“Hey Lariat...How’d you get so good with that rope, anyway?” Aegis piped up, pointing to Lariat’s Cutie mark of a Lasso being spun horizontally in the air.
“Ah, amigo, that is a long tale, indeed...but first, tell me, have you ever heard of the vaquero before?” Lariat idly coiled the rope he had been showing off with, putting it neatly away before sacking in for the night. Entertainment was hard to find in the middle of the Congo, and Lariat’s rope tricks never failed to amuse neither human nor Equestrian.
Aegis could only shake his head no. “What’s a buckaroo, anyway?”
Lariat chuckled. Aegis had warped the word ever so slightly, just as the gringos that had borrowed the term had done before. Aegis couldn’t be blamed; the native Equestrian had probably never heard espanol before. There was no way he could be expected to pronounce it correctly on the first try.
“A vaquero is what we of...well, what we formerly of, heh, Mexicano culture call our herders on horseback. Never thought I would be the caballo!” Lariat laughed, but none of the other ponies or humans around the campfire did, only glancing at each other in question. “Ah, lo siento, amigo, caballo means horse...of course, I mean pony, in this case.” Lariat poked at the fire.
“Back to your question, amigo, ropework was very important, be it on a drive or simply showing off for the los niños pequeños.” Lariat smiled and placed the rope back in his saddlebag. “And what better reason to do anything, eh?”