#WhoIFollow: Salt Lake City’s @thethriftstorecowboy
Frederick “Vaughn” Robison (@thethriftstorecowboy) grew up in a town of 1,100 people on the Oregon Coast to a family of fishing-boat captains. All along, he knew in his heart he belonged on the range. Vaughn explains, “My parents were at a loss, of course, for what to do with a kid who wanted to be a cowboy.”
After badgering his parents, they bought Vaughn a horse when he turned nine years old, kickstarting a lifelong passion for horseback riding. He now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he works as an art director while maintaining his love for riding. He lives six minutes from his horse, Elmo and eight minutes from his studio office in downtown Salt Lake City.
Vaughn started using Instagram as a way to connect with people who have similar interests and lifestyles to his own. “It’s hard to find fellow visually-inclined and motivated cowboys and cowgirls in a mostly metropolitan area, but Instagram has made it pretty easy to do so,” he says. “I’ve made many close personal and professional friends, who I’ve later met in person by way of Instagram.” Vaughn’s favorite accounts to follow are authentically “western,” folks who ride horses and live a similarly authentic, modern cowboy lifestyle.
Want to take a peek into the life of a modern cowboy? Be sure to follow a few of Vaughn’s favorite Instagrammers:
- @owlfaceowlface: “We met on Instagram (and in real life later) and soon discovered that we have almost too much in common. I consider her one of my best friends now. She’s a film school graduate who traded it all in to work on a bison reserve in Colorado. Her photos (mostly landscapes of the remote ranch, a dog she rescued and horses) are incredible, as are her incredibly dry-yet-sassy captions.”
- @muledragger: “He lives in Montana and packs mules through remote wilderness areas that are accessible almost exclusively by way of horse or mule. I mostly love the insight into the relationships he has with his mules—he’s obsessed, which is something I can relate to with my own horse.”
- @polapony: “She’s a fresh breath of southwestern air. She lives in New Mexico and shares some truly beautiful landscapes, wildlife and lifestyle shots of the Land of Enchantment.”
- @slusherphoto: “He’s an acclaimed fashion and commercial photographer in Dallas who hasn’t forgotten who he is or where he’s from (Stillwater, Oklahoma). It’s great to see another western-inclined individual weave who he is and where he’s from into where he’s going”
- @jaybsauceda: “He’s a phenomenal portraitist of the western lifestyle. I personally don’t like photographing people, so he provides a nice dose of humanity to my feed.”
- @kateloveshorses: “She works on the same ranch as @owlfaceowlface and is a former photo-editor for British Glamour magazine. She has an English accent, is tough as nails and takes a lot of photos of her cattle dog, Pepe Sanchez.”