The cowboys wrote away

Rodeos and cowboy poetry have at least one thing in common: they’re both quintessentially North American inventions, phenomena sprung from the 19th-century beef cattle industry and the Spanish-imported horses essential to it.

Purists with experience in roping, cutting, and bronc-busting might say time in the saddle’s also necessary to stake a claim in the cowboy poetry arena.

Now, my own equestrian …