This One's For My Girls...

My cowgirls, that is....

Last week, an anonymous commenter on the blog asked me to quit calling myself a cowgirl, because it was offensive to "those of us who live the life". Well, darlin, I've got news for you. If I've offended you, then I'm doing my job. This is my blog about my life. I'll call myself anything that I damn well please. I regularly call myself a klutz, a pain in the butt, stubborn, and crazy. No one has argued with me about those. But just in case you argue the definition of a cowgirl, this is what Merriam-Webster's Dictionary has to say about it (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cowgirl; accessed August 22, 2011):

Cow girl noun \-ˌgər(-ə)l\



Definition of COWGIRL


1: a girl or woman who tends cattle or horses


2: a girl or woman who is a rodeo performer
 
Now...how does that definition fit me?
1. I am a woman;
2. I tend horses, both at my little farm and at Southeast Boarding Barn where I am usually found in my off hours; and
3. I am a rodeo performer. Not a good one yet, but I'm working on it.
 
Now if your question is: how am I further qualified? I've worked cattle..even though I don't own any. My family has ranched the North Dakota badlands for the last 100+ years. I know how to fix fences and spent one summer helping string a mile's worth of it. I have the veterinary knowledge that being self suffient requires or I know who to ask to get help. I bust my ass from dawn til dark to take care of my family, my job, my property, and my animals. I know that I'll be eating canned beans and baloney before any of my animals go without proper care.
 
I don't have any delusions of grandeur where my little farm is concerned. Its not a ranch, nor would I ever call it that. I'm saving that for the 200+ acres I will be buying someday. I've got to work to get there, but I will. But that little farm is MINE.
 
And finally, being a cowgirl is a attitude. Its a take-it-all on, work through the pain, bust tail til the job is done and the fingers are bleeding mindset. You fall off, you get right back on and tackle the world.
 
And darlin, if you've got a problem with that...then don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya on the way out.
 
 

 

Cowgirls gone wild!