Born into the Martens ranching family of Weston County, Susie Martens Vore has been a cowgirl and a rancher since her earliest days. Her love for horses, cattle, and her dogs is as rich as the stewardship she has for the land that she cares for. Visitors to her Double Triangle Ranch will most likely find her horseback riding among the ponderosa pines below the prominent red cliffs that encase the Stockade Beaver Creek valley.
Susan “Susie” Martens Vore was born July 24, 1953, and raised on her family’s ranch northeast of Newcastle. She attended the rural country school just down the road until the third grade, at which point she bussed into Newcastle. Growing up, her family raised Hereford cattle on the home place on both Stockade Beaver Creek and Salt Creek and annually trailed them to and from the forest permits “on the Limestone,” located due east across the South Dakota line.
The Martens family bred and raised quarter horses for all aspects of ranch work, horse shows, and rodeo. Susie’s father C. Fred Martens even had six horses on the racing circuit at one time.
Susie was quick to sit in the saddle and from an early age could be found riding all through the pastures checking cattle with her father. Her favorite horse over the years was Madonna, a mare Quarter Horse that was raised on the ranch in the mid-1970s. Susie and Madonna were inseparable taking part in all kinds of activities, from barrel racing to winning the Wyoming State Futurity Contest at the Wyoming State Fair. Susie and Madonna competed in high school and college rodeo together. Following high school graduation, Susie attended college in Sheridan for one year and in Spearfish the following year, both on rodeo scholarships.
In 1973, Susie married Tom Vore, a young cowboy she met at a rodeo in South Dakota. Tom was raised on his family’s ranch near Buelah, Wyoming. As newlyweds they started their life together at a cattle feedlot north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota. In 1982, the couple returned to the Double Triangle Ranch to work side-by-side raising beef cattle on their cow/calf operation. For the past 50 years, Susie has broken and trained nearly all of her own horses. A few colts are raised on the ranch every year and broke for cattle work.
Calving comes early at the Double Triangle Ranch, with the first Angus cross calves arriving in early February. Though calving is a sleep-deprived trying time for everyone at the ranch, Susie still finds time to prepare a hot meal at the ranch house for all who show up to help. She has experienced every aspect of the birthing process during calving season and she even does all her own cesarean sections.
By the time all the calving is complete by mid-March, Susie and Tom are busy winter feeding and preparing for farming their multiple irrigated pivots that grow hay to feed the herd. After the seeds are in the ground in mid-May, and after branding the calves, Susie enjoys trailing her cattle by horseback onto the limestone in South Dakota to their summer pastures. Their multiple Forest Service permits provide ample forage for the herd and Susie prides herself on the positive relationship she maintains with the Black Hills National Forest Service employees.
Throughout the summer months, Susie spends untold hours in the saddle riding the herds, checking and doctoring cattle, as well as moving them from pasture to pasture and checking on water. She can read cattle and recognize health issues better than most and her calm demeanor when working cattle in the pens sets a safe and confident tone. In the fall, the cattle get trailed from the forest back down to the ranch. If it were up to Susie, she would spend every day in the saddle.
Autumn at the Double Triangle Ranch brings on the hay harvest and shipping. Susie is an expert at the wheel of the swather and any tractor used on the place. She meticulously plans her hay supply for the winter feeding and personally develops the feeding menu for each day during the winter to ensure sufficient nutrition for the herd. When the calves are shipped each fall, Susie admits it is hard to see them go.
In 2023, Susie and Tom celebrated 50 years of marriage hosting over 100 friends, neighbors, and relatives to the ranch to enjoy not just each other’s company, but also a plate of Double Triangle Ranch beef. Susie shows little signs of slowing down and is blessed by her active demeanor. According to her, she is proud to be a cowgirl and a rancher and live life at the Double Triangle Ranch.