Articles by Ryan T. Bell / Photography by Eliseo Miciú

The gaucho and cowboy are like brothers separated at birth. Born of a similar heritage, their European ancestors ventured into the New World frontiers of North and South America.  This collection of articles published in Western Horseman examines some parallels between their worlds.

Topics include: the gaucho tradition of rawhide gearmaking, methods of horse training, techniques for branding and ranch roping, backcountry travel in the Andes Mountains, and the gaucho’s relationship to North America.

Up the Andes: A Packtrip in the backcountry of Patagonia.

Summary: It was a simple premise for a pack trip: deliver a friend to the bus station.  But in the backcountry of Argentine Patagonia, even an everyday errand requires miles – and days – in the saddle. (Western Horseman, November 2009)

Gauchos Go North: Two Gaucho Gearmakers Go Cowboy

Summary: Argentine gaucho Armando Deferrari expains how he and his fellow countryman Pablo Lozano brought their rawhide-braiding styles north and became two of the American West’s most unlikely traditional cowboy craftsmen. (Western Horseman, November 2009)

La Pialada : At a ranch roping with Pablo Lozano

Summary: “Vamos al campo,” Pablo Lozano said over a steak dinner at a neighborhood grill.  “I just finished a lazo I’ve been meaning to try out.”  He made a few phone calls, and the next morning we were riding across his ranch on our way to a pialada, a gaucho-style ranch roping. (Western Horseman, July 2009)

Esteban Mera: A Horsemanship Crossroads

Summary: Many gauchos live by the rough law of the frontier, where a hand whip and sharp set of spurs are all it takes to break a colt.  In northern Patagonia, Esteban Mera is a non-violent domador who blends gaucho tradition with the methodologies of Bill Dorrance and Ray Hunt. (Western Horseman, June 2006)

Rawhide Braiding: The Art of the Gauchos

Summary: A strand of rawhide leather was all that separated a gaucho from certain death on the Argentine frontier. The trenza rawhide braiding tradition was born out of a need to be self-sufficient in a land where civilized outposts were few and far between. Gauchos take great care in braiding rawhide saddlery, because in a pair of reins they literally hold their own lives in their hands. (Western Horseman, April 2006)

Gone Gaucho: Riding With the Cowboys of Argentina

Summary: Working alongside a dozen gauchos at a spring roundup and branding, an American discovers that gauchos and cowboys have a lot in common.  Most important of all, we share a passion for working livestock, living the horseman’s life, and sharing our experiences with people we respect.(Western Horseman, June 2005)