Thier ancestors crossed the seas from spain,
Bred from bedouin's tough desert racers.
Pride and endurance coursed through their veins,
Coupled with strength from flemish war pacers.
Abandoned to either survive or die
They toughly perpetuated their specie;
Plains indians found them and decided to ride
But accomplishin' that wasn't so easy!
To master the horse took brav'ry and skill
But the red men rose to the task.
Breeding selectively, they improved the steeds
Which crossed their wandering paths.
Draft horses and thoroughbreds bore the wetering tide
To the plains, where they crossed with mustangs;
Resulting in bigger, taller, stronger stock
That could challenge tough cowboys, time after time.
When wild westing and rodeo became a big fad
The most unrideable horses were sought,
The toughest and meanest were prized above all.
Then their get and produce were bought
By people with foresight, like montana's feeke tooke --
Men who envisioned the breeding of broncs --
Where bad dispositions and mean-ness were prized;
So 'crost arenas they'd squall, buck and stomp!
Now that is the history of the rodeo bronc --
A breed cultivated an' selected with care
To give fee-paying cowboys the ideal chance
To test their skills at rodeos and fairs.
Within our region have been other men
Who strove to perpetuate good broncs --
There's Korkows, Longbrakes and Mc Inerney's,
Birch's and Holloways -- all breedin' horses that honk.
They're continuin'' cowboy heritage an' tradition,
Keeping' the bloodlines of gray wolf alive;
Hoping to produce another midnight. . . Or steamboat. . .
For "bronc of the year" they all strive.
These broncs are descendants of all the above . . .
Crossed with sagebrush, thistles an' sand . . .
Bred in the rough and super-toughened by storms --
While they take a bow. . . Won't you give 'em a hand??
Rhonda Sedgwick Stearns is a poet from Newcastle, Wyoming. She was recently named "Female Poet of the Year" by the Academy of Western Artists. Her book, the first in a trilogy, "HEARTS ON FIRE -- Cowirls of the American West", was scheduled to be published in July 2003 by Loft Publishing.
High Country Communications