Origins of the Bar Lazy W

Cowboys, Horses & Dreams

There were some very distinct advantages to growing up in the 1950's and early 1960's. As kids during that time, we saw the birth of rock and roll, the beginning of space exploration, major medical advances like the serum for polio and the beginning of social changes that are still evolving today.

That was also the time period that came to be known as the "golden age" of the cowboy. No, not the historical cowboys - those men who drove the great herds north out of Texas between 1865 and 1885 and in the process created the cowboy culture and its enduring mythology. No, we are talking about the "golden age" of the movie and television cowboys- those larger than life heroes with whom we shared the Saturday afternoons of our childhood.

The first television to appear in our neighbourhood belonged to a family up the street. It was in that family’s living room that all the local kids would gather to see the next episode of "Roy Rogers Theatre." Later, when our family got a TV of our own, Roy and Gene and a host of other cowboy heroes, along with their legendary horses, became regular visitors to our house. We loved those guys and, although we didn’t know it at the time, the influence they had on some of us was destined to last a lifetime.

Time passed and we all grew older. The cowboy faded into the background as other priorities shaped our lives. School, careers, adult responsibilities and new interests took our attention. Nevertheless for some of us, the cowboys of our childhood never totally relinquished their hold on our imaginations - true friends who refused to be forgotten.

We continued to watch the old movies on TV and although Hollywood was making fewer and fewer "dusters" we eagerly awaited each new offering from the Duke and Clint. We bought cowboy boots and wore them proudly, even though friends and family could not resist joking about what they saw as just a silly fashion affectation. When the day came that rock and roll, the music of our youth, no longer seemed to speak to us we naturally turned to country music and then beyond - to the cowboy poets. With their words and music artists like Don Edwards, Buck Ramsay and Ian Tyson gave us stirring musical images of the new and old west.

They say that life is a series of "defining moments" - events, which in some way cause major alterations in our lives and open doors into new experiences and interests. Sometimes these events can also serve to reconnect threads from our past - somehow picking up a direction which appeared to have been lost in the passage of time. For my wife and I such an event occurred some years back when we went to north-eastern Montana and drove cattle with the real cowboys.

Although we were on what has come to be known as a "slicker drive", it was nevertheless a working ranch - no swimming pool, no sauna and no guest lodge here. We slept on the ground, ate from a chuck wagon and spent nine hours a day in the saddle moving cattle across some of the most rugged and beautiful country you could imagine. We got dirty, we got sore, we got bone tired and it was wonderful.

Side by side we rode with men and women "born to the saddle" - third generation ranch folk, dedicated to cattle, horses and the land. They were everything we believed cowboys to be - hard working, self sufficient, proud and, in some ways, very private people. All of our childhood fantasies and images of the cowboy life materialized around us. Horses, cows, dust, the sounds of moving cattle, jingling spurs, whistling ropes, pounding hooves, the relentless landscape and those stoic men and women, sitting tall in the saddle, with their eyes fixed firmly on the horizon.

Yes, it was Montana that brought us back full circle and reawakened our affection for the cowboy culture. More importantly, an idea was born, an idea that began with a simple question I asked one of the cowboys as we rode along one day - "So, how much would one of these horses cost?"

Watching those cowboys ride we were so envious of their horsemanship, the easy way they sat in the saddle and the way their horses responded to the most imperceptible cues. Horse and rider, moving as one, relaxed, confident, making it look so easy and natural. We wanted to learn to do that, to ride with that same level of finesse and confidence. Montana gave birth to the idea that is the Bar Lazy W - an idea born of the desire to be in the presence of horses.

And so, here we are today, still living the cowboy fantasy but with one major difference. Our lives now include our two Quarter Horses, Champ and Annie (see if you western trivia buffs can guess the origin of those names). They have opened up a whole new world for us while at the same time linking us to something we only dreamed about as youngsters. We spend as much time with them as we can and with riding lessons our skills and confidence continue to improve. Showing and competition don't hold much allure for us - we are content to hack and explore the trails, enjoying our connection with a culture, which while we were not born to it, comes alive for us through our horses.

More than forty years ago, as children, we basked in the glow of TV and movie screens which came alive with the images of cowboys and great horses as we dreamed of riding with our heroes. Today we can ride down a quiet country road on our own horses, our boots planted firmly in the stirrups and cowboy hats pulled low. Rocked by the rhythm of the four beat gait, lulled by the squeak of leather and the sound of the horses' footfalls we smile, knowing that something once almost lost has been found again - knowing that in some way Roy and Gene and the others are riding right along beside us.

The dream has evolved into the combination of reality and reflection that is the Bar Lazy W.