Publisher’s Note | Women in Rodeo Issue
Welcome to my second annual Women in Rodeo issue. If you have been paying attention, you already know this is one of my favorite issues to put together — and this year it means even more.
This issue lands right around Mother’s Day, and that feels exactly right. Because at the heart of every story in these pages is a woman who is also, in some way, a caretaker of her family, her horses, her community, and the traditions that hold this sport together. To every mother reading this, and to every woman who has stepped into that role in someone’s life, this issue is for you. I am personally grateful beyond words for my own mother, without whom none of what I do would be possible. She is my foundation, and I know many of you feel exactly the same way about the women who have been your rock steady.
Women in rodeo are the backbone of this sport. They have hauled horses before sunrise, raised the next generation of ropers and barrel racers, managed the household, the horses, and the family schedule, and still shown up to compete at the highest levels. They have brought their children down the junior rodeo and high school rodeo road because it is not something they decided to do, it is something that lives within them. It is in their blood. Watching it up close, season after season, is one of the great privileges of this job.
The stars are beginning to shine brightly within our great sport of rodeo, and the committees across this country who have stepped up to offer equal opportunity and equal money are the North Star- Just know, WE SEE YOU.
We know the future of rodeo is female when looking at the numbers, with over 60% of high school rodeo membership being young women, and women making 85% of household buying decisions. If we aren’t talking to her, we are missing the biggest opportunity in the room.
That said, a special thank you to Charlie 1 Horse Hats for their generous added money at the BFI All-Girl Team Roping. That kind of sponsorship investment is exactly how you move this sport forward, and I know the female athletes of rodeo do not take it lightly.
Inside this issue you will also find our full coverage of the Art of the Cowgirl at Rancho Rio in Wickenburg, Arizona — one of the most beautiful celebrations of cowgirl culture that exists anywhere in the western world. Congratulations to Morgan Holmes and her horse Monster Truk for claiming the title of World’s Greatest Cowgirl. That performance was for the history books.
We are also proud to cover the PWR — Premier Women’s Rodeo — with a championship stage at Cowtown Coliseum, and a national broadcast on The Cowboy Channel, along with $802,000 purse, we can’t get enough of this.
The momentum is real. This is a sport built on family, legacy, and love. It’s the mother who never missed a run. A father who built the roping pen. A husband or wife who held everything together through the long seasons on the road. That is the story of rodeo, and it always has been. And when December comes and we are watching the big stage, take pause and make note of the one single female in a sea of men on that stage, know that this is where we are at, but this is certainly not where we’re going. We are family and we move together.
To the young women just starting out, this message and issue is for you. Know your worth. Voice your opinions. Stand up for what you have earned and what you deserve. I am here to tell you it is not easy. From experience, I have had every chance to quit in business and faced plenty of roadblocks along the way. Just keep going. As the great Sharon Camarillo has always told me — when you hear the word “no,” just reword the question- It is an unbelievable time to be a woman in this sport, and just know that you have all the support in the world behind you. Including me.
We all love this way of life that we live everyday, and when that big burning ball in the sky goes down at night, remember, we all ride for the same brand.
God bless.
Dee Yates
