I want to be a cowboy

Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a cowboy, I guess it was the influence of all the old TV westerns like Roy Rogers (that's my name too!) Hop-a-long Cassidy,Gene Autry , Cheyenne (staring Clint Walker!),The Rifleman, John Wayne,etc.. I would get up each morning and put on my jeans and cowboy boots,imitation leather vest with the silver buttons and fringe and put on my red painted straw cowboy hat with the nifty shoestring strap to keep it from blowing off when you're riding a fast horse, strap on my trusty chrome plated cap gun and out I'd go to save the west from the guys in the black hats.
We lived in a rented farm house and we always had a milk cow and chickens for eggs, but we never had a horse, except for the stick kind with the brown vinyl head and plastic reins. I had my little pet dog Pat as my sidekick and we would play for hours in the backyard. Sometimes I was allowed to cross the road to the Rupp brothers farm and hang out with them and also get cookies from their spinster sister Ellen, who also was the first grade teacher at park school. One day I was over there messing around the irrigation ditch that had water running in it when I slipped and fell into the water. My cowboy boot was sucked off my foot and went floating down the ditch while I cried my eyes out. I had to walk all the way home with only one boot on, but the worst was having to tell my mother that i was playing around the water which was strictly a no-no.
I don't remember hardly any of the birthday presents I got around that time ,but one I'll always remember was given to me by my Great Uncle Tom Marvin. He gave me about 15 to 20 feet of half inch manila rope to use as a lasso.He tied a loop in the end for me and I would go around roping any thing that stood still long enough for me to lasso. My folks even took me to the Nepesta rodeo grounds so I could see how the real cowboys did it.
My folks finally bought a house closer to town just outside the city limits with a acre of ground and we still had the milk cow and chickens but no horse. I would go out to my friends homes who had horses and they would tolerate me and let me ride double up behind them when they would go riding together. Pity the poor soul who got me because they couldn't go as fast as the others with the extra weight hanging on for dear life at the rear. I think it was kind of embarrassing for them when I would show up in my blue jeans and t-shirt and sneakers and ball cap as by that time I didn't have any boots or cowboy hat so that didn't last too long.
We would always spend our vacations at my grandparents in Oklahoma and when we got there my grandpa L would go out into the pasture to round up the Shetland ponies for us to ride. We would usually ride bareback with just a bridle and its tough to stay on once you start leaning too much one way. My oldest brother was tall and long legged and could just stand up and let the pony run out from underneath him but I would usually just fall off, but at least we were riding horses. After two weeks of that I was still convinced I could be a cowboy if I only had my own horse.
When I was about 10 or 12 I was at my uncles home and he had bought a small horse for his girls and wanted my help in breaking it of a bad habit of being jumpy. Now my uncle was a big man ,truck driver, been around horses all his life and knew how to do this. My cousin Gail would lead the horse while I rode him and every now and then I was to wave my hands wildly until he got used to it. Now this horse had been mistreated and beaten about the head and any movement around his head would set him off which Gail and I didn't know. So we start walking around the yard when my uncle yelled "wave your arms" which I did and all hell broke loose, the horse bucked almost running over Gail, I'm grabbing a hold of the saddle horn trying to stay on and my uncle yelling "wave your arms".We do this for a few more times until my arm waves are more like just barely moving my hands off the saddle horn, and both Gail and I were bawling our eyes out, scared we were going to run her over or I was going to be bucked off. I never rode a horse again for 20 years and I never wanted to be a cowboy ever again.