Roping and riding —cowboy style

Press, 13 April 1982, Page 18

Roping and riding —cowboy style

Mention the word cowboy and most people think of "six-shooters” and gun-fights in the street, but not all the working cowboys in the Old West had guns. Those that did carried then for protection against wild animals.

Wherever there were cows in America during last century there were cowboys. Wild, long-horned cattle roamed across many states. Soon they were being rounded up into herds and driven further north, from places like Texas, to graze the free grass before being sold.

It was the cowboys’ job to round up and move the cattle. Often they would be on the trail for several months at a time. Usually the work was hard and boring. The cattle were moved only short distances at a time so that they had time to graze along the way. Each cowboy had more than one horse, and-those that were not being ridden were looked

after by the horse wrangler. A cook and his kitchen, called the chuck waggon, travelled with the roundup to make sure the cowboys were fed.

Roundups were organised by the rancher in one area. In the spring the calves were branded with the owner’s brand so that everyone knew who they belonged to. In the autumn the steers were herded up to be driven to market for sale.

Roundup time was the busiest time for the cowboys and they would compete with each other to see who could rope a cow the quickest. This competition became more organised with special events and was called a rodeo, which was the Spanish word for roundup. Rodeos are still held today, all over America and in other countries also, including New Zealand. There are five events: the saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling or bulldogging, bull riding, and calf roping.

One of the most famous

rodeos is the Calgary Stampede, which was first held in 1912, at a place called Calgary in Canada. This rodeo includes a special waggon race, for chuck waggons.

A lot of songs were made up by cowboys and about cowboys. Some of them were sung by the cowboy who rode around the herd at night to keep the cattle from becoming restless and stampeding.

Others tell stories about rodeo horses that no-one could ride and about cowboys such as “Hopalong Cassidy,” "Buffalo Bill” and “Billy the Kid.” Today working cowboys in America are very different from those we see in the films or on television. They are dressed more simply, don’t carry a gun and ride in a jeep not on a horse. Some roping and riding is still done and roundups are still held. Cowboys in Argentina are called gauchos, those in Chile in South America are called buasos, and Mexican cowboys are called vaqueros.