Cowboy poet comes to town to help 4-H, FFA programs

For 30 years now, Black has shared the stories folks have told him through his columns and appearances on National Public Radio.

The former large animal veterinarian will do the same at 6 p.m. Dec. 3 at Champions Center at an event to benefit 4-H and FFA programs.

Tickets are $40-$60, include a cowboy dinner, and must be purchased in advance. Call (937) 324-4353 or visit www.championscenterexpo.com.

On his website, Black defines a cowboy as “someone who can replace a uterine prolapse in a range cow in a three section pasture with nothing but a horse and a rope.”

It reflects something about Black’s connection with what he calls “people of the land. Whether it’s beef or pork or wool or corn, it has all this connection to nature,” he said.

Black said there’s a nature to the humor found in that setting, too.

While mishaps involving farmers are almost never funny, largely because they involve flesh-shredding machinery, accidents involving cowboys and animals almost always are.

“Cowboy humor is all about wrecks: horse wrecks, cow wrecks, Tyrannasaurus Rex,” he said.

As serious as can be when someone is bucked off a horse or trampled by a cow, “if he’s alive, you start telling the story right away,” Black said. “And if he’s dead, you wait a day.”

Although logic might say Black would run out of material after three decades, “I have come to the conclusion that there are infinite ways you can get bucked off, run over and thundered,” he said.

He is constantly informed of those ways while speaking at agricultural banquets. Then, he said, “I go out and tell the stories back to them.”

He says his yearslong connection with the largely urban NPR audience “had something to do with the fact that I’m a part of a profession that takes care of critters that cannot take care of themselves.”

It also may have to do with down home values that are widely appreciated. Black’s website lists his mother as his inspiration and says he wants to be remembered “as someone who didn’t embarrass his friends.”

Now making appearances on RFD TV and the U.S. Farm Report, Black says that, like everyone else, “I’m working twice as hard to make half as much.”

He adds, “I’ve also found that the more you give, the more you get,” a remark that sounds like the last thing a veterinarian might tell you before patting you on the shoulder and heading out to his truck.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368.