In this day and age, getting started in farming or ranching is almost impossible, unless someone was given an opportunity like Wes and Esther Clancy.
Wes, 23, and Esther, 22, are newlyweds and have been married for three and a half months. They reside on the 640 acre King Ranch just outside St. James, Mo. The ranch is owned by Dan and Rosey King, who also live on the ranch. Dan, 72, and Rosey, 62, are reaching an age where the work is getting more difficult. Down the driveway from Dan and Rosey, Wes and Esther live in the original homestead house. They work the ranch in order to live there. They train, feed, and shoe horses along with maintaining and keeping everything in working order.
The newlyweds both have a college background in rodeo and horse handling. They are currently in school, attending on Tuesdays and Thursdays, trying to finish their degrees.
Someday Wes and Esther hope to take over the ranch entirely or find another one to make their own. Waking up everyday together and doing what they love, they say it would be hard to imagine doing anything else.
Outside their home Esther hands the phone to her husband, Wes. Wes is leaving for the rest of the morning to shoe horses in Rolla, MO. In the meantime, Esther is going to head down the driveway to Dan and Rosey King’s house to train a few horses before noon.
PHOTO BY COLE EBERLE / MPW.60