I’ve known many top buckaroos and vaqueros of both races, and, although I don’t consider myself a one-man judge and jury, I’d have to declare them equal on all counts…and that’s not putting it mildly.Game patented in 1940 for players four years of age and above Buckaroo! The saddle-stacking game with a moody mule!īuckaroo! is a game of physical skill, intended for players aged four and above. A great many white men made an effort to become equal to their brown-skinned counterparts, and while riding stirrup to stirrup, they learned to speak each other’s language. But as the sun rose and set many times, the titles became interchangeable, until they sort of ran together, like “baquero,” or so it sounded to me. By and large, the vaquero was brown-skinned and the buckaroo was white. Around the time California became part of the United States of America, the name buckaroo was heard as much as vaquero. The word “buckaroo” is tied very closely to the word “vaquero”. And by golly, none of the men I’ve ridden with ever complained at all about the lack of a noon meal – most of the time, we were so busy we didn’t have time to think about food). (I’ve experienced plenty of those days myself, days when my belly button made love to my backbone. The rest were turned out to pasture until their turn came.Īfter feeding his horse some oats and saddling up, the vaquero or buckaroo would get himself a big breakfast because he probably wouldn’t have a chance to eat again until late in the evening, if at all. Other times, the caviada was run in from a small field, using a horse that was kept up especially to bring them in this horse was then unsaddled and only the ones needed were caught for the day’s work. The horse that was used had usually been tied in the barn and fed a good bait of hay in the manger (some of these old barns still stand). (There are still some places in the West where these practices are common, except that they have a little more modern flavor.) There were no stock trailers to take him to where the cattle were, so it was ride, cowboys, ride, usually in the dark. The buckaroo’s day often started at two or three in the morning, for he had a long ride just to get to the cattle or to the place where the cattle would be feeding in a clearing, if it was brush country. If we could bring back some of those yesterdays of the heyday of the vaquero, it would raise the eyebrows to the hairline on just about every horseperson is my guess., and I don’t think I’d miss it by an inch. A lot of pride was invested in all of these pieces, so it goes without saying that a horse wearing this kind of jewelry performed in a top manner. With their scores of manañas, the old masters turned out beautiful works of art for their own use and the use of other vaqueros and buckaroos. Selecting the right hide to make a piece of gear, and getting it to be eye-appealing, takes an expert rawhide worker. She had to be killed and undressed with a sharp knife, then a string had to be made of this pelt of rawhide, so that ropes, hackamores, bosals, quirts, reins, etc., could be fashioned. Again, this is where time played a big role in the life of the vaquero, as making these items took a lot of it.įirst, an old, thin cow provided material for the job. In the early days of fiestas and siestas, the ol’ boys made most of the horse gear that they used, for there were no shops in which to purchase it. Competition ran high, adding to an already unbeatable scholarship on the oak-studded ranges. The California vaquero had a heap of time on his side, plus the weather helped him along, giving him all it took to get his lessons down. The riders were told “Your reason for learning to ride these caballos (horses) is to look after the vacas (cows).” When one of the students became a journeyman, he was awarded the supreme title of a vaquero this title or rank was given to a great many of these stock-tenders through the years, up to the 1920’s and 1930’s. School was held in the field every day, and the instruction was in Spanish. It’s likely that the ones who showed an interest in horses were chosen right off the bat. A recruiting job had to be done and it’s doubtful there were any forms to fill out. The Spanish conquistadores had a big hand in getting this horse unit going, and its members were selected from the Indians along the mission trails. The origin of the California Vaquero dates back to the 1770’s, long before old California joined the rest of the United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |