Has anyone heard this term used for a Buckaroo wannabe? I am a member of a buckaroo FB group and asked an innocent question about participating in cattle drives and one guy went off on me. Seriously ill mannered and the “Effs” were flying.Most of the people participated in intelligent conversation and were helpful, but a few working guys (and gals) made fun of my question. Apparently a gunsel is a “poser” buckaroo wannabee with all the matching equiptment, fancy chinks etc. They aren’t “real” cowboys, but play dress up. So followers of Parelli, Brannaman, etc in their fancy duds are considered “gunsels”
http://www.buckarooguide.com/gunsel-type.html
Anyone else ever heard of this?
Yes. It’s what I grew up knowing as a term for someone who is unhandy or a wanna-be.
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Maybe not a so nice word:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/gunsel
Here, one for that meaning of wannabe cowboy is drugstore cowboy.
Not to be confused with punchy or ranchy, meaning someone that goes to extremes to look the cowboy part, which may be a real cowboy or a poser.
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I have heard gunsel used, mostly by older men, for the person who is “all hat and no cattle” trying to impress others. Not real common anymore as local expressive language gets more homogenized thru TV and radio influences.
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I see it is used too often due to the internet and more specifically Facebook.
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Ironically, I believe it’s something Pat Parelli calls the great unwashed, those who have not seen the light of his ways. I was just thinking of that word today when I tried to play it in Words with Friends.
I wouldn’t get too upset about it. I’d imagine it to be a cultural thing. I think some folks who were raised in the traditional Western lifestyle (ie. a generational cattle rancher) may feel that it’s a hobby for city slickers. Weekend warriors who want to consume the fun of cowboy culture without living it. It’s not an entirely baseless belief, either. People are entitled to their opinions, and some are going to be a bit abrasive.
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Bit, he was an a-hole. I checked out his Facebook page and he basically is middle aged, single, b****** about everything. I also felt a bit sorry for him. He was asking his friends that if they didn’t have anything else to do on Christmas Day a certain bar was open and he could meet them there to shoot darts. I get the impression hes just incorrigible and lonely the cause of it. Still not an excuse. Couple other people piped in and had a good chuckle on that but there were quite a few really nice people that got what I was asking. I’m 62 years old and the top of my bucket list is to go on a cattle drive not a dude ranch but get out there and experience the real thing knowing that it’s tough. This guy that berated me assumed that I didn’t even know how to tack up a horse. Lol. Well I’ve been doing that for most of my life.
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This popped up today, made me make think of this thread.
1942 Western Horseman magazine
https://www.westernhorseman.com/article/flashbacks/3318-what-is-a-gunsel
A gunsel is someone who’s a tenderfoot or green or makes a boneheaded mistake. In some cases it could be a poser - like a dimestore cowboy - but usually it’s someone who’s done something dumb. “Can you believe that gunsel didn’t ever hobble train his horse before going camping?”
That is interesting, forgot about that, what an idea!
It also happen to be an old word, used for other meanings, but don’t know if those cowboy regions knew of it.
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Aces, Loved that article. Although I am now more confused. Hysterical and it was written back in the forties. So now, I am more confused. I know I’m not a Cowboy. And I know now that I am not a Gunsel. I don’t think I’m a Pilgrim however I might be a Dude. Except that I have way too much horse experience and knowledge to be a Dude. So perhaps we need to invent a new word. Lol
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Lol! Hope you got a giggle out of it.
Sorry you had a tough go on FB. I’ve been guilty of not being the nicest or helpful person online. Its easy to take real life frustrations out on someone you don’t know personally online.
Carry on with trying something new. Take advantage of those opportunities that come your way to expand your knowledge. Good luck Maude.
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I wouldn’t get upset because a bunch of old men claiming to be gen-u-iner-than-you horsemen used a term coined in the 1940s to diss me. This is the horse form of being a Luddite in Silicon Valley.
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Even worse. The day I worry about someone taking my horsemanship inventory on FB using a term they heard at a very expensive clinic that proposed to teach much of value in a weekend (while spinning a horse around on the end of a lead for 3 hours), is the day I ought not to be around horses anymore.
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We called them candy asses, candies for short. As in he’s such a candy he has to tie oil rags around his boots to keep the ants off his ass.
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Ha. Did you notice that the urban dictionary traces the term back to the Yiddish for goose? I just think it’s funny that Mr Macho is using slang from the urban shtetl without even knowing it. What a schmuck.
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