Sarasota rider says this is an opportunity to ‘see a Florida that’s disappearing’.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: June 25, 2025
Host: The Great Florida Cattle Drive is returning this January, and WSLR reporter Ramon Lopez has the details.
Imogene Yarborough: We might have a little rain, and it might be kind-of cool, but we can build a campfire at night and still have a good ride.
Billy Davis: When I’m working cattle and parting cattle, I don’t worry about bills to pay. I don’t worry about my kids or my wife. I’m concentrated on the cattle and my horse. You’re satisfied at the end of the day.
Ramon Lopez: Hold your horses, area cowpokes! Here’s your chance to follow Imogene Yarborough’s and Billy Davis’s lead in experiencing a Wild East cattle drive right here in the Sunshine State.
Isaac Eger, a local freelance journalist, participated in the last Great Florida Cattle Drive in 2022 and, this past April, released a book about it.
A Sarasota city boy, he had never ever been on a horse before. But he slipped onto a saddle three years ago to take part in the grueling, seven-day, six-night cattle drive across 80 miles of fast-disappearing rural Florida.
Along with 348 other riders—some as young as nine, others as old as 90—Eger and a photographer helped push 500 head of cattle. There were locals, but many others came from all over the country.
The goal was to reenact centuries-old cattle drives, providing glimpses of a long-ago Florida that few people will ever get to see. Up at the crack of dawn, they rode all day and slept under the stars in sleeping bags and pup tents.
Now the Great Florida Cattle Drive returns in early 2026 to again honor ranching heritage. The historical reenactment will take place January 26 through 31. The 2026 drive will begin at the DeLuca Preserve in Okeechobee, with a concluding celebration event at the Okeechobee Cattlemen’s Arena.
An equal number of experienced and novice riders are expected to sign up. Registration for the event closes December 1 2025, so don’t be a slowpoke in signing up. Waivers are required to take part, and participants must provide their own horses. Each rider is limited to 60 pounds of gear, transported in trailers that follow behind the livestock and cowboys.
The event is sponsored by the Florida Cow Culture Preservation Committee. For more info and to register, visit greatfloridacattledrive.com.
The cowpoke correspondent told WSLR News why he coughed up $1,500 of his own cash to rent a horse for the ride-along.
Isaac Eger
Isaac Eger: I have a policy of saying “yes” to everything that’s presented to me, so there’s that. The other element was I had been dreaming about horses. I usually don’t remember my dreams too much, but I kept having these recurring dreams about being on the back of a horse in some mountainous prairie. When I heard there was an opportunity to ride a horse, I was like, “well, I feel like I have to do that.”
RL: The last cattle drive meandered through cattle ranches and farmland, avoiding busy highways.
Eger said many of the riders actually drove the cattle, while some simply played follow the leader.
IE: At certain points during the drive, you would be right up alongside the cow. Otherwise, when it wasn’t your turn in front with the cattle, you would hang way back.
RL: All were dressed in cowboy hats and cowboy boots. Not a baseball cap in sight. Eger said it was hot.
IE: It was hot back in December of 2022. It was unusually hot. It’ll be interesting to see just how much hotter it is this year. It’s going to be deeper into the winter, because it’s going to be the end of January instead of the beginning of December, so I imagine it will be cooler.
RL: The longest ride lasted more than 10 hours. They were provided three square meals a day by cooks working out of food trucks. Dinner and conversation ended the workday. Exhausted, most turned in early.
IE: You’ve been pretty beat by that time. By the time dinner rolled around, you would eat dinner, and then you might hang out in your camp a little bit, and then you would conk out.
RL: Isaac Eger plans on doing it all over again.
IE: I miss the people I went with. They’re really cool. There wasn’t a single person there that I disliked. It’s also this opportunity to be outside, away from my phone, and to see a Florida that’s disappearing. That’s an opportunity I can’t really say no to.
RL: Eger said he will always remember Billy Davis, who is one of a kind.
IE: He’s a legend. All the young cowboys looked up to him—revered him. He was just a cantankerous, hilarious character his whole life. He would tell the best stories, and he had the best one-liners, and he just looked awesome. Cool guy. A rare figure. There aren’t too many folks like him left.
RL: And Eger says he’ll never forget the trip.
IE: I recall the sensation of the largesse of Florida—that I didn’t really understand just how big this place was until I was out in the country.
RL: This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.