Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Captured in a tintype photograph—a mirror image—that evokes the spirit of the Old West, Colter Schlosser’s gear combines style with utility. “If it’s not functionable, it’s not worth wearing,” says the 17-year-old British Columbia buckaroo. A flat-brimmed hat protects him from the sun, a “wild rag” warms his neck, leather cuffs prevent brush burns, and fringed half chaps deflect rain from his pants.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Men who spend all day on horseback are particular about saddles. “Over the years, you figure out what works best for you,” says Pat Crisswell (at right), who uses a Texas-style swell-fork saddle on a Wyoming ranch. Chad Milius (left) favors a buckaroo-style slick-fork rig.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

A cowboy’s day begins in the corral, roping a horse and saddling up at first light. His mount is his partner as well as his transport. “You’re a team,” says buckaroo Clint Damewood (in the black hat) at the historic ZX Ranch in Oregon. “When you’re chasing cows around out there, it’s just you and him.”

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Beau and Rowdy Hall play basketball, swim, and snowboard, but cowboying on Colorado’s North Pueblo Ranch alongside their father is the most fun of all. “They’re more help than some of the grown-ups he has hired,” says their mother.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Native American cowgirls Harli and Ashley Cota (left and center) and Jessica Kelly rope and ride on the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada. Ashley, now 19, is studying ranch management to help her family market their hormone-free beef.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Born to be cowboys, H. G. and Cooper Adams (center and right) join Tanner Rollins for chores on the XI Ranch. Their great-great-grandfather bought the Kansas spread, and H. G.’s son, one-year-old Horace Greeley Adams VI, may one day take up its reins.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

“I was breaking a young horse, and he reared up and pawed me in the side of the face. When the vet come out the next day, he put some stitches in and stuck the Band-Aid on. I couldn’t see very good for several days.” —R. D. Horn, Adrian, Texas

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

“When you ride a bronc, that’s real fun, a good adrenaline rush. I’ve been bucked off a bunch, been kicked, been stepped on. I’ve never had any come sailing through the air and land on top of me, though. I’ll probably be cowboying till I kick off, or I’m too old and crippled to do it anymore.” —Tyrel Tucker, Powell, Wyoming

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

“I was four when I started helping my father at La Mora Ranch—the fourth generation of my family to work there. I got married recently and moved to the city, but as soon as our first child is born we’re going back. The countryside is beautiful, and the air is completely clean.” — Manuel Rodríguez Franco, Coahuila, Mexico

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

“The draw? Well, it’s stuff you can’t explain—to ride over the hills when the sun’s coming up and there’s 300 elk feeding. Our job is our hobby. It doesn’t pay good enough otherwise.” — Wes Miner, Snowline, Montana

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Though tough at times, the cowboy life has its rewards. Mennonites Marcel and Jane Troyer run their own herd when they can lease land near Pueblo, Colorado, and Marcel also takes temporary ranch jobs. They hope to teach their sons the value of an honest day’s work and the sense of accomplishment it brings.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Linc Bundy moves into a range tepee during roundup at the ORO Ranch in Arizona, far from his wife and three children, but he sees sunrises and sunsets, and he rides through singing grass under the open sky every day—a cattleman’s paradise.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Shining with buckaroo silver, Nathan Fluter wears his weekend best to watch friends compete in a rodeo in Jordan Valley, Oregon. Now in law school in Missoula, Montana, Fluter worked as a horse wrangler on a ranch in his spare time during high school and college. “I want to do agriculture law so I can work in a smaller town,” he says. “I’m more of a ranch person, but I guess necessity has made me a city person right now.”

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Chase and Clay Sligar, teenage ranch hands now living in Nevada, have moved at least a couple dozen times as their parents searched for greener cowboying pastures in one place after another. A self-confessed adrenaline junkie, Chase (at left) plans to follow in their footsteps. “There ain’t nothing better than roping something, your horse starts bucking, and everything goes to haywire,” he says. Clay has a different kind of life in mind. “Someday I’d like to own a ranch. Go out and play cowboy. Not have to work on all the long, hot days—just when it’s nice.”

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

A fourth-generation cattleman, Bret Reeder has had a Wild West mustache ever since he grew enough whiskers to create one. Careful grooming, done daily, turns stray stands into a curiosity that the grandkids love to grab. “If you sleep on it, it’s kind of a bad hair day,” Reeder says. “I re-wax it every morning.” In addition to running cattle on the family spread in Utah, he shoes horses, works as a pickup man at rodeos, and maintains the county’s cattle guards on rural roads. Making ends meet “takes quite a few jobs,” he says.

Photograph by Robb Kendrick

Thick leather leggings known as batwing chaps protect Kyle Stone’s legs from the brush on Arizona’s 240,000-acre (97,000 hectares) ORO Ranch. Like all other cowboys, he’s responsible for providing his own equipment—chaps, spurs, ropes, saddles, bridles, a range tepee, a bedroll, and tools to shoe the eight to ten horses assigned to him. Once he’s out on the range, he’ll be on his own. “You need an individual who can get himself started and get the work done,” says ranch manager, Wayne Word. “With cowboys, it’s not like you’re right there looking over their shoulder.”