Category: Archive

“Something about me never wanted to work for somebody else,” says Lavonna “Shorty” Koger. The owner of world-famous Shorty’s Caboy Hattery in Oklahoma City, she forged the path of becoming one of the best-loved Western hatters in the country—one of few women to do so.

Before Shorty’s skilled hands knew how to sew sweatbands, shape crowns, and sand brims, they held the reins to her barrel horse and even slipped into a bull rope. She was born in 1945 in an area of Osage County, Oklahoma, called Gray Horse, roughly 20 miles outside of Fairfax, Oklahoma. The ranches and blue-stemmed grass permanently shaped her love of Western lifestyle. “There weren’t even fences out there. The cattle just roamed and it was wonderful,” Shorty recalls. “I came along seven years after my siblings and I was the shortest of the bunch, so they pinned Shorty on me when I was a baby. On Saturdays, our biggest treat was going to Fairfax for Mom and Dad to buy groceries. I saw Ben Johnson and Randolph Scott (Western film actors) dressed in cowboy shirts, wild rags, and their britches tucked into their boots, and I thought, ‘I want to look like them someday.’”

In 1956, her parents, Ivan and Vilora Koger, moved Shorty to Moore, Oklahoma, where Ivan transferred for his job with an oil company. “It was like moving me to New York City. We did rent a place in the country, but it was still a big town to me.” Shorty had a horse, however, and traveled with friends to compete in all-girl rodeos through the 1960s and into the early ‘70s. “I ran barrels and rode a few bulls, and I steer undecorated. In 1968, I had a bad accident helping someone build an arena and about cut my left arm off, so that ended my bull riding career for sure.” Shorty continued to raise horses and run barrels, dreaming of making the NFR. She had the horse to take her that far, Baldy, but when he cut his tendon, that dream ended. “I couldn’t get with another horse, so I gave it up in the ‘80s.”

While she was rodeoing, Shorty also worked for Cattleman’s Western Company in the Stockyards. “I had a camper on my truck to go to barrel racings. Texans at the time couldn’t get Coors beer and Wranglers, so I sold those and that’s how I made my entry fees. I’d also load up my camper and sell halters to ranchers.” Shorty eventually went on the road as the only woman salesman in the Oklahoma area for a time, selling for belt, boot, hat, and clothing companies. It wasn’t until her brother sent several of their dad’s hats to be renovated and they came back ruined that Shorty found the niche where she’d stick. “My brother said, “As much as you love hats, you should go into a hat cleaning business.’ A light bulb went off for me and I started investigating that business, and learned the people wouldn’t tell you anything that was helpful at all.”

However, Shorty accompanied a friend who was picking up a custom hat in Oklahoma City, and met another Shorty, this one a gentleman named Shorty Barnett, the owner of Shorty’s Hattery. “God works in mysterious ways if you just listen,” she says. Looking around his store and visiting about hats renewed Shorty’s determination to get into the business. After several more fruitless phone calls to other hat renovation businesses, she returned to Shorty’s Hattery. She learned that Barnett wanted to sell his business, but already had a buyer. “Of course, my heart just fell,” she recalls. “He said they were coming to pay Monday at 10, and I asked if they didn’t come if I could have it. I was there at 9:30. I paced his building and at one minute after 10, I handed him a check.”

It was 1990 and Shorty owned a business she knew hardly anything about. Barnett agreed to teach her, but they hit a snag since Shorty was left-handed. “But his mother was left-handed, and she showed me how to renovate hats. There’s sewing involved and all sorts of things which I flunked in school, but I got the hang of it.” Shorty worked out of a small building near the original store so the customers would carry over, then moved to the Historic Stockyards in 1991 to be closer to her cowboy clientele. She rented out part of the 1,900 square foot building to a boot maker and worked for several years renovating hats. Yet the itch to build one of her own kept growing, and she bought a blocking machine, which starts the entire hat building process. “I thought, ‘If I can renovate a hat, surely I can build one.’ I again called Shorty’s mom and dad, and they told me over the phone how to build one. There were a lot I had to throw in the trash because they were so pathetic looking, but I just kept trying and trying to get it right. It took about 10–15 years to get it right, but we’re about the best there is now.”

Shorty ventured out to cattle shows and 4-H and FFA shows during the day to sell several hats, then went back to her store and worked at night building more. She brought on a part-time employee, and today has two salesmen and eight people helping her build hats in the store. By 2014, Shorty had outgrown her store and moved to a 5,000 square foot building still in the Historic Stockyards, which they’ve nearly outgrown as well. “I couldn’t have done it without my brother and sisters. They helped me with the money, and I couldn’t have done it without their guidance.”
In the early 2000s, both Shorty and her sister Shirley were diagnosed with breast cancer, and sadly, Shirley passed away in 2004. “Right after I buried my sister, I had to go in and have a double mastectomy, but by doing that, I didn’t have to have chemo. Shirley didn’t have insurance, so I decided I wanted to do something to help people with cancer who didn’t have insurance, not knowing it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. I made a pink hat and cute cancer hat pins.” When Tracie Anderson, an exhibitor from the AQHA World Show, came in to the Hattery to pick up a custom hat in 2006, she saw Shorty’s memorial fund for Shirley. It so happened that Tracie was the Clinical Operations Director for the OU Cancer Institute at the time. Together with Cheryl (Magoteaux) Cody, the three women formed Rein In Cancer. The organization first funded the Shirley Bowman Nutrition Center at the Charles and Peggy Stephenson Cancer Center in Oklahoma City. Today, Rein In Cancer, run entirely by volunteers, has raised over one million dollars, and also helps pay the medical bills of cancer patients who are involved in the horse industry. “The horse people get all the credit,” says Shorty. “You don’t know what people are like until you try to do a fundraiser and see everyone digging in their pockets to give.”

Much of Shorty’s work took off when she started selling hats at horse shows and rodeos. She set up her first booth at the AQHA World Show in 1993, and today Shorty’s Caboy Hattery is the official hat of the AQHA, NRHA, NCEA, and NRCHA. Shorty also sponsors the NLBRA, the IFR, Chris Neal’s Rising Stars event and a BBR race. “I love all the rodeos, and I decided I wanted to help them, and I appreciate them doing business with me. I’m also a sponsor of the IFYR and The American now,” she said. “I love my business and all my employees; some of them have been with me 25 years now.”

At 76, Shorty is in her store daily unless she and her partner, Bobbie Gough, are traveling to one of the 200 shows all over the country they take their booth to each year. “We’re blessed with doing so well at these shows, but it’s going to take a while to build the inventory back up,” says Shorty, who is dealing with delays getting her straw and felt hat materials. It takes four days to build a hat from start to finish, involving nearly 20 steps. The Hattery uses several machines—made in the 1920s or earlier—for blocking, ironing, and some of the sewing, but all other steps are done by hand. From crisp reiner and cutting shapes that emanate professionalism in the show arena, to custom hats in a myriad of colors, hatbands, stitching, and even tooling, each one is a work of art that Shorty loves. “They’re all my favorite. Everyone that wears my hats, I consider them a star. It’s such great pleasure when they put it on and it fits great.”

“I hope to go on doing it until I’m gone—I have no intention of retiring.”
Shorty’s exceptional craftsmanship and her work with Rein In Cancer was recognized by the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and she was inducted in 2021. “I’m just so grateful that happened, and honored and blessed beyond means. This business has been a godsend. I give God all the glory because He’s the one who’s gotten me there today, and I’m very grateful.”

C.R. Hall didn’t let anything get in the way of his dream of being a rodeo cowboy.
Including the color of his skin.
The black bareback rider and steer wrestler was raised in New York City and never got on a horse till his high school years.

Then, through hard work and determination, he became a rodeo contestant, competing all over the East Coast and throughout the nation.
He was born in 1943 in Vicksburg, Miss., the fifth child of William and Penola Hall.
But his dad died before he was born, so his mom packed up her five kids and headed to New York City, where her sister was living.
His mom never told her kids how her first husband, William, passed. “It was a mystery,” he said. “Mother refused to tell us. When we’d ask what happened to dad, she said, ‘you don’t want to know.’”
C.R. assumes that his mother kept their dad’s cause of death a secret from her kids so they wouldn’t form prejudices. “The way I look at it, she didn’t want (the reason for his death) to transform us, to give us a reason to fight.”
The family lived in Spanish Harlem, on 99th Street and 2nd Avenue in New York City, with Hispanics, blacks, and a few whites. The area had plenty of gangs: the Viceroys, the Dragons, the Untouchables, the Red Wings, all territorial, and if a person traveled through a gang’s territory, they had to tell why they were there and who they were going to see.
C.R.’s mom was tough. She worked twelve hours a day, cleaning office buildings from 6 pm to 6 am, then seeing her kids off to school.
The kids knew, when the streetlamps came on, they needed to be in the house or the neighborhood, and if they weren’t, she’d find out. “We listened to her, because we didn’t want to witness the strap,” he said.
She laid down the law with her kids.
“I don’t have to worry about my family,” she would tell people. “Because if the police station ever calls me and says ‘we have your son or daughter in the precinct, I’ll say, ‘keep them. Because I don’t raise convicts or drug addicts.’ That struck fear into us,” C.R. said.
“She beat our butts a lot, but she stuck to her rules, and her rules were strict.”
It was a chance encounter with horses after high school graduation in 1962 that started C.R. down the rodeo path.
He and friends went to the Bear Mountain State Park along the Hudson River, the first time C.R had been out of the city. They decided to go horseback riding, and when C.R. got on the horse, the guide asked him how long he’d been riding. When C.R. replied that it was his first time, the guide said, ‘no, you’ve been riding longer than that. You’re a natural.’ That gave C.R. confidence and piqued his interest.
When he got back home, he found the Park Riding Academy in the Bronx, where he went to ride every Sunday for several hours. His skills improved, and after a year, the academy owner suggested that C.R. could save money by buying his own horse. So he did, and went to the academy two or three times a week to ride, “as much as I could, and I got better and better.”
There were steers at the barn, and professional cowboys Gene Lorenzo and Jack Meli were there. C.R. would watch them steer wrestle. One day, Gene asked if he’d like to join them. C.R.’s quick answer was no.
But Gene coaxed him onto his steer wrestling horse and told him to point the horse at the box and nod his head.
The steer came out, Gene hazed, and C.R. froze.
“I wasn’t getting down (onto the steer) so Gene reaches over and pulls me down,” C.R. said, Gene talked him through the technique and C.R. turfed the steer.
After that, he started going to the Cowtown (New Jersey) Rodeo every Saturday night with them, acting as their groom, warming up and tacking up their horses, and learning a lot through observation.
After a year of that, Gene encouraged him to get his PRCA permit and suggested, because of C.R.’s small size, that the roughstock events would be his best choice.
He tried bull riding and saddle bronc riding, but neither seemed to fit. So he tried bareback riding, and “that felt better than the other two,” he said.
But it still took awhile to get the hang of bareback riding.
For the first two years at Cowtown, “I got creamed every time I got on. People would come up to the fence when I got on because I’d make spectacular falls.”
But another cowboy admired his try and perseverance. Teddy Fina, a bareback rider, showed him techniques and gave him advice. Teddy’s own grit rubbed off on C.R. “The determination and drive that I witnessed in him spilled over to me,” he remembered.
He went to Larry Mahan’s riding schools, which helped tremendously, and he still remembers a compliment Larry gave him. “Charlie, you got a lot of try,” he said.
Early in his career, he went by the name “Charlie Reno.” Jesse was his first name, but he didn’t like the references to Jesse James. Charlie Reno was the nickname he got at the barn where he kept his first horse, named Reno.
He got his PRCA permit in 1966, and earned his card a year later.
In 1968, he competed in Ft. Worth, the Cow Palace in Sacramento, Houston, and Madison Square Garden before breaking his neck and sitting out for two years.
He attended two steer wrestling schools instructed by Butch Myers and became good friends with the family.
C.R. married his first wife, Barbara, a barrel racer, in 1965. They divorced, and in 1972, he married Marie.
In 1972, he broke his wrist, and with his marriage to Marie and the start of his family, he quit rodeo competition.
He and Marie had their first son, Alexander, in 1975, and their second son, Jeremiah (Jerry), in 1981.
“I had a choice,” he said. “I needed a paycheck every week. I made the choice to stay home and work and take care of my family.”
But when the Red Pony Ranch, a riding academy in Lakewood, New Jersey, hosted an American Rodeo Association (now the American Pro Rodeo Association) rodeo in 1978, C.R. was there, and he got his APRA card.
Red Pony, five miles from his house, hosted a series of APRA rodeos, so C.R. competed there. The first year, in 1978, he was leading the bareback riding with three rodeos to go when he broke his foot. Being out for the remainder of the season dropped him to runner-up.
So the next year, he determined to get so far ahead that, if he got hurt, nobody could catch him. He did just that, finishing the 1979 season as bareback riding titlist, all-around champ, and third in the steer wrestling.
In 1983, he retired a second time from competition and began producing rodeos as the Hall and Sons Championship Rodeo Co. He put on PRCA, APRA, and International Pro Rodeo events in Red Pony, and throughout New York and showdeos with timed events only.
He became vice-president of the APRA in 1981, voted in, he believes, because he was always helping others.
He also hosted rodeo schools and taught the bareback riding, with instructors Frank Hollis for the saddle bronc riding and Bruce Semeria for the bull riding. Pete Leibold served as pickup man and flank man, among other duties.
All the while, he was working full time at the grocery store, being promoted up to the management level.
Prejudice because of his skin color was rare, but it did happen.
At first, his family discouraged him from rodeo, saying there were only white cowboys. “They said, I wouldn’t get a fair shot, the same fair opportunities afforded to the white cowboys,” he said.
“Mom was afraid for my safety. She came from the deep, deep south. She knew how people could be.”
He did witness prejudice against him because of his skin color, but incidences were few and far between. “The people who knew me as a cowboy and a competitor, they weren’t prejudiced against me.”
He remembers competing in Durant, Okla. when a young white teenage boy followed him around. “I was the only black guy behind the chutes,” C.R. recalls, “and this kid was walking behind me, like what’s going on with this guy? He must be putting on the bareback rigging for somebody else. He can’t be doing this for himself.” The boy’s mouth fell wide open when C.R. got on the horse and readied to ride.
At the same rodeo, he remembers the judge telling him, ‘I don’t know why you’re riding, because you’re not going to get (any points.)’ C.R. told him, “When I ride you won’t forget how I rode.” He remembers the ride, too. “The horse bucked and I rode the hell out of him, but I didn’t win any money on him. Then again, it was people who didn’t know me.”
C.R.’s philosophy was to do what he loved doing, no matter what anybody else thought.
“My dream was to be what I wanted to be. You can’t let people take your dream from you. Somebody can’t tell you you can’t do something. If you love it, you’ll do it no matter what and suffer the consequences.”
He retired from the grocery business in 2004, then started his own transport business, delivering rooftop air conditioners to building sites, traveling throughout the tri-state area.
In 2010, he closed his transport business, due to the high cost of diesel. But he went crazy sitting at home, so he answered an ad to be a New Jersey transit bus driver, and began driving bus. He drove for ten years before retiring in 2020.
He and Marie have four grandchildren: grandsons Gavin and JJ and granddaughters Dakota and Jenah.
His faith is strong, like his mama’s was. He knows who is in charge: God. “Don’t let man tell you where you’re going. (God) is in charge, he’s the one who knows, from day one, he knows how you came in and how you’ll go out. He’s your Creator, he created everything in your life, so listen to Him.
“If you have an issue, put it in God’s hands. He’s the miracle worker. If anybody can solve it, it’s him. You have to lean on His understanding and His timing, not your timing.”
Rodeo enriched his life, with good friends and life skills.
“I made a lot of friends. The people that were just starting out, that nobody would help, I’d help. Those guys trusted me. I was sincere, I wasn’t afraid of competition.” His friends were true friends. “Those guys were the best. We traveled together, and they had my back, they really had my back.”
Rodeo is a difficult sport, and because he learned it and became proficient in it, it benefited him throughout the rest of his life.
“Rodeo made me better in everything else I’ve ever done, because rodeo was the hardest thing I’d done and I accomplished it. So everything else was easy.”

Shawn Davis has spent his life in the western or equine business with his biggest impact being in the sport of professional rodeo and specifically the National Finals Rodeo. Born Dec. 7, 1940, in Butte, Montana, Davis bought his RCA card in 1962 (RCA became the PRCA in 1975) and it was full-speed ahead. He made a name for himself in the arena winning three world titles in rodeo’s “classic” event of saddle bronc riding and then outside the arena as the General Manager for the “Super Bowl of Rodeo” from 1985 to 2018.
“I am not sure I ever thought of my career in the sport of rodeo lasting so long, but I knew it was something I enjoyed and if I could help move the sport forward while maintaining its history, it was worth trying,” noted Davis. “As a true rodeo fan, it was a blessing to have a front row seat for so many years to watch a number of great rides and achievements of others. Those memories and the friends I made is what I cherish the most.”
During his riding career Davis, who called Whitehall, Montana, home, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo a total of 12 times with his first trip coming in 1963, just a year after joining the RCA, and his final qualification in 1977. In 1963, he finished 13th in the world standings with $8,386. In 1964, he improved on his final ranking from the year before, finishing fifth in the world with $13,289, but it was 1965 that still holds a special place in his memory.
It was 1965 that Davis captured his first world title and set a new record for most money won in saddle bronc riding at the time, and he did all of this while competing against the likes of Winston Bruce, Bill Martinelli, Dennis Reiners, Jim Tescher, Kenny McLean and Bill Smith. Davis won the world after picking up $25,599 in earnings that year and surpassed Marty Wood’s record earnings of $22,148 set in 1964. Davis was among the elite that year with Dean Oliver, Jim Houston, Harley May, Jim Rodriguez Jr., Glen Franklin and Larry Mahan all capturing world titles in their respective events. If being linked as 1965 World Champions wasn’t enough, all of them along with announcer Cy Taillon, were original inductees into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1979.
“Those were fun times and to think now a round at the NFR pays more than I won in that entire year,” commented Davis. “I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.”
Davis was unable to defend his world title the following year as Marty Wood took top honors with $20,319 in earnings. Davis finished fifth in the final world standings. However, he returned in 1967 to capture his second world title. In fact, he had such a dominating regular season that he had the world title wrapped up before the NFR even started. He finished the year with $25,277.
His third and final title came in 1968, when he edged Larry Mahan for the crown. Davis finished the year with $22,697, while Mahan came up short with $18,990 in earnings. This was Davis’ third title in four years, which cemented him in the rodeo history books.
While in college at Western Montana, Davis began transitioning from competitor to rodeo producer to rodeo coach. The College of Southern Idaho (CSI) in Twin Falls, hired him to start a rodeo program in 1977 and the program flourished under Davis. During his 30 years at the helm of the program, the CSI Rodeo program won an astonishing 24 regional championships, three National titles and 23 National Top-19 finishes. Cowboys like 2000 World Champion bull rider Cody Hancock, two-time world champion bull rider Blue Stone, all-around hand Cody DeMers and saddle bronc rider Cody Wright all went through the program under Davis at CSI. Davis retired from coaching in June of 2007.
“My goal as a rodeo coach was to not only help those students continue to hone their rodeo skills but also give them skills to use outside of the arena,” said Davis, whose grandson Dawson now competes in steer wrestling for Cochise College. “Our biggest fundraiser each year, known as the Boxing Smoker, was an event the rodeo team had to produce from start to finish which included selling tickets, securing sponsorships, event set-up, run of show, etc. I still hear from former students that tell me how much they learned through my program that still helps them in their everyday life.”
Davis has had a front row seat to watching the Wright family become household names in the rodeo business. From helping a young Cody Wright reach the pinnacle of the sport to now seeing his children, who were just babies, rewriting the record books it has been quite a ride.
“Cody’s work ethic was something you can’t teach and his dedication to winning a world title was something I admired,” said Davis. “To watch his kids riding today, winning world titles and setting new records is exciting. Ryder’s feet might be the fastest I have ever seen in the saddle bronc riding. There is no telling how many more records these kids will set before the end of their career.”

In addition to being a rodeo coach, Davis became one of the top rodeo producers in the country, an area he became interested in while in college. He got his first crack at producing a rodeo when he was the President of the rodeo team at Western Montana. The opportunity presented itself and Davis ran with it. While working at CSI, he served on the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Board, including the role of President, and took on the role of producing the College National Finals Rodeo. He resigned from the NIRA Board, when he took over the reins of President of the PRCA. During his tenure as PRCA President, he was very instrumental in moving the National Finals Rodeo from its home in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to its current home in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the time, Davis knew that in order for rodeo to take the next step a new venue was needed and the prize money needed to increase. Since moving the NFR from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas the prize money has gone from $901,550 to a record $10.257 million in 2021.
“Oklahoma City had done a wonderful job, but I felt like rodeo had hit its pinnacle there,” said Davis of the decision to move the NFR. “I felt like the move would help take rodeo to greater heights and I believed that Las Vegas was the perfect place for it to flourish. Thankfully, it has and now it is one of the hardest tickets to get.”
Davis served as the events general manager from 1985 until he retired in 2018. He served as a consultant in 2019.
“I had always been impressed with the Finals and what it stood for, so when I started overseeing the event I wanted to maintain its integrity while entertaining the fans,” said Davis regarding his role as NFR General Manager. “I am a big believer that every contestant deserves their moment of glory and that is why the main focus at the Finals was the competition. Also it is an event to match the best against the best in an entertaining environment.”
Davis remains busy today training thoroughbred race horses at his place in Congress, Arizona and at race tracks throughout the United States. He hopes to one day train the Kentucky Derby winner that will go on to win the Triple Crown.
“My granddad was into horse racing and I remember listening to him tell stories when I was around nine years old,” said Davis of how he got involved in horse racing. “My uncles then bought a horse and when I was 10 or 12 years old, they had me riding him in some races. It all seemed to go from there.”
Davis was known far and wide for his riding skills, so when the jockeys were afraid to get on, the owners and trainers would call Davis. While competing in rodeo, horse racing was not far from his mind. After he and his wife, Jeanna, got married they got more involved in the racing industry. In fact, the first horse they raised won its first race with a jockey by the name of Gary Stevens. During Stevens’ career he has had nine wins in Triple Crown races, winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes three times each.
These days you will either find Davis at a race track or watching his son, Zane, compete in reining cow horse competitions or at one of his grandkids’ (Zayle, Dawson and Presley) events.