Vaqueros and Cowboys
Vaqueros and cowboys became legends and made Texas proud!
Vaqueros have a long history here. It started with the Spaniards who came long before Texas belonged to the United States. Cowboys came much later and learned a lot of what they know from vaqueros.
The great Texas cattle drives of the 1860's through the 1890's made Texas cowboys and vaqueros famous. Hollywood movies made cowboys and vaqueros even more famous.
But those movies also showed things a lot differently than they really happened. For example, cowboys and vaqueros didn't really walk around shooting all the time! No way, Partner!
The truth was that plenty of vaqueros and cowboys didn’t even have a gun. Many guys who did only had the kind that shot one bullet at a time. And cowboys and vaqueros usually only used their guns for emergencies or to catch supper.
When a cowboy or vaquero wasn't driving cattle, he worked on a ranch. There he took care of cattle, horses, fixed corrals, and did lots of other hard work to keep the ranch running.
On the trail or off, though, he needed a horse to do his job. That's why, for vaqueros and cowboys, their horses made more than just great pets. Sure, they loved them a lot, but when they had to round up other horses or herd cattle, they used their horses like tools.
These guys had to be expert horsemen with well-trained horses, the kind of horses that wouldn’t freak out in the middle of a scary stampede of loco longhorns! Even today, with pick-up trucks being used so much on ranches, vaqueros and cowboys still need to be able to ride horses super well.