Welcome back to the Cowboy Campus Connection newsletter! We're excited to be bringing our community this newsletter filled with content, stories, horsemanship and more.

One of our main goals, when we created CCU, was to create content that’s fun, and educational but also has substance and importance. Our goal is to create meaningful content that will enrich the lives of our community, not just add more content to the social media clutter.

If there's something you'd like to see in this newsletter, do not hesitate to reach out and let us know!

"These [the horses] are our teachers. I'm not the teacher here; they are. Learn from them."

- Ray Hunt, 1929 - 2009

Marvel Lake & Bryant Creek have always been very special places for me. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of packing into this beautiful spot, located at the south end of Banff National Park, Alberta.

I was fortunate as a child to spend much of my time in national parks.

Back then, my dad was a park warden, and regions of Banff were part of the backcountry he was responsible for. His duties, among many others, were to make sure the one-strand telephone lines were up, which were used to communicate from and between the warden stations & the park, as well as to keep an eye out for poachers and wildfires.

Most of the travel back then was done on horseback, with both saddle horses and pack horses. Our family lived at a warden station called Sixteen Mile. It got its name from being 16 miles down a five road south of Banff. I’m sure it’s not still there now, but I’ll never forget it. From this post, my dad would make his patrols out to the different areas he was in the care of.

This week we uploaded multiple videos from our trip to Marvel Lake & Bryant Creek Cabin! Go check them out to hear Keith chat more about his childhood growing up in Banff National Park.

We aim to upload new content to the YouTube channel every week. Click the button below to visit our channel and check out our entire YouTube video library. Subscribe and leave us a comment while you're there! We love to hear your thoughts.

We don't want you to miss out on our free course, The Five Key Components To Transforming Your Horsemanship. You’re going to learn how to train your horse accurately and position yourself as the herd leader of your herd of two! This course will help you to take your horse from dull, pushy, argumentative and unwilling to dependable, responsive and soft!

Those who are experiencing difficulties with their horses will find solutions in this course to resolve issues faster, easier and without getting into a fight. You’ll learn Keith's groundwork, his mentality and his tools for training horses that he enjoys riding, every time!

One thing that I think we all can agree makes a day downright wonderful is when you find a new favourite song. This segment of the letter is dedicated to helping you find your next, put-it-on-repeat, turn-it-up favourite song! Each week we'll share a song that's been playing in the barn.

This week's song is Pay No Rent by the Turnpike Troubadours.

Lead singer of the band, Evan Felker & his buddy John Fullbright, sat down and wrote this song the evening before Felker's aunt's funeral. Felker was originally, at his aunt's request, going to play Willie Nelson's Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain. But came to find out she had actually made this request to many, and it was already being played in her honour. He played Pay No Rent for the first time at the ceremony.

Press play and enjoy!

Teal Blake grew up in Montana, on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by ranching country. Growing up in his father’s studio looking at C.M. Russell paintings and reading Will James books inspired him to pick up a pencil and start capturing his own visions of cowboys and the American West.

Teal has been painting professionally since 2005, he was predestined to become, a western artist. Teal has always liked to show what makes the traditional West: cowboys not always clean-shaven, shirts not always creased, and their horses’ manes not always long.

Teal designed our Key Ranch Cutting Horses logo, which you can see above. If you love this art, you can get in on a sweatshirt or t-shirt in our CCU merch shop!

Great videos! Enjoyed watching them and applying the components to my horsemanship! I have taken personal lessons from Keith and have worked through the online courses. Changed my relationship with my horse and truthfully my life too.

Thank you, Keith, for all you’ve done for me!" - Jen T

What did you think of the second issue of The Cowboy Campus Connection? Let us know by responding to this email!

We'll see you down the trail.

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