As a tradition for dinner, the cowboy who owned the land the cowboys were on would butcher one of the land owner's steers. Cowboys were mostly in their early twenties. There weren't just white cowboys, there were also Indian cowboys and Mexican cowboys. When the cowboys were on the trail, they slept on the ground in a bedroll. Cowboys ate bacon a lot.
Chaps are leather leggings that protected their legs.
Now these are the things they wore and how they helped the Cowboys. True Cowboy boots were knee high to keep pebbles and dirt out. The cowboys wore a bandanna around their neck to keep from getting sunburn on their necks. If it got cold out they put the bandanna on their ears. The cowboys' hats kept the sun out of their eyes.