‘It’s the Only Thing I Know’ : Laid-Off Cowboy Rides Into Sunset--Wistfully

Cowboy Gary Robyn was tending his horse, talking in an easy, slow manner about how his future became muddled this week with the Irvine Co. announcement that it will soon end its cattle-raising operation.

“It looks bad, real bad for me to get another job cowboying,” he said, as he walked the horse back to the stable. “But you never know . . . someone may quit or retire . . . or die.”

He looked up at the whining jets from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station that streaked over the company-provided ranch house he’ll soon have to leave and muttered, “never did like them.” Faced with the imminent loss of his job, Robyn has discovered there’s not much call for cowboys these days in Orange County or, for that matter, anywhere else in the country.

“I’ve been calling all over California, Nevada and New Mexico and there are a lot of cowboys out of work there too,” said Robyn, 42, who has spent the last nine years riding the range for Irvine Co.

This week, the company announced it would sell its 3,000 head of cattle, abandon the marginally profitable beef-raising operation and put Robyn and two other cowboys out of work.

Robyn said his job riding the 38,000 rugged acres that make up Irvine Co.’s cattle grazing land will end July 31 “and after that I’m not sure what will happen. I’m gonna keep trying to find a cowboy job. It’s the only thing I know.”

Although he feels confident “things will turn around in a year or two,” Robyn doesn’t dismiss the fact that he may have to turn to a new line of work, at least temporarily, to support himself.

“When things get tough you have to do things you may not want to do,” he said. “What bothers me is I don’t own anything and I’m gonna try like hell not to spend what savings I have for survival. I’m 42, and years go by pretty fast.”

“The story of cowboys losing their jobs seems to be the story throughout the state,” said Leo Johnson, assistant manager of the California Cattlemen’s Assn.

“Economics in the cattle business is very poor and many ranchers are doing the work themselves instead of hiring cowboys. And it’s not only in this state but wherever they raise cattle,” Johnson said in a telephone interview from his Sacramento office.

‘Helluva Shock’

The end of Irvine’s cattle business struck cowboy Leroy Homan the hardest. “It’s a helluva shock,” he said. “Now I have mixed feelings about being a cowboy. I’m 49 so I have to look for a job to fit my age.”

But Stephen Beverlin, 28, the youngest of the three working the Irvine ranch, is confident he’ll find a cowboy job even if it means moving to the Great Plains.

“I don’t mind the cold and I break colts, so it’s a little easier to find work,” he said. “I can find a job within a week if I wanted to bad enough.”

Nearby Rancho Mission Viejo, where 5,000 head of cattle graze on 40,000 acres, has five working cowboys, but according to Gilbert Aguirre, senior vice president, “they have been here for years and we don’t need any more. It’s kind of touch and go when all you know is cowboying,” he added. “Most broken-down cowboys end up in the construction business because they’re not afraid of work.”

Began in Gardening Business

Unlike cowpokes who drifted West for jobs and the warmer climate, Culver City-born Robyn was a Johnny-come-lately who decided at age 25 he wanted to spend his life on the range. The move was a turnaround from the gardening business he worked at after graduating from Reseda High School. He once held a job in an aircraft factory.

Robyn hired on as a ranch hand in Oregon before landing the job at the Irvine spread.

“It has been a good company and they haven’t hurt me in any way,” he said. “They paid me good, gave me good benefits and gave (rented) me a place to live. I thought they would phase the operation out, but they just cut it right off.”

Looking for inspiration, Robyn said “my boss (Robert Elder) always said every time he changed jobs as a cowboy it was for the better. I’ve gotta believe in that.”