The great Texas cattle drives started in the 1860's because we had lots of longhorn and the rest of the country wanted beef. (We get beef from cattle.) From about 1865 to the mid-1890's, our vaqueros and cowboys herded about 5 million cattle to markets up north while also becoming famous legends that made Texas proud.

Eventually, Texas cowboys created their own culture. Cowboys today have rodeos to show how the tricks they can do like rope steers, ride bucking broncs and bulls. Ride 'em, Cowboy! A big part of cowboy culture became cowboy poetry. That didn't come from the vaqueros.

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.

The cowboy culture bred the Western genre in cinema, literature, poetry, music, and dance. It spawned a rich vocabulary, gave recreation and sports that arose from cowboy working practices, and created distinctive clothing. Thanks to globalization, the world discovered cowboy culture and began adopting it.

Vaqueros Vaqueros were early versions of independent contractors and weren't bound to a ranching hacienda or a patron unless they chose to be. Vaqueros owned their horses, saddles, and ropes and what they did with them would shape the history of Texas ranching.

Cowboy Life In addition to herding cattle, they also helped care for horses, repaired fences and buildings, worked cattle drives and in some cases helped establish frontier towns. Cowboys occasionally developed a bad reputation for being lawless, and some were banned from certain establishments.

Cowboy culture in Texas has a long and proud history. Visitors who want to saddle up for an authentic cowboy experience in Texas will have their pick of options, from a weekend stay at a dude ranch, a visit to the rodeo, or shopping for the perfect pair of cowboy boots.

Our term cowboy was first documented in the English language by 1725. A direct translation of the Spanish word vaquero, one who manages cattle from horseback, cowboy has come to mean the same thing - a man employed to take care of grazing cattle on a ranch (OED).

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.

Working up to 20 hours a day, cowboys drove the animals from one watering place to the next. They had to guard against predators (two- and four-footed), straying cattle, and stampedes at night. For his hard and dirty work the typical cowboy earned between $25 and $40 a month.

The cowboy lifestyle and culture is still found in certain areas of the United States, albeit to a lesser degree than a century ago. Cowboys continue to help run large ranches in states like Texas, Utah, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

Vaqueros, the original mounted ranch hand, originated in Spain and arrived in the Americas in the 16th century. By the early 18th century, when cowboys were increasingly found around North and South America, ranching had made its way North to present-day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and South to Argentina.