Dreaming of being a cowboy

Willie Nelson strummed , “I grew up a dreaming of being a cowboy”.

I’m not sure what year it was that I wanted my first pair of cowboy boots; maybe 10 or 11. I think every young boy that came of age in the 70s and early 80s was influenced by John Wayne and the rugged appearance of the American Cowboy. To me as a young man, Texas was where all cowboys lived. They poked cattle, rode horses and flirted with pretty Texas women. As funny as it may sound, I always wanted to date/marry a woman from the Lone Star State. That was God’s gift to me and worthy of another blog, but in 1984, I stood at the altar with a girl born in Dallas.

Dan Pate, Matthew Deihl  and me branding cattle in Montana

When I was 12, I had the opportunity to work on a farm.  I learned to run the 1969 John Deere 4020. There was nothing like corralling the cattle, running them thru the head gate, vaccinating, de-horning, and (yes) castrating the calves. As a young kid, the smell of cow manure was not something gross; and certainly the stain of it on your boot heels was like a badge of being a cowboy. That’s right, dried manure on your heels. No wonder mom wanted our shoes off at the front door.

So, as an adult, the friendship that I made

Temple and Curt talking about Cattle Handling

with the Pate family in Montana gave me the opportunity to continue “dreaming of being  a’Cowboy”. I remember exiting the airplane in Helena, Montana and being welcomed by my friend Dan. He gave Elizabeth and me free reign to his family ranch that backed up to the Elkhorn Mountains. Dan, a former bareback & bull rider and a world class auctioneer is a cowboy in his own right. Dan and his brother Doug have carried the torch of their family’s 50 year old auction business making themselves known in the mid-west as a premier auction company. Later Dan introduced me to his brother Curt Pate last summer. Curt on the other hand  calls himself

Meeting legends in the Cattle Industry

a Stockman.  For over 10 years Curt has been conducting demonstrations and clinics on stockmanship, colt starting, horsemanship and safety. Curt has gained fame and notoriety for his participation in Robert Redford’s movie, The Horse Whisperer.

In June,  Curt came to North Carolina to conduct a Cattle Handling event in Columbus County. With him was the famous Dr. Temple Grandin. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants.  

She holds B.A. at Franklin Pierce College and her M.S. in Animal Science at Arizona State University. Dr. Grandin received her Ph.D in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1989. And she is autistic. Yes, that’s right.

So, on a balmy North Carolina afternoon, Curt and Temple shared with a group of about 100 people good livestock handling practices. The event made me realize the importance of professionalism and education. Even in livestock handling, it pays to learn from the best, and these two are the best of the best. Pate writes a regular blog.  Temple on the other hand has published multiple articles and written scores of books.   
Cattle handling trainer, Stockman, PhD,  call them what you want, but I’ll tell you they’re both a cowboy and cowgirl.

Watching the demonstration took me back some 37 years on those hot summers we tended cattle. If you’d have interviewed that 12 year old kid with stain covered cowboy boots, I probably would have described my future similar to what Curt now does for a living. But, my path took a different road.

I still wear cowboy boots; heck I even own a few horses and during different seasons, I have a few head of cattle. My dream as a kid of being a cowboy came to life. Because being a cowboy come in different shapes and forms. Curt is on horseback as much as he’s in a car and Temple in is the stock yard more than most. Being a cowboy is a state of mind. It’s not buying a new pair of Luccheses and putting them on for a country music concert. It’s the appreciation of the field, love of the animals and a free spirit inside of you that longs to pursue your dreams.

Did my dream come true? Yes, I’m a cowboy; maybe a little different type than Curt, Dan and Temple, but I do consider myself a cowboy. I still dream of working cows, sunsets and finding peace in the simplest of things.

It's ok to dream….I still do.