In My Boots: A toast

Cowboy poetry in the form of New Year toasts? We’ll raise our glasses to that. This week, Kristen Kovatch helps us ring in 2013 with some toasts written specifically with horsefolks in mind.

From Kristen:

May your horse never stumble,
Your spurs never rust,
Your guts never grumble,
Your cinch never bust!
S. Omar Barker

In my well-intended quest to discover some previously-unknown-to-Horse Nation cowboy New Year tradition, I stumbled across a wide variety of websites, including a number of western-themed bars’ NYE parties (no thank you) and articles about Dallas’ football team. And then I found a real gem—a selection of cowboy poetry in the form of New Year toasts.

So without further ado, I look forward to another year of sharing what it’s like to be In My Boots. My friends, a toast:

To cowhorse riders:

May your pony be quick
And full of cow sense,
Your cinch tight as a tick
As you go down the fence.

To intercollegiate/interscholastic coaches:

May your naming of point riders be just what it should,
May your draws be simply the best.
May your team be inspired, your advice understood
And the horses take care of the rest.

To draft-horse drivers:

May your hame strap be tight,
And your road flat and fair,
Your team never take fright,
The tires always have air.

And to cowboys and cowgirls everywhere:

May you meet the new year
With a smooth steady stride
And feel no trace of fear:
It’s a hell of a ride.

Happy New Year, Horse Nation!


About Kristen: Kristen was an English major at Alfred University and was then hired on after graduation as the western teacher and trainer at the university’s Bromeley-Daggett Equestrian Center. She would joke on that irony but her students don’t find it very funny any more. Kristen coaches the varsity western team, teaches classes in western riding and draft horse driving, and keeps several of her own horses in training on the side. She shows reined cow horse and also shows western pleasure and horsemanship for fun. Between her horses and her students, Kristen is never short on stories to tell. Some of these stories can be read at her blog at thewesternlife.wordpress.com. She has also been published in Today’s Equestrian and Take the Reins.

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