A fixture at the Alisal Guest Ranch in Santa Barbara County,
California, Jake Copass was a noted horse trainer, as well as a
farrier, saddler, storyteller, author and poet; he was a regular at the
National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. He served in World
War II as a Staff Sergeant in a Army Cavalry Veterinary Corps unit
where he supervised a mule train carrying supplies through rough
terrain in order to attack the Japanese.