This ornament is 4 inches tall and 4¼ inches across. The Cowboy is wearing a tan Cowboy Hat, red bandana, red and white striped shirt, brown gloves, brown chaps over blue jeans and brown Cowboy Boots. His horse is showing lots of spirit as it gallops off. Select this link to view our Western Christmas Ornaments.
Cowboys.
During the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle raising traditions as well as their horses and cattle to the Americas, starting with their arrival in what today is Mexico and Florida. The traditions of Spain were transformed by the geographic, environmental and cultural circumstances of New Spain, which later became Mexico and the southwestern United States. In turn, the land and people of the Americas also saw dramatic changes due to Spanish influence. Select this link to view our Red and Black Cowboy Boot.
The arrival of horses was particularly significant. Horses quickly multiplied in America and became crucial to the success of the Spanish and later settlers from other nations. The earliest horses were originally of Andalusian, Barb and Arabian ancestry, but a number of uniquely American horse breeds developed in North and South America through selective breeding and by natural selection of animals that escaped to the wild. The Mustang and other colonial horse breeds are now called "wild," but in reality are feral horses, descendants of domesticated animals. Select this link to view our Santa Riding on a Cactus.
As English speaking traders and settlers moved into the Western United States, English and Spanish traditions, language and culture merged to some degree, with the vaquero tradition providing the foundation of the American cowboy. Before the Mexican American War in 1848, New England merchants who traveled by ship to California encountered both hacendados and vaqueros, trading manufactured goods for the hides and tallow produced from vast cattle ranches. American traders along what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail had similar contacts with vaquero life. Starting with these early encounters, the lifestyle and lingo of the vaquero began a transformation which merged with English cultural traditions and produced what became known in American culture as the "cowboy". Select this link to view our Tin Santa.
What is a Mustang?
A Mustang is a free roaming feral horse of the North American west. It first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Select this link to view our Gingerbread Cowboy.
In 1971, the United States Congress recognized Mustangs as “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West, which continue to contribute to the diversity of life forms within the Nation and enrich the lives of the American people.” Today, Mustang herds vary in the degree to which they can be traced to original Iberian horses. Some contain a greater genetic mixture of ranch stock and more recent breed releases. Others are relatively unchanged from the original Iberian stock, most strongly represented in the most isolated populations. Select this link to view our Cowboy Metal Sculpture.