The Cowboy Kind [Paperback]

Darrell Arnold (Author), Richard Farnsworth (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

When people think of cowboys, they envision wide-open spaces, camping under the stars, and flashy horseback riding. In reality, cowboying is plain hard work. Ranching men and women tend cattle through winter blizzards and under desert suns, roping, herding, calving, feeding, doctoring, and more. They suffer through hard times and broken bones because they love their work, not because they are waiting to ride off into the sunset. For twenty years, Darrell Arnold traveled the United States, from Lebanon, Tennessee, to Pie Town, New Mexico, capturing on film and audiotape the day-to-day lives of cowboys and ranchers. Arnold organizes the 125 black-and-white photographs and 170 quotes by such western themes as horses, neighbors, ranch economics, saddlemaking, and family life. The Cowboy Kind separates myth from reality, letting the words and photos of ranch people reveal the heart and soul of contemporary cowboy life. As veteran actor and horseman Richard Farnsworth says in the foreword, even "with America now in the computer age...the cowboy still endures."

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[This book takes] the reader within arms length of the hard, but rewarding, life of the modern man on horseback." --Bill Garwood, True West

About the Author

Darrell Arnold is the publisher and editor of Cowboy Magazine, the quarterly publication by, for, and about the working ranch cowboy. Prior to launching this publication in 1990, Arnold worked as an associate editor at Western Horseman, and as a feature editor of The Texas Longhorn Journal. Born and raised in the ranching country of southern Colorado, Arnold has been a lifelong student and advocate of the cowboy way of life. He has a master's degree in Western American history at Western State College in Gunnison. Arnold lives in La Veta, Colorado, and regularly attends cowboy poetry gatherings and ranch rodeos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 124 pages
• Publisher: Mountain Press Publishing Company (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878424407
• ISBN-13: 978-0878424405
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,794,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cowboys and ranchers in their own words, June 14, 2003

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cowboy Kind (Paperback)

This enjoyable book was put together by Darrell Arnold, publisher and editor of Cowboy Magazine. There are 170 quotes on over a dozen different subjects by cowboys and ranchers interviewed by Arnold during 1975-1996, and the book includes more than 120 black-and-white photographs of these men, their families, their horses and gear, and the landscapes that they work in. Topics range across a variety of aspects of cowboy lifestyle as it's lived on ranches throughout the western states from New Mexico to Montana. Among the many working cowboys Arnold interviews are even a few celebrities: Ben Johnson, Wiford Brimley, Rex Allen, Charlie Daniels, and Baxter Black. A short introduction was written by cowboy stuntman and Academy Award winning actor Richard Farnsworth.

Most informative for me were the sections on the differing traditions of Texas-style cowboys, who range across the Southwest and eastern slopes of the Rockies, and California-style buckaroos, who work the Great Basin of Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada. The details of cowboy gear are also presented well, with accompanying photographs and interviews with saddlemakers. A glossary at the back of the book defines a lot of these terms: hackamore, jinglebobs, mecate, snaffle bits. It also includes cowboy terminology, which often shows up in the interviews: roping cattle, drag the calves, pull a wagon.

A great pleasure is reading the words of cowboys themselves, as they express their various opinions, relate their memories of adventures, and talk about horses. What comes across over and again is a love of this way of life, despite the fact that looking after cattle on horseback is hard physical labor and pays little. You understand their pride, their sense of self-reliance and the importance of being recognized by others as "the man for the job." I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the West, cowboys, and ranching. A good companion volume (out of print) is "Buckaroos in Paradise" by Howard Marshall.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Work -- Great Photos -- Wonderful Insight, November 11, 2001

By 

Terry Mathews (a small town in east Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cowboy Kind (Hardcover)

Having spent the better part of my childhood on the back of a horse pretending to be a 'real cowgirl,' I found myself all wrapped up in memories while reading this fresh look at the life of modern-day cowboys.

The author, a true cowboy himself, traveled all over the south and west photographing working ranches and the people who own/work them. The author must have spent a good deal of time interviewing his subjects, because the book offers up some great stories/quotes, too.

The book is broken down into interesting chapters such as: THE COWBOY LIFESTYLE - RANCHING COUNTRY - GETTING IT DONE -- FAMILY LIFE - RANCH HORSES (my particular favorite) - DEFINING THE COWBOY - RANCHING TRADITIONS.

Some of my favorite quotes: On Ranch Horses: "If a horse ain't plum lame when you get done nailing the shoes on, you've done all right."

"There is something about a horse. They are a lot prettier animal than a man is, but not quite as pretty as a woman. They are beautiful animals. I was raising horses when I was raising my children. I raised them together. I credit that relationship with the fact that not one of my children has ever been involved in with drugs." (Rex Allen)

Or, the one in Family Life: "I'm Dusty, my wife is Sandy, my boy is Rocky, and my dauther's name is Wendy. Our names describe this ranch perfectly." (Dusty Ray)

I'm keeping this book on my coffee table for easy access. When I'm feeling penned up, I'll open it up, look at the wonderful photos, read the quotes and dream of life under the big sky of Montana or the scrub bushes of New Mexico.

Enjoy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Collection of A Way Of Life, August 17, 2007

By 

The Cashmere Bookworm "Cashmere and books --w... (California, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Cowboy Kind (Paperback)

This is how the west really is, was, will forever be held in our view. Darrell Arnold does a fine job picking out the sharpest quotes from long conversations with ranchers and cowboys.

It aptly collects a way of life that has quickly disappeared to development, and other wide-sweeping economic reasons that make profit from ranching very difficult.

Of note is the forward by Richard Farnsworth written shortly before he died. Much loved, Arnold handles his death with honesty and sensitivity.
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