Schroeder Law’s Therese Ure Riding in the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive
This week Therese Ure, the managing attorney in our Reno office, is riding in the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive. The horseback drive across northern Nevada’s high desert sagebrush country takes five days and covers about a hundred miles.
Some folks may get mixed up and refer to the riders on the Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive as “cowboys,” but on the northern Nevada range the word is “buckaroo”. “Cowboys” are from Texas, Montana, or some other place. Moreover “buckaroo” usually means a working cowboy who does not do rodeos.
The term buckaroo comes from the early ranching days in northern Nevada. The first cattlemen in northern Nevada were Hispanic Californians known as “vaqueros.” Over time, the pronunciation of “vaquero” evolved to “buckaroo.” They say you can distinguish a buckaroo from a cowboy by his hat: cowboys are more likely to wear a traditional curve-brim high-crowned hat, while buckaroos wear a flat-brim, flat-crowned hat.
Check out Reno managing attorney Therese Ure and the other buckaroos in these photos from this year’s Reno Rodeo Cattle Drive!
Therese Ure says:
June 13th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Working on the cattle drive was a great experience… My “job” for two days was to ensure the cattle on the drive were not mixed with those out on the range, thus ensuring a clean passageway.
While my work is done, the cattle drives go on. A fun experience, no doubt!
Day one on the cattle drive was filled with excitement and fun. Waking up early, checking the cattle, seeing a few antelope, and making sure the horses were good and fed, and especially ‘watered up’. It was a hot day as we trailed across the rangelands of Nevada only stopping for a quick lunch and water break. We then continued over the rolling hills finally pushing the cattle off the last hill down to the nights camp.
The evening was filled with stories, jokes, cowboy poetry, whiskey and tall tales! As they say… whiskeys for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin’… a true statement in my profession. I slept on my bed roll only waking to the sound of the camp cooks stirring the fire, the smell of the open range, coffee, and the beautiful morning clear sky!
We left camp early and proceed to drive the cattle across the flat. There was no wind and the sun was blazing, but the cattle kept moving and so did we. Gracie and Sam T, my fellow hands, helped keep the cattle in line and roped those strong headed few that tried to leave the herd, quickly teaching the cattle to respect the horse. All in all the cattle and cowboys made it to their destination without wrecks, sickness, or injury…. It was “a good drive”.
While my experience was only a few days long, we had a great time and entertained ourselves along the way….now back to work protecting the water and land use rights of those cowboys, farmers and users that I have grown more to appreciate.
Therese