Cowboys have always had a romantic image. When people first watched Hollywood films, being a cowboy wasn’t a job. It was a life of adventure, freedom, horses. It was a classic symbol of the United States of America. ln reality, the real American cowboys have lived and worked here in the west and south-west of the United States for over three centuries, long before Hollywood. The adventure and romance have disappeared but the hard work and long hours are the same
as they’ve always been.
No one knows how many cowboys are still working. Maybe between ten and fifty thousand. lt’s also difficult to define a twenty—first century cowboy. Surely it can’t be the big cattle owners who do business with a seventy—billion dollar beef industry? These modern ranches use the latest technology and employ accountants. But even some of the old traditional cattle ranches make more money nowadays by offering holidays to tourists; people come and stay for a holiday and live the cowboy’s life (or a Hollywood version of it)
But even with technology and Hollywood romance, real cowboys still do the same job they have done for years.
The cattle still need to walk across huge plains and eat
grass many miles from the ranch. And so cowboys ride on horses to bring them home; Cowboys work in the middle
of nowhere, in a place where you can’t make a phone call because mobile phones don’t work. Like the cowboys of
the past, twenty-first century cowboys still get up early on freezing cold mornings and make breakfast over an open fire. There is no Monday to Friday, weekends off or paid holidays.