Bull Rider - West Melbourne, Florida, USA

The Cowboy Way

Being a Cowboy is doing the right thing; common wisdom born of simple virtues and strong ideals.

Above all, it is a strict adherence to honesty even when it is not in our best interests.

It is having an inherent sense of justice in a world where the cards are often stacked against us. We try to hold enough common sense to recognize the value of a lost cause and the cost of lost values.

Generally speaking, we are quietly reserved in all things except freedom, fresh air and Saturday night. We have a keen eye for a good horse, a good gun, and a good Cowgirl.

Constant to friends, we are more so when friends need us, less so when they don't. Familiar with hard work we also know hard knocks and hard roads.

Often given to tears when lesser individuals would display indifference; we are as well given to joy in a few places others would only find disdain.

We enjoy plain living, not because we relish doing without, but because we have discovered the treasures within.

And, finally, we have that elusive emotion called courage which is, at worst, a badly directed sense of conceit and, at best, it is the stuff of which dreams are made.

Judge Charly Gullett