Malaysia: Kadazan Boys Riding Water Buffaloes

Lingering along the way to give their families’ water buffaloes a chance to browse, Kadazan boys are riding to a pond where they will wash their animals. The idyllic scene took place in 1968 near Papar, Sabah, a Malaysian part of Borneo.

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Two Ways To Climb A Coconut Tree

Near Legazpi, in the Philippines’ Luzon Island, this man climbed a coconut tree depending only on his strong leg muscles to hug the tree as they pushed himself upward.

Sustained by a liana, a Baka pygmy near M’baki, Central African Republic, is climbing a coconut tree. He uses the ax hooked to his left shoulder to cut steps in the tree as he climbs it.

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Colombia: Not Every Moment Of A Cowboy’s Life Is Hectic

Hereafter are a few more Colombian cowboys images.

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Pulling a raincoat from a saddle as rain starts falling.

Riding to work through the Llanos’ immensity. Besides the Sahara and Patagonia, few other places on earth have made me enjoy freedom as much as here. 

Reviewing cattle with the boss.

A quiet break from horses and cows. 

Filling a cup of cool drinking water.

Giant barbecue for carnivorous cowboys.

Cowboys bedroom.

Colombia: Stoicism Of A Barefoot Cowboy And His Horse

In Colombia’s Llanos Orientales a barefoot cowboy and his horse remain immobile under a downpour as they keep watch over a herd of zebus. Barefoot riding defines all Llanos cowboys.

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Colombia: Cowboys Sitting By A Fire

Cowboys of Colombia’s Llanos resting by a fire while it’s heating their branding irons.

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Colombia: Of Men, Calves, And Mud

To mark calves in Colombia’s Llanos requires men to lasso the animals, to keep them down in the mud waiting for their turn to be branded, and to handle the branding iron. It’s all a game, really, full of hilarious situations.

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Colombia: Cowboys Marking Calves

Colombian cowboys marking calves inside a Llanos corral. Mud and water are two of the reasons why they always go barefoot. Much else was going on around in the corral. Like other men lassoing calves running wild. And it wasn’t easy to manage a camera on slippery ground while avoiding to be swept off my feet when caught by a moving lasso between cowboy and galloping calf.

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Colombia: Cowboys Herding Cattle To Corral

Cowboys of the Colombian Llanos, all of them riding barefoot as is their custom, are herding cows and calves to a Colombian  corral to be separated there. After the cows will have been returned to pasture the calves will be marked.

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Colombia: Cowboys Lassoing Horses

As described in previous posts, rounding up hundreds of widely scattered cows that have been left alone fattening on the Llanos’ grass for several months is very hard on horses. So much so that such annual roundups see each cowboy exhaust four horses over a day. Though, as was also shown in my earlier posts, horse selection starts at dawn, it goes on long after the sun has risen. Here, cowboys are lassoing the ones they will use. More cowboys are arriving on horseback to pick their own.

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Colombia: Cowboy Leading Horses To Corral

Horses following a cowboy to a corral in Colombia’s Llanos Orientales. Other cowboys there will select four of them each for the day’s work. In a giant round up, gathering widely scattered cattle, horses in constant gallop will need to be replaced for fresh ones as the day advances. 

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