Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a cowboy. I loved the idea of riding horses across the plains, catching cattle with my lasso, wearing six-shooters that I could quick draw and hit a 50 cent coin tossed in the air, being on alert for ambush from Indians, etc. My fantasy was that if I was a cowboy, I’d be a man’s man – strong, autonomous, capable and competent. I always thought I was born in the wrong time – to late to help conquer the West.
A few months ago, I wondered if there were any cowboys left and if so, what it was really like to be one compared to my childhood fantasy. I stumbled across a podcast where the host interviewed real life cowboys.
It took me only 2 episodes to realize I am not cut out to be a cowboy.
Both cowboys talked of growing up in rural areas and having a love for being outdoors, camping, fishing, hunting and horses. After high school, each travelled to remote rural parts in the West to become cowboys. Or, as they described it, to learn how to become cowboys. They joined crews where they “apprenticed” under experienced cowboys learning how to care for horses, install fence posts, shoe horses, avoid getting kicked by horses, herd cows, and do a bunch of other dirty, physically intensive labor on ranches and in the field.
They loved horses. They loved being around them – even when the work was mucking out stalls or baling hay.
They spoke about many injuries they got from the work. They talked about the older cowboys they know who were broken down from injury.
They talked about working in the sweltering heat, the driving rain, the freezing cold and harsh winds. They talked about dangerous stampedes, cattle and snakes.
As they described the places they lived and worked, it sounded a lot like the places I visited on the two month off-grid adventure. Those places sucked. I hated the desert and Western plains.
I hated the never ending wind. I couldn’t believe how cold it got sometimes and how, despite being the desert, I was blasted by torrential rain storms many times and even snow in June!
To add insult to injury, their pay was absurdly low. These guys chose a life of harsh conditions, physical danger and low, low pay.
They actually sounded like they enjoyed the life.
As for me, I was so woefully unprepared, I would never have lasted as a cowboy.