rural translations

Most of the words added to these lists will have equivalent words in other languages however some will not as they are unique to a specific country, such as the ‘boleadoras’ of South America and ‘Bedourie oven’ of Australia.

Saddlery

Girth:

• ‘girth’ – Australia
• ‘cinch’ – America & Canada
• ‘cincha’ – Spanish
• ‘montura’ – Argentina (saddle)
• ‘recado’ – Argentina (used in the bush to ride horses, but very different to a conventional saddle)

Stock handling equipment:

• ‘cathcing rope’ – Australia
• ‘lariat’; derived from ‘la reata’ (which means ‘throw rope’ in ‘Spanish)
• ‘lasso’ (‘lazo’ means ‘rope’ or ‘snare’ in Spanish) (America)
• ‘boleadoras’ (Argentina). Also known as 'Las tres Marias' (The Three Marias). Can be 2 weights but usually 3 (rocks or lumps of wood) tied to leather straps. Gauchos would throw the boleadoras at the beast's legs to tangle them up and stop them running away.

Whips:

• ‘làtigos’ (Argentina) – short whip, more like a riding crop. Often with a fancy design.
• ‘stockwhip’ (Australia) – a leather plaited whip that is usually at least 6 foot long, which is flicked through the air sharply so that the ‘cracker’ on the tip breaks the sound barrier and makes a loud noise. A stockwhip isn’t used for hitting anything (except maybe giving the odd doughy calf a gentle flick around the legs). Instead the noise is used to hurry stock up or block them up. American ‘bullwhips’ and ‘cow whips’ are somewhat similar. The Australian Whipmakers Association has an excellent website written by tireless character Ron Edwards. Well worth a visit – great information and a good laugh.

Answers has some information on the differences between whips used in other countries – there is a heap of them.

Domestic gear:

• ‘swag’ (Australia) – ‘bedroll’ (America, Canada)
• ‘camp fire cooking’ – ‘asado’ (Argentina)
• ‘camp oven’ (Australia) – ‘dutch oven’ (America)
• ‘Bedourie oven’ (Australia) – large cooking container with a tight fitting lid, used in a similar way to the cast-iron camp oven, but more suited to carting about on packhorses as a Bedourie is lighter and won’t crack when dropped.

Other gear:

• ‘facón’ (Argentina) – large knife carried by gauchos

Ute (2 or 4 door vehicle with an open back for carting anything from dognuts and a few shovels to small ponies):

• ‘ute’(short for ‘utility’) – Australia
• ‘pickup’ (truck) – America & Canada
• ‘camioneta’ – Argentina
• ‘chata’(slang) – Argentina

Stockyard related words:

• ‘yard’ or ‘stockyard’ – Australia
• ‘corral’ – U.S. & Canada
• ‘loading race’ – Australia
• ‘loading chute’ – U.S.
• ‘drafting gates’ – Australia
• ‘cutting gates’ – U.S.

Words for ‘rodeo’ and horse sports:

• ‘rodeo’ – Australia (pronounced ‘row-DAY-oh’ in southern Australia and ‘row-dee-oh’ in northern Australia)
• ‘rodeo’ – U.S. & Canada
• ‘charreada’ – Mexico (similar to rodeos but event rules and details are a bit different)
• ‘jineteada’ – Argentina (similar to rodeos but event rules and details are a bit different)