Started as early as 1888, professional competitions offering trophies testing and displaying cowboy and vaquero skills are called what?
Cowboy Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the "vaquero" traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of special significance and legend. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle. In addition to ranch work, some cowboys work for or participate in rodeos. Cowgirls, first defined as such in the late 19th century, had a less-well documented historical role, but in the modern world
Vaquero 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 language of the "vaquero" began a transformation which merged with English cultural traditions and produced what became known in American culture as the "cowboy". Mesteñeros were vaqueros that caught, broke and drove Mustangs to market in the Spanish and later Mexican, and still