By western author Nick Brumby

“One white foot buy him, Two white feet try him, Three white feet leave him alone, Four white feet go on home.”
— Cowboy superstition

Strong, silent, lantern jawed, steely eyed – cowboys were (and are) known for rawhide toughness and being absolutely fearless when the chips are down. However, don’t be fooled – Old West cowboys were also known for being as superstitious as the best of them.

While many people don’t pay as much attention to them today, there are still some old-school cowboys that hold the superstitions close to their hearts.

Many cowboy superstitions center around luck – avoiding bad luck and encouraging the good kind. For example, even today placing a hat brim side-down on any surface is not considered auspicious, as all the good luck will run out of the crown.

In Old West every cowboy knew to never laid your hat on the bed. Why? One theory held at the tie was that hair contained ‘evil spirits’ and by placing your hat on the bed, the evil spirits would escape and cause bad luck. This theory comes from the static electricity that would build up from wearing a hat in a warm, dry environment. When the wearer took it off and placed it on a bed, they got a shock Few people knew what static electricity was at the time so they blamed ‘evil spirits’.

Another theory behind this superstition comes from the fact that a hat would be laid on the casket of the deceased at funerals. Placing a hat on a bed has the same connotation, in theory once again inviting evil spirits.

There is also a practical reason behind this tradition too. Since Old West cowboys didn’t regularly bathe, they often had head lice. By placing a hat on the bed, the lice were able to spread much quicker than otherwise.

Another cowboy superstition focused on knives. In some regions, it was believed that gifting someone a knife would ‘sever’ the friendship between gift giver and recipient. To avoid bad luck, the recipient was expected to ‘pay’ for the knife; a penny was enough. It was also considered unlucky to hand someone an open folding knife, while whoever opened a knife was responsible for closing it.

Other superstitions focused on a cowboy’s horse. A man on horseback never put his right foot in the stirrup first. Horseshoes have always been considered lucky – a shoe from the hind foot of a gray mare is said be the luckiest of all. Inhaling a horse’s breath was believed to be a cure for whooping cough.

When a rancher’s favorite horse died he would hang a pair of his boots on fence posts as a sign of how much he thought of his steed. Also, cowboys never changed a horse’s name. No matter how much they disliked it, it was thought to bring bad luck to anyone who changed it. If a horse stepped in a wolf paw print, many believed that the horse would be crippled.

Another cowboy superstition reinforced the idea that horses with white feet are more prone to cracking or chipping than darker colored feet. This one even had its own rhyme:

“One white foot buy him,
“Two white feet, try him,
“Three white feet, leave him alone!”
“Four white feet, go on home.”

Other Old West cowboy superstitions included:

• Never cleaning your boots, only oiling them. If a man cleaned his boots it was feared he would rub all the luck off.
• Never wearing a peacock feather in your hat.
• Never crossing your boots when taking them off, so the cowboy would not be tripped
• The brass decoration on a horse harness was believed to protect the rider from witches.
• Stepping in manure was considered good luck.
• Never accepting a gift of old boots, for fear of stepping into the old owner’s troubles.
• Putting a copper penny in a water tank was said to help moody mares.

This is just a small list of cowboy superstitions. Do you know of any others?

About Nick Brumby

I like a good story. And of all stories, I love westerns the most.

As a kid, I spent far too many afternoons re-watching Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, picking up ‘Shane’ for just one more read, or saddling up beside Ben Cartwright when ‘Bonanza’ was on TV each afternoon.

I’m a former journalist and I love horses, dogs, and the occasional bourbon whiskey. I live with my wife, daughter and our ever-slumbering hound in a 1800’s-era gold mining town – our house is right on top of the last working gold mine in the area. There may not be much gold left, but there’s history wherever you look.

I hope you enjoy my westerns as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Happy trails,

Nick