Includes the least you need to know about ranching, rodeoing, cooking, dancing, music, yodeling, boots, shirts, horses, hats, buckles, denim, lingo, poetry, and even how to walk like a cowboy. Cowboy history and culture come to light through photos, excerpts, short stories, poems, drawings, prose and more.

COWBOY LINGO

Just like any other group, cowboys have their own special language. If you hang around the bunkhouse, the rodeo, or anyplace else cowboys gather, you may hear some of these words being used. See how often you can use them while talking to your pards.

BOOT HILL cemetery
DUDE city slicker
BROKE that a horse is gentle and ready to ride
HAND a ranch worker
BRONC an unbroken horse, or a horse that, though broke, is still a bit wild
HIGHTAIL to run off or get away fast
HOSS horse
BUCKAROO cowboy (from the Spanish word vaquero)
HUNG OFF a foot caught in the stirrup of the saddle
BUNKHOUSE living quarters for the cowboys working on a ranch
MAVERICK a stray, unbranded calf
MUSTANG wild horse
OUTFIT a ranch worker's or a cowboy's pickup truck
CATCH PEN a corral for holding cattle or horses
PARD partner, friend
RIDE THE LINE check the fences to fix any that are broken
RIG saddle
CORRAL fenced off area for livestock
SPREAD a ranch
COWBOY UP mount up and ride out, or grin and bear it
STOVE UP hurt, injured, or crippled cowboy
CRITTER cow or other animal
TRY effort ("Bill has a lot of try in him.")
CROW HOP a mini?buck; the horse rounds its back and hops
WRANGLER the cowboy who takes care of the horses
DOGIE an orphaned calf
DRAW a lottery that matches riders and animals at rodeo events
WRECK a riding accident