Editing Vaquero (section)

====California tradition====
Cowboys of this tradition were dubbed ''buckaroos'' by English-speaking settlers. The words ''buckaroo'' and ''vaquero'' are still used on occasion in the [[Great Basin]], parts of California and, less often, in the [[Pacific Northwest]]. Elsewhere, the term "cowboy" is more common.<ref name="Buckaroos" /> The ''vaqueros'' of the Americas were the horsemen and cattle herders of [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]], who first came to California with the [[Jesuit]] priest [[Eusebio Kino]] in 1687, and later with expeditions in 1769 and the [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] expedition in 1774.{{sfn|Clayton|2001|pp=10-11}} They were the first cowboys in the region.<ref name="Buckaroos" />

Even though the lands of the California ''vaqueros'' were fertile for farming, "it was not the disposition of Spanish Californians to over-exert themselves, so the raising of cattle, which was little drain on the energies, was a very much more agreeable way of life than farming ... there were few in the world who could surpass ... [the] vaquero in horsemanship."<ref>Cowan, Robert G. (1977) p. 5 "Ranchos of California." Academy Library Guild. Fresno, California.</ref> The future Mexican or Spanish vaqueros were placed in the saddle at 5 years of age, and sometimes earlier, and worked with young, often trained horses, which had originally arrived from Mexico<ref>Cowan p. 5, 7</ref> in the 18th century and flourished in [[California]] and bordering territories during the Spanish/Mexican era.<ref>[http://www.horsechannel.com/western-horse-training/vaquero-way-17722.aspx Stewart, Kara L. "The Vaquero Way", web site accessed November 18, 2007].</ref>

Although the Californios were considered by most foreigners as great horsemen, their treatment and method of training the horses was frowned upon. Englishman William Robert Garner mention that their method of breaking and training horses: “. . . ''likewise tends to break the spirit of the animals, and injure them in their joints.[…] when it is tired they take the saddle off it, and make it fast to a post, without anything to eat, and keep it there for four or five days, on nothing but water''.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Garner |first1=William Robert |title=Letters from California, 1846-1847 |date=1970 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London |isbn=9780520015654 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lo0moQ_PYPcC&dq=Then+their+method+of+breaking+them+in+likewise+tends+to+break+the+spirit+of+the+animals,+and+injure+them+in+their+joints.+They+will+take+a+wild+colt+and+put+the+saddle+on+it,&pg=PA107 |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref> William Redmond Ryan, another English writer and immigrant, said that: “''of the wild horses subjected to this process of training, at least one-fourth are killed, and a still larger proportion seriously injured''.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Redmond Ryan |first1=William |title=Personal Adventures in Upper and Lower California, in 1848-9 |date=1850 |publisher=William Shoberl |location=London |page=102 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o3oFAAAAQAAJ&q=horse+taming+californians |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref> German immigrant Edward Vischer once commented that: “''The barbarous Californians look upon a horse as a useful commodity which is of little value and easily replaced''.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bennett |first1=Deb |title=Conquerors: The Roots of New World Horsemanship |date=1998 |publisher=Amigo Publications |isbn=9780965853309 |page=377 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/conquerorsrootso0000benn/page/376/mode/2up?q=Vischer&view=theater |access-date=13 July 2023}}</ref>

Settlers originally arriving from the United States prior to 1846 (Mexican War) could marry a Californio woman or apply for Mexican citizenship in order to receive a [[land grant]], which would then almost require the new ''citizen'' to acquire the ''vaquero'' skills and life styles, a life style in which he would "invariably [keep] a horse saddled before his door, awaiting his pleasure.  If it was necessary to go more than fifty steps, he rode."<ref>Cowan p.8</ref>  After the conquest of California, with the conclusion of the [[Mexican–American War]] in 1848, Americans began to flood the newly conquered territory with immigration, for the 1849 [[goldrush]], which resulted in most of them being miners rather than livestock ranchers. The California vaquero or buckaroo, unlike the Texas cowboy, was considered a highly skilled worker, who usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up. He generally married and raised a family.<ref name=free/> In addition, the geography and climate of much of California was dramatically different from that of Texas, allowing more intensive grazing with less [[open range]], plus cattle in California were marketed primarily at a regional level, without the need (nor, until much later, even the logistical possibility) to be driven hundreds of miles to railroad lines. Thus, a horse- and livestock-handling culture remained in California and the Pacific Northwest that retained a stronger direct Mexican and Spanish influence than that of Texas.

<gallery widths="165px" heights="200px">

File:Coleo a pie en Baja California Sur.png|Bull-tailing (coleo) on foot in [[Baja California Sur]] (1762). Baja Vaqueros were the original Californio Vaqueros.
File:California Vaqueros, 1854.jpg|[[Californio]] Vaqueros returned from the chase
File:MaclintockV.jpg|Finished "straight-up [[spade bit (horse)|spade bit]]" with California-style ''bosalito'' and bridle
File:Wade Saddle.jpg|A "Wade" saddle, popular with working ranch buckaroo tradition riders, derived from vaquero saddle designs
</gallery>