Cowboy Proverbs: 10 More Life Lessons from the Saddle

Howdy. Chip Schweiger, here. Welcome to another edition of Way Out West. 

The podcast that takes you on a journey through the stories of the American West, brings you the very best cowboy wisdom, and celebrates the cowboys and cowgirls—who are feeding a nation. 

There’s a quiet magic in the West just before the sun dips behind the hills. The horizon glows like fire, the cattle settle into the pastures, and the wind hums through the tall grass. You can almost hear the whispers of those who rode before, the lessons they carried with them, tucked away like a handkerchief in a pocket.

These weren’t polished words or anything meant for a crowd. They were truths lived and earned, and they’ve got a way of sticking with a man — if he’s willing to listen.

So today on the show, we’re talking again about the kind of sayings cowboys carried with ’em — rough-cut bits of truth, hammered out by hard work and harder living. This is part two of our two-part series.

After the episode, check out the show notes at WayOutWestPod.com/cowboy-proverbs-more-life-lessons

Hi there and welcome back.

Hey, before we get into today’s story, I want to share something with you. 

If you’ve been following The Cowboy Accountant blog, you’ll notice a new name. From now on, everything we do here — the blog, the podcast, the community — will live under one brand: Way Out West. 

Now don’t worry, nothing’s changing about the stories or the voice. It’s still me, The Cowboy Accountant. But the name Way Out West just fits better for the frontier tales we share here. 

And I’d love for you to join me and other folks in our new Facebook group, The Way Out West Roundup. It’s a place where we can swap stories and keep the cowboy spirit alive. You can find the link in the show notes. 

Thanks for riding with me on this next stretch of the trail.

Now for this week, imagine stepping into that same old barn again that we journeyed in last week. Dust hangs thick in the air, shafts of sunlight catching on cobwebs. You shift a worn saddle, a stack of hay bales, and there it is — a book, leather cracked, pages yellowed, corners bent by time.

No title. No author. Just the weight of years pressed into every page. You brush the dust off and flip it open, and there they are: words scribbled down by cowboys long gone. Not poetry, not philosophy — just simple truths, earned the hard way.

And that’s what we’re doing today: walking through some more of those old cowboy proverbs, as if we were reading straight from that forgotten ledger. Part two of two.

So kick off your boots and let’s dive into 10 more cowboy proverbs.

Proverb No. 47: Don’t Lean on a Weak Post

Every cowboy fixing fence knows this: if you tie your wire to a rotten post, it won’t hold. Might look fine at first, but the first storm will take it down. Same with life — don’t lean on weak foundations, whether it’s people, promises, or plans. Build on something solid, or you’ll be fixing it again in no time.

Proverb No. 25: A Stirrup’s No Place for Hesitation

Out on the range, when you put your boot in the stirrup, you’d better be ready to ride. Pause too long and a bronc will throw you before you’re even seated. Life’s the same — hesitation at the wrong moment costs you more than courage ever will.

Proverb No. 91: Don’t Spit Into the Wind

Sounds silly, right? But every cowboy has done it once — and only once. You learn fast that fighting the wind is a losing game.

That’s life, too. Some forces are bigger than you. Better to lean with the wind than waste your energy working against it.

Proverb No. 63: Horses Remember, So Do People

I knew a guy who thought he’d “teach that horse a lesson” with a heavy hand. Bad move. That horse never forgot. He gave him fits every time he was saddled after that.

People are the same. Treat ‘em rough, and they won’t forget it. Treat ‘em fair, and they’ll carry you farther than you thought possible.

Proverb No. 5: A Slow Fire Still Cooks Beans

Out on the trail, the impatient cowboys were always lifting the lid, stirring, fussing. The old cook would just laugh and say, “Leave it be, boys. A slow fire still cooks beans.”

Patience may not look exciting, but it always gets the job done. That’s cowboy wisdom.

Proverb No. 70: Never Ride a Horse You Don’t Trust

A buddy once swapped horses just to try a flashy one. Thing looked good — shiny coat, fast gait. But halfway across a river crossing, that horse froze and nearly dumped him.

Lesson? Looks don’t matter if trust ain’t there. Whether it’s horses or people, don’t tie yourself to something — or someone — you don’t trust.

Proverb No. 18: Dust Settles, Riders Don’t

After a hard drive, when the herd bedded down, you could watch the dust hang in the air. It always drifted, always settled. But cowboys? They’d already be saddling up again, ready for the next push.

Dust settles. Riders don’t. It’s about resilience — you keep moving, even when the world around you wants to lay down.

Proverb No. 36: Don’t Bet on Rain Till You Feel It

Ranchers spend half their lives praying for rain. You see a cloud, you think it’s coming — but most of the time, it blows right past. Cowboys learn not to count on things till they’re real. Same goes for promises, money, or plans. Wait till it’s in your hand before you bet the ranch.

Proverb No. 102: A Quiet Dog Bites Hardest

Every ranch has that one dog. Doesn’t bark, doesn’t yap, but when the time comes, it takes care of business.

Cowboys know the same’s true with people. The loudest talkers usually don’t mean much. It’s the quiet ones you best not underestimate.

Proverb No. 28: Always Wave Back

There’s a stretch of road near Abilene where every truck, every rider, every ranch hand gives you a wave as they pass. You don’t know ‘em, they don’t know you — but you wave back.

It’s respect. It’s community. Cowboys believe the small gestures hold the West together. Always wave back.

Closing

And there you have it — ten more cowboy proverbs, each one rough-hewn and trail-tested, as if pulled right from that old forgotten ledger. 

Some are funny, some are practical, some are downright poetic — but all of ‘em carry the weight of a life lived under the wide-open sky.

Well, before we finish up for this week, we’ve got one more thing.

Buster the Bull & Cowboy Glossary Term of the Week

Yep, that distinctive call from Buster the Bull means it’s time for the cowboy glossary term of the week. And this week’s term is: Dogie (pronounced dough-gie)

Out on the trail, a dogie was an orphaned calf — one without its mother. They were often thin, scrappy little things that took extra work to drive along with the herd. A cowboy riding drag might spend half his day hollering and nudging dogies forward so they didn’t get left behind.

Over time, the word became part of cowboy talk. You’ll hear it in songs like “Git Along Little Dogies,” where cowboys sang to keep the herd moving on those long night drives.

A dogie reminds us of the grit it took to keep a cattle drive together — because even the smallest stragglers mattered when you were moving thousands of head across the open plains.

Thanks for Listening

And with that, we close the chapter on another tale from Way Out West. Thanks for riding along with me today.

If you liked this second batch of proverbs, share this episode with a friend, and maybe even try living by one of these sayings this week. 

Until next time, this is Chip Schweiger reminding you to keep your cinch tight, ride with a gentle hand, and when you’re driving those back roads, always wave back.

We’ll see y’all down the road.