Cowboy - probe discontinued by Tantus - review by ScottA

Big, long and bumpy, the Cowboy stands out among a crowd of other dildos. You could say that the Cowboy offers something for everyone, from it's petite 3/4" diameter tip to it's gigantic 2.8" diameter final bulge lying a mere 14" away (as the ass slides), but it's just not true. Similarly, one could talk about how the bulges are effective on the G-spot when the Cowboy is used vaginally, but lets face it - it just ain't true. Not 100%, anyway. The Cowboy is designed as an anal dildo for advanced players, and at that it shines. Used any other way and it's expensive and unsatisfying.

Cowboy is built like a bead stick on steroids with a finger sticking out the top, and this is the key to its success. Cast out of a softer 100% platinum silicone, Cowboy is easy to clean and will readily bend to negotiate the curves of your inner intestines.

The design helps in many ways. The finger helps to open you up gently and also serves as a pilot, searching out the proper intestinal path so the body of Cowboy doesn't get caught up and poke you. The bead-stick design offers excellent stimulation, good "stopping spots" as you're opening up around the Cowboy, as well as being the key to the Cowboy's good balance between being soft enough to slide 13+ inches up your butt easily, yet stiff enough to not flop over. Each one of the 5 necks works as a mini-hinge, providing points where the Cowboy is more flexible and can bend, with the most flexible joints at the smaller top, right where they need to be in order to slide around the curves of the sigmoid and descending colon.

The matte-surfaced silicone of the Cowboy holds lube well, important because a toy of the Cowboy's size needs plenty of lube, and the base provides a solid foundation that enables Cowboy to stand up without needing to be held. It's probably a little big for someone with small hands to comfortably hold, and unfortunately it doesn't have a suction cup or attachment so it can be stuck to a surface during use. The base is big enough that there's no way that Cowboy will be fully inserted, and should you find a large enough O-ring it is possible to wear Cowboy in a harness, though do be careful because it's a big toy and needs caution during use.

Clean-up is fast, but a large sink or bathtub is definitely an asset when you're trying to wash off a 16" long toy. While you could use wipes, soap and water are my preferred method for anal use, and after washing you can sanitize Cowboy by either squishing it into a large pot (be careful that it doesn't splash hot water!) or by spraying with 10% bleach (my preferred method). Once you're done the Cowboy can go into a toybox without too much worry, as the silicone is resistant to just about everything (with the possible exclusion of some silicone lubes). It'll pick up some dust, but a quick rinse before use takes care of that.

The Cowboy is my second "gigantic" dildo, having been preceded by the Cisco. While Cisco is cheaper, the gentler design of the Cowboy is well worth the extra price. After trying out the Cowboy I have yet to return (or even want to return) to Cisco. The ridges on Cisco are so abrupt compared to the gentle balls on Cowboy, and the slender tip combined with the very flexible design makes the Cowboy much easier to use for deep insertions, and when you thrust the feeling of the bumps sliding past the prostate is very nice.

As a guy, I love the Cowboy. I find it to go in very easily for such a large toy, and the bulges provide great prostate stimulation without being too much for the anus. Tantus designs the bulges with the largest point about 1/3 of the way from the top on many stages so they provide maximum prostate stimulation, and they also feel good going through the anus whether or not you have a prostate. The tip really helps with deep penetration, and if you run into a problem area you can rotate the base to help the tip find the correct path.

Do keep in mind that the Cowboy is a slow dildo, at least at the beginning. You need to work it in slowly and take plenty of time for your intestines to get used to the toy. Often your colon will start to spasm when you enter the sigmoid, especially if you don't do deep play often, and you need to wait for that to calm down. I usually use pretty much every position on the books to get the Cowboy in, rolling from on my back with legs up to on my side, getting up for a bit of doggy, and usually ending up squatting over the Cowboy to get it in as far as it will go (currently up to everything but the last bulge). After that slow thrusting, getting faster as I loosen up. Needless to say, playing this deep pretty much requires that you clean out first with an enema (use warm water), and one that's large enough to reach the sigmoid.

I still like Cowboy, and indeed have gone from liking it to liking it even better.

The Cowboy is not perfect, and it requires an experienced anus, willingness to experiment and the ability to know when to stop, but it rewards it's users with marvelous feelings. I love the gigantic bead-stick design - it's very stimulating against the prostate and feels good slipping through the anus. The "nose" on the tip is more of a mixed blessing, however.

It's great for insertion - Cowboy is by far the easiest large dildo I have to insert, even "cold" when I haven't used any other toys (note- it's much nicer to warm up to Cowboy, I used it alone as a trial). The downside is that occasionally it will catch against a fold in my gut. This is usually only on the first insertion, and after I get Cowboy in as far as I'm going things will open up, but sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation with positions (I often use all of doggie, lying on both sides, lying on my back, and yes, cowboy (squatting over the dildo), combined with twisting the Cowboy and testing out various angles of insertion, to get it in more than about halfway. The good news is that halfway, or even a third, of Cowboy is enough to feel great.

Cowboy graphically brought the importance of sufficient lubrication back to my mind one day in the form of a trace of pink color at cleanup. Cowboy is a big dildo and adequate lubrication is vital. So often we concentrate on lubricating the anus, but for Cowboy and other toys of this size lubricating the inside of the rectum and colon is also important. I've started using a small syringe or "shooter" to squirt some lube inside to make sure that my larger toys don't drag against the walls of my intestine and damage the surface. The other possible danger with Cowboy is intestinal perforation. Yes, it's soft, but you can still kill yourself if you push too much. Find your limit and stay with it - for me it's about halfway down the fifth bulge. Go further than your body can take and bad things happen. While I've never seriously injured myself, I have found some blood on the tip of the dildo back when I was pushing my limits. Be safe, be smart and stay alive and healthy.

These small difficulties do little to alter my impression of the Tantus Cowboy, which is still a top-of-the-toybox favorite. I don't get to use it all the time, because large toys need more prep work than smaller ones, but it's definitely one I look forward to using when I can.