10/27/2025
🌾 Tough Doesn’t Have to Mean Silent 🐎🤠
In cowboy and ranching/farm life, grit runs deep — but so does the weight of silence.
This Western Horseman article on Addressing Mental Health in the Cowboy Community highlights a growing movement to talk openly about depression, addiction, and loss in Western culture.
A century ago, nearly 1 in 3 Americans lived on farms. Today, it’s about 1.6% of the workforce — yet that small group still shoulders much of the nation’s food supply.
As the agricultural population has shrunk, rural towns have thinned out, community support has faded, and mental-health resources have become harder to reach. Combine that with a culture that prizes toughness and privacy, and the result is isolation that can turn deadly.
That’s why spaces like The Outside Circle Show — and organizations like Ropes & Roses Therapy Services — matter so deeply. They remind us that vulnerability is strength, and that connection is the real heart of resilience.
If you or someone you love is struggling, you’re not alone.
Call or text 988 for free, confidential support.
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🐴 Because no one should have to carry the load alone.
www.ropesandrosestherapy.com
https://westernhorseman.com/culture/addressing-mental-health-in-the-cowboy-community
Mental health, depression and addiction are stigmatized in Western culture. They are topics seldom discussed within groups of cowboys, but the Outside Circle Show and other groups of working cowboys are banding together to encourage vulnerability and recovery through connection. Mental health, depre...
