SOLVED. Western about a city slicker who gets lost in the west and learns to be a cowboy. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Kat]

The book starts with this young man heading either back east from the west coast or from the east coast to the west (I can't remember) He has been summoned by his father because loose with his money and has a drinking problem. He travels by train and at on stop in a kind of drunken haze he wonders off away from the tracks and becomes lost.
(view spoiler)[He ends up running into a group of cowboys and they are convinced to keep him around if he can learn to be useful. A lot of this time is him struggling to be good at anything. There is a girl I feel like she is the daughter of the guy who owns the cattle, I think the foreman has a thing for her and our main character does as well. One of the reasons he wants to be good is because he wants her not to pity him. There is a wild horse that everybody wants to capture but nobody can. At some point he leaves to cowboys and spends time with a trapper/hermit in the mountains or hills and improves his survival and horseman ship skills even more. Eventually he gets the horse and I think he marries the girl as well as reconciling with his father. What I really liked about this book was how hard the main character works to improve and how he thinks for a long time that he is till as inept as when he started even though he ends up just as skilled and in someways even better then those skilled cowboys he first met. (hide spoiler)]

[Kat]

I feel like the title was a single word, but not entirely sure

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

When did you read it?
Or when was it published?
Author female or male?
Remember the cover?

[Kat]

I don't remember the cover, I feel like the author was a man (not certain). I have no memory of the cover. I read it about 15ish years ago, but I think it was old then. It has a very "captains courageous" feel.

[Kat]

Bump

[Kris]

Please note you can "bump" your thread every 30+ days because this group is so large -- or sooner if you remember more information which you can add at any time.

[Kat]

I remember a part in the book where he constructs the pen to catch the wild stallion in, he disguises it like the surrounding trees so the horse is tricked into going in.

[Kat]

I found it! It is Sand by Will James. I went to the website of the library that I used to go to as a kid and did a search in their catalog.

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Kat. Thanks for the update.