Cleve Anseth appeared on the cover of Western Horseman in 2010. He has since made a name for himself as an accomplished ranch roper while sticking to his passion for cowboying in the Great Basin.
Imagine bumping into someone you hadn’t seen or talked to in 15 years. Finding out that he lived in the same house, was married to the same wife and still did the same type of work, you’d figure not much has changed.
But that’s not the case with Cleve Anseth. Since appearing on the cover of Western Horseman in September 2010, he’s done more than simply grow a handlebar mustache.
Cleve was one of two sources for an article by Susan Morrison, the associate editor of Western Horseman at the time, titled, “Cowboy for Hire,” which explored the highs and lows of making a living as a day-working cowboy. The Paisley, Oregon, cowboy described how he made ends meet without the guarantee of a regular paycheck, supplementing his income by riding a few horses for the public and shoeing horses. His occupation involved quite a bit of uncertainty for a man with a wife and two boys.
Nevertheless, life as a day-working cowboy had its rewards.
“It turned out that I was busy, busy,” Cleve recalls. “But [if a ranch manager called needing help], I could still say, ‘Nope. I know you’re weaning on Saturday, but I’m going roping.’ It was nice to have my own agenda.”
Cleve grew up in Montana and began working for the famous ZX Ranch in Oregon shortly after high school. There, he met his wife, Shanna, and they had two boys, Quentin and Logan. After spending 10 years on the ZX, he decided to go out on his own.
“In those first 10 years, I was young and learned a lot — how to ride, how to shoe, how to handle cattle,” Cleve says. “So, it was good, but it was a typical big ranch with long hours, and it was hard to get days off. You worked hard, and by the time you got done, you didn’t want to go anywhere.
“Well, one time I went back to Montana to visit, and I hung out with my old boss from when I was in high school,” Cleve continues. “I think we caught six horses, and we roped all day. I had a blast. I had not team roped in almost 10 years. When we were driving back home, I told Shanna, ‘I’m not going to turn 50 and wished I had roped more.’”
“You know, you can wake up happy or you can wake up mad. I like waking up happy. But it’s getting a lot tougher at my age trying to keep up with these youngsters.” — Cleve Anseth
With that, Cleve became a cowboy for hire in 2004, and then he graced the Western Horseman cover six years later. Another photo that ran as a full page inside the issue was a portrait of him, his horse, Scotch, and his two boys, ages 11 and 8 at the time. They stood in front of their red, wood-sided barn, which sits on their property within the city limits of Paisley, a small, quiet town located in the high desert country and in the southern part of the state.
“It was funny how so many people in Montana — family and friends — called and were like, ‘Hey! We saw you on the cover!’” Cleve recalls. “So many people saw it. My boys thought it was pretty cool, too.”
Little did he know that his life was about to make another turn. About two years later, he discovered respected cattleman Jack Sparrowk was looking for a cowboy to take care of one of his ranches in Northern California.
“I’ve known Jack for a long time,” Cleve says. “I came home and told Shanna, ‘Jack is looking for somebody, if I can think of somebody.’ She said, ‘How about you?’ I’d never really thought about leaving Paisley, but we talked about it for a while and went and looked at the operation.”
Cleve accepted the job, and the Anseths headed south to take care of 500 mama cows and run around 4,000 yearling calves during the summer months. He says it was a good job, especially because it sharpened the skills of his cowboy-craving sons who were entering their teenage years.
“The boys wouldn’t be what they are without that job,” Cleve says. “With all those yearlings, we roped a lot. We were busy horseback.”
Swinging a loop certainly didn’t bother the Anseths, whether it involved doctoring yearlings, branding calves, team roping or competing in ranch ropings. In 2019, Cleve and his oldest boy, Quentin, won the Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo horse roping. Established in 1962 and held in Jordan Valley, Oregon, each May, it is one of the more highly regarded buckaroo rodeos in the Great Basin. It features events such as stock saddle bronc riding, junior steer riding, team roping and wild cow milking. However, the horse roping remains the most prestigious one to win.
The Anseth duo won the Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo’s crown jewel event for the second time in 2024. Then they returned in 2025 to claim back-to-back titles, at the same time setting the arena record with a 12.8-second run.
Today, Cleve and Shanna’s boys are both grown and make a living horseback, just like their dad. Quentin and his wife, Reata, take care of a ranch in Nevada. Logan is training rope horses in California.
After Logan graduated high school, Cleve and Shanna moved back to Paisley in 2020, settling back into their home that they had been renting out during their time working for Sparrowk. Cleve figured he would go back to day-working, but ironically, he found out the ZX had a job opening. For the past several years, Cleve has worked as the cowboy boss of the Coglan division of the ZX, its headquarters just minutes from his house. He oversees a crew of five men, and a few of them are in their 20s.
“These young guys, I’m having a ball helping them,” Cleve says. “They’re a fun bunch. They all want to be cowboys — all love to rope and ride. I wouldn’t say I’m mentoring them; I’d say I’m kind of guiding them, I guess. And it’s good to learn how to have fun but still have a job to do. You know, you can wake up happy or you can wake up mad. I like waking up happy. But it’s getting a lot tougher at my age trying to keep up with these youngsters.”
Although he has many more years and miles of experience than the other members of his crew, he carries a perspective that keeps him from getting set in his ways.
“A guy has got to be gaining something all the time,” Cleve says. “I’m 53, and it still feels like I’m trying to learn something every day, whether it’s with a horse or a cow or a dog or the country or whatever.”
Cleve still keeps the latest issue of Western Horseman next to his chair in the living room.
“I like reading the cowboy stuff,” Cleve says. “The performance horse stuff is cool. But there’s something about the cowboy, someone who lives it every day.”
This article was originally published in the January 2026 issue of Western Horseman.
