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The Cowboy at Work: All About His Job and How He Does It
"One of the best, if not the best, firsthand account written by a twentieth-century working cowboy. His knowledge of the country, combined with his writing and artistic abilities, make this book required reading." – Oregon Historical Quarterly
"I would rank The Cowboy at Work among the best books ever written about the American cowboy, maybe the best. Every word Fay E. Ward wrote can pass the tests and cross-examinations of the severest critics in his field: The saddlemakers, horse trainers, ranchers, and cowboys who have an uncanny knack for smelling out a fraud. The core of his knowledge is as timely and accurate today as it was fifty or seventy-five years ago." – John R. Erickson, one of America’s best-known working cowboys, in his Foreword to The Cowboy at Work.
"Here is a book by a man who knows what he is talking about. Fay Ward, an old time bronco buster, rough-string rider, cowhand, and wrangler, has roped, thrown, and hogtied an astonishing passel of facts and herded them into a vivid corral of cow country Americana."–Chicago Sun Tribune
"Head and haunches above anything else on the subject." – Arizona Highways
"I would rank The Cowboy at Work among the best books ever written about the American cowboy, maybe the best. Every word Fay E. Ward wrote can pass the tests and cross-examinations of the severest critics in his field: The saddlemakers, horse trainers, ranchers, and cowboys who have an uncanny knack for smelling out a fraud. The core of his knowledge is as timely and accurate today as it was fifty or seventy-five years ago." – John R. Erickson, one of America’s best-known working cowboys, in his Foreword to The Cowboy at Work.
"Here is a book by a man who knows what he is talking about. Fay Ward, an old time bronco buster, rough-string rider, cowhand, and wrangler, has roped, thrown, and hogtied an astonishing passel of facts and herded them into a vivid corral of cow country Americana."–Chicago Sun Tribune
"Head and haunches above anything else on the subject." – Arizona Highways
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
310 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1958
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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December 8, 2023Gift to Jason
April 2, 2012
This book is like a desktop encyclopedia devoted to nearly everything about the modern-day (1950s) working cowboy. As John Erickson, himself a working cowboy and writer, notes in his foreword, Ward has left us a treasure trove of cowboy know-how mostly passed on by word of mouth and that would have been lost without Ward's writing it down and illustrating it with his meticulous drawings.
There's a bit of history everywhere, as Ward traces the evolution of practices that mark the cowboy work of his day, but mostly he sticks with what he knows from what seems to be first-hand experience - how to braid leather, shoe a horse, throw a rope, make a bed roll. Chapters are devoted to varieties of equipment and cowboy gear. The detail is often amazing, for instance eight full pages devoted to descriptions of 134 different earmarks used in the branding of cattle. And for the noncowboys among readers, there are many little-known facts, like when and why to shoe only the back hooves of horses and why chaps are held together in front by a string instead of a belt.
The volume of information in the book is leavened by the author's conversational style and dry humor. There's a barely suppressed grin in his description of how to pull a cow from a bog, and in describing a pair of fancy chaps he remarks, "Chaps like these make a hundred-dollar bill look like thirty cents if you're going to buy 'em." Thanks to the University of Oklahoma Press for keeping this fine book in print.
There's a bit of history everywhere, as Ward traces the evolution of practices that mark the cowboy work of his day, but mostly he sticks with what he knows from what seems to be first-hand experience - how to braid leather, shoe a horse, throw a rope, make a bed roll. Chapters are devoted to varieties of equipment and cowboy gear. The detail is often amazing, for instance eight full pages devoted to descriptions of 134 different earmarks used in the branding of cattle. And for the noncowboys among readers, there are many little-known facts, like when and why to shoe only the back hooves of horses and why chaps are held together in front by a string instead of a belt.
The volume of information in the book is leavened by the author's conversational style and dry humor. There's a barely suppressed grin in his description of how to pull a cow from a bog, and in describing a pair of fancy chaps he remarks, "Chaps like these make a hundred-dollar bill look like thirty cents if you're going to buy 'em." Thanks to the University of Oklahoma Press for keeping this fine book in print.
July 30, 2008
There are about two dozen sections in this book, but here are my favorites:
Roundup Personnel
Roundup Equipment
Mustanging
Hackamores
Stirrups and Tapaderos
Cowboy Jewelry
Roundup Personnel
Roundup Equipment
Mustanging
Hackamores
Stirrups and Tapaderos
Cowboy Jewelry
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews