The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame recently announced their crop of 2026 inductees into the organization. Their mission is to” to honor our cowboy way of life, American Indian cultures, and collective Montana Western heritage.”

They picked a good one, T.E. “Buddy” Westphal, Valley View Charolais Ranch. 

“I was shocked, honored, and humbled by this award,” Buddy said, then admitted he thought it was only a posthumous award. “I’m almost bashful about the award … there are some very, very famous cowboys and cowmen in the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame.” 

Buddy came to western Montana in 1969, fresh out of college at Colorado State University. He bought the place from Leo Jennings, a California engineer who “had lots of money” and had installed the most up-to-date irrigation system. When Buddy moved to the ranch south of Charlo in Valley View, there were only dirt roads and not nearly so many little housing enclaves. 

He figured he’d probably move back to Colorado, but within 90 days Buddy was a Montanan; western Montana claimed him with its Mission Mountains, fertile Mission Valley, and good people. 

The ranch house has a case packed with grand champion cattle trophies, cutting horse awards including a reserve world champion amateur trophy, Montana state open and non-pro champion saddles, and rodeo buckles. Buddy said he considers his real “trophies” to be the exceptional family and crew at home he feels blessed to live and work alongside at the ranch. 

Twenty-six years ago, Buddy met Lin. She swapped life as vice president in a bank to devote herself full time to being a ranch wife. According to the press release, she is the glue helping hold things together — using her business background bookkeeping and spending lots of time taking care of Buddy. 

Scott and Chris Westphal are Buddy’s twin sons. Scott lives on the ranch with his wife Amy, a schoolteacher, and grandsons Jaden and Jace. He’s been a key to much of the ranch’s success the last 25 years; and Amy helps with ranch operations as do their boys, who are teenage ranchers-in-training.  

Chris lives and works in Kalispell, is a team roper and was into cutting horses. He’s in the NCHA Youth Hall of Fame. (Riding one of his dad’s good horses, he won the youth cutting at the NILE in Billings when he was 4 1/2.) 

Buddy is the stepfather to Lin’s sons, Jason, Drew (Alyssa), and Nate Hunter and is proud of talented granddaughter Hazel Hunter.  

Buddy got interested in cutting when he was a high school rodeo participant, as that’s a high school rodeo event. Buddy also rode some broncs and bulls, team roped, and did some steer wrestling.   

He attended Casper College, in Casper, Wyo., on a rodeo scholarship. Buddy “was not a major cog” in the Casper College rodeo team, he said, but he competed in many events because the coach wanted as many points as possible. He even got to ride Walt Linderman’s great dogging horse Scottie once. 

At that time, the CC Thunderbirds were the school to beat in college rodeo, and also the first two-year college to compete in college rodeo. Dale Stiles, rodeo coach, assembled some teams with top hands such as Joe Alexander, who won the world in bareback riding, and Ned Londo, a great saddle bronc rider.  

After Buddy returned to Colorado to complete his four years of college at CSU, he dived into cows, agriculture, and genetics. A professor of Buddy’s, Tom Sutherland, a Scot who taught animal husbandry and genetics, touted Charolais as the cattle to raise so that was Buddy’s plan when he bought the place from Jennings. After buying some cows, Buddy used Bingo, a French Charolais bull, semen to artificially inseminate his cows. Bingo was the top bull from 1968 to 1970 in the Canadian Conception-to-Consumer test. One of the many things that test shows is the gestation date for bulls as well as birth weight and weaning weight for his calves. 

“Bingo was a real, real easy calver, and you’d get a great big weaner calf,” Buddy said. Cattle have a gestation of 283 days, and Bingo calves usually arrived anywhere from 276 to 278 days, so “they were growing outside of mama instead of inside,” he said. 

The Westphal herd has a great reputation for easy calving. 

“The calves are born easy and jump up and nurse right away,” Buddy said.  

While developing a good herd of Charolais cows, many of whom still go back to Bingo, Buddy’s mind also turned to cutting horses.  

“They say you get one good horse and one good dog in your life,” Buddy said, “but I’ve had several good border collie dogs and at least four good horses,” and he probably was smiling and remembering when he said it. His first great cutting horse was the mare Fanny C, and she and he won the National Cutting Horse Association reserve amateur championship of the world. He lost Fanny C in a fire but was lucky enough to come by a mare called New Way to Go. 

“She lived up to her name,” Buddy added.  

“I was blessed to make a whole lot of friends in the cutting horse world … from coast to coast,” he said. 

Competing in amateur classes in the beginning and then moving up to non-pro, he made time to compete “when gas was 69 cents a gallon.” He’d drive all night to get to a competition, cut cows for a day or two, and t5hen drive all night getting home. Cutting competitions got him to see some of the nicest ranches in the world, including the Matador, which when Buddy was competing, was owned by the Koch brothers. 

As Ian Tyson said in his song “The Steel Dust Line,” he was “a victim of the cutting disease, of which there is no cure.” Buddy may have been bitten by that bug, too.  

Buddy contributes to the cowboy and western heritage lifestyle in a myriad of ways. He’s personally coached and mentored others in cattle, horse and ranching issues. A founding member of the Montana Cutting Horse Association, Buddy has served for decades on the NCHA board of directors and as a judge. As a member of the American Charolais Association, he’s worked on committees and as a board of directors' member. Buddy also worked as a judge and as a member of the Montana Quarter Horse Association. Montana Governor Tom Judge appointed him to a term on the Montana Livestock Task Force.  

Locally, Valley View Charolais ranch has donated a purebred Charolais heifer to the Western Montana Stockman’s Association each year for eight years for their Scholarship Heifer Project. The program awards deserving youth applicants as a heifer, to care for, show, and eventually own. It’s described as “the best program in Montana for promoting ranching, encouraging future generations into agriculture, and developing opportunities for youth in the livestock industry.” 

Buddy and Valley View Charolais were honored in 2018  as “a national leading breeder of Charolais cattle for 50 years” by the United States Senate and read into the United States Congressional Record by Senator Steve Daines. In 2024, Buddy received the WMSA Lifetime Achievement Award, a silver buckle with his brand on it.  

With a twinkle in his eye, Buddy said, “I’ve been lucky for 50 years, but I guess we’ve also worked hard to prepare for our luck. I definitely have the best life that anyone can ask for. When you are doing what you love, and loving what you do, it makes life special.”