One of the best, if not the best, firsthand account written by a twentieth-century working cowboy. His knowledge of the country, combined with his writing and artistic abilities, make this book required reading. - Oregon Historical Quarterly
I would rank The Cowboy at Work among the best books ever written about the American cowboy, maybe the best. Every word Fay E. Ward wrote can pass the tests and cross-examinations of the severest critics in his field: The saddlemakers, horse trainers, ranchers, and cowboys who have an uncanny knack for smelling out a fraud. The core of his knowledge is as timely and accurate today as it was fifty or seventy-five years ago. - John R. Erickson, one of America's best-known working cowboys, in his Foreword to The Cowboy at Work.
Here is a book by a man who knows what he is talking about. Fay Ward, an old time bronco buster, rough-string rider, cowhand, and wrangler, has roped, thrown, and hogtied an astonishing passel of facts and herded them into a vivid corral of cow country Americana.-Chicago Sun Tribune
Head and haunches above anything else on the subject. - Arizona Highways