2321 cowboy country

The Real Cowboy
A real cowboy was a man who rode horses
and worked with cattle. Cowboys were
Mexicans, blacks or European settlers. Some
were even Indians –or native Americans.

Buckskin gloves protected his hands from getting
burned by the lasso rope. And the lasso was used
to catch cattle and horses.
Leather chaps were worn by the cowboy to
protect his legs from cactus and cattle horns. His
boots have high heels that help the foot to rest
in the stirrup. The toe is pointed to make it
easier to get the foot out of the stirrup in a
hurry.
How It All Began

A cowboy wore kind of a uniform. On his head
he wore a wide-brimmed cowboy hat that
would keep his face out of the sun and rain.
At rivers the cowboy would fill the hat with
water and drink. Cowboys wanted their arms
free for work so they wore a vest instead of
jackets to stay warm. A bandana belonged to
the uniform, too. In hot weather he used it to
wipe sweat away. He would also use it as a
dust mask to cover both nose and mouth.
Warning! Worn this way he could also be a
stagecoach robber.

When the Italian/Spanish explorer Christopher

Columbus came to America in 1492, there were
no horses or cattle in America. Christopher
brought cattle and horses to the country. Horses
to ride on and cattle to eat. Some of the horses
and cattle were left behind so the Spanish
settlers that came to America after Columbus
gave the wild horses the name mustang.
Mustang means loose or wild in Spanish.


The settlers were good at catching mustangs and
training them for riding. Cowboys call this
bronco-busting or breaking in a horse.
The wild cattle were named Texas Longhorns
because they lived in Texas and had long horns.
The first cowboys caught Texas Longhorns by
tailing them. The cowboy would ride up to a cow
and grab its tail. Then he would put the cow’s tail
under his leg and make his horse turn away from
the cow to make it fall. Tailing was dangerous
and the cowboy could get hurt. So the cowboys
invented the lasso – but continued to tail for fun.

After the round-up came the cattle drives.
Cowboys would take a herd of cattle along on
one of the cattle trails to market. The cattle had
to stay fat on the long journey, so the cattle
moved slowly and often stopped to eat. No
wonder a cattle drive could take as long as three
months!

Cowboy food

An important part of a cowboy’s job was to take
part in the round-up each spring and each fall.
Many ranchers used the same grassland for their
cattle.
When it was time to take the cattle to market,
the ranch owners wanted to gather their cattle.
It was the job of the cowboys to round them up.

A good cook helped keep the cowboys happy. He
drove a chuck wagon full of food, pots and pans.
The daily menu would be baked beans, beef
sourdough bread, flapjacks and black coffee.

First the cowboys made camp in the middle of
the land. Then the land was divided into sections
like a wagon wheel. The cowboys would round
up cattle from one section at a time and bring
them back to camp.
The next job at the round-up was to brand
calves. A calf was lassoed and taken to a group of
standing cowboys. Their job was to brand a calf
with the same mark as its mother. Then cattle
that were to be driven to market were gathered
into herds of 500 – 2000 cattle. These were given
a second brand that told which cattle drive they
were a part of.

Guns were heavy as well as dangerous and were

usually left in the wagon. Cowboys sometimes
took their guns or rifles from the wagon to hunt
for wild game if they got tired of beef.