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by Joanne Bollenbacher With a twinkle in his eye and a twirl of his signature handlebar mustache, cowboy poet Rudy Gonzales steps onto the stage. The audience begins to titter as Rudy begins his poem, aptly titled, "Rudy's Handlebar Moustache."
For a while he had a "real" job as the National Sales Manager for Blue Morrow Meats. However, after years of travel he quit and moved to Idaho. There he met and fell in love with his wife, Rose. A shared passion for horses, hunting, and the outdoor life makes it a match made in heaven. Cowboy poetry has been around as long as cowboys. If you can imagine a bunch of cowboys sitting around the campfire spinning yarns and telling tall tales about the day, you'll understand how cowboy poetry got its start. Inspiration comes from the weather, horses, nature, family, friends and all the funny things that happen when you get around cows. Rudy got his start in the business while buckarooing in Idaho. There, he began to correspond with Dick Spencer, publisher of The Western Horseman Magazine. The Western Horseman reviewed his first book of poetry, "TRADING HORSES WITH RUDY AND ROSE." Almost immediately, this review started a stampede of requests for him to appear and entertain, with his cowboy poetry and music. With more than 80,000 cowboy poets in the world today, Rudy says, "I'm truly blessed to be one of only a few to make a full time living entertaining with my cowboy poetry and cowboy music shows." He now travels over the entire U.S., entertaining at conventions, rodeos, banquets, gatherings, and other special events. Rudy also produces radio and television commercials in cowboy verse. He has appeared on many national T.V. programs. He first got interested in the Internet for the e-mail. "My monthly phone bill was starting to look like the national debt. Using e-mail gave me a way to reduce my phone bill. "Once I started exploring the Internet, I got intrigued with having a home page," Rudy recalls. "It was just a gamble to see if it would produce anything in the way of results." Rudy estimates that he has gotten 50-60 national bookings from the internet since launching his site. Rudy's outgoing personality enables him to make friends quickly wherever he goes. At a gun show he met a man named Phil Hurley, who went on the develop his web site. "It took Phil only a few hours to have it up and running." The total cost: $200.00. His Web page has a real western feel to it with barbed wire bordering the page. After Phil added the barbed wire, Rudy designed and developed the page and manages it today. He will admit to calling Phil occasionally for technical support. "It's very helpful to have a friend like Phil," Rudy comments. "He took time to explain the workings of the Internet to me and to teach me what I have learned about HTML. Each time he comes to help me out of a jam, he teaches me something else that is a valuable time saver." Rudy uses his home page to publicize his other business endeavors. On his page you'll find a link to Rose's Horsemanship clinic, a link to Rudy's publication, THE AMERICAN COWBOY POET MAGAZINE, and a link to the 11th Annual Idaho State Cowboy Poetry Gathering. And in case you couldn't guess, Rudy is the Founder and Director of it.
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By the time he reaches the second stanza, the audience is captivated. A born entertainer, the
50-something Rudy was born into the cattle business in Ragged Mountain, Colorado. His father was a ferrier (a horse shoer) and Rudy as he'll
quickly tell you, "always seemed to be found either on top of, or under a horse.