Category: Articles

courtesy of Linda Clark

photos by Rhonda Hob

What began in a library basement nearly 50 years ago in dusty Hereford, Texas, has turned into an amazing 33,000 square-foot destination featuring fearless, talented women, also known as ‘cowgirls.’ The annual National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame luncheon located at the Dickie’s Arena in the cultural district of Ft. Worth, Texas, once again hosted induction ceremonies Oct. 26.
Pat Riley, the museum’s executive director expressed her joy regarding this year’s event, “the 2021 annual induction luncheon was a sold out event attended by over 1,300 people. We are grateful to everyone who attended and paid tribute to the amazing group of females who were being honored. The power, strength and trailblazing spirit of this group is unparalleled, and hearing their stories and listening to their acceptance speeches was moving and empowering. We are already looking forward to next year.’’
The word ‘cowgirl’ was traditionally thought of as someone who roped a cow and lived on a ranch; someone who was tough inside and out. While those platitudes may still apply to the term ‘cowgirl,’ the fulfilment of the definition has certainly evolved. Women that now define themselves as cowgirls seems to epitomize more of an independent spirit; perhaps involved in the agricultural industry in some form or fashion; an individual thinker; one who is creative, perhaps breaking the glass ceiling on what was formerly thought of as male dominated career fields.
This year’s slate of inductees encompassed five women from diverse backgrounds and careers, but all consider themselves ‘cowgirls.’
Miranda Lambert — hailing from east Texas has accomplished much in the country music world. A talented musician, singer and song writer she is a force to reckon with as an entertainer, businesswoman, and cowgirl. Lambert began her singing career as an underage teen in local honky-tonks with the permission of her parents. At last count, she has won 35 Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM) awards, nine of those consecutive honors as the Female Artist of the Year. Another woman of strength, Lambert is a valiant pioneer for women in the music industry who many times do not receive parity in radio airplay compared to their male counterparts. She was instrumental in the creation of the Women Creators Fund at Belmont University. Her passions are not only in the music field — she and her mom, Bev Lambert, created the MuttNation Foundation that raises money for shelter animals, through fund-raising efforts and her same-named line of pet supplies. Lambert’s passion for animals is not lost on shelter animals and she is the owner of several horses, especially her beloved Gypsy Vanner breed, which are known for their magnificent manes, tails, and feathered legs.
Kathryn Kusner — was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in show jumping. Starting her horse career as a stable hand she quickly showed an aptitude for English riding, jumping, as well as steeple chase, and won many national and international titles. Kathryn’s slender, petite build was also an asset in the horse racing world and she made several, failed, attempts to get her jockey license. Her gender in the 1960s was a hindrance to qualification and she successfully sued becoming the first U.S. licensed female jockey in 1968. The glass ceiling definitely shattered as a result of her tenacity. In addition, Kusner is an accomplished pilot, scuba diver, and competitive marathoner, but her most important work has been a program she began providing horsemanship camps for at risk children in Los Angeles.

Lari Dee Guy — is a multiple time world’s champion in breakaway roping, heading, heeling, and all around. Growing up on her family’s ranch in Abilene, Texas, Guy has lived her life horseback with a rope in her hand. Breakaway roping has long been a standard event for boys and girls in the junior, high school, non-professional, and college ranks of rodeo. Lari Dee and many of todays’ top breakaway ladies were successful in bringing breakaway roping to the PRCA rodeo ranks in 2020 with much hullabaloo and fan acceptance.
WPRA President Jimmie (Gibbs) Munroe, herself a National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame inductee had this to say about Lari Dee, “The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inducted one of our champions this year. Lari Dee Guy was inducted along with an impressive 2021 class. The WPRA is very proud of Lari Dee and all of her accomplishments and achievements. Not only is she an eight-time WPRA World Champion, but she has given so much back to women in rodeo. Through her clinics she had inspired young girls to want to be ropers and to believe they can achieve anything they set their minds to. With “Rope Like a Girl,” she has created a movement in women’s roping that we have never seen before. She is truly a phenomenal ambassador for the sport, and we are so fortunate to have her represent our association. Congratulations from the WPRA and thanks to Lari Dee for what she has done for breakaway roping and women in rodeo. We know that her contributions are nowhere close to being done.”
Merina Lujan, known in the art world as Pop Chalee, a name given to her by her grandmother, a Taos Pueblo, means ‘Blue Flower.’ The Native American painter rose to prominence in the 1930s when at the ripe old age of 29 Pop began her art career after attending the Santa Fe, (New Mexico) Indian School of Art. Her depictions of Indian ceremonial dancers, forest and wildlife scenes, horses, and deer met with interest and commission pieces purchased from such notables of the day as Gene Autry, Walt Disney, and Howard Hughes. Some credit her whimsical artistry of deer as the model for Disney’s ‘Bambi.’ She is credited with being an influential figure in the Native American arts movement of the 20th century.
Lavonna Koger — better known as ‘Shorty,’ is a native Oklahoman and long-time rodeo cowgirl. Not coming from a rodeo background, her family supported her rodeo interests, however. After working in a Western retail store, she had the opportunity to go into business for herself. Always being enamored with Western retail, especially hats, she met another person named Shorty, who had a hat restoration business he was interested in selling. Shorty seized upon the opportunity and for the last 30 years has designed, manufactured, and restored hats. Her store is located in the historic Oklahoma City National Stockyards district and she travels setting up at tradeshows all over the United States. Shorty will tell you, however, that her greatest success was not in the arena, or in her store, but the creation of the non-profit, Rein In Cancer, a program initiated by Shorty and a group of horsemen to honor her sister, Shirley Bowman, who died of cancer. Rein In Cancer helps fund treatments, nutrition, and counseling through the OU Cancer Institute of Oklahoma City.
To sum up this years’ honorees, National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame board member and past inductee Pam Minick commented, “Each year I am overwhelmed by the accomplishments of the honorees and how they have paved the way and shined a light on cowgirls and our Western heritage — but this year, with almost 1,400 people in attendance … I feel that we showed the world what an impact cowgirls continue to make.”
For more information on the National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame, visit www.cowgirl.net.

2021 Rodeo Hall of Fame ‘Greats’ Inducted

courtesy of Linda Clark

photos by Jerry Hymer

The hallowed halls of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (NCWHM) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma were once again a memorable recognition of rodeo greats, who were ushered into the Rodeo Historical Society’s Hall of Fame November 15-16 with 400 friends, family and rodeo fans in attendance. A non-profit organization, the Rodeo Historical Society has been part of the NCWHM since 1967 with the mission of working jointly with the NCWHM to preserve the heritage and legacy of rodeo.

The following are the class of 2021 Inductees

Bobby ‘Hooter’ Brown
Bobby found his niche in the saddle bronc riding as a more enjoyable challenge for him than following in the rodeo footsteps of his father, Earl, an RCA calf roper and horse trainer. He qualified for and competed in ten National Finals Rodeos in saddle bronc riding. As a youngster growing up in Adrian, Texas he became friends with some crop duster pilots who taught him to fly. The skill set served him well. He has worked as a corporate pilot, including 300 flights in the medical industry transporting physicians and nurses in the organ transplant field.

Jerome Robinson
As a farm kid from Nebraska, Jerome read a Sports Illustrated article on Jim Shoulders and became fascinated by the sport that would set a career course in the rodeo arena and, later, the rodeo management industry. He competed in bull riding at the NFR in 1970-1975. In 1976 the RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association-now PRCA) hired him part time in developing a revolutionary way to enter rodeos, PROCOM, or the central entry system, while competing on a limited basis. Jerome would, once again compete at the NFR in 1977-1981. After retirement from rodeo competition Jerome formed his own event management business, Western Trails Rodeo. This entity has taken him all over the world producing rodeos in Japan, Finland, France, and Italy. Thanks to Jerome’s background in coordinating events, he has been in charge of PBR event logistics since 1994.

Jim Snively
deceased.
Growing up as the kid of sharecropper parents, Jim Snively left home and went to work breaking horses for $60/month for the famed Chapman/Barnard ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Jim began his rodeo career in 1929 in calf roping and became a world’s champion steer roper and Cheyenne all-around champion. A noted rope horse trainer Jim mounted several traveling partners on his horses. Famous ropers Everett Shaw, Clyde Burk, and Toots Mansfield all benefitted financially from riding his horses. Jim won worlds’ championships in steer roping in the IRA in 1954 and 1956.

Ricky Bolin
Ricky was born and raised near the Mesquite, Texas rodeo arena. He enjoyed riding dirt bikes as a youngster, but when he went to the Mesquite Rodeo his life changed forever. Jim Shoulders and Neal Gay took him under their wings. Ricky will say about his life ‘I had the best mentors and traveling partners a guy could ever have.’ He was also fortunate in 1981 to have the first corporate sponsorship for an individual cowboy from a local Coors distributorship. He received a monthly stipend and a ‘tricked out’ van, complete with red shag carpet. With four NFR qualifications in bull riding, Ricky wanted to semi-retire when he was about 30. As luck would have it, he took a job at a western store shaping hats. That was 32 years ago, and now he sits at the helm of HatCo, as the President/General Manager. HatCo is the parent company of Resistol and several other western hat and clothing brands. Ricky is very focused on ‘giving back’. He has set fund-raising records for his philanthropic endeavors and charitable causes.

Bobby & Sid Steiner
Rodeo is more than what goes on in the arena. For many it is a lifestyle that is handed down from generation to generation. So is the case in the Steiner family. Buck Steiner would start the rodeo dynasty at the age of 12 competing in rodeo. When his rodeo career was ending, he started his own rodeo production company and for the next several decades he and son Tommy raised some of the best bucking stock and produced some of the top rodeos in the country. These four Steiner men represent an unprecedented four generations of inductees into the NCWHM’s Hall of Fame. Bobby and Sid are both world’s champions in bull riding and steer wrestling, respectively. Both men earned championships early in their careers and chose to retire and raise families. Sid has two children charting their course as the fifth generation in rodeo in bareback riding and barrel racing. Bobby summed up what the induction meant to him, “four generations of inductees in the most historic rodeo hall is just an amazing thing for our family. It’s twice as cool since Sid and I are going into the hall at the same time.”

Cody Lambert
This shy, unassuming family man is a brilliant rodeo mind. Cody grew up in the racehorse industry; his dad was a jockey and trainer and his mom was a seamstress who made racehorse gear. As a kid, Cody was fortunate to attend the 1974 NFR in Oklahoma City and visit the NCWHM. That has been a standout memory for him so to be inducted into the museum is very special. Cody qualified for three NFR’s in saddle bronc riding and seven times in bull riding. While he had determination to win, his top priority was not the usual family sacrifice involved in becoming a world’s champion. Uppermost in his mind, was the impact his winning would have on providing for his family. A $1,000 investment Cody made along with 21 other bull riders in a bull riding association they formed, would morph into what is now the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). Cody remains as the only one of original investors on the payroll of the PBR and calls himself the ‘bull picker’ or livestock director, charged with the duties of putting together the best bucking bulls for PBR events.

John Tewskbury Rhodes & Thomas Rhodes
These two deceased inductees were a well-known father/son duo in team roping and team tying, and earned steer roping championships in the 1930’s. A Hatfield and McCoy type range war has been famously written called The Pleasant Valley Wars about the Graham and Tewksbury families. Sadly, the family infighting over their vast Arizona ranch holdings resulted in many killings. John took his stepfather’s name Rhodes to get away from the stigma of his warring family and began roping as a release from the stress of managing the family’s 300,000 acre ranch. John and Thomas were not able to travel extensively because of their ranching responsibilities but that did not deter their winning, primarily traveling to rodeos from Texas to the west coast.
Richard “Tuff” Hedeman – As his nickname implies, Richard grew up with the name ‘Tuff Nut’ after having his hand slammed into the door of a pickup as a kid and never flinching or crying. Those internal strengths would serve him well as one of a few cowboys whose first name is synonymous with greatness. Tuff grew up in the horse racing industry as the youngest of seven children. Tuff and childhood friend, Cody Lambert, would create an indominable force in the high school, college, and professional ranks of rodeo as all around hands in rough stock and roping events. The first million dollar bull rider in earnings, Tuff won three PRCA world’s championships-1986, 1989, and 1991. He won the NFR bull riding average in 1987 and 1989. After retirement in 1998, he became a color commentator for the PBR. He now produces his own bull riding events throughout the United States.

Carl Nafzger
Ben Johnson Memorial Award
This award is bestowed upon a living person who was prominent in the rodeo arena, but more importantly excels in the ‘arena of life’ as a positive role model. Carl competed in two NFR’s in bull riding- 1963 and 1965. Retiring in 1970 to go into the thoroughbred racing industry, he found success in that field and trained the 1990 Kentucky Derby winner, Unbridled, and the Eclipse racing winner the same year. He won his second Kentucky Derby in 2007 with Street Sense. The soft-spoken man has written books about positive life skills, Traits of a Winner, and Why, which is about living in truth and honesty.

Pat Ommert
Tad Lucas Memorial Award
The petite, 92-year-old ‘ball of fire’ has had a storied life and became a renowned horse woman and daredevil. She is a lifelong resident of California and has a love of horses and the western way of life. Coming from a loving and close-knit family, Pat’s father, an ex-Marine encouraged physical fitness which was important when her career demanded muscle strength for trick riding and Roman riding. Her father also taught her to be an independent thinker and always provided her with good horses. She was a stunt double for many westerns and still loves to ride horses. Pat’s husband of 54 years, Willard Ommert, DVM, and Pat were involved in community activities relating to the horse industry. They were founding members of the Rancho California Horsemen’s Association.

There’s no question that rodeo is a generational sport, but how deep does that standard run? As it turns out, it breaches even the far corners of the rodeo office.

When Jennie Murray takes her place as assistant secretary for the 2021 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, she will be the third generation in her immediate family to hold this position. But it won’t actually be the first time she’ll be making history at the Thomas & Mack.
“When Jennie kept time at the finals in 2005, she was the third generation in our family to do so,” said her mom, Vickie Shireman. “There’s never been a third-generation timer before, until Jennie.”
Like most rodeo legacies, it all started when someone fell in love with a cowboy. Una Beutler was raised with eight siblings, four of which were brothers who all dabbled in rodeo. She traveled to rodeos with her brothers and eventually stock contractors started asking her to keep time for them. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“When mom (Una) married my dad, Jiggs Beutler, she started secretarying all the Beutler rodeos,” Vickie said. “Rodeo was our way of life, so I was just born into it.”
Raising and hauling rodeo stock since 1929, the Beutler family has known little else. Vickie’s grandad, Elra, was one of the original Beutlers who started in the stock contracting business. In the early 50s, that same grandad started Beutler & Son Rodeo Co. with Jiggs.
“I got my timer’s card when I was 16 and then a couple years later, I got my secretary card,” said Vickie who will be completing her 50th year as a rodeo secretary in 2021. “As a kid, my sister (Dollie) and I grew up in the rodeo office with my mom because she was the secretary for my dad.”
As both girls got older, they started helping their mom in the rodeo office. They quickly absorbed everything they needed to know about the job from the unsung expert, Una.

Time Stands Still

Just like her mom before her, Jennie spent every summer in the rodeo office as Vickie’s unofficial assistant secretary. Both Vickie and Jennie loved spending their entire summer on the rodeo trail. And now, Jennie is doing the same with her three girls – Josie, 15, Dacie, 12, and Carlie, 8.
“It’s super sweet that the girls get to go on the road, and that they get to experience the same things that I did when I was kid,” said Jennie who, just like her grandma Una, married a rodeo cowboy.
Naturally, Jennie met Dustin Murray at a rodeo she was working with her mom. At the time, Dustin was riding bareback horses for Southwestern Oklahoma State University with his eye on the PRCA circuit.
Also attending Southwestern at the time, Jennie was pursuing a marketing degree while running for the cross-country team. She was still spending her summers on the road with her mom, which was ultimately building her career as a secretary and timer.
“After Dustin and I got married in 2002, then I started working rodeos that he was entered in,” Jennie said. “Scotty Lovelace eventually hired Dustin and taught him the production side of rodeo and he hired me as a timer.”
Scotty sold Classic Pro Rodeo in 2013 and just two years later, Dustin launched Hi Lo ProRodeo. The Murrays were back on the rodeo trail, along with their three girls.
“We visit these cities once a year, but these people all become like family,” Jennie said. “And they really love our girls well, no matter where we are. They have become our rodeo family.”
That rodeo family transcends time itself as multiple generations continue to cross paths at the same events year after year.
“I still go to rodeos that I enjoyed as a kid, but now I get to take my granddaughters,” Vickie said. “It’s neat to go back to those places because of the people there who I’ve known my whole life.”

Generation Two

“There was no PROCOM back when my mom was a secretary, so cowboys had to call in and enter the day before a rodeo,” Vickie said of her days spent in the rodeo office with her mom and sister.
Although both Vickie and Dollie have worked in the rodeo office for the last 50 years, they also dabbled in trick riding in the 70s.

“JW Stoker was a world champion trick rider and roper, and he was halfway kin to us,” Vickie said. “JW was in Burwell (Nebraska) every year and my sister really enjoyed the trick riding. We were probably 12 or 13 when she told my dad she wanted to learn.”
That following winter JW stayed with the Beutler’s for two weeks teaching Vickie, Dollie and their brother, Bennie, how to trick ride.
“My sister kept at it, but I realized I didn’t care for it too much,” Vickie said. “I was probably 20 when my dad decided he wanted to have trick riding at all his rodeos. I did it for a couple of years, but after I broke my back, I stayed in the office.”
Dollie has also worked at the NFR, first as a timer and most recently as assistant secretary in 2017 and 2018. But it was Una who got the family started at the NFR in 1972, when it was still in Oklahoma City.
Nineteen years later, Vickie was selected as the assistant secretary and the following year she was the secretary, 20 years after her mom. And now 30 years after Vickie’s first trip to the NFR, Jennie will be the assistant secretary.

Vegas or Bust

Vickie learned everything she knows about working in the rodeo office from her mom. And she passed that knowledge down to Jennie.
“Back when Jennie was about to get her card as a PRCA secretary, you had to go through a school beforehand,” Vickie explained. “We got special permission from the PRCA office so that I could teach Jennie and my niece, Melissa Nevarre.”
A majority of the information passed through the NFR office in the last 40 years has gone through the hands of a Beutler relative. Vickie is continuing her reign as office manager in 2021.
“This will mark my 26th trip to the NFR as either a secretary, timer or the office manager,” Vickie said. “This will be my 16th year as the office manager. I really enjoy each position, so I don’t have a favorite.”
Like most of rodeo nation, Vickie is excited to see the NFR back in Vegas. Even a month before the event she said the anticipation was tangible among personnel and contestants alike. Working alongside Jennie again is what Vickie is looking forward to most about this year’s event.
Both Dustin and Jennie will have their hands full while in Vegas. Jennie will be learning the finer details of what it takes to be the NFR’s assistant secretary. And Dustin will wrangle the 10 head of Hi Lo ProRodeo horses selected for the bareback and saddle bronc.
“I’m not looking forward to being away from my girls for two weeks, but I am excited about the job itself and everything I’m going to learn from it,” Jennie said. “I’m always wanting to progress as a rodeo secretary and applying to work at the NFR was a surefire way to do just that.”
In years past, Jennie refrained from applying to work at the NFR because she was needed at home as a mom. Now that her girls are more self-sufficient, she felt like it was the right time to apply for the biggest rodeo in the world.
“I really don’t have a favorite rodeo to work, being at the NFR and the RNCFR have definitely been highlights for me,” Jennie said. “But my favorite events are the times when my family is all together.”
Just like Una, rodeo was and is everything that Vickie and Jennie have known all their lives. Perhaps they’ve already started training the next generation of great timers and secretaries without even knowing it. Only time will tell if the Beutler legacy Una began will continue with the next generation.

Keeping the Spirit of the West Alive

“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die,” is a quote from Babe Ruth that gets used a lot, but Max Reynolds takes it a step further with his Wild West Acts. Spinning guns, trick roping, cracking whips, and Roman Riding while portraying Buffalo Bill and Wyatt Earp are just some of the feats this Lexington, Nebraska, cowboy has showcased to countless fans over the years to keep the spirit of the Wild West alive.
Everything from the opening of the National Finals Rodeo to a private family party for the sheik in Abu Dhabi fills Max’s long list of performances. He was also the stunt double as Buffalo Bill (played by Peter Coyote) on the 1995 CBS mini-series “Buffalo Girls” starring Reba McEntire as Annie Oakley, Anjelica Huston as Calamity Jane, Sam Elliott as Wild Bill Hickock, and Russell Means as Sitting Bull.
As a kid, Max watched the likes of Leon Adams and Jerry Olson perform and was inspired to learn Roman Riding on ranch horses at home. There wasn’t much the young cowboy was afraid of while growing up in Arapahoe, Colorado — except for getting caught by his parents.
“I was afraid they wouldn’t let me do it, so I did it out behind the barn where nobody could see me,” Max said. “I was afraid they’d stop me, but I got to where I could gallop around. Then one day, I had them going good and I came out by the house and I guess Mom was out putting clothes on the clothes line and I came flying down the road on those horses and she saw me, but it was too late to stop me then. They were supportive of it, and probably would have always been, but I was afraid they wouldn’t be.”
When he started trick roping, there weren’t any instructional videos on how to do it. Instead, it was books with drawings and instructions on which direction the rope was supposed to spin. Luckily, he soon crossed paths with J.W. Stoker who took him under his wing and taught him the ropes. His first performance was at a high school talent show at a neighboring town where he did some trick roping. He started performing at rodeos when he was 15 years old and by the time he was 16 he landed one of his first big performances at the National Little Britches Finals in Littleton, Colorado. “I can’t remember much, but I do know I was nervous,” Max said. “If you aren’t a little nervous I think you lose your edge.”
Learning the skill was one thing, but learning the trade was another. Getting his name out there and picking up jobs performing was tough work when relying primarily on word of mouth. “You have to prove yourself, then once you do that everything takes care of itself and people will start calling and you’ll get more contracts and it just snowballs from there. It’s like anything else, you need to get known before you can get anywhere.
“As an amateur, a man by the name of Floyd Rumford from Abbeyville, Kansas, gave me my first big summer run of rodeos and that was a big first for me,” Max said. “I was in college then, so I was about 19. Then when I turned pro, Bob Barnes gave me my first big run of professional summer rodeos in 1982.”

After graduating high school with a class of six in Arapahoe, Max competed in team roping and calf roping while attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Although he earned his degree in animal science from CSU, he opted for a career in animal art instead. While in college he met Jerome Robinson who eventually produced Pro Rodeo Classics. Robinson also produced the Western American Extravaganza, a show that was taken around the world to places such as Finland, France and South America. “Some of the overseas shows were with people I looked up to when I was little, like Leon Adams and J.W. Stoker,” Max said of his travels in the 1990s.
Now 69 years old, Max continues to perform and has several gigs in the works with his wardrobe designed by his wife, Cathy, whom he married in 1980. Wild West Acts is just himself performing at rodeos and other Western events and he’s been part of the Great American Wild West Show since it was started by Don and Sharon Endsley in the mid-90s.
“Don and J.W. Stoker were very good friends, so I guess Max was the second one we called,” Sharon said. “J.W. said ‘Max Reynolds would be perfect because he is so versatile and can do so much,’ and now I love him like a brother.”
Not too long after that, The Great American Wild West Show did 97 performances in 28 days with millions in attendance in Los Angeles. They were also featured in a documentary which landed Max on the cover of the LA Times. “He has been one of the backbone performers for all of these years,” Sharon said. “I can’t brag enough about him.”
Timing is everything for Max. “You only have so much time you should be out there performing, six to ten minutes is the maximum,” he said. “You need to hit the happy area where you leave them wanting to see more, but you need to do your best stuff in that small timeframe.”
He considers Roman Riding to be his riskiest feat since there’s fire involved. “You’re jumping through fire, and if the arena conditions are muddy or slick, or if one of the horses decides not to jump, it leaves you out there,” Max said. “It’s the most dangerous, but it’s also the most fun.”
Audiences agreed, as his Roman Riding was the part that stuns the crowd the most. “Max on those two horses brought down the house everywhere we went,” Sharon said. Finding the right horses is harder than it sounds since they need to be able to learn to perform, and they need to look the part.
“For Roman Riding, you need to have one with a good mind on them and I have had all kinds,” Max said. “Some would take anything, and since you put them in a lot of different situations you want them to handle those without blowing up on you. Some of them are naturals and nothing bothers them, like some people can give a speech and not have a problem, but some are scared to death of giving a speech.”
Trick roping and gun spinning took the longest to master since the action is too fast to think about. “Your mind and body have to be coordinated,” Max said. “You can’t think that fast; you work at your craft for all of those years and it’s automatic.”
Practice paid off as Max was nominated for Specialty Act of the Year three times in the 1990s. “You never know where life is going to lead you,” Max said. “I don’t know how many can say they were in a movie with Reba McEntire and Peter Coyote, and the rest of those stars. It’s not like I made a living at it (acting), but it was an adventure.”

Barrel racer Molly Otto’s horse was on the sheriff’s patrol at 2 years old and set an arena record on her first run out at 3 years old. Now five years old, she helped Molly qualify for the National Finals Rodeo on the cowgirl’s first season of hitting the rodeo road hard.
Not bad for a horse who was named for chewing the tails off all the horses in her pen.
Chewy (registered name Teasin Dat Guy) is owned by Katie Lindahl but was turning heads and barrels all over the country with Molly. Molly, 34, attributes some of that success to Chewy’s background on patrol.
“She was so broke and easy and not afraid of anything,” Molly said. “She’s just very confident in herself.”
Confidence is a quality the horse and rider share. Nobody in Molly’s family competed in rodeo or rode horses, but she was determined to follow her dream.
“They were all terrified of horses … well, that may be a little dramatic,” Molly said. “They’d say it was a phase, and that I would grow out of it. I’d been asking for a horse for as long as I could remember. It was at the top of my list for any holiday, but my parents always said no since we didn’t live on a farm, so I would cut out ads of farms for sale.”
Persistence paid off. Molly started riding lessons in seventh grade and her parents leased a horse for a year when she was 14 years old. But Molly knew she was destined to do more and was willing to work for it. She got her first horse at 15 and worked at a pet store and cared for other people’s horses to fund it.

Now she trains horses professionally and qualified for the RAM Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo the last three years in a row. She joined forces with Chewy in July 2019 and the North Dakota cowgirl knew she had something special on her hands after her first run out. They broke the arena record at a jackpot in Solway, Minnesota, with a 13.9-second run. But this was no ordinary jackpot record.
“I previously held the arena record there on two different horses, one of them won three rounds at the Canadian Finals (Eyema Rare Bug, ridden by Cayla Melby) and another was a pro rodeo winner (Famous Charm, ridden by Sydney Forrest, Andrea Busby, and Michelle Alley),” Molly said. “It was cool she went out there and beat those horses’ records her first time out.
Molly filled her WPRA permit in 2011 but as the saying goes, “life happened.” Living in Grand Forks, N.D., it takes a few hours of driving to reach a jackpot, so it was nearly a decade before she felt ready to give the NFR a shot. Katie was surprised that Chewy did so well, but Molly’s success didn’t surprise her.
“I don’t know of Molly setting a goal and not accomplishing it,” Katie said. “I was excited when Molly was willing to put in the time to go for it. I’d asked her what her thoughts were on rodeoing more even though futurities were her bread and butter. We decided to see how the spring goes and then it was a quarter-by-quarter thing since neither of us has the resources to go when you’re not winning. She needed to win enough to stay on the road.”
It wasn’t until after the Fourth of July run that Molly felt she’d reached a turning point as she jumped from 25th to 17th in the world standings. Tensions were high as the season’s end drew close and the race for the Top 15 was tight. It got worse when Chewy had to take the sidelines in September due to an abscess and Molly hadn’t qualified for the ProRodeo Tour Finale in Salinas, California.
“I didn’t think I was going to make it,” Molly said. “There were so many people from 10th to 20th that weren’t too far apart.”
Molly won her 12th rodeo of the season on Allison Ness’ horse, aptly named Mr. Right Now Guy. A 17.39-second run at the Wild Rides Rodeo Dickinson (North Dakota) was a hometown win of sorts, and the Sept. 18 win for $869 gave her a boost in maintaining the No. 15 spot. Molly qualified for her first NFR by a margin of $4,761.
“I was relieved…Like, I went through all of that hard stuff all year and made all of those sacrifices and it all paid off,” Molly said. “I feel like it’s God’s purpose for me and this is the platform he gave me to use. All year, when I’d feel unsure if I was supposed to be out there, it was like ‘bam,’ he would give me something huge and my horse would win a rodeo.”
The encouragement from her family and friends also helped throughout the season. Now her husband, Andy, and their sons Sterling, 15, Rowdy, 12, and daughter Blaisy, 5, will be cheering her on at the Thomas & Mack.
“I wanted to show my kids that with God anything is possible, and I hope to inspire them to have a ‘no quit’ attitude in life and that if they work hard enough, they can achieve anything,” Molly said.

Travis Hamblen Starts A New Hat Company.

Travis Hamblen started out with $28 in his pocket when his life abruptly changed course. After four years of working for another hat shop, his new path led toward starting his own business, Hamblen Hats. “I tell people this isn’t my hat shop, it’s God’s shop and my customers’ shop, because without my customers and God there’s no way I’d be where I am,” Travis said. “I was a single dad starting over from scratch.”
Travis started with 250 American Hats and a mobile shop in a trailer that was taken to jackpots and other events across Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska. “We got all of our hats a week before COVID shut things down and it was tight quarters in that trailer, about 10-by-10 feet,” Travis said. “Keith Mundee (President of American Hat Company) helped us get going. We picked up the Atwood hat line too since they’re made in America. That’s why I went to Brooks Atwood. We checked his cows, prayed over dinner and these are my people.”
In less than two years he went from a small trailer to opening the first Hamblen Hats store on June 28 in Ault, Colorado, about 40 miles south of Cheyenne, Wyoming. “We’ve grown a lot over the last couple of years and with the storefront it’s doubled,” Travis said. “It’s an amazing community here in Ault. We are getting to the point where there’s a crew of people who stop by to talk and it has a coffee shop atmosphere.”
Travis shaped his first hat over a tea kettle when he was 13 years old and by the time he was 16 he had shaped all of his hats. “I didn’t want my hat to look like a store-bought hat, I wanted it shaped like Ty Murray’s,” Travis said. “I dropped out of high school about six months before graduating, and my grandpa (Sam Hamblen) told me if I went back to school he’d buy me the best hat that he could. But, I couldn’t shape that hat. That was my love language, so I said I can put up with six months of not liking school.”
Sam received the first custom hat Travis built in January 2020 and he was at the grand opening of Travis’ store shortly before passing away in the fall of 2021.
Before diving into the hat business, Travis worked with the Wild West Cattle Company in eastern Colorado, doing anything that needed to be done for the competition, including announcing. “I’ve always been around cowboy stuff and I just love the lifestyle.”
Now he enhances that lifestyle for others, and it comes with a wide brim. “We had a cowboy tell us ‘the relationship with my hat shaper is the most intimate relationship I have. My hat is ME, the stories that are in the hat, the work I do every day, it has a lot to do with my personality so having a hat shop that understands my lifestyle and passions, and me as a person, is what gets me,’” Travis said. “That’s what guys who wear hats every day want, not to just grab one off the shelf.”
Striving for a unique product presented some equally unique opportunities. Claire Parr sold her hat business, Claire West Designs, to Travis before losing her battle with cancer in early 2021. “She was building hats for Jay-Z and Beyoncé,” Travis said, holding Claire’s notebook of measurements with a letter of encouragement to him.
As for which celebrities Travis makes hats for, that’s up to his clientele to reveal. “They come to us because they want to have that confidence and be treated like a person.”
James Young (guitarist in the Eli Young Band), Dalton Risner (offensive lineman for the Denver Broncos), comedian Steve “Mudflap” McGrew, and rodeo contestants such as Sadie Jackson, Kyle and Maddie Dickens, Devon Burbank, and the entire Colorado State University rodeo team are some of his clients. Hamblen Hats also sponsors nationally ranked ranch sorter Shawn Elliott from Greeley, Colorado.

No appointments are needed and there’s a catalogue of hats to choose from at hamblenhats.com.
“We can custom fit them, custom design them and build them from scratch,” Travis said. “We can rebuild hats too, so if they bring in a dirty, nasty hat we can block it, flange it and re-craft it.”
The first time someone brings in a beat-up old hat, they’ll toss it on the counter as a challenge – “I’ve got one for you, see what you can do.” But after their first one is fixed; the rest are brought in with a bit of a somber and hopeful tone of “see what you can do.”
“It’s nice to see their eyes light up when they brought in a hat that’s all caked up with grease and dirt and they thought we couldn’t do it, but then we did,” said Travis’ employee Parker Longbottom.
Parker started shaping hats about two years ago at The Wrangler in downtown Cheyenne. “I taught myself the ropes there and came here to get further into it,” Parker said. “Hats are one of those things where it’s more than just a hat. There’s that style to it and being able to help someone make theirs unique.”
Travis also gets help around the shop from his parents, Carol and Cliff, and his sons, Braxton, 14, and Kasen, 12.
Travis prefers not to clean his own hats. “They have memories. They’ve been to the feedlot and funerals and been with me when I won the only buckle I own and when my kids were born,” Travis said. “Hats are no different than pickups; the better you care for and maintain them, the longer they last; and it’s fun making them last a little longer.”
Shaping hats takes about 15-20 minutes, picking one out takes a bit longer. Fitting one and custom designs can take a few hours. Depending on the hat’s condition, it could take two to three weeks for it to be cleaned.
“It very much is an artform, every hat has eight to ten raw manhours put into it,” Travis said. “We take a blank hat and pick which block based on the shape and size of their head and the design of the hat. Then we’ll hand-finish it to smooth it out.”
It’s not just cowboy hats – there’s top hats, bowlers, fedoras, broadbrim fashion hats, and just about anything a customer could want.
“We always ask people if they want the Flying H on the back of their hat and the coolest thing is seeing that on the back of a hat since they made the conscious decision to support our brand,” Travis said. “That’s what means the most to me since that brand is no different to me than ‘riding for the brand’ when I worked on ranches.”
Travis likened the relationship between a cowboy and his hat shaper to a woman and her hairdresser.
“Hat people and cowboys make a living with their hats, it’s part of their equipment,” Travis said. “Our slogan is ‘keeping cowboy cool,’ so I try to stay close to those roots.”