I first heard that term from my friend Stanlee, as we were walking to his new horse barn.   Supper was out there that evening.  His ranch is located on the bottom side of Texas, right near the Mexico border.  It was a beautiful evening, the way I recall.  They are situated near enough to the Gulf of Mexico that they almost always get a few clouds in their sunsets.  They have their own unique beauty to them, even if they aren’t western Kansas sunsets.

We had been talking, Stanlee and I, about a few things pertaining to life and our families as we ambled towards the horse barn.  The way I recall, my boys and his boys were out riding some horses in the dry riverbed nearby and were just then showing up in the yard.  Of course, yard would need to be defined by Texas standards.  The house was fenced in on all sides, and cattle guards made for free range calves right up to the fence by the house.  In the nearby pasture-turned-holding-pen ranged over 1,500 head of various size and breed of cattle, all supplemented with a steady diet of leftover cakes and rolls from the nearest Starbucks. 

Inside the fenced in area was a nice green lawn, sprawling porch, and backyard firepit.  A few newly planted trees stood still in the warm evening air.  A couple of family dogs lounged in the shade of the house.  With a few timid calves nosing through the fence at us, it made for a very peaceful setting in which to live and share time with friends.

One of Stanlee’s friends rolled up to join us for supper. 

Stanlee told me that just a few days previous, they had a bunch of new calves to work and brand.  He had called this particular friend up to see if he could come help.  He had.  He had dropped what he was working with and came over right away.  And even though the job had taken right up to midnight to finish, and even though his friend had a day job to face early the next morning, he had stayed until it was done.

“He rides for the brand,” said Stanlee.

I’ve pondered that statement in the years since that evening. 

The friend that Stanlee referred to didn’t have much “dude” attitude, if any at all, to him. 

He didn’t wear clothes that gave that look either.

In fact, if I had been asked to pick him out in a crowd, I wouldn’t have been able to.

I’ve come to figure, in the years since, that the fellow who Rides for the Brand ain’t your uppity, showy type of guy.

He’s the kind of fellow you can give a job to, and you know you can walk away without ever having to think about it again.

Because you know the fellow who Rides for the Brand will work at what you gave him to do with quiet resolve, even though the whole world is spinning on around him, and he’ll work at it until it gets done, and done right.

There have been way too many times I have supposed the job I was doing could be done in a lesser way than it should have been.

There have been times when I came up with, what seemed to me anyway, viable alternatives that made me leave early for something easier and more fun.

I’ve known myself to up and quit before the task was even started.

But that ain’t Riding for the Brand, and I know my friend wouldn’t want to hire someone of that caliber.

It takes a fellow with a steady hand, good nerve, and a tough personal standard of seeing the thing through to make that grade.

Ride for the Brand.