Howdy!
Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry is all about making connections. It’s a way for Western entertainers (many live wide distances apart) to visit with each other at our annual event (this year September 26th and 27th). Their poems and songs help the audience be aware of the Western way of life and helps those with a rural background compare it to their experiences. City folk can get a taste of happenings on the ranch. Everybody has a story, and it’s through stories that we get to understand and relate to each other better.
Recently our reach has been to folks further afield. A friend from Regina connected us with Bob Ruschiensky. He has recently become a prolific poet, shared his excitement about publishing and shared many of his poems (every few days sends a new one), including the one to end this newsletter. Brian Tremblay from Ontario saw our website and asked for Full membership status (doesn’t want an Associate Member, yes, he wants to be at our AGM via Zoom). It’s always good to chat with Garnet and Marion Stacey from Cranbrook, BC. They feel Alberta Tourism should be doing much more to promote Cowboy Poetry. Invariably they attend our annual event. I wondered how to get in touch with two entertainers that performed at last year’s Open Mic. A cold call to Empress Town Office got me in touch with a talented young lady, Emma Roudeux. I mentioned Delbert Pratt’s name to Nancy (in our Suds in the Bucket Band), she gave my number and he called that very night. (He’s from Esther, NE of Oyen.) Both will be afternoon performers at our event. The Taber ‘Cowboy Poetry and Western Music Round-Up’ gave us a chance to meet-up. The enthusiasm all of these folks have for our Cowboy Poetry genre is contagious.
The purpose of our newsletter is to ‘Keep You in the Loop’. There are a number of our members/volunteers who struggle with technology. Any of us ‘older ones’ know about that all too well. In fact some don’t have internet, and keeping them ‘in the know’ is important, so we’ve been making paper copies for them. Telephone calls have also been a great way to ‘visit’. Technology is a two-sided coin. In this world of texting and Facebook etc. it is ever more important to be physically present to each other, even if it means using Zoom etc.
Dee Butterfield Documentary Screening
MHCP in partnership with the Canadian Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame is pleased to announce our first of our “Women in Rodeo” series, a documentary of Dee Butterfield. Public screening is April 18, 2025 in Ponoka, AB.
Every film starts with a story and Dee Butterfield gave us an inspiring story while sharing her rodeo journey. This is the first documentary produced by Cheryl Dust under the mentorship of Director, Eda Lishman. Eda has produced The Hounds of Notre Dame, The Wild Pony and directed Primo Baby and The World of Horses series with John Scott to name a few of her projects. Eda and her producing partner and sister, Nives Lever, operate Fetecine Filosophy where they create, develop and produce theatrical and television drama. Nives and her husband Barry Harvey donated the use of their home for Eda and Cheryl to edit this documentary. Peter Kennedy Smith, Eda’s partner and retired Hollywood cameraman, mentored Cheryl and assisted with the capture of the footage for this project. Don Kletke, Encore Recording, composed the music and donated the use of his song. This all started with a research grant from the Alberta Heritage Foundation to research the 15 women inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in which Jen Zollner continues to conduct the research.
Thank you to all at Fetecine Filosophy for donating all of your time and providing a location to edit. Don Kletke, thank you for donating your time and musical talent! And big thanks to MHCP’s own videographer, Cheryl Dust, for countless hours of volunteer time and steadfast dedication to bring this project to life.
Western Music and Cowboy Poetry Event
Save the Date!!!
Friday, September 26th and Saturday, September 27th for 2 full days.
Friday, at 12-noon
-a dozen or so entertainers at the Meadowlark Village Club House
Friday, at 7:00pm
-Open Mic at the Moose
Saturday, at 12-noon
-a dozen or so entertainers at the MH College Theatre
Saturday, at 7:00pm
-our headliners: Hugh McLennan and his Spirit of the West Band and Charlie Ewing and his daughter, Lonnie
Click on the link below to hear Hugh McLennan’s song and the incredible backup accompaniment from Jim McLennan and Mike Dygert.
On his March 22 weekly program, Hugh McLennan sang, “Fence Building Blues”, the perfect addend to the barb wire theme in our recent newsletters. Each week he has interviews, ranch news and incredible music choices. Hear this week’s program on the internet:
Love Story
Easter is its own love story, sacrificing His life for us and giving us hope for a life hereafter. The recent death of Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, brings their love story into the news, married for nearly 60 years. Staying out of the public eye was his nature. He was a businessman and owner of an asphalt paving business in Nashville.
Their love story began when Dolly was 18 years old. ‘I met him outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day I moved to Nashville. I was surprised and delighted when he looked at my face (a rare thing for me)’. They got married 2 years later in a small country church. Though they didn’t have children of their own, they raised several of Dolly’s younger siblings as their own providing for them when her parents and other relatives were unable to.
-from cowgirlmagazine.com
Note: Here’s where Country Music and Western Music meet. Many of Dolly Parton’s songs tell a story, and when performing, she gives a preamble to her songs which adds to their meaning.
The Library Corral
The Incredible Gang Ranch
by Dale Alsager, 1990
NF 636.201 ALS
The Gang Ranch, The Real Story
by Judy Alsager, 1994
NF 636.2 ALS
The Gang Ranch was once Canada’s oldest cattle ranch; in fact it was the largest in the world (located in the Williams Lake area of B.C.). The story is told by two members of the Alsager family who owned the ranch from 1978 to 1982, then spent the next 10 years battling courts. Dale has his side of the story in the 1990 book he published; his sister’s rebuke is “The Real Story” in the book shown below. It tells how members of the Alsager family invested everything they ever owned or earned, and lost it through illegal wrangling and unethical dealings, even within the family. Judy Alsager, who worked this ranch, describes the hard work, the humor, the joys and the heartbreak. She also takes you through breath-taking scenic images of the landscape and the real workings of a ranch.
Note: Dee Butterfield grew up in the vicinity of the Gang Ranch as did Monica Wilson, another Hall of Famer MHCP has interviewed, videoed and is working to make into another mini-documentary.
Homegrown Tribute
Lynette Brodoway
Lynette Brodoway is a Barrel Racer from Brooks, AB, a Champion at the 2023 Canadian Finals Rodeo and was named Cowgirl of the Year in 2022. We watch as her success continues. There is more to her story than winning though. She started her professional career in her mid-fifties; almost all barrel racers turn pro when in their teens or early 20’s. Her role as wife, mother and grandmother has always been of utmost importance. She’s a horsewoman first and a barrel racer second. Over the years she has been able to embrace and balance her commitment to all of these.
Deep down, Lynnette has had ‘the itch’ to barrel race for as long as she can remember. Being raised on a ranch (in the Ranier, Alberta area) suited her fine, in fact it allowed her to be riding since she was four years old, and she’s been on the back of a horse ever since. Raised in a family of team ropers, starting with her dad, Ivan, she was a heeler with her mom, Marlene, at the All-Girl ropings. She then decided to become a header to turn steers for her brother, Dwight, and his friends. The Wigemyr family trained their own team roping horses, but Lynette would always be working them on the barrels.
When Lynette married Ken Brodoway, she began training horses on barrels and continued to compete at amateur level after started a family. She intentionally put her dream of going pro on hold to raise their two sons. She watched her brother’s professional success, and his CFR team roping championship in 2002 and 2008. She gave full support to Josie, their son who qualified to compete at the CFR in 2006. Her focus was having horsemanship training clinics, which started when she watched her dad’s special way with horses; watching how he was able to rehabilitate them. She attributes her barrel racing success to ‘Cowboy’, her sorrel gelding that was named ‘Horse With the Most Heart’ in 2023. Horses were also at the root of healing from the tragedy of losing a son, Wacey.
Lynette is proud to be a Canadian rodeo competitor. Her story is one of patience, and of constantly being open to learning from parents, books and horses, as well as learning from others and from her own experiences. She stresses the importance of having the right people around you to get you back on track when necessary. She has worked long and hard to achieve her dream and inspires us to never give up on our passions, that age is not a barrier.
At the age of 64, Lynette has a new indoor horse Poncho, and also on Cowboy is still a stiff competitor at professional rodeos. She works with and cares for horses most every day and welcomes others to come learn from her. Rodeo is her main passion at this time, but she always has a couple of young horses in training. She loves babysitting her 2 grandchildren, JR and Jack (aged 3 and 1) that live a mere 20 minutes away.
Taber Western Round-Up
On Saturday, March 29th Taber rounded up an entertaining group of poets and musicians. Two of the MHCP folks were there, Noel Burles as a performer and Jen as emcee. Val Beyer and David Woodruff from their club are always at our event to support us. There are a few things it would be good if we could replicate at our event on September 26th and 27th. They had 10 student performers, some were soloists, some sang in a group and some even had poems they had written. They had a dozen and a half sponsors, some of which were unbelievably generous. They had ‘a whole bunch’ of young guys doing the set-up and take down. And they had delicious food. I need to mention their baked potato topped with chili, cheese and sour cream. Also their cinnamon buns; the dough for them was rising in the kitchen when we got there. It would have been worth your trip to Taber for that alone. Thanks to Bud Edgar, the joker and trick roper who sent the photos.
Fence Idioms
- fence mending — trying to end a disagreement or quarrel
- sitting on the fence — not taking a stand
- fence straddling — beating around the bush, weaseling, hemming and hawing
- rush ones fences — to act in too much of a hurry (sometimes refers to a young couple)
- from pillar to post — from one place to another
“Don’t Fence Me In”
Oh give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in,
Let me ride through the wide open prairie that I love,
Don't fence me in.
The inspiration for it came from a poem called “Open Range” by Robert Fletcher. He also wrote a non-fiction book called “Free Grass to Fences” about Montana’s cattle industry.
It was Cole Porter, in 1934, that wrote the hugely successful song “Don’t Fence Me In” using Robert Fletcher’s poem as a starting point. But he added broader dimensions. One of his
verses is about a highwayman, Wildcat Kelly, who desperately wanted to avoid being fenced in by jail or by marriage or by anything else for that matter. The popular version doesn’t use this verse, but Roy Rogers did:
Wildcat Kelly's lookin' mighty pale,
Was standin' by the sheriff's side,
And when that sheriff said I'm sending you to jail,
Wildcat raised his head and cried: Oh give me land, lots of land…
Another verse continues to touch on freedom:
I want to ride to the ridge where the West commences,
And gaze at the moon until I lose my senses,
I can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences,
Don't fence me in.
Ranching Before Fences
It was through the investment of British aristocracy that ranching started in Saskatchewan and Alberta (then called Assiniboia and Alberta). Huge herds of cattle were grazed on the open range, owned by big ranches who didn’t see a need to put up feed in case Chinooks failed to appear. These were the ranches that took big losses in 1886-87. During that summer there were drought conditions and prairie fires. Then came a harsh winter that started in November and didn’t end until March. It was hailed “The Big Die-Up”. The infamous winter in 1906-07 likewise saw tens of thousands of cattle die of starvation. Many of the big corporate ranches on both sides of the U.S. border collapsed.
Ranching After the Fences
Barb wire was called “devil’s rope” by the big ranchers because it hampered the open graze method they used for their cattle herds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. It was the smaller ranches that survived because they were not controlled by absentee owners and adapted to conditions as they experienced them. They saw the need for fences to control the movement of cattle and to form enclosures to stack feed for the cattle in winter. With cross fences they could have a breeding schedule so calves weren’t born in winter. They could also improve their herd knowing which bulls were breeding their cattle.
Herding large numbers of cattle on the open range required cowboys, lots of them, young men that were skilled horsemen and cattlemen. Barb wire was a relatively inexpensive means of controlling the movement of cattle. Even an unskilled person could build a fence using posts, wire and staples. It carved the vast prairie into manageable chunks for ‘ranch farming’ as it was sometimes called. Barb wire not only changed the history of ranching, it changed the world of the cattle-trail cowboy too.
Barbed Wire and Boundaries
by Bob Ruschiensky from Regina, SK
The prairie once ran wide and free,
No posts, no lines, not locks, no key.
A cowboy rode where the sky touched land,
No fences cut, no walls to stand.
But times had changed, the borders grew,
The cattle strayed, the fights came too.
So men strung wire, mile by mile,
Through dust and sweat, through grit and trial.
And posts stood firm, the steel ran tight,
A twisting snake of rusted might.
It kept the herds where they should be,
Yet chained the land once wild and free.
Some say the wire tamed the West,
It marked the land, it drew the rest.
But every time I ride that line,
I feel the past still press in time.
For barbed wire hums a lonesome tune,
It sings of loss beneath the moon.
A cowboy rides, yet still he knows,
Some things are meant to stay unclosed.
Western Wisdom
There are three kinds of men:
– ones that learn by reading
– a few that learn by observation
– and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.
(this must have come from a guy)
I’ll leave you with this bit of wisdom:
A fence mended is a friendship tended.
Hope Calving is Going Well!
Happy Trails,
Jen
