These Thousand Hills (1959) on Netflix

Plot summary

Albert Gallatin Evans, called Lat, is a young cowboy determined to better his situation and own a ranch, unlike his father, who died broke. On a cattle drive he befriends the cowhand Tom Ping, and in a Wyoming town the rancher Jehu challenges him to a horse race. Conrad, the town's banker, rules Lat the winner after his opponent throws a blanket in his face. Lat and Tom then leave the drive to hunt wolves for hides. When Conrad refuses him a loan for a ranch, the saloon hostess Callie gives him her savings, and the land he buys secures a loan for a herd. Lat makes Tom a partner, and hay grown in the low lands carries the cattle through a hard winter.