Cowboys Code

09/11/2026

09/10/2026

Cowboys Code • 2020–2026

I wrote this for him the day we knew.

COWBOYS CODE

He was the color of a storm
that hangs above the flat,
and he'd meet you at the gate
before you ever called him back.

He'd drag them to the branding fire
and hold them in the smoke,
take whatever hit came his way
and never quit or choke.

Out in the pasture, no back fence,
no turnback help, no rail,
he'd shape a cow out of the bunch
and turn her down the trail.

Then in the herd, you'd cut your cow
and feel him find the eye,
two hands still up, but slack in both,
and you were there to ride.

He'd sink and set and mirror her,
he'd stop her either way,
and never once looked back at me
to ask what more I'd say.

We hauled him to the bright-lit pens
where all the good ones go,
and he made the finals standing tall
against the best they'd know.

That same horse hunting cows all day
beneath the arena glare
would drop his nose to a little hand
and stand a long time there.

It wasn't heart that gave out first.
That part of him stayed sound.
It was his feet - just that, his feet -
that brought a good horse down.

So we will walk him out today
across the ground he knows,
and stand around him, all of us,
and tell him where he goes.

Turn him out where the grass comes green,
where no man ever shod,
where a black horse works a cow all day,
sound-footed, under God.

- Drew Knowles

Photo by Carolyn Simancik

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