What Three Tools Of His Trade Defined An Old West Cowboy
by Farley Deeds
The popular imagination tends to cast the Old West cowboy as a violent and self-reliant individual, one of the tamers of the Frontier. The reality of the situation was actually somewhat different, though it is no less fascinating. The cow poke was a working man, first and foremost, who was defined largely by the tools he used in his dirty, hard and dangerous job.
The key tool of the trade for any cow hand working in the West from 1870 to 1900 was a horse. Herding cattle on foot would have been an impossible business, for a number of reasons, primarily distance. The range really was no place for anyone to be on foot.
The horse was usually supplied by the cow poke's employer, with few workers actually owning their own horse. Anyone who owned their own horse tended to put it into the common pool to show their level of commitment to the outfit for which they worked. A horse was not treated over sentimentally though, it was a tool, and horses on tough drives could even be ridden to death if circumstances dictated.
Anyone working on the cattle range would also need a lariat. This rope was a tool which served a huge variety of functions, and was carried looped from the saddle horn at all times. Whether pulling animals from bogs, or being stretched by several men to form an impromptu corral, no cowboy would ever be without his lariat.
Cowboys did carry guns, but they were used as tools for violence against other human beings on a relatively rare basis. A cow poke would use a rifle or a shotgun to go out hunting, but he would rarely take this with him when he was working. Instead, the famous Colt revolver was the weapon of choice, for its size and portability as much as anything else.
Revolvers were often used against raiding criminals or Native Americans, at least in the early days of the Western cattle era. More common uses for the weapon were often much more mundane though. The revolver was an inaccurate weapon, but would serve to finish off wounded horses or take out a rattlesnakes.
The Old West cowboy was a working man, first and foremost, a man whose job was hard, dirty and often dangerous. His tools were designed for his work, not so that he could form an iconic American image. His work made him what he was, not imagined tales of an impossible frontier.
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New Unique Article!
Title: What Three Tools Of His Trade Defined An Old West Cowboy
Author: Farley Deeds
Email: oldwest@mhtc.net
Keywords: Old west hats, mens hats, victorian era, cowboy hats
Word Count: 412
Category: Hobbies
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