The morning was still young in Jackson, Wyo. (pop. 1,244), but the town was wide awake. The bars were open to crowds of hooraying cowpokes; long lines of cars some from 250 miles away, beeped down he streets; the sidewalks were jammed, and the high-school band was getting ready for a parade. Normally quiet Jackson was holding its biggest event of the winter: the finals of the All-America Cutter-Racing Championship.
Cutter racing is a mountain-horseman's answer to winter. For 15 years the ranchers in a 200-mile circle in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho have been holding rugged races over the snow, and...