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In
1977 she began a journalistic career that has
produced thousands of published articles in
horse and rodeo magazines, a weekly horse news
column, and four books to date, with another set
for publication in 2008. As a historian she has
received honors for the preservation of history
through both her writing and her Double Spear
Ranch Radio Show.
As
a cowboy poet she has been featured since the
80’s at gatherin’s in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho,
North and South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico and
Texas. In 2000 she became the first woman to
receive the All Around Cowboy Culture Award at
the National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration at
Lubbock, Texas. In 2003 the Academy of Western
Artists named her Top Cowgirl Poet of the year.
Whether reciting the works of classic cowboy
poets Badger Clark, S. Omar Barker, Sharlot
Hall, Gail Gardner or that great writer
“Anonymous” – or her own original poems – Rhonda
is insistent upon maintaining authenticity and
portraying the cowboy honestly as he was and
is.She believes having grown up ranching and
maintaining that close relationship with cattle,
horses and ranch people gives her a strong
foundation in the reality of the life.
Today, doing ranch day work with her husband on
big, historic ranches where they sometimes live
in a cowboy tepee for a week at a time during
spring and fall works, often riding 30 – 50
miles daily in rough country, continues to
maintain a solid background from which to write
and recite true cowboy rhyme, both old and new,
with passion and realism.
Rhonda has never produced a serious book of her
poetry. A modest chapbook “Mush Creek Musings”
contains some of her earlier works and some
short essays. One of her poems was selected for
the Gibbs-Smith publication “Cowgirl Poetry”
some years ago; and a poem was chosen for the
2007 Bar D Roundup CD. She produced an
audiocassette of her piano music and poetry
titled “Over The Corral Fence” in the 1980’s,
but it is sold out. A poetry book and CD are on
her list of urgent “things to do”.
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