Some kid will practice his hip shot all winter on the roping dummy just for a moment of glory at the local rodeo. But, of course, a real cowboy's life isn't like that. That kind of romance reached its zenith along the shallow shores of the Milk River in the late 1880's, when a typical roundup would se 150 fiercely competitive riders doing mind-blowing things with rawhide riatas on unruly broncs. By the turn of the century, the open range was seriously overstocked with cattle. The homestead era followed, dominated and directed by the railways, ploughing under the great grasslands forever.
Today there are virtually no large native grasslands intact on the Canadian prairies.
Still, in the foothills, cowboy culture lives on. Indeed, its visceral appeal seems stronger than ever, especially now that most people live a long way from the land. But when I was growing up in British Columbia in the 1950s, cowboys were considered shiftless and no-account. Actually, they were a true subculture. They lived and worked on those huge ranches of the Nicola Valley and Cariboo, moving from one to another when ever they could find work.