I did a 10 mile run of the main ditch that fed several ranches before school in the spring and before other ranch work in the summer.  I had to get up early (for a teen) at 4:00 AM so all the gates would be set by 6 AM when ranchers were out irrigating.  It was all flood irrigation and no rancher could be on the main ditch or its trail. That was the Irrigation Districts property. The gates were set by the ditch rider which was me for our section.  How much water a rancher wanted to use that day had to be called in the day or evening before and be in their allotment. All I had to do was crank the gate, to the allowed acre feet for that ranch, and lock it.

The main ditch rider was paid a nice salary by the District and they subcontracted with high school kids to do shorter sections so all ranchers would have water by 6 AM.  There was about 130 miles of main ditch and a couple hundred ranches, so for one person to do it created a problem.  I used an old Cushman. Other teen riders used horses and most got fired.  By the time they got up, horse cared for and saddled, they were already behind and any rancher, with shovel in hand at 6AM that didn't see H2O flowing toward them, was not happy and the District would be getting a rather unpleasant call.

The main ditch rider, rode the entire ditch every day to check and make sure all gates were set correctly and no sub rider was being dishonest. He also looked for any problems with the ditch and gates.

The interesting thing is back in those days, there was no way of measuring how much a ranch actually used that day, so if you didn't use all the water you ordered, then tough luck.  How a rancher set the gate to their feeder ditches or if they got sick and couldn't irrigate, wasn't the districts concern.  Most times if sickness or emergency occurred, then a neighbor rancher would go over and do their best to keep the water flowing without washout or shutting it off.