Dear Reader,
Summer is coming to a close; people will soon be putting out fake pumpkins, fall wreaths, and everything will smell or taste like pumpkin spice. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, even if I am not a big fan of pumpkin spice. I love the way the air makes it feel like something exciting is going to happen. Fall is also a time for adventures, I don’t know why but it just seems like that. Even the animals seem to know that it a special time of year. Fall also bring sweater weather which is very looked forward to in Florida because we have been waiting 6-8 months to wear our favorite sweaters.
Fall has my favorite fashions, and it just feels more ranchy when you are doing chores in a coat and hat instead of rubber boots and a t-shirt. I don’t know what difference an outfit makes when you are doing ranching stuff, but it definitely does make a difference. It just doesn’t have the same feel to execute some daring ranching feat if you do not have the cowboy attire to match it. That’s not to say that I always dress that way when I am outside doing chores. There are plenty of evening that I feed in my shorts and hiking boots because I am going jogging after I get done. The other day I was reading an interview of a ranching wife and she said that one day she realized that she was doing her morning chores in her pajamas and decided she needed to change something (I felt very targeted).
But what is the standard for women’s fashion in the ranching community? Well, there are two camps. First there is camp “I wear lipstick and jewelry to work cows in.” This camp’s philosophy it that even though you are out in the middle of nowhere doing a man’s work, you can still dress like a lady and look nice. These women take the time to put on makeup every morning even if the only thing they see that day are creatures with four hooves. Now some of this may be influenced by social media, but I have known about ladies doing this before social media was such an influence on our culture.
The second camp is camp “I wear something that will protect me.” This camp is all about functionality and protection. If the boot fits, wear it. They would rather not be sunburned and scratched up at the end of the day, even if that means wearing your husband’s old shirt. I would say this camp has been around since the dawn of ranching. Safety and practicality come first, looks can be given attention when we go to town.
What camp do I fall in? I am probably somewhere in between these two camps. I would love to look put together and cute while doing ranch work, but I am not spending time putting on makeup to work cattle when I could get 15 more minutes of sleep. At 4:30 in the morning priorities can be a little different, and when your hair is going to be under a hat all day, you can get away with just ponytail or braid. I used to wear jewelry when working cattle, but after losing some favorite pieces, I make sure to take my earrings out. I am also not above wearing men’s shirts and jeans because they are considerably cheaper, last longer, and nobody can really tell. But I also like to accessorize with what I am wearing, I like my hat to look sharp, my saddle to look clean, and my gear to be good. And it does make a difference.
Yesterday, I decided to work my colt in a button up shirt and my favorite cap. I usually just wear a t-shirt, but I just felt like putting on a new shirt that I got. Did it make my horsemanship better, no, my horse actually didn’t seem to like the bright color at first. But it did make me look a little better while I was waiting soaking wet in a thunderstorm for my mom and little brother to come rescue me because the 4-wheeler decided to quit on me while I was taking the trash out to the road.
Sincerely and not so fashionably yours,
The Rancher’s Daughter
From the Rancher's Daughter's Desk 