Describes the work, equipment, and culture of the vaqueros, the Spanish cowherders who shaped the Mexican plains five hundred years ago, and traces their evolution over the centuries into "cowboys" and "buckaroos.".
Thirteen-year-old Cesa de Haro's beloved way of life on the beautiful Rancho del Valle de la Madrugada is threatened by Mexico's loss of Upper California to the United States in 1846 and the arrival of gold seekers from the east.
A picture-book biography of Florida rancher Iris Wall, describing her childhood in Indiantown in southern Florida, where she learned at her father's side how to cow-hunt and care for cracker cattle and to break and ride cracker horses, a tradition she has carried out through her long life and handed down to her own daughters.
In Wyoming in the 1880s, a young boy fulfills his dream of finding a dinosaur skeleton on his father's ranch, outwits a man who would cheat him, and sells his find to a team of fossil hunters.
While visiting a western ranch, Clarence the pig plays cards, line dances, plays the washtub in a cowboy band, and reads stories at bedtime with his new friend Smoky the purple horse.
