rodeo life: tuff-up, get back on yer horse, don't back down, don't give up, and do the best you can with the hand you're dealt.
ranch life: give it all you've got, or "I cowboy for a living
...The cowboy symbolizes the free life, closely tied to the out-of-doors and Nature. The impact of land, the grass, the rivers and streams and gushing springs, the color of the sky and the clouds, the climate and the weather, these things are characteristic of the real and the mythical cowboy cultures.
