Should the SHTF, everyone who has prepared for it – those who have a rough and tumble mindset – will have a foot-up on those who live lives of ease. We wish both of these groups the best. Meanwhile, let’s take advantage of a little cowboy wisdom.

His Best Friend
A cowboy’s best friend is his weapon. In the old days of the West, a cowboy needed a handy weapon, one he could carry around easily and that would be multi-purpose, for controlling his cattle and protecting him from ‘cattle rustlers’.
The weapon of choice of those old westerners was the Colt .45 six-shooter because they could carry it in their belt and it was easy to use.
The gun, nicknamed the ‘Peacemaker’, was originally designed for U.S. government service use but was also popular with ranchers too.
Life was hard in those days, if you had cattle, you had something other people wanted and you had to be prepared to protect that asset. So the Colt .45 was an essential best friend to the ranchers of the Wild West. As well as rustlers, cowboys, especially those who lived in the southwest, also had to protect their ranch, cattle and families from other hostile elements, including Native Americans.
Another weapon of choice was the Winchester model 73, also known as the gun that ‘Won the Wild West’. The Winchester is a repeating arms rifle, so longer than the Colt .45. Cowboys would ride with these fastened to their saddles, ready to pull out when needed.

Skinning a Buffalo
Buffalo ranged the North American plains in their millions before the West became fully settled. During this time buffalo were hunted by the Native Americans every part of the animal being used for something.
The hides had a multitude of uses, including, teepee covers, clothing and moccasins. The horns were used to make cups and ladles and to form headdresses. The bones for knives, arrowheads and even dice, the fat used to make soap and to cook with and even buffalo dung could be used for fuel. The whole animal was made use of, there was little or no waste.
Once the settlers arrived they too hunted the buffalo, but they didn’t make use of the animal in the same way. The new settlers mainly hunted the animal for the meat and hide. Occasionally the cowboys would use the bones for fertilizer too. But the hide was used for many purposes including making drive belts for machinery. The cowboys of old did make use of the buffalo hide, using it for clothes and bedding against the harsh winters.
Buffalo tastes good; A little like lean beef. They were such a popular food source that by the end of the 19th century, they ended up being hunted to almost extinction, with only 300 individuals in the wild by 1900 – something that has happened to many species throughout human history. The herd size of today is back up to around 500,000 across the USA and Canada. Only because they were such a useful resource, North American Buffalo was once very close to extinction.

Cowboy Courtship
Affairs of the heart are an exciting and important part of any young person’s life and cowboys are no exception.
Having a wife and partner who can play an active role in the life of the ranch is something that good cowboys seek out at some stage or other.
Courtship for cowboys was a mutual affair, if the man wasn’t right, the girl would make sure he knew.
And likewise, the woman would need the necessary personality and skills to take up life on the ranch.
Often the girls would have been brought up on the ranch and so would already know the hired hands or ‘cowpunchers’ well and would have a good idea of who would make good husband material.
Being a cowboy wasn’t just a job, it was a way of life and anyone entering that lifestyle had to be of the same mind. The dream of the cowpuncher was to acquire a ranch of their own. Having a wife who understood how to help run that ranch was an important part of that dream.
The life of a rancher’s wife was remote and often hard, as their husband built up his business and herded cattle across many miles of land. Because of this, cowboys would sometimes wait until they had established their ranch before embarking on courtship, instead bringing their new wife into a more settled ranch.

Evening on the Prairie
The life of a cowpuncher was hard. Often they would be outside for days, herding cattle.
They had to spend many a night sleeping in the outdoors, under the stars; no tents were used – if it rained, the cowpuncher got wet. Their camp was basic and they camped wherever they could find a suitable spot, but some would sleep in the saddle.
Cowpunchers were a hardy lot and knew what it was like to go without sleep whilst on the trail. Each person in the outfit had to guard for two hours through the night, to protect the horses and cattle against rustlers and predators.
During those two hours they would ride amongst the herd, singing quietly to the cattle to let them know they were being watched over, the songs were gentle to prevent the herd from bolting if startled, but to let them know that the rider was there.
Sleep for the cowpuncher was intermittent and short and cowpunchers were known to rub tobacco in their eyes to keep awake. But they were good-natured folk and would hand out the cigarettes and often sing a song like ‘Little Black Bull’ for entertainment, or tell tales of their lives. They were a band of brothers who relied on each other for protection and entertainment and kinship.

A Balky Pupil
Those old western films from the 1940s always seemed to have a horse being ‘broken in’. This method of horsemanship was prevalent throughout the Wild West. Specialist ‘horse breakers’ were employed at a fixed price to break in a horse.
The horse needed to be mature, because of the work it was expected to do, such as carry a rider for days on end. So the horse would be weaned by the ranch owners and when ready ‘broken in’. The breaking in had to be done within a week, which meant that the horse needed to be able to be ridden within about four days. The breakers were often highly skilled and were intuitive with animals and the use of the word ‘break’ in this context is perhaps over harsh at times – although less skilled handlers may have used overly heavy methods of course.
The breakers would be working on around six horses per week to make a living.

A Lucky Bag
Food during the earlier days of the Wild West, before the railroads opened up trade, could be monotonous. Vegetables, like beans, were often out of a can, the meat variety was limited, squirrel being an alternative to the usual buffalo.
Provisions such as coffee, sugar and flour were scarce and stocked up on, when the opportunity arose.
These were the days before home freezing or even cool boxes. The cowboy and girl would need to use preservation techniques, like salting, pickling or dehydration to keep food over the winter.
Dugouts were also used to store food in. Early cowboys really had to make use of their hunter-gatherer instincts.
For fresh vegetables they would have to forage for fresh berries, wild fruit and other green edibles and roots. Herbs and acorns were also foraged for and used to liven up meals. Some folk would create a smoke house that would be used communally, the people taking advantage of it, leaving some meat or fish for the smoke house owner as payment for use.
If the cowboy had time, they could go hunting, perhaps bagging a deer or antelope. They could then add some extra pizazz to their meals and keep the rest of the meat using one of the preserving techniques.

How The Cowboys Tied Their Lasso
Lasso is a word of Spanish origin, but the Westerner called it a “rope” and the people in Southwest called it a “reata”. There is a good reason why every cowboy carried one at his saddle. Roping cattle was a daily business. It was generally 40 feet long, which was the most practical size for an average size man. Lassos were previously manufactured by using hemp or rawhide.
Rawhide was snipped into strips and then half-tanned with the hair. The knot is so easy that once you learn it you’ll never forget it.

There is no doubt that a cowboy or frontiersman lived a life of hardship and struggle. Survival was not just a term but a way of life! But living was not meant to be constant strife and struggle so sleeping under the peaceful stars, laughing around a campfire with friends and loved-ones was and is a wonderful counter balances that old adage: Survival of the fittest.

And, here in the twenty-first century, we are happy to hear it!

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