If You Want to be a Cowboy Get a Job

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One thing I find interesting is how common it is that ranching families got there start from sources other than ranching. In my case great-grandpa did mining law in the California gold country. Other places the money came from banking, or owning the general store. The image of the cowboy is one of adventure. But in the reality is that so many of us are living a safe life set out for us by prior generations.
 
To quote Wilfred Brimley, "Everyone wants to be a cowboy until it is time to do cowboy sh!t."

I don't know how many times I have had to tell people that John Wayne doesn't work here.. If Jan Bosma just met cowboys who whoop and holler and moved cows at a lope he never met any real cowboys. Or he watched too many cowboy movies. The vast vast majority of the time moving cattle horse back is done at a very slow walk.
 
Lucky said:
Big difference in a Cowboy and a Rancher. Most of the Cowboys we know don't own cattle and most of the successful Ranchers aren't Cowboys.
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Most of the big successful ranchers here are the best cowboys. And a lot of the ranchers let their cowboy employees run some cows in with the ranch cows. Doesn't cost the rancher much to add in 20-50 cows and it gives the cowboy a big bonus when he sells the calves who didn't cost him anything to raise.
 
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Dave said:
To quote Wilfred Brimley, "Everyone wants to be a cowboy until it is time to do cowboy sh!t."

I don't know how many times I have had to tell people that John Wayne doesn't work here.. If Jan Bosma just met cowboys who whoop and holler and moved cows at a lope he never met any real cowboys. Or he watched too many cowboy movies. The vast vast majority of the time moving cattle horse back is done at a very slow walk.
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Dead on, 100% agree!
 
Wanted to be a cowboy once. Found out you needed to have grass and put up hay here to have cows so I became a farmer. Then found out hay machinery broke down so became a mechanic. Then discovered cows have health problems and need to be sold in order to survive so I became a veterinarian and a marketer. Now I’m getting old and have to ask Kenny Thomas for advice and talk him into getting his knees fixed so maybe can add psychiatrist to my shingle🤪😂
 
gcreekrch said:
Wanted to be a cowboy once. Found out you needed to have grass and put up hay here to have cows so I became a farmer. Then found out hay machinery broke down so became a mechanic. Then discovered cows have health problems and need to be sold in order to survive so I became a veterinarian and a marketer. Now I'm getting old and have to ask Kenny Thomas for advice and talk him into getting his knees fixed so maybe can add psychiatrist to my shingle🤪😂
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You lost out temporarily on the knee replacement. Gotta wait now.
But you probably still qualify for the psychiatrist. Wait until i get out and do stupid things in the next few days.
 
I think the biggest difference falls on what you define as a cowboy. There is a lot of people who own a hat, boots, and a horse who define themself as a cowboy. As a whole I find team ropers to be some of the worse excuses for cowboys out there. Looking at gcreekrch's response. The cowboys here work to keep the cows where there is grass for them to eat. Right now they are helping to put up hay for the winter. And they feed that hay to the cows come winter. When machinery breaks down they fix it. And they are the ones maintaining it so hopefully it doesn't break down. They are the ones hauling cows to the sale. And doctoring them when needed. Sometimes that is in the squeeze chute. And this time of the year when the cows are miles from the nearest pen or chute...... well that is when a fast horse and a long rope go to work. If you have ever had to do that or witnessed someone doing it you will know there is a huge difference between cowboys and those who wanna be.
Most of the cowboy psychiatrists I have witnessed..... there may have been some beer involved.
 
Dave said:
think the biggest difference falls on what you define as a cowboy.
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I don't want to start a war here, but this statement is correct. To me a Cowboy is someone that lives free. Free from the worry of what tomorrow brings or free from the worry of what the banker will say. A cowboy lives for today and the story that today is going to make. They are care free risk takers that hope everything works out in the end.

We know lots of folks that can rope the wildest cow you ever seen but that don't make em a cowboy.
 
Lucky said:
I don't want to start a war here, but this statement is correct. To me a Cowboy is someone that lives free. Free from the worry of what tomorrow brings or free from the worry of what the banker will say. A cowboy lives for today and the story that today is going to make. They are care free risk takers that hope everything works out in the end.

We know lots of folks that can rope the wildest cow you ever seen but that don't make em a cowboy.
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By that definition there are a lot of people who would be defined as a cowboy who have never seen a cow.
 
Dave said:
By that definition there are a lot of people who would be defined as a cowboy who have never seen a cow.
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You are correct. I was in a leadership class years ago and the speaker talked about a person that takes unnecessary chances and how that person is a cowboy and has no place in our type of work place. It suprised me that he used the word the cowboy, but he was right.

I think we are talking about a different type of cowboy though.
 
Lucky said:
I feel like more of a maintenance man than a Cowboy 🤠 😪. It's constantly something needing attention and 98% of the time the cows are just watching me fix stuff while the eat grass.
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I can soooooo relate…always something that needs doing and I usually see a dozen other things I’d like to get done…and that’s a minimum. On the bright side, I can win any hypothetical argument while bush hogging or pulling a sprayer behind the tractor. Maybe the sound of the tractor and the smell of fresh cut grass mixed with diesel exhaust stimulates the brain(?). Lol
 
kenny thomas said:
You lost out temporarily on the knee replacement. Gotta wait now.
But you probably still qualify for the psychiatrist. Wait until i get out and do stupid things in the next few days.
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I’m prepared my friend, if we talked the same language I could call.
 
We worked on our old 1969 model dump truck today. The truck runs good but the old fuel tank behind the seat is rusted and keeps plugging the fuel line up. The cowboy in me keeps saying get a 5 gallon fuel can with a pet cock in the bottom and run a line straight to the fuel pump and forget all the factory stuff so we can get this done and head home. The mechanic in me says get the rust out of the tank and fix it right. Guess we'll see who wins tomorrow.
 

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