Born
Cowboy
By
J.P.S. Brown
EDITOR’S
NOTE
With this article we begin a three-part series, the
first-ever three-parter on an individual cowboy in
the 11-year history of your magazine.
Mexican
vaqueros say, “El vaquero se hace con
baba, no con barba. A cowboy is made as a slobbering
babe, not after he grows a beard.” American
cowboys say, “Cowboys are born and not made.”
Or
they say, “Cowboying has to be born in you,
no matter what kind of people you’re from.
Like a scorpion’s poison, it’s in you,
or it’s not.” In the slobbers years,
the baby ones have to try on their Dad’s hat
and boots before they learn to walk. They do not
remember the first time they rode a horse. Childhood
photographs show them slobbering and gumming their
fathers’ saddle horns.
Animals
are their earliest friends. They learn to care
for them unselfishly, without thought of
recompense.
They bawl when the fat heifer they gave all their
love and care to is slaugh- tered by their parent.
The
oldest, ugliest animals in their charge are more
beautiful and precious to them than any
full bank
account will ever be. They may live their childhood
on a starve-out outfit, but it is as rich and
full as any child- hood will ever be.
A
lot of people do not find the work that makes them
happiest until after they retire from their
eight-hour
job. A cowboy finds that out while he still
has a child’s capacity to find joy in what he does—when
cowboying is child’s play, his first play.
Then
one day he wakes up and it has become a man’s
work. He grows into it, but the same child’s
joy endures, so it’s not hard for him
to become dedicated to it.
About
the time he gets dedicated, he goes wild. As he
learns how to make a hand, he realizes
how much
fun it is to take the legitimate risks he
has to take. That is when he thinks he has discovered
a secret about cowboying that probably nobody
else
knows. Being allowed to take risks and go
wild
while
he performs as a stockman makes him feel
that he does it for the fun of it.
Sometimes
the wilder he gets and the more risks he takes
only proves
how
good a hand he is. He takes secret glee
in the performance of everyday duties. He has
always
known
he would
be a fool to do it for the money, anyway.
Others
may cry about how little money they make.
He cowboys because it’s in him and that’s plenty
enough to make it worthwhile...
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the rest of this exciting article and more by subscribing
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Cowboy magazine...
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