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BJ Smith
BJ Smith is an Equine Canada and Certified Horse Association riding coach. An experienced horse trainer, packer, coach, clinician, survival expert, Canadian ski patroller, he has c...view moreBJ Smith is an Equine Canada and Certified Horse Association riding coach. An experienced horse trainer, packer, coach, clinician, survival expert, Canadian ski patroller, he has consulted equine wilderness topics at university and college level. Following a full career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where he experienced years of service in the Arctic, he supervised criminal investigations for the Government of Alberta while instructing at the Lethbridge Community College Criminal Justice Program. He routinely guides groups of wilderness travelers horseback through the Rockies, often on trips of a hundred miles or better. His skill and knowledge as a packer and horseman have been recognized by the Alberta Trail Riders Association and he has conducted clinics in Western Canada. His lectures and presentations are never boring or difficult to follow as he is a well-known Western entertainer. Winner of the Will Rogers Award for the Academy of Western Artists’ top Cowboy Poetry CD of the Year and the International Cowboy Poetry Rodeo’s Silver Buckle, his performances have been featured at cowboy poetry gatherings and festivals throughout Western Canada, the USA, and on cruise liners. “BJ Smith is a multi-talented man, a career Mountie, a horseman, and a packer, as well as probably being the best writer and performer of cowboy poetry I know. This book of poetry reflects his life experience with eloquence and brilliant humor. He is a man of integrity, and I am proud to call him my friend.” — W.J. “Robbie” Robertson, The Mountie Cowboy Poet “What makes a stellar cowboy poet? I’m not sure I know, but I do know that under some cowboy poets’ hats is nothing more than a head of hair, and many don’t even have that! Under BJ Smith’s hat, and beating in his chest, is a head and heart for the west, generously laced with imagination, originality, gripping detail, and a lifetime of stories worth telling. And a story worth telling is worth telling well, something this Canadian favorite does without fail on the stage or on the page. In this saddle tramp’s saddlebags and in the pages of this book, you will find grit, grace, magic, stardust, wisdom, laughter, and a writer’s devotion to rollicking good rhyme. Thus endeth my soliloquy; now starteth my happy anticipation at cracking open a great new book from one of Canada’s best contemporary poets and reciters.” — Doris Daley, Western poet and performerview less