78 Results for author: Bob Welch

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy|#7: The Duds

A big brimmed hat, tall-topped boots, long sleeve shirt, denim britches, and spurs jingling: the cowboy get-up is pretty simple. But within those few parameters lies multitudes. To the uninitiated, those basic duds only mean one thing: a cowboy. Line up a buckaroo from Nevada, a puncher from Texas, an Arizona hand, a ... More

Top Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #8: The Purpose

Perhaps the purpose of ranching should be the No. 1 reason to be a cowboy. I think the reason it’s not ranked higher is as cowboys and ranchers we’re so separated from the ultimate consumer of our products that we lose sight of our job’s significance. Now, that doesn’t diminish its importance, but perhaps it does ... More

Top Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #9: The Roping

Watching any WRCA rodeo, a spectator has the chance to see exceptional roping. In the stray gathering, for instance, when a top hand on his best horse falls in behind a fresh yearling steer, takes two swings, throws his loop around the steer’s neck—the tip curling enough to slap the critter’s hip—and pulls the ... More

Top Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #10: The Challenges

A Top 25 list is, by design, set up to ignore the negative aspects of the subject being ranked. However, we’re shaking things up and presenting the challenges of cowboy life as the 10th best reason to live this life. I’ll certainly not address every challenge cowboys and ranchers face. But here’s a quick look at ... More

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #11: The Music

In Lonesome Dove, as Gus and Call are riding down the street after a dustup in a local saloon in San Antonio, Gus says, “Call, I guess they forgot us. The reason is, we didn’t die. If a thousand Comanches had cornered us in some gully and wiped us out, like the Sioux just done Custer, they’d write songs about us for ... More

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #12: Wild Cow Milking

With apologies to Randy Lewis, I don’t care what any ranch rodeo announcer has ever said over the loudspeaker. Wild cow milking is not a common, everyday occurrence on the ranch. While every other sanctioned event in the WRCA has strong roots in ranch work, the idea that cowboys rope and milk wild range cows regularly ... More

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #13: Never a Dull Moment

One of the biggest challenges of ranching and cowboying for a living is the variety of tasks one must be proficient at in order to keep a ranch going. The list of necessary skills on a ranch is not short: range management, advanced accounting, market analyzation, doctoring, horse training, nutrition, roping, stock ... More

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #14: The Tack

Have you ever considered just how unique the cowboy tools of the trade are? Take the saddle alone. Only stockmen use this tool and only the American cowboy uses one with a cantle, swells, and a horn. Drill down a bit more and there are myriad styles even within that narrow subset: Wade, Will James, Association, Buster ... More

Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #15: The Art

Have you ever noticed that it seems like someone is always taking pictures at a branding? Or just how many photographers are either on assignment or freelancing at the World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo? More

To 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #16: The Books

“What a blessing it is to love books as I love them; to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!”– Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay was not a cowboy. He was an English writer, politician, and historian in the 19th century. But his idea of what makes books special hits ... More