Cowboy Ways

History Of Cowboy

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The Spanish developed what we now consider the cowboy tradition, beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. This style of cattle ranching spread throughout much of the Iberian peninsula and later, was imported to the Americas. Both regions possessed a dry climate with sparse grass, and thus large herds of cattle required vast amounts of land in order to obtain sufficient forage. The need to cover distances greater than a person on foot could manage gave rise to the development of the horseback-mounted vaquero.

During the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions as well as their horses and cattle to the Americas, starting with their arrival in what today is Mexico and Florida. The traditions of Spain were transformed by the geographic, environmental and cultural circumstances of New Spain, which later became Mexico and the southwestern United States. In turn, the land and people of the Americas also saw dramatic changes due to Spanish influence.

The arrival of horses was particularly significant, as equines had been extinct in the Americas since the end of the prehistoric ice age. However, horses quickly multiplied in America and became crucial to the success of the Spanish and later settlers from other nations. The earliest horses were originally of Andalusian, Barb and Arabian ancestry, but a number of uniquely American horse breeds developed in North and South America through selective breeding and by natural selection of animals that escaped to the wild. The Mustang and other colonial horse breeds are now called "wild," but in reality are feral horses — descendants of domesticated animals.

Thus, though popularly considered as a North American icon, the traditional cowboy actually comes from a Hispanic tradition, which evolved further, particularly in the Central States of Mexico, Jalisco and Michoacán, where the Mexican cowboy would eventually be known as a "charro", as well as areas to the north that later became the Southwestern United States. Most vaqueros were men of mestizo and Native American origin while most of the hacendados (owners) were ethnically Spanish.

As English-speaking traders and settlers moved into the Western United States, English and Spanish traditions, language and culture merged to some degree, with the vaquero tradition providing the foundation of the American cowboy. Before the Mexican American War in 1848, New England merchants who traveled by ship to California encountered both hacendados and vaqueros, trading manufactured goods for the hides and tallow produced from vast cattle ranches. American traders along what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail had similar contacts with vaquero life. Starting with these early encounters, the lifestyle and lingo of the vaquero began a transformation which merged with English cultural traditions and produced what became known in American culture as the "cowboy".

Early History (1850-1900's)

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The herding technique was brought over to the New World in the early 15th century by the Spanish and used by Americans who had to control large herds of cattle over a wide open space. The traditional cowboy look didn't come about until after the Mexican-American War in the 1850s.

During the war American soldiers borrowed some of the attire of those to the South, with a few improvements to the look. As you probably already know, this usually means a cooler hat and an outfit that is more for durability, as opposed to flashy colors.

The Cowboy Blues

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The lifestyle of a cowboy on the great plains was a lonely one. This isolation is shown through the sad lyrics in cowboy songs and woeful words in cowboy poetry. Near the turn of the century the need for skilled, reliable cowboys was waining and something needed to be done to prevent the exctinction of the cowboy lifestyle.

The Rodeo

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To keep the rough and tough cowboy alive the Rodeo was invented to let talented individuals display their cattle handling skills in addition to many other additions over the years. The most exciting of all these skill tests is, of course, bull riding. If you don't already know the point of bull riding, the basic object of the sport is to stay on top of a very angry, bucking bull longer than anyone else.'

Not only are these bulls ticked off, but the average weight of a adult bull is around 1300-1600 lbs.