Buckaroo lives childhood dream
by Teri Vance, Outpost staff
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In this package Buckaroos
tie hard and fast to tradition On the Web |
William (B.J.) Wachob, a 25-year-old cowboy, was riding through the herd checking the cows and calves for any sickness or other problems.
Everything was going fine. Then his horse slipped in the mud. The two fell, the horse landing on top. Wachob said he heard his bone crack under the weight of the horse and knew instantly that his ankle was broken.
It was a bad accident but it only got worse. In a freak happening, the coils of Wachob's rope wrapped around his lower leg and when the horse stood up, the rope snapped tight.
The horse took off running, dragging Wachob behind and shattering his calf bone in a spiral break in addition to his broken ankle.
Wachob spent about six months recouperating from his accident and still is not completely recovered. But he said the accident has not deterred him from persuing the cowboy life.
"You gotta roll with the punches," he said. "If you're afraid of getting hurt, why it's gonna keep you from doin' most things that are enjoyable."
Wachob looks the part of a Nevada Buckaroo.
His Wrangler jeans are worn and tight with a white crease running straight down the front. His white shirt is neatly pressed and bottoned to the neck and wrists.
His hat is black and has a wide, flat brim.
He said he dresses this way because it represents a way of life to him, the life of a buckaroo, a word derived from the Spanish word "vaquero" or cowboy.
"I've always wanted to be a buckaroo," Wachob said.
Wachob and his younger brother, Kacy, left their home ranch in Colorado five years ago to become buckaroos on larger ranches in Northern Nevada.
"When I was a kid, I seen pictures in a book," Wachob said. "This is where all the big places are."
It was not only the size of the ranches that drew Wachob to Nevada but the landscape as well.
"We grew up where we were thick in the brush all the time," he said. "When we were kids we used to look at those pictures of buckaroos out in the wide open desert and it appealed to me.
"You can gather a lot more cattle out on the desert in a day, where you can see everything, than out in the brush."
Wachob said he likes the style of ranching in Nevada.
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B.J. Wachob rides through the herd. Photo courtesy of B.J. Wachob |
"They do things out here the way I would do it if I had my own place," he said. "The old-style way."
Like the first cowboys to come to the United States from Mexico, he said he likes to take his time with the cattle and the horses and take pride in what he does.
Wachob said he would like to stay in Nevada and eventually move up to a management position on a large ranch so he can support a family. It is not easy, however.
"The big dilema is that you have to be married and stable to get a management position," he said. "There are very few women who want to live out in the sticks. It's tough, probably the toughest part of the whole thing."
But fortunately for him, his girlfriend is a pivot (a large irrigation sprinkler system) technician and lives on the same ranch. He said this is the first ranch of the five he's lived on since coming to Nevada that has women employees.
Despite the hardships of the job, Wachob said the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences.
As a child, he said he always heard stories from older cowboys who had gone to Nevada to work on the big ranches and he always wanted to go too.
"I had visions in my head about what it was like," Wachob said. "It was everything them guys had talked about and more 'cause I was livin' it.
"It went from their stories to my stories. It was everything I ever wanted."
Posted Dec. 11, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Oupost