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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – A lifetime of commitment to the rodeo industry earned Bronc Rumford the 2022 PRCA Donita Barnes Contract Personnel Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rumford, who lives in Abbyville, Kan., has been involved in the rodeo business his entire life.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Rumford, 71. “It is such a personal award for me. Bob and Donita were close, close friends with my folks. When I turned pro in the early 1970s, I went to what became the Great Lakes Circuit and we rodeoed up there with Bob and Donita. We would leave home and go to Cherokee, Iowa, in May and we would stay up there all summer. I still remember my folks calling Bob and Donita before I went to Cherokee that year, I got my card. My dad said the kids are going to come up there and rodeo with you and you make sure that you work them and if you need anything from them, they do it. My mom told Donita to take care of us and watch after us.

 

“Donita pretty much baby sat me and taught me so much about how to enter and even how to rodeo. The Barnes family has always been special to us and Donita, extremely special. To get an award named after her is really an honor for me. She was such a great lady. I’m just extremely proud to get this award.”

 

The Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Rumford at the PRCA Awards Banquet on Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. (PT) at the South Point in Las Vegas.

 

Other nominees for the 2022 Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award were Edie Longfellow; Grant and Betsy Harris; Jerry Wayne and Judy Olson; and Kay Bleakly.

 

“All the nominees are personal friends of mine and every one of them should win this award,” Rumford said. “It is very special to be nominated with those other nominees.”

 

Nominees must have been a PRCA member for a minimum of 15 years and cannot have won a yearly contract personnel award within 15 years of the date of nomination.

 

All nominations were reviewed and selected by an external panel. The top five nominees were voted on by any contract personnel members who have participated in at least one rodeo within that rodeo year.

 

“In the rodeo business we have done about everything there is to do,” Rumford said. “If I had it to do over, I would probably do the same thing. I wouldn’t change the lifestyle. The greatest thing about the rodeo world is the people. There are no better people on Earth than rodeo cowboys in my opinion.”

 

Rumford is the father of award-winning clown/barrelman Justin and award-winning secretary Haley Bridwell.

 

Other winners of the Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award are Donita Barnes (2011); Art and Linda Alsbaugh (2012); Fred and Norma Dorenkamp (2013); Quail Dobbs (2014); Cotton Rosser (2015); Karen Vold (2016), Jim and Julie Sutton (2017), Hadley Barrett (2018); Roy and Virginia Honeycutt (2019); Cindy Rosser (2020) and Kay Gay (2021).

Intro by Chaney Larson

Story by Amy Outhier Maynard

If you follow rodeo, there’s no doubt that you’ve heard the last name, Outhier. Madison Outhier has been one of the biggest names in the sport over the past few years with her dominance in the breakaway competition. She continues to be a leader in and out of the arena, and is an amazing example for young girls as the event continues to gain wide acceptance and exposure like never before.
Madison’s winning spirit and leadership abilities comes from her upbringing and runs deep in her family. Her proud Aunt, Amy Outhier Maynard, is no stranger to the rodeo world as well. Amy has always been an incredible rodeo athlete. Her rodeo accolades include 2x Central Plains Region Goat Tying Champion, 3x Qualifier to the CNFR, and 2x IFYR Goat Tying Champion.
These days, Amy continues to hustle and grind daily as a momma to two adorable boys, Max and Major. Her husband, Zac, is the head football coach in Elk City, OK, and as for her professional career, Amy is the Program Coordinator at Southwestern Oklahoma State University for the Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management program.
Through her knowledge, positive attitude, work ethic, and genuine kindness, Amy Outhier Maynard is a special soul.
Here is a message from my friend, Amy!
– Chaney Larsen

Growing up, my family had unspoken core values. We were raised to prioritize what matters most, treat others with respect, do things to our best ability, and so on. Over the years, I appreciate those values more and more as I am raising a family of my own.
Now more than ever, I believe it is important to clearly define your family’s core values. To clearly understand them, it is important to write them down and discuss them as a family. As parents and guardians of our children, it is our responsibility to begin that discussion with our kids that will create a foundation that will set the course of their life. It is nothing new, but our world is volatile and ever changing. If we do not set the narrative for our children, the world will do it for us.
Put simply, core values are what matter most to you. They are the navigational compass that you live your life by. They influence the decisions you make, your response to other people, as well as your goals. They provide direction for your daily behavior and are the foundation that will ultimately determine your success.
Your core values influence every aspect of your life. They affect your circle of influence and determine how you handle life’s challenges. By creating a foundation to live your life by, you set your children up to be secure in themselves, in you, and the purpose laid on their heart.
After you establish your family’s core values, you can begin to align everything with those values. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where learning is caught and not taught. As moms and parents, the work begins with us first.
A practical way we use our family core values is to use them to discipline our children. For example, one of our core values is having a positive attitude. If one of my children is moping around or complaining, I simply say, “The Maynard family has a positive attitude regardless of our situation. We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we react.” Another one of our core values is respecting others. If one of my boys disrespects his brother, he is not allowed to play with his friends until he can learn to respect his brother first.
Our rodeo family is a rare group of individuals that already operate out of solid core values. I just want to encourage you to discuss them with your family and physically write them down. It is like setting the GPS on your phone. Once you write them down, the navigation becomes clear. It helps to create clarity and focus, communicate what is most important, influence behavior, and elevate effective leadership. Like never before, our children need us to step up our leadership and show them how to build a house on the ROCK.
Do you know your core values?
Can you list them in order of priority?
Does your life reflect the values you have listed, in the order listed?
If you would like to dive deeper into this subject, I highly suggest reading Your Divine Fingerprint by Keith Craft.
God Bless and Journey On

 

I had the honor of being asked to help with a fun media event that Wrangler hosted during Cheyenne Frontier Days in celebration of their 75 years as a brand honoring the legacy of the West. They welcomed several publications from diverse backgrounds such as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar just to name a few. The idea was to immerse them in the cowboy spirit, drive brand awareness, and promote interest during National Day of the Cowboy. Their itinerary included a behind the chutes tour of Cheyenne Frontier Days, of course the rodeo, great food and fellowship, and then an afternoon of horseback riding, roping, and ATV exploring. The day was topped off with live music by American singer-songwriter, Stephanie Quayle from Bozeman, Montana. It does not get much more western than this!
Our intern, Lindsey Fancher who was Larimer County Queen in 2019 came with her expertise in helping educate the media about horses, safety, general care, and basic horsemanship. Each person had their turn riding horses around the arena with professional photos taken to capture the new cowboys and cowgirls, while taking turns having their picture taken horseback. I believe they thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it will be something they remember forever. We are so fortunate to live the western lifestyle it’s hard to comprehend how many people live surrounded by skyscrapers, subways, and lights 24/7. Overhearing one reporter’s comments, the one that stood out to me was, “I need more of this in my life,” referring to wide open spaces, the smell of green grass, horses, and Wrangler jeans! Before the evening was over, the journalist was back out in the pasture riding on her own, soaking up the western sunset.
My takeaway from this opportunity was an overwhelming feeling of being blessed and not taking any of it for granted. We all miss in the short go, our horses get sick, and sometimes we aren’t sure how we’ll afford to feed our animals during a drought. But each day we get to swing a leg over a horse and it is indeed a good day. I’m so thankful to have been part of such a great event and I truly believe it’s a step in the right direction – keeping our western heritage alive and well!

Chex Out Tuff, AKA Wilson, took home the honors of AQHA Horse of the Year at the 2022 NHSFR. He is ridden by Will Jones from Allerton, Iowa. Allerton is a small town in southern Iowa, 15 minutes from Missouri border. “It’s real humid,” said Will. “I live on a ranch five miles south of Allerton – my grandfather has 4,000 acres and we have 1,500.” They raise hay, cattle, and horses. “I rope all through the day,” he said. Between he and his brother Cort, they ride around 15 horses a day. “We team rope, calf rope, and train some on the dummy that we haven’t started yet.”
His dad, Luke, has several cow horses in training and has shared his knowledge of horsemanship and training with his sons. “We are slowly taking over the roping horses when they are younger. I want to train rope horses and pro rodeo when I get older.” Luke started roping when he was 13 – his dad was a carpenter, he had horses, but didn’t do much with them. He competed in high school and college rodeo but found his passion in training and showing Quarter horses after watching the world show one year in Oklahoma City. Will started competing when he was young, graduating from mutton busting to bull riding, as well as roping. “I rode bulls until I was 10; I broke my arm and I was done. My deal with dad was I had to rope along with roughstock, so I stuck to roping.”
Will is going to be a senior; his two brothers, Cort, 14, and Lane,10, all compete in high school or junior high rodeo. They are home schooled by their mom, Erin, who helps with the horses as well. Cort will compete in all the events and Lane’s rodeos start in a few weeks. Will competes in cutting, team roping, tie-down roping, and reined cow horse. He uses Wilson for reined cow horse and was able to win the AQHA award with just one event. For his accomplishment, Will received a Todd Sloan saddle and a $1,000 check that he will put in savings. “It was really cool to win a saddle at the National High School Finals Rodeo!” Wilson is 7 years old and the family has had him for three years. His mom showed him in Fort Worth during the World’s Greatest Horseman and won the boxing on him. Will goes to AQHA shows with his dad to help but plans to show more in the future. “It’s a great association to be part of.”

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27
What happened to building things that last? Everyone wants to point fingers at so many different things that are causing the many issues of the world today instead of looking at what’s happening in the home. Why are there so many shootings? Why is everyone so on edge or depressed? Why is there so much anger and hate?
If you build a broken home, the world will be full of broken people. If you do not build your house on God’s word, and have him as your rock, you will crash. We need to go back to finding our answers in the Bible, not Google. We need to fight like crazy to keep our marriages together, instead of splitting so easily. According to a recent study, a total of about 12.7 million children under the age of 18 in the United States are being raised without a father.
Society is filled with so many distractions and discouraging news that saturates our daily lives through social media, television, and countless other platforms. Screen time isn’t censored, violent video games are being played by kids way too young to be playing them, television is filled with trash, and much of the music is garbage with cussing and inappropriate, disrespectful behavior that many children are listening to.
Our children are counting on us, and it is our job to raise them up to be kind-hearted, well-mannered humans. It’s not up to the Hollywood elites, a political party, or outside influences, it’s what happens in the home that is the most important. Showing love and affection for your spouse, playing with your children, taking the time to play games, read books, and have one-on-one time with them, playing outside, and just letting kids be kids should be our top priority.
We need to protect our kids from the negative influences, and take our jobs seriously. It is up to us to build them a strong, unwavering foundation. I saw a recent quote that said, “If I could give my children three things, it would be the strength to follow their passion, the confidence to always know their self-worth, and the ability to know how deeply and truly loved they are.
We must build a foundation that lasts for our children. We must be their role models, and set a good example for them to follow. We need to be their positive voice, and feed them encouragement daily. A simple, but powerful quote says, “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.”
Your house that you build needs a sturdy interior structure built on a firm foundation. That foundation needs to be concrete, your cement in life. God is that concrete, and his word is the cement. As for the house beams, they need to be solid.
Picture a small framed house with the concrete poured for the foundation, the Lord’s Word for the foundation, and there are four beams that support your roof, they are the emotional beam, the spiritual beam, the physical beam, and the mental beam. Those beams must work together to keep the structure of the house solid.
As for the shingles on the roof of the house, those are the everyday tasks that must be completed. The little things that you must do and maintain in order for the house to not have a leaky roof that leads to damage, and if not taken care of or fixed, will make it crumble and fall.
Build a home that will last. You have to maintain your internal being to be able to be the best version of yourself for your children and the world to see, and you must build your family’s home on the rock, on God’s Word, so that no matter what storms your house must endure, it will remain standing firm on it’s foundation.
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Scoop O Petty, “Tag”, took home AQHA Horse of the Year at the National Junior High Finals Rodeo in Perry, Georgia. The 21-year-old gelding has been the main mount for Craig Sciba for the past ten years. “We bought him when I was 4.” said Craig, from Victoria, Texas. “My grandma found him; and I’ve ridden him ever since. I started roping on him when I was young, and he’s just gotten better; he listens to everything I ask.
“It’s great to have a horse that will do the same thing every time; he’s reliable. I’ve never had a run that was messed up because of Tag. You don’t recognize a horse when he does something good, it’s when they are bad that you recognize them.”
Tag received the award because he accumulated the most points during the NJH Finals and his owner, Craig, was an active youth member of AQHA. His winnings included a saddle, and a $750 check presented by AQHA. Tag was nominated through the National High School portal prior to the Finals. Craig’s membership as a youth member of AQHA allows access to more than $500,000 in scholarships, an annual subscription to the AQHA Journal, and the ability to compete in the AQHA shows. As part of the membership drive, the annual cost of this is $19.
Craig and Tag also won the Boys All Around Champion, the World Champion Ribbon Team – roping for his sister, Bella the World Champion Chute Dogger and reserve champion goat tier. “It’s hard to say that we are world champions – I don’t realize we were the best in the world – it doesn’t feel right, there’s other kids there equally as talented – I just roped better that week.”
Craig is preparing for the next finals, the Texas Youth Rodeo Association finals. He ropes on Tag three or four times a week, and then rides him one other day. The other two days, Tag gets to be a horse in a 10-acre pasture. Even at his age, Tag is not on any supplements and has only been injected once. “My uncle is a vet, and he says Tag is sound and doing great.” If he needs it, Craig has access to use his sister’s horse (Quanah – a registered quarter horse) and the family has a new horse that Craig is working on. “She’s really good and energetic, but she hasn’t been roped on so it’s been a lot of work. It makes me appreciate Tag.”
“It was a long shot to get All Around,” admitted the 14-year-old. “I was entered in three events and there were guys there in five and six events.” His game plan was doing the best he could. Going into the short go, he knew he needed to do his job in order to get the All-Around title. “I go at it the same way as I do any other round – make the run. In Ribbons we had to be 12 and we were a 6.3. I didn’t safety up at all. If I start thinking about all that then things go wrong.” His dad, Clay, is his main coach in the practice pen.
Craig is moving into the high school competition next year and his goals for the future are simple. “Take one step at a time; high school next and probably college rodeo.”

Karl Stressman can’t turn down a challenge. Coming out of retirement, the 71-year-old accepted the position as CEO of the American Quarter Horse Association, the largest equine breed association in the world with more than 230,000 members in more than 130 countries. With a staff of over 200, Karl will take the helm with the same intent as he has tackled any of the projects he has taken on over the years. “I just want to work as hard as I can with the people who work here; Ultimately, I want to continue to enhance the Association for the future.” Underlying the entire plan is a simple concept. “I’m not taking any prisoners – we are going to rock and roll. I’m not doing it if I’m not having fun, and I expect the staff to have an environment they enjoy.”
The son of a Methodist preacher, Karl was raised in Tucson, Ariz. He competed as a gymnast in high school and started team roping during college. He attended the University of Arizona with a major in art and a minor in education; however, he quickly determined that being an art teacher and coach wasn’t his career path and ended up in the car business for eight years. He eventually had an opportunity to sell for a major western saddle company, and he was hooked on the western lifestyle. He decided to try his hand at western retail and opened two stores in Colorado. Two years later, Wrangler came knocking, and he landed his dream job. “I was hired to be in charge of rodeo event marketing,” he said. “I moved to North Carolina, and thankfully there was a group of ropers there.” Living on the east coast was a far cry from his life in the West. He traveled as many as 240 days in a single year, attending all the major rodeos and having the best life he could have. “I was going to rodeos, playing a little golf and roping with my friends across the country! I had the job down to auto pilot.”
Then the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) came knocking. “I thought I had the skill set to take on the PRCA,” he said, looking at the career move as another challenge. “You take jobs when they aren’t great, make them great, and walk away.” He still has an emotional attachment to the Wrangler brand, wearing their line proudly. He stayed at the PRCA for 10 years, until announcing his retirement in 2017. He later took a job heading up the United States Team Roping Championships (USTRC), a position he held for two years until announcing his retirement in 2020.
“I wanted to retire to spend additional time with my family and friends, rope and play golf,” he admitted, but quickly added, “But, I don’t think retirement is in my DNA right now. You can only rope and play golf so much! I do believe that the couple of years I took off will make me a stronger leader for AQHA. I had to get away from the member association business; gather my thoughts and now I feel I am as strong a leader as I’ve ever been – maybe stronger.”
Karl has the best partner for the job at hand, his wife, Allie. “She’s the rock star – I’m just carrying her bags around. She never disappoints me – my whole life has been a string of luck, and I’m not going to change anything.” The couple are all in with the new challenge. They bought a house in Amarillo, and Allie is ready support this new endeavor. “This is going to take some support from her – this is a big undertaking, similar to the PRCA. We spent a lot of time getting to the nitty gritty of what makes it tic and how we can help improve it.”

His plan for his new job is three-fold:

1) Establish the most important initiatives for the Association.

2) Accomplish those things at 100%. If you take on too many initiatives, you only get 60% completed. In the overall picture, AQHA is not just in this building, it’s serving the members worldwide and their American Quarter Horses – that’s what we need to focus on.

3) The stronger the staff gets, the stronger the results will be.

Karl has been at the job for a month. “I’m a quick study – everyday I’m learning more and more and processing what the priorities are. The people who work here are going to be instrumental in establishing what we need to do – they speak for themselves.
“I like to get down in the weeds and get after it,” he concluded. “After representing the brands that I loved from Wrangler in the 1990s to the PRCA in 2008 – the largest rodeo association in the world, then USTRC, and now the largest equine breed association in the world – game on – I may be the luckiest guy in the world.”