter will say, "Why do you humiliate yourself so much?"

Because, I don't care.

It's just fun.

A lot of people are excellent, like Amy is an excellent, excellent competitor.

We're not in that level, but you go out, you get nervous.

I get out there and I kind of get sick.

You get out there, and sometimes I forget the course, but everyone, like I said, is very encouraging.

It's just a great place to go with a bunch of people all with the same objective and you learn as you watch.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In a sport where enthusiasm runs high in dogs and their humans, it's hard to find a negative.

But for Ami, she wishes one thing could be different for her four legged companions.

>> SHEFFIELD: Probably the biggest disadvantage is they just don't live long enough.

Every time I get a dog, I know, these dogs are going to bring me so much joy.

"Oh, If they could only just live a little bit longer."

♪ ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Watch more Nebraska stories on our website, Facebook and YouTube.

Nebraska Stories is funded in part by the Margaret and Martha Thomas Foundation, and the Bill Harris and Mary Sue Hormel Harris Fund for the presentation of cultural programming.

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