Bailey, Ron

Fremont County

Biographical and Professional Information

A fifth generation rancher-cowboy, Ron Bailey was the second of three sons born to a South Dakota ranching family. Following one semester of college, he married and managed to buy a ranch of his own. The Baileys moved to Wyoming in 1982, where they continued to raise and train quarter horses on a small ranch west of Riverton. He wrote his first poem for his wife for their twenty-fifth anniversary and his first cowboy poem, titled "Dad," following the death of his father in 1991. The poem is included in his first book of cowboy poetry, Horses I have Known (And Some I Wish I Hadn't). His second book, Horses, Friends and Good Times was published two years later. Bailey has also written about his horseback pack trips to Wyoming wilderness areas for Western Horseman Magazine. (Source: Wyoming's Cowboy Poets and Their Poetry by Jean Henry-Mead).