GETTIN' OLD - NOT A PRETTY SIGHT

by Julie Carter

The plan all along is to get old, but it happens to some folks faster than others.
Cowboys pretty much across the board fit into that category.
The life of cowboy is hard on the physical body.
It doesn't seem to hurt their mind much, but one could argue that if they had much of a mind to begin with, they'd have another vocation.
Perhaps a career that offered better hours and monetary rewards.
A life of having horses pound you into the ground, cows run you over and assortment of other wrecks involving gates, pickups and trailers have cowboys feeling serious aches and pains at an early age.
And that's just from the work part of the job.
The horseplay that goes on endlessly is as frequently the culprit for injury and subsequent lifetime handicaps.
The body is just not made to bend the wrong way as many times as cowboying can make that happen.
Looking older than they are and feeling twice as old happens sooner than usual if the vocation involves the word cowboy.
Bowlegs are a visible symptom of a much worse problem.
Those knobby knees in the middle of that bow are a never ending source of pain, agony and frustration.
An old-in-miles but not-in-years cowboy with knees that had seen Olympic-quality abuse wrote this about the situation:
Where ever you go either you walk or ride.
You use your knees with every stride.
Your stride gets short and the trail gets long.
It sure is hell when your knees are gone.
You jump right off but when you land,
Sometimes your mouth gets full of sand.
You can't stand up and it hurts to crawl.
You ain't no good on the ground at all.
You can't run your horse with any ease,
'Cause of the real bad hurtin' in your knees.
But don't you worry about that ol' pard,
The cowboy life was always hard.
With today's technology, more and more cowboys are signing up for the "spare parts" surgery. Usually these guys need the new knees long before the doctors think it's advisable.
The new parts come with life-span that leaves the cowboy needing a second replacement even before he is eligible for social security.
In an effort to avoid that and to buy a little time, they hobble around dragging a leg, thinking everything they see looks like it needs to be set on, and giving the anti-inflammatory drug business a dramatic sales boost.
At the branding corral, they look for a place to sit and rest where they don't have to be tailed back up when it is time to go back to work.
The grunts and moans you hear is just them trying to get their foot in the stirrup and get back on their horse.
No longer is there any shame in using a log, rock or trailer fender to make that easier.
They find it acceptably easier to the let the young buttons do the work even if it takes longer than it should.
With no apology, they discover a new found fondness for shorter horses and slower women.
And those old cowboys that are recreational ropers?
The secret to their quick catch is simply because their shoulders won't hold up past a few quick swings of the loop.
It can be noted that most of the senior roping events start early in the morning. It's paramount that they get their shot at roping for the money before their pills start to wear off.
This getting' old ain't for sissies.
Julie, somewhat long in the tooth herself, can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net. Visit my website at www.julie-carter.com