Just wondering why "cowboy" has become such a negative term here in the UK, for instance WES in its web site
makes out to be a cowboy is bad yet some of the best horsemen in America are/ were cowboys !!!

From Wikipedia:

Negative associations

In the British Isles, Australia and New Zealand, the term cowboy is derogatory, and usually applied to tradesmen whose work is of shoddy and questionable value, e.g., "a cowboy plumber". The term predates the discovery of the New World and originates from the perception that herdsmen are unskilled laborers.

On the European continent the term 'cowboy' is also sometimes used to someone who behaves as hot-headed and rash as the 'civilised' outsiders expect from the 'savage' inhabitants of the 'Wild West'.

Interesting that the term was around BEFORE 'The Americas' were discovered!

So basically it means 'Unskilled'.

Post edited by: Brew, at: 2006/03/31 22:11

I was wondering that too. I only became interested in QHs & western riding after working as a cowboy/ringer in Australia and was really surprised to find that UK organisations try to distance themself from where the whole thing orginated (cowboys,etc). Why is that? I would love to have any of the skill that "cowboys" have when riding/training their horses and handling stock.

Do you think we will ever see events like cutting,roping, team penning etc in the UK?

Because cowboys in this country conjure up pictures of "Yahoo!" loutes and rough riding not the thoughtful way of western riding.
Go to any "Western display" at a county showgound and you see people riding around on andulusians shouting and doing trick riding usually dressed up in theatre costumes as cowboys and indians--make me cringe!

Maybe if cutting, roping, team penning etc was adopted by all the UK Western Riding Associations and run to high standards and appropriate rules the theatrical version you refer to for public entertainment would not be taken seriously by anybody. After all western riding in the UK is what we make it.

Do you think there is any chance of that happening? How would you go about something like that? Does it already happen in the UK? So many questions!

When I was "googling" on the net I found someplace right down south that had barrel racing and some stock work. Do you think that could be expanded over the whole of the UK? I'm in Scotland so it's not really possible to go that far south to spectate.

Are there any other western enthusiasts who are interested in this sort of thing?