Giddyup! Celebrating Day of the Cowboy/Cowgirl on a Flashback Friday!

My FiveSibes in a flashback Western portrait I created:
(l-r) Wild West Wolf, Badlands Bandit, Prairie Girl Chloe, Saloon Madam Harley, and Marshall Gentleman Gib decked out in their Western finest in front of an old abandoned (and maybe haunted?) house in Upstate, NY. This was such a fun photoshoot!

Yahoo! National Day of the Cowboy (and Cowgirl) was July 28th this year (held on the fourth Saturday of July), and if you know me, you will know that I am the daughter of a cowboy who broke in wild mules in Montana during the 1930s as a youth when he was in the Conservation Corps and stationed there. Fast forward 40 years, and my dad moved my family out of the suburbs of Queens, New York to 10-acres of land atop a mountain in Upstate, New York, where he added a few head of horses, most he rescued, to our growing newbie country family! While my father passed away from a massive heart attack just three short years after we moved and while he was setting up our ranch, I was so fortunate to have him teach me not only to ride Western, but the love, care, and "whispering" that goes into forming deep bonds with our horses, as well as all our animals (and we had lots! If there was a homeless pet, it always found a home at our house)! He never had the chance to name our ranch and make an entrance sign, but I imagine it would look something like this:




Being a "cowgirl" helped get me through the darkest days of grief after my father passed, and then onto greener dreams from when I was 14 through my teens to my twenties. I worked on a horse farm, took advanced riding lessons, eventually taught riders myself, trained, and showed Western, bringing one of my horses to a reserve Champion. While my mother never rode (due to a riding accident when she was younger), she always got into the spirit of things and accompanied me many times to the barn for training and attended all my shows.



Growing up, I loved hearing all of my father's amazing stories, and together we spent many hours listening to his cowboy music, from the Sons of the Pioneers to Frankie Lane. The young horse-loving dreamer in me would be carried away with his deep story-telling voice to the old West with cowboys singing and cooking around the fires, while the horses were tied nearby. One Christmas, my parents gave me a battery-operated, ride-on Tony the Pony and a red western hat (see picture in above collage, 2nd pic down on right)! Oh, what a Christmas that was! (And yes, I do still have my Tony)!


   
The cowboy code of honor and love of horses is proudly in my blood. Even though I say I traded horses for Huskies, I will always be cowgirl at heart and love the Wild, Wild West stories.



According to the website NationalDayofTheCowboy.com, "The National Day of the Cowboy non-profit organization works to contribute to the preservation of America’s cowboy culture and pioneer heritage so that the history and culture which the National Day of the Cowboy bill honors, can be shared and perpetuated for the public good, through education, the arts, literature, celebrations, gatherings, rodeos, and other community activities."

In honor of the Day of the Cowboy, I tip my Stetson to my father, my mother, and all of our amazing horses (not all pictured above): Tennessee, Goldie, Dusty, Silver, Jubelo James, and my heart horse Sam, as well as our two ponies Blaze and Ginger, who all led me to loving all things horsey! May they be riding the great trail in the sky together...and may my Gibson be trotting right along next to them on their heavenly path!


Note:  This post contains an affiliate link for an item through Amazon, meaning if you click on the link for the product and purchase the item through the affiliate link, I will receive a small commission *with no extra cost to you.* Thank you!


And what cowgirl or cowboy doesn't love their cup o' joe? A favorite quote of mine from "The Duke" is on one of my favorite mugs! If you love the West and mugs, you can get one, too, from Amazon! And it hold a heck of a lot of coffee!








Come join in our weekly stroll down Memory Lane in our FiveSibes Flashback Friday Blog Hop! Whether you share a photo of your pet from yesterday or yesteryear, let's have fun looking back over the amazing lives of our pets! What a wonderful way to kick off the weekend, too! We know how busy everyone one is, so the blog hop is open all week, so join in any time!








And a warm welcome to Dash Kitten for becoming the new lead host of The Pet Parade, along with co-hosts Bionic Basil and Barking From the Bayou, as Rascal and Rocco have taken a much-need break! We thank R&R for all their hops! Keep an eye out for fun parading to come from Dash and crew! Be sure to visit the hop and all the hoppers' great blogs, too!

Comments

  1. Sounds like your father wuz a really pawsome guy.

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  2. What a wonderful post about your father and your early life! I really enjoyed reading it. I have been doing Friday Flashbacks on and off for nearly 10 years, originally because I was running short of photos, but when Eric died I called it Eric's Day and did flashbacks for him. Then when Flynn died in May last year I reverted to calling it the Friday Flashback and do it every week now in honour of my boys.
    I am glad I have found your blog hop via the Cat Blogosphere.
    We also keep horses although I have none of my own now. My heart horse was Mr. Who, an Irish TB ex racehorse who I had for 22 years, and also Harvester, a Cleveland Bay who was due to be shot because his owner had died. Now we run our land as a small livery yard taking in 8 horses.

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  3. That was so good about your Dad! I do love those cowboy hats!

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  4. Dorothy what a beautiful story, thanks for sharing it. Sounds like you had a lovely childhood, I can't imagine anything better than living on lots of land with animals. It's like a dream. Montana is one place I've always wanted to visit because it looks so beautiful and peaceful. You wrote a lovely tribute to your cowboy dad on the National Day of the Cowboy.

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  5. Ah I love your story and hearing about your dad. I am a would be cowgirl, have visited a ranch in Arizona several times and love it there.

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  6. What a wonderful story I loved it and thank you so much for sharing as by reading it I feel I have got to know you better and that is an honor. Your father sounds like he was an amazing man and you were so fortunate to have him teach you what you know today.

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  7. I love the cowboy photo of the gang. Wonderful post and the Tribe of Five sends you "Howdys" from our cowboy country home in Idaho.

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  8. Lot of cowboys here in Texas. It's a proud heritage, and the pictures are terrific.

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  9. It sounds like you have lots of happy memories of your father. I'm so sorry you lost him. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous. My parents were never really 'animal people' so I didn't get to grow up around a lot of animals. I would have loved growing up on a farm. Now that I'm an adult we're working on trying to buy some land so I can live surrounded by lots of animals - a dream come true!

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  10. I love those mugs they are so richly coloured and they seem to reflect the rich heritage in the story you tell.

    Thank you.

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  11. I am sorry you lost your dad so young but oh my gosh, he gave you much in your time together. I loved reading about his dream and how you carried on his love of horses and animals in your life. And how cool, that you learned the art of "whispering" from him!

    P.S.: This is Ruby from The Daily Pip. We changed our blog to myrescuedlife.com.

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  12. I love horses and all the healing they do. Trail riding is one of my favourite things to do on a trip which is why I started horsetrotting.net. However, I'm always worried about how the horses are trained and cared for. Thanks for using a 'whispering' way of training rather than some of the rougher cowboy ways.

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  13. I like a cup of joe / coffee, too. And nothing too fancy, either.

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  14. Sounds like you had a fun childhood, surrounded with so many horses! I only rode a horse once at a nearby ranch and it was a great experience.

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  15. What a wonderful tribute to your dad.

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  16. Happy National Day of the Cowboy. What a precious tribute. Enjoy a good cup of cowboy coffee.

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  17. Lovely tribute and memories from your childhood! He sounds like he led an interesting life. Does your family still live on the ranch?

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  18. Wow, is there such a thing? A Cowboy Day; love it. I think we need to establish a Frog Day for Cookie's sake.

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  19. An interesting history & tribute to cowboy history! Unexpected, but cool!

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  20. I hope you had a great National Cowboy Day. It sounds like your dad taught you a lot and you have so many fond memories of your time with horses!

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  21. I think it's fun that you grew up a cowgirl. I also like the pics of all of your sibes. :)

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  22. Growing up the daughter of a cowboy must have been thrilling. I'm glad he was able to pass on a lot of his knowledge to you. Great tribute to your dad. I didn't know about this holiday.

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  23. What a great trip down memory lane. Love the first pic with the cowboy these with your dogs and your childhood collage photos. Too cute.Thanks for sharing.

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  24. Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful glimpse into a wonderful childhood. You're so lucky to have had your Dad in your life and to have shared a love of animals with him. I love your story and your photo collage - and I'm super jealous of your 10 acre property!! I hope to someday have property that's bigger than a postage stamp LOL!!
    Love & Biscuits,
    Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

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  25. What an interesting start to share. I know growing up I always thought the cowboy life was ideal.

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  26. Thank you for the warm blog hop welcome. You need to write a memoir about life on a farm with horses and stuff.

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