Product Description

When asked in an interview what he most liked about rodeo, three-time world champion saddle-bronc rider "Cody" Bill Smith said simply, "Horses that buck." Smith redefined the image of America's iconic cowboy. Determined as a boy to escape a miner's life in Montana, he fantasized a life in rodeo and went on to earn thirteen trips to the national finals, becoming one of the greatest of all riders.

This biography puts readers in the saddle to experience the life of a champion rider in his quest for the gold buckle. Drawing on interviews with Smith and his family and friends, Margot Kahn recreates the days in the late 1960s and early 1970s when rodeo first became a major sports enterprise. She captures the realities of that world: winning enough money to get to the next competition, and competing even when in pain. She also tells how, in his career's second phase, Smith married cowgirl Carole O'Rourke and went into business raising horses, gaining notoriety for his gentle hand with animals and winning acclaim for his and Carole's Circle 7 brand.

Inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979 and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum's Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2000, Smith was a legend in his own time. His story is a genuine slice of rodeo life--a life of magic for those good enough to win. This book will delight rodeo and cowboy enthusiasts alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #495001 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 194 pages

Review
"...a marvelously told biography of Bill Smith, the Montana native who became a long-running champion rodeo bronc rider. (Kahn's) meticulous effort pays real dividends." -- The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"In Margot Kahn's carefully rendered and lovingly told biography of Bill Smith, we find the story how a talented and determined man forges himself into a champion, both inside the arena and out. Horses That Buck is about family and freedom and, utlimately, how they braid themselves together in the human heart." -- Mark Spragg, author of Where Rivers Change Direction

"The most beautifully written rodeo or human story I have ever read." -- Larry Mahan, six-time World Champion All-Around Cowboy

About the Author
Margot Kahn spent seven years attending rodeos and interviewing and riding with Bill and Carole Smith at their ranch near Thermopolis, Wyoming. She is a graduate of Bates College and Columbia University's MFA program in nonfiction, and was the recipient of the Ohioana Library Association's Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant for a promising young writer in 2005. She lives in Seattle.

Customer Reviews

A carefully researched and engagingly presented biography
Horses That Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith is a carefully researched and engagingly presented biography of champion saddle bronc rider Bill Smith, who loved the wildness of horses that fought against being ridden. He broke more than a few bones following his passion, earning no less than thirteen trips to the national finals. When he was facing retirement in his thirties, he met schoolteacher and cowgirl Carole O'Rourke on the national rodeo circuit, and together they bought their own land upon which to raise horses. Gathering information from interviews, experience, and historical records, Margot Kahn gives an up close and personal look at the rodeo circuit in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and offers a captivating portrait of a man who truly embodied the spirit of the western frontier long after the west was won.

Great
Very good book. The author writes as in a way that you can visualize the life and accomplishments of Bill Smith.