The Outfit: A Cowboy's Primer — J.P.S. Brown

In the time of our grandfathers, an outfit was a group of men who husbanded a herd of cattle to market. Ranches also became known as outfits because they are equipped to husband the bovine from birth to market. A cowboy's gear became known as an outfit. A man-child might be called a “little outfit” by his father, who was also born to an outfit. He is an outfit too, because he was born with the equipment and potential for husbandry of cattle. He is born a cowboy and it is inevitable that cowboys are born and not made.