Bruce Kiskaddon
Rhoda Sivell
Doug Richards
Badger Clark
Glen Rafuse
Bruce Kiskaddon
Hartley Urquhart
Mike Puhallo
Bryn Thiessen
Phyllis Rathwell
Robert W. Service
Harold Webber
Bryn Thiessen
Bruce Kiskaddon
Sherrill Forsyth
Pete Perrin
Doris Bircham
Wendy Vaughan
Sherm Ewing
Doug Richards
Phyllis Rathwell
Henry Herbert Knibbs
Bryan J. Smith
Fred Miller
Frank Gleeson
Doris Bircham
Frank Gleeson
Doris Daley
Jace Richarde
Neil Meili
Lesley Stuart-Smith
James Barton Adams
Terri Mason
Barbara Robin
Diamond Doug Keith
Merv Webster
Mereline Griffith
Reg Kesler

Cowboy Poetry

Aug/Sep 2004

Old Skip

By Terri Mason

"I used to ride Ol' Skip to school,"
The old cowboy said with a smile
"Then Dad sold him to a rodeo man
And I had to walk those miles.

I started into rodeo
A few years after that
And I was riding pretty high
'Til a bucking horse laid me flat.

See, I had made it to the Finals
And Casey Tibbs was pulling flank
'Start him out easy' was the advice he gave
'Or this horse will go plumb rank.'

As I straddled that bronc in the bucking chute
And took in his spur-scarred hide
I noticed a nick out of one ear
And a chill ran down my spine.

It was Ol' Skip, the horse I rode
To school those years ago
Well I settled on and set my spurs
And nodded to start the show.

I could hear ol' Casey yelling
And with a whoop I poured it on
That old horse just bogged his head
And this cocky kid was gone.

I lay face down in the arena dirt
And Ol' Skip - he just stopped dead
I walked over and pulled off the flank
And he quietly dropped his head.

'What the hell' I thought and grabbed the shank
And as the crowd gave a nervous moan
I swung into the saddle and rode away on the horse
Who had always carried me home.

The Graduate

By Mike Puhallo

The round pen is just a classroom
Where we teach horses how to learn
From the larger lessons life brings their way
Around every curve and turn.
The black filly danced and tossed her head
At traffic speeding by
Some drivers slow and shake their heads
As if to ask me why ?
Why ride a green horse along the highway?
Why do I risk life and limb?
Why not choose a quiet trail
Where the risk would be quite slim?
It's the trainers job to take that chance
So the owner don't get throwed
Because the only test for a car-shy horse
Is to ride her down the road.