There is no place I would rather be in the summer than right here in California, with a roping on the calendar every single weekend. This is when our season truly comes alive. Rigs pull out before sunup, families load their horses, and everybody gets out of the house and back on the road to their favorite roping. We travel together, we visit with friends we have not seen all year, and we settle in for a weekend of family and camaraderie. It is so much fun, and it is exactly what this life is about.
That same spirit is what drew me to our cover man, Kyle Lockett. Here is a roper who became a champion, and then a champion again, for all the right reasons. For the love of the sport. For the love of a good horse. For the love of the camaraderie that keeps us all coming back. And for the love of his home state of California, the original cowboy capital of the world, as he calls it. Kyle built his life the western way. He got married, he stood behind his wife and her career, and together they raised a beautiful family. When the time came, he was not just willing but excited to set down his own love of competition and give it all back to his children. That is what western life is about, and it is the root of every rodeo family. Read his story and you will see it in every trial and every triumph. He put family first, and I know that is why we all keep showing up.
I get choked up at the rodeos, watching the little guys roping and catching and winning. I want nothing more than to see them do well, and I think most of the crowd feels the very same way. We want that next generation to carry this forward and keep the western way of life alive. So keep taking your kids to the ropings. Keep camping through the weekends, keep putting in their entry fees, keep building them up and filling them with confidence. That is where a young man learns the things that matter, the hard work, the dedication, the fortitude, and that don’t give up attitude that seems to come naturally to a rodeo kid.
That said, consider this your reminder to enter up. California’s Richest, a PWR qualifier, is coming up, and Danielle has worked so hard to build that event, so come support the team roping and the breakaway. Right behind it is the Oakdale 10-Steer, with a PWR qualifier breakaway and the WTRA finals, another PWR qualifier. Get out there and rope, and support these hometown producers.
Then we gear up for the ACTRA finals, with plenty of coverage for you here in the magazine and at roperssportsnews.com. It is a fantastic, family oriented organization that gives back to its ropers at every age and every skill level.
I can hardly believe I am about to say this, but the holidays are already on their way. Our next issue is October/November, ready for your holiday shopping and a little wind down before the Arizona season fires up. If you have events, products, or services, reach out so we can keep this history in the books and on paper, right where it belongs, so your children can read about it one day.
Carrying these stories is a big part of why I do what I do, and it does not stop at the state line. I was recently honored to visit the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, and speak to a wonderful group of southern cowgirls about the rodeo and western lifestyle. Representing Ropers Sports News, I got to encourage women from all over the country to be strong, creative, and powerful, and to set down the fear that stands between them and their dreams. A heartfelt thank you to Leslie McMillan for hosting me and letting me carry our western states all the way to Georgia.
The season is long and the miles are many, but home is where the heart is for all of us, and that heart is our family. Whether you are out here in the western states or down in our beautiful southern states, when the sun goes down on a long weekend of roping, we all head back to the same place. Home, with the people we love.
God bless.
Dee Yates
California’s Riche$t is a Premier Women’s Rodeo qualifier featuring team roping and breakaway roping. Ropers Sports News encourages ropers to enter and support the event and its producers.
The Oakdale 10 Steer runs Labor Day weekend at the Oakdale Rodeo Grounds, produced by the California Team Roping Association. The 2026 event includes a PWR qualifier breakaway and the WTRA finals, itself another PWR qualifier.
The next issue is October/November 2026, timed for holiday shopping ahead of the Arizona season. Advertisers with events, products, or services can reach the magazine at info@roperssportsnews.com or (209) 333-2924.
Email info@roperssportsnews.com with questions, corrections, or story ideas. Ropers Sports News is also on Facebook, Instagram.
Cut, and yes, that idea is in the opening paragraph but it’s soft. I sharpened it to name bodies of work directly.
Opening paragraph now reads:
Dee Yates is an artist to her very soul. A career photographer, writer, creator, and publisher, she is the owner and editor-in-chief of Ropers Sports News, the original team roping publication. Photography was where she started, and it remains the foundation of everything she does, but her work has never stayed inside one medium. She creates bodies of work across multiple mediums, in photography, in writing, in print and publishing, and in the books and long-form projects she builds from the ground up.
Q: Who is Dee Yates?
A: Dee Yates is an artist to her very soul. A career photographer, writer, creator, and publisher, she is the owner and editor-in-chief of Ropers Sports News, the original team roping publication. Photography was where she started, and it remains the foundation of everything she does, but her work has never stayed inside one medium. She creates bodies of work across multiple mediums, in photography, in writing, in print and publishing, and in the books and long-form projects she builds from the ground up.
Dee has spent decades behind the camera and on the page. She built a successful photography studio, and she has founded two publishing companies, each formed to acquire and operate an established magazine title, first HerLife Magazine and today Ropers Sports News. Across those businesses she has produced more than a million magazines. Founded in 1968, Ropers Sports News ran for decades as a black and white newspaper before Dee acquired it and rebuilt it into the full color glossy magazine it is now, expanding its reach in print, online, and across social media while protecting the history and the voice that made it the sport’s paper of record.
She has done that work in an industry that has long been led by men, and she has never taken no for an answer. Over the years she has met the kind of business challenges that end most publications and most careers, and she has met them by finding another way through. That persistence is the reason the magazine is still here, still growing, and still in the hands of someone who understands what it means to the people in it.
She writes and shoots the covers, features, and photo essays that fill it. She is the creator of Cowgirl Culture, a photography series documenting the women of the American West in their own words and their own country, and she has helped many other creators bring their own bodies of work into print.
Dee is also a speaker and advocate for women in western sports, appearing at museums, galleries, and gatherings across the country to talk about rodeo, western life, and finding the courage to chase something difficult. She encourages women to be strong, creative, and powerful, and she gives her time to inspiring young women in the creative fields.
A California cowgirl, author, rodeo mom, avid gardener, and farmer, Dee lives the life she documents. Her work is dedicated to preserving the history of rodeo and team roping, documenting the American West, and keeping western traditions alive for the next generation.
