A Cowboy’s Life
Have you ever dreamed of being a cowboy or cowgirl? It sounds like a romantic life: being out on the range, independent, sleeping outdoors with the stars as your blanket.
Today, being a cowboy can mean everything from being a rodeo entertainer, to riding a horse in competition, to working on a ranch with cattle. Most full-time cowboys think of their work both as a job and as a life they love. Most have skills with horses, roping and cattle.
Out on the range
What a cowboy’s life is like depends on the land. On ranches in prairie states, such as Nebraska or parts of Texas, the land is flat. Cowboys can use pickup trucks or all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to go out on the range.
Sometimes cowboys lead their horses into a trailer or truck and drive them to the pasture. Then they ride the horses while checking on the cattle.
In mountainous areas such as Idaho and Nevada, motorized vehicles may not be practical. To get to the rocky places where cattle are grazing, cowboys still need a horse.
In areas such as the Dakotas or Wyoming, ranchers have to go out to the range several times a day in the winter to break ice in the water tanks. When it snows, they have to deliver hay to the cattle, since cattle can’t get to grass or corn under the snow.
A cowboy and his horse
All cowboys still rely on horses at least sometimes. Cowboys often say, “Two heads are better than one.” The horse knows what it’s doing, and the experienced cowboy lets the horse do the work of controlling the cattle.
A good cowboy depends on the “horse sense” of his partner. A good horse knows how to work with the cattle. For example, the horse will help cut out certain cows from the herd so the cowboy can check on them and care for them.
The cowboy family
Before World War II, cowboying was a lifestyle for single males, usually teenagers. They had to be able to go off for days at a time to follow the cattle. This didn’t allow much opportunity to meet girls or to raise a family.
Today this has all changed. Because of vehicles such as pickups, modern cowboys can cover a lot more ground more quickly. They can go home at night.
In the 1800s, most of the cowboys who actually had homes on the ranch were the owners or people doing jobs such as cooking. There was a big separation between the
cattlemen, or owners, and the hired cowboys. Today, most owners and hired cowboys work on the range together. Hired hands might live with their families in homes on the range.