Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation
Preserving and celebrating cowboy life in the Medicine Hat area.
The Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a Prosperous New Year.
Our December 2022 MH Cowboy Life newsletter is now available for reading. It features stories about Queen Elizabeth II and her love of horses and dogs. From the Queen to rodeo queens: learn about the history of rodeo queens in Canada.
Newsletter: Medicine Hat Cowboy Life
SAVE THE DATE: The 2023 Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Show will be October 7, 2023.
The March 2022 issue of Medicine Hat Cowboy Life is now available for viewing.
Learn about intelligent horses like the Beautiful Jim Key.
Find out what’s new on our web site.
Learn about Schuler in ‘Round Medicine Hat.
Feel free to share MHCowboy Life with anyone who is interested in country life.
Check out our Country Stories videos from the home page of ww.MHCowboyLife.com.
MHCowboyLife.com is the official website of the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation. Our newsletter, Medicine Hat Cowboy Life is published four times per year.
We at the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation hope you had a wonderful holiday season, staying warm with friends and family. We have been busy over the holidays, planning for 2021. Here is our latest news.
Thank you for signing up to receive our blog posts.
We wish our members and friends all the best in 2022. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon.
Wishing you all the joys this season brings: family, friends, feasts, fun.
For unusual, informative, local viewing we suggest you view our website at MHCowboyLife.com. You will find:
The weatherman predicts a cold Christmas week. Stay in and stay warm, if you can; if you can’t stay in, stay safe. Hope to see you next year.
Happy Trails.
Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation Board:
Jen Zollner, President; Shelley Goldbeck, Vice President; Cheryl Dust, Secretary; Carol Eisenbarth, Treasurer and Donna Moore, Board Member.
Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that we will be publishing the stories of Alice Kanewischer, a local nonagenarian.
Alice helps us experience her growing up years in the 1930’s using conversation, intimate details and intense emotions. Through a child’s eye we can’t help but feel what life was like for her. Through her remarkable story-telling she also gives insight into the lives of her parents and grandparents.
Read her touching first story, Silver Sandals.
The Country Story for November 2021 features Harry Forbes. Harry’s stories are published monthly on our web site. Watch the amazing 103-year-old, who has written several books on local history, share his stories. Find Harry’s stories at http://www.MHCowboyLife.com, under Stories. See Harry Forbes Remembers.
Be Part of our Country Stories series: If you or any seniors you know from the Bindloss/Buffalo area have rural stories to share contact Jen Zollner.
Thanks to our Partners and Sponsors for supporting the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation. See who they are here. Please support them if you can.
Our quarterly newsletter, Medicine Hat Cowboy Life will be in your inbox in December. Our feature horse will be the Shetland pony, which has a surprising connection to Medicine Hat. Our featured community is Redcliff. Sign up to receive your copy here.
The June 2021 MHCowboyLife newsletter features the town of Dunmore, just outside Medicine Hat.
Dunmore is the site of a famous train wreck that occurred in 1908. Find out why it’s famous.
The horse of the month is the Clydesdale. Dunmore was the first community in Western Canada, before Alberta was a province, to have Clydesdale horses.
Watch our latest Stories from Seniors video of Ila Dillabough. https://mhcowboylife.com/cowboy-stories/stories-from-seniors/
And more!
The next mini-documentary in our Seniors Stories series has been posted to our web site. It features Florus Bouman and his story about Hockey Night in Canada. Link
If you or a senior in your life has a country story to tell, contact Jen Zollner at 403.529.6384 or by email:jzollner10@gmail.com.
While you’re on our website, MHCowboyLife.com, check out our additional story on Chappice Lake, featured in our first newsletter. In 1921 Chappice Lake was the scene of Charles Hatfield’s infamous rainmaking venture. Link
If you know anyone who is interested in cowboy life around Medicine Hat (or farther afield) please share our links with them.
The Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation wishes you all a safe and prosperous new year. Hope to see you along the trail.
September 27, 2020, Kin Coulee, Medicine Hat, AB
The second Annual Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry and Music Show sponsored by the Medicine Hat Public Library was wildly successful.
See show highlights here:
Over 100 fans gathered to enjoy a variety show on a mild, albeit windy, fall Sunday afternoon in the park.
Chief Librarian, Ken Feser welcomed the audience to the one live event scheduled for the library’s Culture Days.
President and foundation founder, Jen Zollner thanked volunteers and recited her poem about the Medicine Hat horse, which she suggested could be official mascot of Medicine Hat!
Mayor Ted Clugston handily recited Rudyard Kipling’s “If”; while not a cowboy poem, it embodies the cowboy spirit. (He had another engagement so left his cowboy gear at home!)
Local 4-H member, ten-year-old Kimberley Straub battled her nerves and recited a poem, written by Jen Zollner based on Kimberley’s speech about her favourite place: her family farm’s barn. One of the mandates of the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation is to build connections between rural seniors and rural kids, like 4-H members.
The first half of the show featured Doris Daley, one of the current top Cowboy Poets on the circuit. COVID-19 actually helped us: usually Doris would be on tour in the US this time of year.
Doris did not disappoint. She delivered original poems that everyone can relate to, even if they don’t have roots in the country.
Following her part of the show, Doris presented some books and CDs to Ken Feser, Chief Librarian of the Medicine Hat Public Library, the inaugural resources for the future cowboy poetry “shelf” at the library. See Doris’s presentation here:
At intermission, Darren Lutz conducted a live auction for a jacket donated by Murray Chev Olds, a camp stove donated by Peavey Mart, and the handmade Horse Wisdom blanket donated by Jen Zollner, which the successful bidder, Bill Haysom, donated back to the Foundation to be displayed at the Medicine Hat Public Library.
In the second half local singer/songwriter, Jessica Schnell, who happens to be Jen’s granddaughter, sang three songs, showcasing her amazing musical talents.
The final performer of the show was Doc Mehl, who entertained the audience with a mix of serious and goofy poems and songs. Doris joined him (her husband) on stage to play the soda pop bottle for his final song, a parody of “Big Bad John”, called “Long, Long Johns”. Very entertaining stuff.
The Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation was thrilled to be able to offer a live show in the midst of the live-performance desert known as COVID-19! The positive feedback has encouraged us to plan a show for next fall.
If you are interested in being part of the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation, we are interested in you. Send an email to Jen at mhcowboylife@gmail.com.
Hope to see you all next year!
The Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation is pleased to release its first issue of their official newsletter, Medicine Hat Cowboy Life.
In its pages, you will see the announcement of our LIVE! 2020 Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Show on September 27, 2020.
Riding on the success of the 2019 Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Show, Singer-Songwriter-Bandleader, Get-It-Done-Chief, Jen Zollner was inspired to form the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation.
Since its inception as a registered society, Jen and her team have worked on many fronts to meet the mandate of the Foundation: To preserve, promote and perform Cowboy Poetry and Western Music in Medicine Hat and Area.
Our show during Medicine Hat Public Library Culture Days later this month (September 2020) is one vehicle for realizing the Foundation’s goals. We are pleased to feature Doris Daley, cowboy poetry royalty!
Another is our newsletter, Medicine Hat Cowboy Life. In its pages you will learn more about the Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation, Medicine Hat history, Cowboy Lingo, the Medicine Hat Horse breed, poetry and tidbits about Cowboy Life.
We welcome your feedback and contributions.
Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry Foundation 