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