page_title: Vaquero
section_title: California tradition
hierarchical_section_title: Vaquero / History / Modern United States / California tradition
caption_attribution_description: English: A classic working "Wade" saddle made by Three Forks Saddlery. 15 inch ladies' tree. Image taken with staff permission at Three Forks Saddlery, Three Forks, MT
context_page_description: The vaquero is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that originated on the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became the foundation for the North American cowboy. The vaqueros of the Americas were the horsemen and cattle herders of New Spain, who first came to California with the Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino in 1687, and later with expeditions in 1769 and the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition in 1774. They were the first cowboys in the region.
  In the modern United States and Canada, remnants of two major and distinct vaquero traditions remain, known today as the "Texas" tradition and the "Mexican", "Vaquero", or "California" tradition. The popular "horse whisperer" style of natural horsemanship was originally developed by practitioners who were predominantly from California and the Northwestern United States, clearly combining the attitudes and philosophy of the California vaquero with the equipment and outward look of the Texas cowboy. The natural horsemanship movement openly acknowledges much influence of the vaquero tradition.
context_section_description: The Mexican or Spanish vaquero who worked with young, untrained horses, arrived in the 18th century and flourished in California and bordering territories during the Spanish Colonial period. Settlers from the United States did not enter California until after the Mexican–American War, and most early settlers were miners rather than livestock ranchers, leaving livestock-raising largely to the Mexican people who chose to remain in California. The California vaquero or buckaroo, unlike the Texas cowboy, was considered a highly skilled worker, who usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up. He generally married and raised a family. In addition, the geography and climate of much of California was dramatically different from that of Texas, allowing more intensive grazing with less open range, plus cattle in California were marketed primarily at a regional level, without the need (nor, until much later, even the logistical possibility) to be driven hundreds of miles to railroad lines. Thus, a horse- and livestock-handling culture remained in California and the Pacific Northwest that retained a stronger direct Mexican and Spanish influence than that of Texas.
  Cowboys of this tradition were dubbed buckaroos by English-speaking settlers. The words buckaroo and vaquero are still used on occasion in the Great Basin, parts of California and, less often, in the Pacific Northwest. Elsewhere, the term "cowboy" is more common.
caption: A "Wade" saddle, popular with working ranch buckaroo tradition riders, derived from vaquero saddle designs
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