Cowboy Riding Through the Desert coloring page

About this coloring page

A cowboy on horseback is the ultimate symbol of the American West, but the cowboy’s story actually begins with the vaqueros of Mexico. Starting in the 1500s, Spanish colonists brought cattle and horses to New Spain, and skilled riders known as vaqueros learned to manage huge herds across open country.

When American settlers moved into Texas and California, they learned the trade from those vaqueros. The Western saddle with its sturdy horn for dallying a rope, big spurs, and leather chaps that shielded legs from thorny brush all trace back to Mexican ranching traditions.

You can hear that history in cowboy vocabulary. Lasso comes from the Spanish lazo, ranch from rancho, and rodeo from a word for rounding up cattle. Bronco, lariat and chaps have Spanish roots as well, and buckaroo is an English twist on vaquero. Historians also point out that many working cowboys after the Civil War were Black or Mexican American, far more than old Hollywood movies suggested.

Cowboy life was tough. Trail drives could last months, moving cattle from Texas to railroad towns in Kansas. Cowhands rode all day, took turns guarding the herd at night and crossed rivers and deserts. Working cowboys still ride on ranches across the West today.

• cowboy
• horses
• wild west
• desert
• ranch