Wheew, talk about a lapse in post's! A couple years ago, I (Liz) made a plaque that says: "Ride for the Brand". And we had a few people ask what it meant, I have been thinking about it lately so I'm going to tell you where I got it from and what it means... Because I can :) The history of the American West is filled with these kinds of phrases that reveal the nature of the men and women who came west. "Ride for the brand" in the words of the western writer, Louis L'Amour, was "an expression of loyalty to a man's employer or the particular outfit he rode for. It was considered a compliment of the highest order in an almost feudal society. If a man did not like a ranch or the way they conducted their affairs he was free to quit, and many did, but if he stayed on, he gave loyalty and expected it." I like to think about this phrase, in the terms of F