What do you think?
Rate this book
Cowboy is a Verb: Notes from a Modern-day Rancher
From the big picture to the smallest detail, Richard Collins fashions a rousing memoir about the modern-day lives of cowboys and ranchers. However, Cowboy is a Verb is much more than wild horse rides and cattle chases. While Collins recounts stories of quirky ranch horses, cranky cow critters, cow dogs, and the people who use and care for them, he also paints a rural West struggling to survive the onslaught of relentless suburbanization.
A born storyteller with a flair for words, Collins breathes life into the geology, history, and interdependency of land, water, and native and introduced plants and animals. He conjures indelible portraits of the hardworking, dedicated people he comes to know. With both humor and humility, he recounts the day-to-day challenges of ranch life such as how to build a productive herd, distribute your cattle evenly across a rough and rocky landscape, and establish a grazing system that allows pastures enough time to recover. He also intimately recounts a battle over the endangered Gila topminnow and how he and his neighbors worked with university range scientists, forest service conservationists, and funding agencies to improve their ranches as well as the ecological health of the Redrock Canyon watershed.
Ranchers who want to stay in the game don’t dominate the landscape; instead, they have to continually study the land and the animals it supports. Collins is a keen observer of both. He demonstrates that patience, resilience, and a common-sense approach to conservation and range management are what counts, combined with an enduring affection for nature, its animals, and the land. Cowboy is a Verb is not a romanticized story of cowboy life on the range, rather it is a complex story of the complicated work involved with being a rancher in the twenty-first-century West.
A born storyteller with a flair for words, Collins breathes life into the geology, history, and interdependency of land, water, and native and introduced plants and animals. He conjures indelible portraits of the hardworking, dedicated people he comes to know. With both humor and humility, he recounts the day-to-day challenges of ranch life such as how to build a productive herd, distribute your cattle evenly across a rough and rocky landscape, and establish a grazing system that allows pastures enough time to recover. He also intimately recounts a battle over the endangered Gila topminnow and how he and his neighbors worked with university range scientists, forest service conservationists, and funding agencies to improve their ranches as well as the ecological health of the Redrock Canyon watershed.
Ranchers who want to stay in the game don’t dominate the landscape; instead, they have to continually study the land and the animals it supports. Collins is a keen observer of both. He demonstrates that patience, resilience, and a common-sense approach to conservation and range management are what counts, combined with an enduring affection for nature, its animals, and the land. Cowboy is a Verb is not a romanticized story of cowboy life on the range, rather it is a complex story of the complicated work involved with being a rancher in the twenty-first-century West.
312 pages, Paperback
Published November 6, 2019
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 31, 2019
This is about the Cowboy and Ranch Life in Southern Arizona close to the Mexican border when the author and wife decide to purchase their own property. If you wanted to know the process of raising cows and horses but this also has an added twist as the author discuss other things that most people do not even realize in having to deal with both state and federal authorities concerning grazing, use of water and in this case wildlife and a tiny little minnow.
This story really shows that not all ranchers are bad as perceived by those that are anti-grazing, anti-cow. How can you be especially if you like meat, got to raise them somewhere. The ranchers really understand the benefits of working together it benefits them in the end. But it also points out how individuals can be close minded just so they can prove their point regardless of what the proof says. At times book is a little slow through some of the technical stuff but it is an interesting read and an eye opener.
This story really shows that not all ranchers are bad as perceived by those that are anti-grazing, anti-cow. How can you be especially if you like meat, got to raise them somewhere. The ranchers really understand the benefits of working together it benefits them in the end. But it also points out how individuals can be close minded just so they can prove their point regardless of what the proof says. At times book is a little slow through some of the technical stuff but it is an interesting read and an eye opener.
Displaying 1 of 1 review