Cowboy, Western

A cowboy (Spanish: vaquero) tends cattle and horses on cattle ranches in North and South America. The cowboy is normally an animal herder most commonly in charge of the horses and/or cattle, whereas the wrangler's work is more specific to horses. more...

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In addition to ranch work, some cowboys work in and participate in rodeos, and many cowboys work only in the rodeo.

Antecedents

Originally, the word "cowherd" (similar to "shepherd," a sheep herder) was used to describe a cattle herder, and referred to a preadolescent or early adolescent boy, who usually worked on foot (riding required skills and investment in horses and equipment rarely available to or entrusted to a child, though in some cultures boys rode a donkey while going to and from pasture). This word is very old in the English language, originating prior to the year A.D. 1000. Herding of sheep, cattle and goats was often the job of minors in Antiquity, and still is in various third world cultures.

The word "cowboy" first appeared in the English language about A.D. 1715–25, and appears to be a direct English translation of vaquero. ("vaca" meaning "cow") This term thus developed after the Hacienda system of large land grants to private owners, usually for cattle ranches, was established by the Spanish government, and along with it, the need for vaqueros or cowboys.

As cattle ranching developed in the Iberian peninsula and later, in the Americas, where the climate was dry and grass sparse, 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 cowboy. Because of the time and physical ability needed to develop necessary skills, the cow "boy" was an adolescent or even a young man, (and, rarely, a few women) who began earning wages as soon as they had enough skill to be hired, (often as young as 12 or 13) and who, if not crippled by injury, might handle cattle or horses for the rest of his working life. Though the term became somewhat disassociated from age (the phrase "old cowboy" is not considered an oxymoron), the low wages and low social status of the job kept the term "boy" in use, though ultimately it became simply a label for the job itself, and even a term of pride.

On modern western ranches, sole responsibility for herding cattle or other livestock is not considered a job for children or early adolescents. However, both boys and girls growing up in a ranch environment often learn to ride horses and perform basic ranch skills as soon as they are physically able, usually under careful adult supervision. Such youths, by their late teens, are often given responsibilities on the ranch that require a level of maturity and levelheadedness that is not generally expected of their urban peers.

Read more at Wikipedia.org