From Lands' End.

HE TOOK A BEATING, BUT THE BRUSH JACKET SURVIVED.

Brush Jacket Testimonial by Baxter Black

A year ago I was approached to do a testimonial by an upscale, environmentally conscious maker of urban clothing named Lands' End. Since neither Wrangler, Resistol, Bailey, Copenhagen or Coors had ever called, I figgered it was better than Uncle Billy's Baldness Salve or Depends.

I told him I would consider it as long as the product was biodegradable, herbivore-friendly and barbecue-proof. They sent me a catalogue with instructions to pick anything I wanted.

I chose a brush jacket.

http://www.landsend.com/cd/fp/prod/0,2503,1_2_1931_4766_23264_20563_5:view=-1,00.html

They didn't call it that, but that's what it is. They are insulated and made out of canvas like wagon tarps, tents or Carhartts. These jackets are the standard uniform in cow country where mesquite thickets and other equally thorny, prickly, spiney, daggery menace awaits the dedicated cowboy. To maintain my own credibility and give it a fair endorsement, I put it to the test.

At the next roundup I donned my new jacket to gather cows with the crew in the dreaded Parson's Pasture. I started in the lower arroyos riding through two miles of mesquite, dagger yucca, ocotillo trunks and crucifix thorn tall as a low windmill. It got so thick my horse was on his hands and knees trying to find the trail.

Malicious thorns the size of pitchfork tines pierced my boot tops, my rhinoceros-hide chaps and my galvanized wrist cuffs. Catclaw big as the talons on an eagle hooked and pulled at every piece of leather, flesh or cloth that was exposed, leaving thousands of horizontal slashes and scrapes, shredding my tapaderas into ribbons and spinning my rowels till they got so hot they set my boots on fire.

Then we chased some cows out of a cholla forest. Wicked cactus over the horse's head, that breaks off, clings to you and works its pins and needles through your clothing into your skin. When you clear the forest, rider, horse and cow are festooned with bratwurst-size cholla chunks like Christmas ornaments on a hirsute manatee.

Then, just for the sake of product integrity, I rolled through a pineapple field of barrel cactus, lay on the cattle guard and let two loaded twenty-foot stock trailers back over me slowly, was drug through a wet field of corn stubble by two 3-year-old colts, and lay underneath a '69 Ford pickup while they changed the oil.

The results of my test? Lost one button. A remarkable testament to the durability and toughness of their great brush jacket, which I guess allows me to keep it. That should help compensate for the burnt boots, melted spurs, shredded chaps and thirty-five stitches. I only wish we could have found my other ear.

(Story reprinted with permission from Baxter Black. Cowboy poet and former large animal veterinarian Baxter Black is a familiar presence on National Public Radio's Morning Edition.)

You can visit Baxter's Web site at http://www.baxterblack.com

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Answers

rhinoceros-hide chaps and he says "I would consider it as long as the product was ...herbivore-friendly...?"

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Sheesh. I hope the poor horse got something out of it. Extra rations, at least!

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001