This Rodeo Cowboy with Wild Mustangs overall stands about 14 ½ inches tall. The scene is 2 wild mustangs about 2 ¾ inches high, with a small metal pole going straight up about 11 ½ inches long, topped with a small cowboy hat. The cowboy hat is light brown with a red hatband and a sprig of holly tucked into the band. The cowboy is connected to the metal pole by a spring, so that he will jiggle his way down from the top to the wild mustangs ready to break them and ride them home. Our cowboy has blue denim jeans and brown boots on with silver spurs. He also has a red shirt and light beige kerchief with of course his light brown cowboy hat on. Select this link to view our Collectible Santa Claus Gifts.
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 The Original 4x4.
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 Cowboy Metal Sculpture.
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 Cowboy Bear.