I own 40 cows. Does that make me a cowboy? Probably not. I hate horses. They hate me. I run 30+ calves thru a chute every year and cut (not band) them myself. Of course they get shots and all. I have pulled many, many calves, with or without pullers some dead some alive. I have dispatched cows with a Bullet between the eyes. February made me wonder why anybody would want to be a cowboy. I’m not a cowboy, I hate horses.
I just bought 10 more cows. Small timer, no ranch.
But now I make more selling beef than I do from my salary.
That's the thing about floating around, you better save up or die young.
I work cattle for a living. Scratched out a decent way of life for me and mine doing so over the past 25+ years.
When I was just out of college, I cowboyed for the better part of a year. Calved out hundreds of heifers and 3 year olds. Every day in the saddle. Not a particularly great horseman or a roper. But good with stock. So I actually did put on my tax return, which was pretty pathetic, where it asked occupation, cowboy.
Reality is, I was never a good enough hand horseback to really qualify. Everything else as far as working cattle, understanding them, reading them etc. I would be considered damn handy. But cowboy, no.
And I don't want to be. Seen the life that real cowboys live and I am good not going there.
I hear ya.
I used to be damn good with horses, but I look at them as work. Not with a passion like lots of folks do.
If you look at the old ranch hands, cowboys, and ranchers that grew up and spent their lives ranching, and you notice their hands... Bent, crooked, rough... missing fingers from slammed gates and missed dally while roping, it'll make you sit back and re-evaluate things.
Like mentioned earlier... Everyone wants to be a cowboy until it get time to do it.
Boy I wish I could post pictures you should see my hands and my hat's you described it perfectly
Real ones are special, not many around and fewer by the day. Measure him by the stock he trains and rides. Cows are idiots; knowing them is easy. He doesn’t train his horse to be pretty in a ring but bull strong in finding and digging stock out of the worst spots. The one s I’ve seen, so few these days are generally in Eastern Montana/Wyoming. Long ways off the beaten track. Down along the southern border there are a few old Mexican horseman working the last big range there. What those Ol mexs could do with a horse was incredible.
I knew of an old range rider in the north must be over 35 years ago. He worked out of a Shack in the middle of big association lands. Horse went back over due to a rattler and dropped him on his back in cactus. Ol boy never came out for help, we took necessaries in to him a month or so after. He’d taken a razor and taped it to a stick. As the cactus festered out he would shave it off. He said he didn’t mind the pain, but he hated the emerging cactus dragging on his shirt. We picked him clean. There was a special kind of sand in those ol boys.
They don’t make many that way anymore.
Osky
A woman's heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth and I can find no sign on it.
Huntsman22 is the only Cowboy i know of in this joint.
He is one for sure.
Not me. I just found the hat.
My boots don't have heels, I've never lost a finger or thumb to a dally or gate, I don't have to wake up at night to calve, I would get saddlesores if I hadta help Sam gather in the fall, and I keep my dick holders soft as a babies ass for a reason.....
Huntsman22 is the only Cowboy i know of in this joint.
He is one for sure.
Not me. I just found the hat.
My boots don't have heels, I've never lost a finger or thumb to a dally or gate, I don't have to wake up at night to calve, I would get saddlesores if I hadta help Sam gather in the fall, and I keep my dick holders soft as a babies ass for a reason.....
I've had some jobs that other people think are really cool. They ARE really cool unless you are the one doing them. Just let us have pride in knowing cool guys like you and Sam
The only thing worse than a liberal is a liberal that thinks they're a conservative.
Huntsman22 is the only Cowboy i know of in this joint.
He is one for sure.
Not me. I just found the hat.
My boots don't have heels, I've never lost a finger or thumb to a dally or gate, I don't have to wake up at night to calve, I would get saddlesores if I hadta help Sam gather in the fall, and I keep my dick holders soft as a babies ass for a reason.....
I've had some jobs that other people think are really cool. They ARE really cool unless you are the one doing them. Just let us have pride in knowing cool guys like you and Sam
, always looks like it's a hunnert damn degrees in all his pics too. ; ]
I Donno--I do my best work in a pickup. Won my hat from a Sioux gentleman in a card game in Billings back in the 70's. We sold the cows and got out of the cattle business about 10 years ago
Gramma, my bride of 43 years, does not appreciate seeing me mounted on our old Ford tractor, but she tolerates my behavior--usually.
I once had an older friend who claimed, "he was a cowboy for 20 years and never stepped in it". I think it was the only joke he ever told. He was a dear friend and kept me on the straight and narrow in my younger years.
wabigoon; Good evening to you sir, or perhaps good morning if you read this tomorrow, I hope that regardless you're all well.
Through shear good luck I ran across this chap from Uruguay who has photographed folks who work cattle from the back of a horse all over the Americas.
This second one is all Canucks, I want to say they're in the Lethbridge area if I've figured out which ranch it is.
Anyways, hopefully you and a few other folks appreciated the short videos as much as I have. The books with his photographs would really be something I'd think.
All the best to you all.
Dwayne
PS; Someone said to me one time when I was much younger that they'd heard I was making a decent cowboy. I replied that while I aspired to be a competent horseman, the more I was around cattle, the more I was of the belief they should be killed and eaten as soon as possible.
Huntsman22 is the only Cowboy i know of in this joint.
He is one for sure.
Not me. I just found the hat.
My boots don't have heels, I've never lost a finger or thumb to a dally or gate, I don't have to wake up at night to calve, I would get saddlesores if I hadta help Sam gather in the fall, and I keep my dick holders soft as a babies ass for a reason.....
Curley just wore the one glove.
Not a real member - just an ordinary guy who appreciates being able to hang around and say something once in awhile.
Happily Trapped In the Past (Thanks, Joe)
Not only a less than minimally educated person, but stupid and out of touch as well.
, always looks like it's a hunnert damn degrees in all his pics too. ; ]
