In light of the Father’s Day weekend, I thought I’d share a couple of stories about the father of my kids, affectionately referred to on this blog as Cowboy Dad. While my husband would never claim to be a cowboy, I call him that because I think he has some old fashioned characteristics that remind me of an old west hero. Knowing him, he will cringe as he reads this, because if Cowboy Dad has a fault, it would be that he denies the credibility of all compliments. But he is the best person I know.
When I first met Cowboy Dad, I was a schoolteacher and he owned a construction business. We met online, when he sent an electronic wink to a photo of a girl standing next to a black horse. The girl was me, and when he followed the wink with a letter, she wrote back, and we met and fell in love on the spot. We had been dating only a few months when he told me I should get a horse and keep it at his folks’ place. I took that as a real good sign of commitment, and promptly bought a horse. We were married the following summer. 
It didn’t take long for me to share my horse habit with my husband. That winter, we went to a sale barn auction, and he purchased a little runty weanling we named Milo, and soon after we also got an older broke mare. I was pregnant, and it was Cowboy Dad who carried hot water to melt the ice in their tanks, pitched hay, and worked like crazy to make the farm a good place for horses. He told me he had always wanted a horse, but since his grandpa had farmed using a team of horses long ago, his grandpa had a strong dislike for them, and would never let him have one. So he started riding pretty late in life, but knowing that horses were a high priority with me, he has educated himself rather quickly and become very good with them.
Cowboy Dad was the first to ride Milo, when he was old enough to train. We did some basic groundwork with him, and he had become very gentle as soon as we bought him and started feeding him grain, so introducing the saddle and a rider was no big deal. Milo was very willing, and took everything with great amiability and patience. Here is a photo of his very first ride:
We bought some first calf heifer pairs a few years ago, and this is the photo I snapped as he was holding the pasture gate open for them. We don’t live on a ranch, and we aren’t even in a ranching community. We live in town, and our cattle are on rented pasture that’s too hilly to farm. But all the work we do—the feeding, hauling water, calving out, giving shots, fixing fence—gives us something we can work on together, and I call our cattle venture “quality of life”. There’s just something about having cows around that keeps you feeling grounded and healthy.
Cowboy Dad has made sure that we get out to visit my folks at least twice a year. This was one of our first visits to Idaho. He was riding Possum, and I was riding Lazaroni. We went along on the cattle drive up Pass Creek, and our first child was just a baby then. One thing I love about Cowboy Dad is how thoughtful he is, and how he makes plans and works to see a job done. My favorite thing to do is “follow him around” when he’s working at the farm or fixing some project. Working together on something always makes the job easier and more enjoyable.
If you ever see my husband, chances are he’ll be in a white t-shirt. I think it’s a habit he picked up from his grandpa, but he wears white t-shirts until they are threadbare and holey. His favorite ones are the thin ones…not new anymore, but not quite worn out. They’re just the way he likes them. Comfortable. I love how comfortable he is to be around. I love his laugh. I love his ornery grin.
I’m sharing this photo because it demonstrates what a good dad my kids have. They really wanted to use the face paints, and he sat down and let them paint his face, enjoying it so much because they were so excited about it. His patience is unmeasurable sometimes, and he loves to see the kids happy. Folding the laundry months after this photo was taken, I found a little dab of paint still on the collar of the shirt he had been wearing. And it made me smile all over again, because my kids have a great dad.
Cowboy Dad has done a great job of introducing our kids to horses and a western way of life. My kids have no fear of horses, and they don’t fear hard work, either. They go with us everywhere, and our horse experiences are some of our favorite family times. We just bought a second riding helmet because our daughter has outgrown her first one, and now little brother is wearing it. He was just a toddler when he started acting like his dad. It doesn’t matter what is being done, if Dad is working, the little guy wants to help. Here they are mixing grain for the feeder calves.
There are a lot of things I love about Cowboy Dad. I try to stay pretty stoic with my emotions, but if you catch me thinking about what kind of life I have because I married him, I will get all choked up and teary. I am happy because of him. 
