Imagine someone offers you a chance to spend a week with one of your heroes who’s famous for exceling at the thing you’re most passionate about. You get to visit their home, see them work, ask them questions, and learn from them one-on-one.
That opportunity of a lifetime is exactly what happens when the nonprofit organization Art of the Cowgirl connects aspiring women in the cowgirl arts — fine arts, silversmithing, braiding, saddlemaking, equestrian sports, and many other Western trades — with masters of their respective crafts.
The doors that open, and the friendships that are made, keep many a cowgirl’s dreams alive and well on their way to coming true.
It’s all a dream come true for Art of the Cowgirl founder Tammy Pate, a cowgirl herself who knows a thing or two about the beauty of the Western lifestyle. She grew up in Montana, spending summers on her grandparents’ ranch, exploring the world from the back of her trusted horse. Pate never strayed from the cowgirl lifestyle as she became a wife to her high school sweetheart, and they raised their two now-grown children around cattle, ranching, rodeo, and horsemanship.
“One of the reasons I think it is so important for people to be exposed to this lifestyle
